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Duke.

Be't at her father's '.
Bra.

Oth. Nor I.

Des.

If you please,

I'll not have it so.

Nor I; I would not there reside',

To put my father in impatient thoughts,
By being in his eye. Most gracious duke,
To my unfolding lend your prosperous car':
And let me find a charter in your voice,
T'assist my simpleness.

Duke. What would you, Desdemona ?

Des. That I did love the Moor to live with him,
My downright violence and storm of fortunes'
May trumpet to the world: my heart's subdued
Even to the very quality' of my lord:

I saw Othello's visage in his mind;
And to his honours, and his valiant parts,
Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.
So that, dear lords, if I be left behind,

A moth of peace, and he go to the war,

The rites for which I love him' are bereft me,
And I a heavy interim shall support

By his dear absence. Let me go with him.

Oth. Your voices, lords: 'beseech you, let her will Have a free way".

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BE'T at her father's.] The folio omits "If you please," found in both 4tos, and has only "Why, at her father's."

1 Nor I; I would not there reside,] So the 4tos; the folio, "Nor would I there reside." The difference is not material on any account.

2 To my unfolding lend YOUR PROSPEROUS ear:] This is the line in the folio: the compositor of the 4to. printed "a gracious ear," repeating carelessly the word he saw in the line preceding. In the next line but one we read "T' assist my simpleness," on the authority of the folio and the 4to, 1630: the 4to, 1622, has it" And if my sinpleness

3- and STORM of fortunes] The 4to, 1622, alone reads, "scorn of fortunes." "Storm" and scorn were not unfrequently misprinted, and the Rev. Mr. Dyco. goes out of his way for a proof from Fletcher's "Honest Man's Fortune," A. iv. sc. 1 ("Remarks," p. 234), entirely forgetting an instance directly in point from Shakespeare himself: see "Troilus and Cressida," A. i. sc. 1, Vol. iv. p. 482. Shakespeare always best illustrates himself; and why are we to wander over the whole field of literature, to find what is under our feet?

4 Even to the VERY QUALITY] Thus the folio, and the 4to, 1630: the 4to, 1622, reads "Even to the utmost pleasure."

5

-

for WHICH I love him] The folio alone, "for why I love him."

6 Your voices, lords: 'beseech you, let her will

Have a free way.] For this passage, in both the 4tos, the folio has, poorly,

Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not,
To please the palate of my appetite;

Nor to comply with heat, the young affects,
In my defunct and proper satisfaction';
But to be free and bounteous to her mind:

And heaven defend your good souls, that you think

I will your serious and great business scant,
For she is with me. No, when light-wing'd toys
Of feather'd Cupid foil with wanton dulness
My speculative and active instruments',

That my disports corrupt and taint my business,
Let housewives make a skillet of my helm,
And all indign and base adversities

Make head against my reputation 2!

Duke. Be it as you shall privately determine,

"Let her have your voice;" the next words, "Vouch with me, heaven," are in the folio and in the 4to, 1630, and not in the 4to, 1622.

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7 In my DEFUNCT and PROPER satisfaction;] This passage (so printed in every old copy) has occasioned much dispute and long notes: it seems to us that nothing can be clearer, allowing only a little latitude of expression. Othello refers to his age, elsewhere several times alluded to, and “in my defunct and proper satisfaction" is merely, "in my own dead satisfaction or gratification, the youthful passions, or "young affects," being comparatively "defunct." For the sense, though not for the harmony of the verse, it ought to have run, "for my proper and defunct satisfaction," and had it so run, we doubt if so much ink would have been spilt and wasted upon it. It requires no proof that "proper" was often used for own in this very scene (p. 24) the Duke says, yea, though our proper son," &c. We may add the mode in which the two lines are made to stand in the corr. fo. 1632:

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"Nor to comply wi' the young affects of heat

(In me defunct) and proper satisfaction."

We do not adopt this, nor any other plausible alteration, because, as we said ten years ago, we are on the whole satisfied, that the text, as given in every early copy, is correct. The reader may however form his own judgment on the question with the information we have supplied.

8 And heaven defend your GOOD SOULS,] These are the words in all the 4tos. and folios, which we do not amend, although the corr. fo. 1632 instructs us to read counsels for "good souls." "Good souls "does not seem a very likely form of expression for Othello to employ towards the senate, but as it may have been Shakespeare's language, we do not remove it.

9 FOR she is with me.] i. e. Because she is with me. The folio substitutes When for "For" of both the 4tos.

1

- and ACTIVE INSTRUMENTS,]

Our text is from the 4to, 1622, confirmed by that of the 4to, 1630, the editor of the latter refusing to adopt (if, indeed, he saw it) the reading of the folio, 1623, where seel is printed for "foil," offic'd for "active," and instrument for “instruments." In confirmation we may add, that in the corr. fo. 1632 seel (which, indeed, affords a sense) is amended to “foil.”

2 Make head against my REPUTATION!] So the 4to, 1622, and the 4to, 1630; the folio alone estimation.

Either for her stay, or going. Th' affair cries haste,
And speed must answer it: you must hence to-night.
Des. To-night, my lord?

Duke.

Oth.

This night.

With all my heart.

Duke. At nine i' the morning' here we'll meet again.
Othello, leave some officer behind,

And he shall our commission bring to you;
With such things else of quality and respect,

As doth import you.

Oth.

Please your grace, my ancient;

A man he is of honesty, and trust:

To his conveyance I assign my wife,

With what else needful your good grace shall think
To be sent after me.

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Good night to every one.-And, noble signior,

If virtue no delighted beauty lack,

Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.

[To BRABANTIO.

1 Sen. Adieu, brave Moor! use Desdemona well. Bra. Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see 3 ; She has deceiv'd her father, and may thee.

[Exeunt DUKE, Senators, Officers, &c.

Oth. My life upon her faith.-Honest Iago,
My Desdemona must I leave to thee:

I pr'ythee, let thy wife attend on her,
And bring her after in the best advantage.-
Come, Desdemona; I have but an hour
Of love, of worldly matters and direction,
To spend with thee: we must obey the time.

[Exeunt OTHELLO and DESDEMONA.

3 Des. To-night, my lord?] We here follow the two 4tos: the folio omits these words, and gives "you must hence to-night" (printing away for "hence ") to a Senator. It is surely very natural that Desdemona should express surprise at the suddenness of the command, and our persuasion is, that the words were left out in the folio by accident.

At NINE i' the morning] The 4to, 1622, "At ten i' the morning :" the 4to, 1630, and the folio as our text.

5

- if thou hast eyes to see;] The 4to, 1622, alone reads, "have a quick eye to see," which may deserve preference.

TO SPEND with thee:] So the folio, 1623; but in the folio, 1632, "spend " became speak, and so even Rowe continued it: the old annotator erased speak and restored "spend" in his copy of the second folio, possibly taking it from correct recitation, if not from the 4to, 1622.

Rod. Iago.

Iago. What say'st thou, noble heart?
Rod. What will I do, thinkest thou?
Iago. Why, go to bed, and sleep.

Rod. I will incontinently drown myself.

Iago. Well, if thou dost, I shall never love thee after it. Why, thou silly gentleman!

Rod. It is silliness to live, when to live is a torment; and then have we a prescription to die, when death is our physician.

Iago. Oh villainous! I have looked upon the world for four times seven years, and since I could distinguish betwixt a benefit and an injury, I never found a man that knew how to love himself. Ere I would say, I would drown myself for the love of a Guinea-hen, I would change my humanity with a baboon.

Rod. What should I do? I confess, it is my shame to be so fond; but it is not in my virtue to amend it.

Iago. Virtue? a fig! 'tis in ourselves that we are thus, or thus. Our bodies are gardens, to the which, our wills are gardeners; so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce; set hyssop, and weed up thyme; supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many; either to have it steril with idleness, or manured with industry; why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. If the balance of our lives' had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions: but we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts, whereof I take this, that you call-love, to be a sect, or

scion.

Rod. It cannot be.

Iago. It is merely a lust of the blood, and a permission of the will. Come, be a man: drown thyself? drown cats,

7 Oh villainous!] This exclamation is not in the 4to, 1622, but it is found in the folio, 1623, and in the 4to, 1630.

* Our bodies are gardens,] The folio alone, “Our bodies are our gardens.” If the BALANCE of our lives] So the 4tos: the folio has brain for "balance," and Southern, in his copy of the fourth folio (the error having descended to it through the folios of 1632 and 1664), has judiciously altered brain to beam, for which (as indeed Steevens conjectured) it was in all probability a misprint. However, as the 4to. authorities give "balance," and as "balance is also the word substituted in the corr. fo. 1632, we need here resort to no speculative emendation.

VOL. VI.

D

and blind puppies. I profess me thy friend, and I confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of perdurable toughness: I could never better stead thee than now. Put money in thy purse; follow these wars; defeat thy favour' with an usurped beard: I say, put money in thy purse. It cannot be, that Desdemona should long continue her love to the Moor,-put money in thy purse;-nor he his to her: it was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration;-put but money in thy purse.-These Moors are changeable in their wills;-fill thy purse with money: the food that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida. She must change for youth when she is sated with his body, she will find the error of her choice.-She must have change, she must therefore, put money in thy purse.-If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money thou canst. If sanctimony and a frail vow, betwixt an erring barbarian and a supersubtle Venetian, be not too hard for my wits, and all the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her; therefore make money. A pox of drowning thyself! it is clean out of the way: seek thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy, than to be drowned and go without her. Rod. Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on the issue?

2

4

Iago. Thou art sure of me.-Go, make money.-I have

defeat thy FAVOUR] "Defeat thy favour" means, alter thy appearance, or more strictly, undo thy countenance: we have repeatedly had "favour" used in this sense. Minsheu, in his Dictionary, 1617, translates disfacere, "to undo,

to mar, to unmake, to defeat."

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3 — as BITTER as coloquintida.] Steevens tells us that the 4to, 1622, reads, as acerb as coloquintida :" it reads, in fact, "as acerb as the coloquintida;" but the folio, and the 4to, 1630, agree in our text. The words which follow, "She must change for youth," are in the folio, 1623, and in the 4to, 1630, but not in the 4to, 1622. There are also some minor variations.

4

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- an ERRING barbarian] Erring" is of course to be taken as wandering, in the same sense that Othello has been before termed "extravagant." With respect to the epithet "super-subtle," which Iago just afterwards applies to Desdemona, it is to be observed that it is plausibly altered to super-supple in the corr. fo. 1632 we, however, do not introduce the change, since its fitness may admit of dispute, and Shakespeare may have intended not so much to refer to the character of Desdemona, as to that of Venetian ladies generally. It is not at all improbable, however, that Iago wished to impress Roderigo with the pliability of the affections of Desdemona, who could not long be satisfied with the Moor, but "must have change." Super-supple might have been misheard " super-subtle," and therefore so printed.

5 - if I depend on the issue?] These words are in the folio and 4to, 1630, but not in that of 1622.

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