Bra. So, let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile, Being strong on both fides, are equivocal. Duke. The Turk with a moft mighty preparation makes for Cyprus: Othello, the fortitude of the place is beft known to you. And though we have there a substitute of moft allowed fufficiency; yet opinion, a fovereign mistress of effects, throws a more fafe voice on you; you muft therefore be content to flubber the glofs of your new fortunes, with this more stubborn and boisterous expedition. Oth. The tyrant cuftom, moft grave fenators, (16) But Words are Words; I never yet did hear, That the bruis'd Heart was pierced thro' the Ear.] One fuperfluous Letter has for these hundred Years quite fubverted the Sense of this Paffage; and none of the Editors have ever attended to the Reasoning of the Context, by which they might have discover'd the Error. The Duke has by fage Sentences been exhorting Prabantio to Patience, and to forget the Grief of his Daughter's ftoln Marriage; to which Brabantio is made very pertinently to reply, to this Effect: "My Lord, I appre"hend very well the Wisdom of your Advice; but tho you would com"fort me, Words are but Words; and the Heart, already bruis'd, was "never pierc'd, or wounded, thro the Ear.". Well! If we want Arguments for a Senator, let him be educated at the Feet of our fagacious Editors. It is obvious, I believe, to my better Readers, that the Text must be restor'd, as Mr. Warburton acutely observ'd to me. That the bruis'd Heart was pieced tho the Ear. That the Wounds of Sorrow were ever cur'd, or a Man made heart-whole meerly by Words of Confolation. I ought to take Notice, this very Emendation was likewife communicated to me by an ingenious, unknown, Correfpondent, who fnbfcribes himself only L. H. I find it hardness; and do undertake This prefent war against the Ottomites. Moft humbly therefore bending to your State, Duke. Why, at her father's. Def. Nor would I there refide, Duke. What would you, Desdemona? Def. That I did love the Moor to live with him, parts I faw Othello's vifage in his mind, By his dear abfence. Let me go with him. Oth. Your voices, lords; beseech you, let her will Have a free way. I therefore beg it not, (17) (17) I therefore beg it not To please the Palate of my Appetite, In my defunct and proper Satisfaction; Το But to be free and bounteous to her Mind.] As this has been all along hitherto printed and stop'd, it seems to me a Period of as ftubborn Nonfenfe, as the Editors have obtruded upon poor Shakespeare throughout his whole Works. What a prepofterous Creature is this Othello made, to fall in Love with, and marry, a fine young Lady, when Appetite and Heat, and To please the palate of my appetite; Nor to comply with heat, the young Affects, inf In my diftinct and proper Satisfaction; But to be free and bounteous to her mind. And heav'n defend your good fouls, that you think, I will your ferious and great business fcant, Duke. Be it as you fhall privately determine, · Duke. This night. Oth. With all my heart. Duke. At nine i'th' morning here we'll meet again. and proper Satisfaction are dead and defunct in him! (For, defunct fignifies nothing elfe, that I know of, either primitively or metaphorically :) But if we may take Othello's own Word in the Affair, when he speaks for himself, he was not reduc'd to this fatal unperforming State. or, for I am declin'd Into the Vale of Years; yet That's not much. Again, Why fhould our Poet fay, (for fo he fays, as the Paffage has been pointed ;) that the young affect Heat? Youth, certainly, has it, and has no Occafion or Pretence of affecting it, whatever fuperannuated Lovers may have. And, again, after defunct, would he add fo abfurd a collateral Epithet as proper? But, I think, I may venture to affirm, that affects was not defign'd here as a Verb; and that defunct was not defign'd here at all. I have, by a flight Change, refcued the Poet's Text from Abfurdi ty; and this I take to be the Tenour of what he would fay; "I do not "beg her Compary with me, merely to please myself; nor to indulge "the Heat and Affects (i. e. Affections) of a new married Man, in my "own diftinct and proper Satisfaction; but to comply with her in her "Request, and Defire, of accompanying me." Affects, for Affections, our Author in several other Paffages ufes. For ev'ry Man with his Affects is born. Love's Labour Loft. " Richard II. Titus Andronicus. Othello, Othello, leave fome officer behind, And he fhall our commiffion bring to you; Oth. Please your Grace, my Antient; With what else needful your good Grace fhall think Good night to every one. And, noble Signior, If virtue no delighted beauty lack, Your fon-in-law is far more fair than black. Sen. Adieu, brave Moor, ufe Desdemona well. Bra. Look to her, Moor, if thou haft eyes to fee, She has deceiv'd her father, and may thee. [Exit Duke, with Senators. Oth. My life upon her faith. Rod. Jage Manent Rodorigo and Iago. Iago. What fayeft thou, noble heart? Rod. I will incontinently drown myself. W [Exeunt. Jago. Well, if thou doft, I fhall never love thee after. Why, thou filly gentleman! Rod. It is fillinefs to live, when to live is a torment; and then have we a prefcription to dye, when death is our phyfician. Iago. O'villainous! I have look'd upon the world for four times feven years, and fince I could diftinguish be twixt a benefit and an injury, I never found man that knew how to love himself. Ere I would fay, I would drown drown my felf for the love of a Guinney-hen, I would change my humanity with a baboon. i Rod. What fhould I do? I confefs, it is my fhame to be fo fond, but it is not in my virtue to amend it. Iago. Virtue? a fig: 'tis in our felves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardiners. So that if we will plant nettles, or fow lettuce; fet hyffop, and weed up thyme; fupply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many; either have it fteril with idleness, or manured with industry ; why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our will. (18) If the beam of our lives had not one fcale of reafon to poife another of fenfuality, the blood and bafenefs of our natures would conduct us to moft prepofterous conclufions. But we have reafon, to cool our raging motions, our carnal ftings, our unbitted lufts; whereof I take this, that you call love, to be a fect, or fyen. (18) If the Balance of our Lives had not one Scale of Reason to poise another of Senfuality.] i. e. If the Scale of our Lives had not one Scale, &c. which must certainly be wrong, Some of the old Quarto's have it thus, but the two elder Folio's read, If the Braine of our Lives had not one Scale, &c. This is corrupt; and I make no doubt but Shakespeare wrote, as I have reform'd the Text, If the Beame of our Lives, &c. And my Reason is this; that he generally distinguishes betwixt the Beam In your Lord's Scale is nothing but himself, We, poizing us in her defective Scale, We, poize the Caufe in Juftice' equal Scale, thy Madness fhall be paid with Weight, Richard II. 2 Henry IV. Tempeft All's well, &c. 2 Henry VI. Hamlet. In like manner, the French always ufe les Balances to fignify the Scales; le Fleau, the Beam of the Balance. Rod. |