Or else, "Would you, the supervisor gross, gape on?" 403. "More than their own! What then? how then?" Here is a deficiency; and "conjecture to supply it must be vague:" perhaps something like this has been lost: "Or play their pranks, more than their own! How then?” 404. "I do not like the office.” Again, conjecture must intrude, to supply omission: "I do not like the office-'tis ungrateful." This will suit the critic, at least, if not Iago. "I could not sleep.” This hemistic, and the other, in the third line following, clearly indicate derangement. A kind of men so loose of soul, "That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs." The construction requires, here, the pronoun they before "will" the whole should, perhaps, be regulated thus: "I could not sleep :-there are a kind of men "So loose of soul, that in their sleep they'll mutter "Their dear'st affairs; one of this kind is Cassio. Nay, this was but his dream.” 66 "But" should be omitted, as well for the spirit of the sense, as for the metre. 405. "That do demonstrate thinly." Corruption, I think, is evident here, because "thicken" was mentioned, in the preceding line, "thinly" was here thrust in to oppose it: Iago would never have suggested that any of his proofs were thin.—I would read, interruptedly, "And démonstrate Oth. " — I'll tear her all to pieces." It is the idea of demonstration, not thin or defective, but strong and complete, that calls forth from Othello this terrible ejaculation. "That do demonstrate thinly." I do not suspect corruption: the antithesis, though unfortunate, is in Shakspeare's manner; the meaning is-and this may help to corroborate other proofs which are, in themselves, of less force, such as my Lord Coke calls "light presumptions." LORD CHEDWORTH. "Now do I see 'tis true." ""Tis time," according to the quarto, appears, as Dr. Warburton has remarked, the preferable reading, though, in Macbeth, we find: Now, now I see 'tis true." 406. "Tis gone." This has been interpolated, or the unnecessary superaddition of some player: the sense is expressed in the action, and these words only deform the metre. 407. O, blood, Iago, blood!" "O, blood, Iago, blood!". Iag. Nay, patience, yet, "I say, my lord, your mind, perhaps, may change." 409. " Let him command, "And to obey shall be in me remorse, This passage, which has exercised the sagacity, and wearied the conjecture of so many able commentators, will at last, perhaps, admit of a very plain interpretation. Iago, always careful to exhibit a character of moderation and humanity, cannot engage in a work of assassination, without expressing some decent compunctionwe have heard him say, "Though in the trade of war I have slain men, "Yet do I hold it very stuff o' the conscience "To do no contriv'd murder." And now, while in the ardour of pretended friendship, he gives up "The execution of his wit, hands, heart, "To wrong'd Othello's service," and undertakes, at his desire, "what bloody work soever" (so the quarto), he does not omit the decorum of affecting a reluctance-reluctance, however, that he will stifle in a sense of duty to his commander, and generous resentment of his friend's injuries. At Othello's command he will murder Cassio; but he will do it with the feeling of a man not naturally ferocious. Do you command, says he, the performance shall be mine, though not without that horror and compunction which, in a humane bosom, must necessarily accompany the deed: obedience will resolve itself into remorse, and the pangs of remorse I will en dure for your advantage-I will impose obedience upon my conscience, as an act of duty. 411. "Within these three days let me hear thee say, "That Cassio's not alive." Iag. "My friend is dead; 'tis done," &c. These words of Iago appear to have suggested a striking passage in the famous speech of Lord Clive, ascribed to the device of the then Mr. Wedderburne,-" Ali Cawn was my friend, whom I loved, but the service of my country required that he should die-and he was dead." But both these passages, as well as Pope's, "Let spades be trumps, she said—and trumps they were." and Dr. Johnson's, "And bid him go to hell-to hell he goes." are, perhaps, taken from the same sublime original: "Sit lux, et lux fuit." "That Cassio's not alive." Further disorder: I would propose : Iag. My friend is dead, ""Tis done at your request; but let her live? Oth. "Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her! damn her! live! "Come, go with me," &c. In the folio, as here, "damn her!" stands in repetition. "I am your own for ever." This vapid hemistic I take to be interpolated: the line might readily have been completed: 66 My gracious lord, I am your own for ever." SCENE IV. This Scene, between Desdemona and the Clown, is entirely useless. 413. "Where should I lose that handkerchief?" Desdemona must have mentioned this loss previous to her entrance on the stage, and therefore her repeating the word handkerchief, here, is awkward and superfluous:-the clumsy redundancy of the verse bespeaks corruption: I suppose it stood thus: Desd. "Where should I los't, Emilia?" "Look where he comes." This will not accord with the metre; we might read: "Drew all such humours from him." Emil. "Here he comes. "Well, my good lord." Good," here, is not good. Desd. 414. A sequester from liberty, fasting and prayer." |