With such accommodation, and besort, ADuke. If you please, Be’t at her father's. Brd. I’ll not have it so. Oth. Nor I. Des. Nor I; I would not there reside, To put my father in impatient thoughts, 1 Thus in the quarto 1622. The folio, to avoid the repetition of the same epithet, reads:— “—— Most gracious duke, 2 That is, “let your favor privilege me.” 3 By her “downright violence and storm of fortunes.” Desdemona means, the bold and decisive measures she had taken in giving herself to the Moor. The old quarto reads scorn of fortune. 4 Quality here, as in other passages of Shakspeare, means profession. The quarto reads, “My heart's subdued even to the utmost pleasure of my lord.” In me defunct) and proper satisfaction;' Make head against my estimation Duke. Be it as you shall privately determine, Either for her stay, or going : the affair cries—haste, And speed must answer it; you must hence to-night. Des. To-night, my lord P Duke. This night. Oth. With all my heart. Duke. At nine i' the morning here we’ll meet again. 1 Steevens reads, at the suggestion of sir T. Hanmer: “Nor to comply with heat, the young affects, “— Let me wear Mr. Gifford observes, that, “as this shows how Shakspeare's contemporaries understood the lines, it should, I think, with us be decisive of their meaning.” Affects occur incessantly in the sense of passions, affections; young affects are therefore perfectly synonymous with youthful heats. Mr. Gifford suggests that Shakspeare may have given affect in the singular to correspond with heat. Dr. Johnson's explanation is:—“I ask it not (says Othello) to please appetite or satisfy loose desires, the passions of youth, which I have now outlived, or for any particular gratification of mysel" but merely that I may indulge the wishes of my wife.” ° i.e. because. * 3 Thus the folio; except that, instead of active instruments, it has officed instrument. The quarto reads “..And feathered Cupid foils,” &c. Speculative instruments, in Shakspeare’s language, are the eyes; and active instruments, the hands and feet. To seel is to close up. The meaning of the passage appears to be, “When the pleasures and idle toys of love make me unfit either for seeing the duties of my office, or for the ready performance of them.” . 4 The quarto reads reputation. Othello, leave some officer behind, 1 Delighted for delighting. ° i. e. fairest opportunity. for four times seven years ' ' and since I could distinguish between 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 virtue to amend it. Iago. Virtue f a fig ’tis in ourselves, that we are thus, or thus. Our bodies are our 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 sterile 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. Jago. It is merely a lust of the blood, and a permission of the will. Come, be a man; drown thyself! drown cats, and blind puppies. I have professed 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 favor 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 an 1 In the novel, on which Othello is founded, Iago is described as a $young, handsome man. 2 A Guinea-hem was a cant term for a woman of easy virtue. 3 The folio reads “if the brain; ” probably a mistake for beam. 4. A sect is what the gardeners call a cutting. The modern editors read a set. 5 Defeat was used for disfigurement or alteration of features; from the French défaire. Favor means that combination of features which gives the face its distinguishing character. |