Which, as I think, you know not: here's a letter, And here another; one of them imports By Rodorigo. Oth. Oh villain ! Caf. Moft heathenish and most grofs. Lod. Now here's another difcontented paper Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems, Rodorigo meant t' have fent this damned villain; But that, belike, Iago in the interim Came in and fatisfied him. Oth. Oh thou pernicious caitiff! How came you, Caffio, by that handkerchief Caf. I found it in my chamber; And he himself confefs'd it but even now, Oth. Oh fool, fool, fool! Caf. There is befides, in Rodorigo's letter, How he upbraids lago that he made him Brave me upon the watch; whereon it came That I was caft; and even now he spake, After long feeming dead, lago hurt him, Iago fet him on. Lod. You muft forfake this room, and go with That can torment him much, and hold him long, No more of that. I pray you, in your letters, Of one that loved, not wifely, but too well; Of one, not eafily jealous, but being wrought, Perplexed in the extreme; of one, whofe hand, (55) (55) of one, whofe hand, Like the bafe Indian, threw a pearl away Richer than all his tribe.] I have restored, Julian, from the elder Quarto, as the genuine and more eligible reading. Mr Pope thinks, this was occafioned probably by the word tribe just after I have many reafons to oppose to this opinion. in the first place, the moft ignorant Indian, I believe, is fo far the reverfe of the dunghil-cock in the fable, as to know the cftimation of a pearl, beyond tha' of a barley-corn So that, in that refpect, the thought itfelf would not be juft. Then, if our Author had defigned to reflect on the ignorance of the Indian without any farther reproach, he would have called him rude, and not bafe. Again, I am perfuaded. as my friend Mr Warburton long ago ob. ferved, the pliafe is not here literal, but metaphorical: and, by his pearl, our Author, very properly means a fine woTo inftance only in two pallages from his Troilus, of the like ufage; man. Her bed is India; there the lyes, a pearl Is the worth keeping? why, fhe is a peor, But Mr Pope objects farther to reading Fudian, becaufe, to make fenfe of this, we mult prefuppofe fome particular story of a Jew alluded to, which is much lefs obvious: but has Shakespeare never done this but in this fingle instance? Let us turn back, for proof, to-his Twelfth Night; Why should I not, had I the heart to do't, Like to th' Ægyptian thief, at point of death, Here is a particular story hinted at, (which I have explain ed in the proper place) much leis obvious than the story above prefuppofed. But this we are to obferve of Shakes Like the bafe Judian, threw a pearl away Lod. Oh bloody period! Gra. All that is spoke is marred. [Stabs himself. fpeare, that though both his ftories are introduced tacito nomine, his allufion and fimile are as clear as if he had given us the exprefs hiftory. Ben Johnson, I am fure, does not always convey his allufions in the fame clearness. I have a husband, and a two-legged one, Or rofes, can redeem from being an a/s. Here is a flory presupposed, but so darkly couched, that, I dare warrant, fcarce one reader in five hundred of this Poet ever gueffed at it. Nor can any one know what he would be at, who has not read either Lucian or Apuleius; and obferved, that when Lucius, by a magical unguent, was converted into an afs, the only means of recovering his own form, was for him to browfe on fresh rofes. I hope the explication of this obfcure paffage will compenfate for the digreffion. But, to return to my Author. I am fatisfied, in his Judian, he is alluding to Herod; who, in a fit of blind jealoufy, threw away fuch a jewel of a wife as Mariamne was to him. What can be more parallel in circumftance, than the conduct of Herod and Othello? Nor was the ftory fo little obvious as Mr Pope feems to imagine: for, in the year 1613, the Lady Elizabeth Carew publifhed a Tragedy called Mariam, the fair Queen of Jewry. I fhall only add, that our Author might write Judian or Judean, (if that fhould be alledged as any objection) instead of Judaan, with the fame license and change of accent, as. in his Antony and Cleopatra, he 'hortens the fecond fyllable of Euphrates in pronunciation. Oth. I kifs'd thee, ere I killed thee.-No way but this, Killing myself, to die upon a kifs. [To Defdem. [Dies. Caf. This did I fear, but thought he had no For he was great of heart. [weapon, [To lago. Lod. Oh Spartan dog! More fell than anguish, hunger, or the fea! Look on the tragic loading of this bed; This is thy work. The object poifons fight,--Let it be hid. Gratiano, keep the house, And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor, For they fucceed to you. To you, Lord Governor, Remains the cenfure of this hellish villain : The time, the place, the torture, oh! inforce it. Myfelf will ftraight aboard; and to the State This heavy act with heavy heart relate. [Exeunt. |
