As having fenfe of beauty, do omit
Their mortal natures, letting fafe go by
The divine Desdemona.

Mont. What is fhe?

Caf. She that I fpake of, our great captain's captain,

Left in the conduct of the bold Iago;
Whofe footing here anticipates our thoughts,
A fe'nnight's speed. Great Jove, Othello guard,
And fwell his fail with thine own powerful breath,
That he may bless this bay with his tall fhip,
Make love's quick pants in Desdemona's arms,
Give renew'd fire to our extincted fpirits,
"And bring all Cyprus comfort !".

Enter Desdemona, Iago, Roderigo, and Æmilia.

O behold,

The riches of the fhip is come on shore !
Ye men of Cyprus, let her have your knees.
Hail to thee, lady! and the grace of heaven,
Before, behind thee, and on every hand
Enwheel thee round!

Def. I thank you, valiant Caffio;
What tidings can you tell me of my lord?
Caf. He is not yet arriv'd; nor know I aught
But that he's well, and will be fhortly here.

Des. O, but I fear :-how loft you company?
Caf. The great contention of the fea and fkies
Parted our fellowship. But, hark! a fail!
Within.] A fail, a fail!

[Guns beard. Gent. They give this greeting to the citadel : This likewife is a friend.

Caf. See for the news.

[An Attendant goes out.

reader may make what he pleafes. Perhaps enfcerped was an old English word borrowed from the French efcarpe, which Shakespeare not finding congruous to the image of clogging the keel, afterwards changed. STEEVENS.

Good

Good Ancient, you are welcome. Welcome, mistress.

[To Æmilia.

Let it not gall your patience, good Iago,
That I extend my manners: 'tis my breeding

That gives me this bold fhew of courtefy. [Kifles her.
Iago. Sir, would fhe give you fo much of her lips,
As of her tongue fhe oft beftows on me,
You'd have enough.

Def. Alas! fhe has no fpeech.
Iago. In faith, too much;

I find it ftill, when I have lift to fleep.
Marry, before your ladyfhip, I grant,
She puts her tongue a little in her heart,
And chides with thinking.

Emil. You have little cause to say so.

Iago. Come on, come on; you're pictures out of doors,

Bells in your parlours, wild cats in your kitchens, 9 Saints in your injuries, devils being offended, Players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds!

Def. O, fie upon thee, flanderer!

Iago. Nay, it is true, or elfe I am Turk; You rife to play, and go to bed to work.

9 Saints in your injuries, &c.] When you have a mind to do injuries, you put on an air of fanctity. JOHNSON.

In Puttenham's Art of Poetry, 1589, I meet with almost the fame thoughts: We limit the comely parts of a woman to "confift in four points; that is, to be a fhrew in the kitchen, "a faint in the church, an angel at board, and an ape in the "bed, as the chronicle reports by mistress Shore, paramour to "K. Edward the Fourth."

Again, in a play of Middleton's, called Blurt Mafter Conftable; or, The Spaniards Night-walk, 1602.

66

according to that wife faying of you, you be faints "in the church, angels in the ftreet, devils in the kitchen, "and apes in your beds."

Puttenham, who mentions all other contemporary writers, has not once spoken of Shakespeare; fo that it is probable he had not produced any thing of fo early a date. STEEVENS.

VOL. X.

C c

Amil.

Emil. You fhall not write my praise.
Iago. No, let me not.

Def. What wouldft thou write of me, if thou fhou'dft praise me?

Iago. Oh gentle lady, do not put me to't; For I am nothing, if not critical.

Def. Come on, affay:-there's one gone to the harbour?

Iago. Ay, Madam.

Def. I am not merry; but I do beguile The thing I am, by feeming otherwise.

-Come, how wouldst thou praise me?

Iago. I am about it; but, indeed, my invention
Comes from my pate, as bird-lime does from frize,
It plucks out brains and all. But my mufe labours,
And thus fhe is delivered:

If fhe be fair and wife, fairness and wit,
The one's for ufe, the other ufeth it.

Def. Well prais'd. How if fhe be black and witty?

Iago. If he be black, and thereto have a wit,
She'll find a white that shall her blackness fit.

Def. Worfe and worse.

Emil. How, if fair and foolish?

2

Iago. She never yet was foolish that was fair;
For even her folly help'd her to an heir.

Def. These are old fond paradoxes, to make fools laugh i' the alehoufe. What miferable praise haft thou for her that's foul and foolish?

critical.] That is, cenforious. JOHNSON. 2 She never yet was foolish, &c.] We may read, She ne'er was yet so foolish that was fair,

But even her folly help'd her to an heir.

Yet I believe the common reading to be right: the law makes the power of cohabitation a proof that a man is not a natural; therefore, fince the foolifheit woman, if pretty, may have a child, no pretty woman is ever foolish. JOHNSON.

Iago. There's none fo foul and foolish thereunto,
But does foul pranks, which fair and wife ones
do.

Def. O heavy ignorance! thou praisest the worst beft. But what praife couldft thou beftow on a deferving woman indeed? 3 one, that in the authority of her merit, did juftly put on the vouch of very malice itself?

Iago. She that was ever fair, and never proud,

Had tongue at will, and yet was never loud;
Never lack'd gold, and yet went never gay;
Fled from her wifh, and yet faid, now I may;
She that, being anger'd, her revenge being nigh,
Bade her wrong ftay, and her displeasure fly;
She that in wifdom never was fo frail
To change the cod's head for the falmon's tail;

one, that in the authority of her merit, did juftly put on the vouch of very malice itjelf?] Though all the printed copies agree in this reading, I cannot help fufpecting it. If the text fhould be genuine, I confefs it is above my understanding. In what fenfe can merit be faid to put on the vouch of malice? I should rather think, merit was fo fafe in itself, as to repel and put off all that malice and envy could advance and affirm to its prejudice. I have ventured to reform the text to this conftruction, by writing put down, a very flight change that makes it intelligble. THEOBALD.

-one, that in the authority of her merit, did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself?] The editor, Mr. Theobald, not understanding the phrafe, To put on the vouch of malice, has altered it to put down, and wrote a deal of unintelligible ftuff To put on the vouch of any one, fignifies, to justify his blunder. to call upon any one to vouch for another. So that the fenfe of the place is this, one that was fo confcious of her own merit, and of the authority her character had with every one, that she durft venture to call upon malice itself to vouch for her. This was fome commendation. And the character only of the clearest virtue; which could force malice, even againft its nature, to do justice. WARBURTON.

To put on the vouch of malice, is to affume a character vouched by the teftimony of malice itself. JOHNSON.

Cc 2

She

She that could think, and ne'er disclose her mind,
See fuitors following, and not look behind;

She was a wight, if ever fuch wight were—

Def. To do what?

4

Iago. To fuckle fools, and chronicle fmall beer.

Def. Oh most lame and impotent conclufion! Do not learn of him, Emilia, though he be thy hufband. How fay you, Caffio, is he not a moft 5 profane and 6 liberal counsellor?

Caf. He speaks home, Madam; you may relish him more in the foldier, than in the scholar.

Iago. [Afide.] He takes her by the palm: ay, well faid, whisper. With as little a web as this, will I enfnare as great a fly as Caffio. Ay, fmile upon her, do. 7 I will gyve thee in thine own courtship. You fay true; 'tis fo, indeed. If fuch tricks as these strip you out of your lieutenancy, it had been better you

4 To fuckle focls, and chronicle small beer.] After enumerating the perfections of a woman, Iago adds, that if ever there was fuch a one as he had been defcribing, fhe was, at the best, of no other ufe, than to fuckle children, and keep the accounts of a boufehold. The expreffions to fuckle fools, and chronicle small beer, are only inftances of the want of natural affection, and the predominance of a critical cenforioufnefs in Iago, which he allows himself to be poffeffed of, where he says, Ob! I am nothing, if not critical. STEEVENS.

5-profane-] Grofs of language, of expreffion broad and brutal. So Brabantio, in the first act, calls Iago profane wretch. JOHNSON.

6 -liberal counsellor ?] Liberal, for licentious. WARB. Her fay you, Caffio, is he not a most profane and liberal counfeller? But in what refpect was lago a counfellor? He caps fentences, indeed; but they are not by way of advice, but defeription: what he fays, is, reflections on character and conduct in life. For this reafon, I am very apt to think, our author wrote cenfurer. THEOBALD.

Counsellor feems to mean, not fo much a man that gives counjel, as one that difcourfes fearlefly and volubly. A talker.

JOHNSON.

7-I will gyve thee-] i. e. catch, fhackle. POPE.

had