And be retires. Where should Othello go? From the poffeffion of this heavenly fight; Enter Lodovico, Caffio led in wounded, Montano, and Lod. Where is this rafh and moft unfortunate man? fable. If that thou be'ft a Devil, I cannot kill thee. [Othello wounds Iago. Lod. Wrench his fword from him. lago. I bleed, Sir, but not kill'd. Oth. I am not forry, neither. I'd have thee live. For, in my fenfe, 'tis happiness to die. Lod. Oh thou, Othello, that wast once fo good, Oth. Why, any thing; An honourable murd'rer, if you will, 5-tow'rds his feet;-] To fee if, according to the common opinion, his feet be cloven. 6 -in the practice-] In the fnare, by the ftratagem. Hh 2 Lod Lod. This wretch hath part confeft his villainy. Did you and he confent in Caffio's death? Oth. Ay. Caf. Dear General, I never gave you Caufe. Will you, I pray, demand that demy-devil, Why he hath thus enfnar'd my foul and body? know. From this time forth I never will fpeak word. Lod. What? not to pray ? Gra. Torments will ope your lips. Oth. Well, thou doft beft. Lod. Sir, you fhall understand what hath befall'n, Which, as I think, you know. Here is a letter, Found in the pocket of the flain Rodorigo, And, here, another; one of them imports The death of Caffio to be undertook By Rodorigo. Oth. Oh villain ! Caf. Moft heathenish and most gross! Lod. Now, here's another difcontented paper, Oth. O thou pernicious caitiff! How came you, Caffio, by that handkerchief Caf. I found it in my chamber; And he himself confeft it but ev'n now, Which wrought to his defire. Oth. Oh fool, fool, fool! 7 --in the interim] The revifal, that nick was too famifrit copies have, in the nick. It liar. was, I fuppofe, thought upon Caf. Caf. There is, befides, in Rodorigo's letter, Lod. You must forfake this room, and go with us; Your Pow'r and your Command is taken off, That can torment him much, and hold him long, Oth. Soft you; a word or two, before you go. 8 Speak of me, as I am; Nothing extenuate, Nor fet down aught in malice. Then must you speak Of one that loved not wifely, but too well; Richer than all his tribe; of one, whofe fubdued Albeit unused to the melting mood, know the eftimation of a pearl, beyond that of a barley corn. So that, in that refpect, the thought itself would not be juft. Then, if our author had defign'd to reflect on the ignorance of the Indian without any farther reproach, he would have call'd him rude, and not bafe. Again, I am perfuaded, as my friend Mr. Warburton long ago obferv'd, the phrafe is not here literal, but metaphorical: and, by his pearl, our author very properly means a fine woman. But Mr. Pope objects farther to read ing Judian, becaufe, to make ferfe of this, we must pre fuppofe Jume particular ftory of a Jew al. luded to; which is much lefs obvious: But has Shakespeare ne. ver done this, but in this fingle inftance? I am fatisfied in his Jadian, he is alluding to He od; who, in a fit of blind jealoufy, threw away fuch a jewel of a wife as Marianne was to him. What can be more parallel in circumflance, than the conduct of Herot and Othello? Nor was the tory fo little obvious, as Mr. Pope feems to imagine: for, in the year 1613, the Lady Elizabeth Carew published a Tragede, call'd MARIAM, the fair Queen of JEWRY. I fhall only add, that our author might write Judian, or Judean (if that should be alledg'd as any objection) inftead of Judean, with the fame licence and change of accent, as, in his Anthony and Cleopatra, he fhortens the fecond fyllable of Euphrates in pronunciation: which was a liberty likewise taken by Spencer, of whom our author was a ftudious imitator. THEOBALD, Like the bafe INDIAN, threw a pearl away.] The elder quarto reads JUDIAN, and this is certainly right. And by the Judian is meant Herod, whose ufage to Mariamne is so appofite to the speaker's cafe, that a more proper inftance could not be thought of. Befides, he was the fubject of tragedy at that time, as appears from the words in Hamlet, where an ill player is described, -to out berod Herod. The metaphorical term of a pear! for a fine woman, is fo common as fcarce to need examples. In Troilus and Creffida, a lover fays of his miftrefs, There he lies a PEARL. And again, Why he is a PEARL whofe trice, &c. WARBURTON, I took by th' throat the circumcised dog, Lod. Oh bloody period! Gra. All, that is fpoke, is marr❜d. [Stabs himself. Oth. I kit thee, ere I kill'd thee.No way but this, [Falling upon Defdem. [dies. Killing myself, to die upon a kifs. Caf. This did I fear, but thought he had no wea pon, For he was great of heart.' Lod. Oh Spartan dog! [To lago. More fell than anguish, hunger, or the fea! nor, Remains the cenfure of this hellish villain, The I To you, lord Governor, Remains the cenfure of this bellish villain:] Rymer, who had neither vigour of imagination to make a poet, nor trength of judgment to make a critic, as appears from his Edgar and his Remarks on Shakespeare, had yet just enough to play the buffoon and caviller. His criticifms on the Poets of the laft age, with only a mixture of trite remarks, tranfcribed from the French commentators on Ariftotle, are one continued heap of ignorance and infolence. Almost the To en which he thus cenfures. tertain the audience (fays he) with fomething new and Surprifing, a• gainst common ferfe and nature, he would pass upon us a cl ́fe, d'ffembling, falfe, ungrateful rofcal, instead of an open-hearted, frank, plain-dealing foldier, a character conftantly worn by them for fome thousands of years in the world. This hath the appearance of fenfe, being founded on that rule of Nature and Aristitle, that each character fhould have manners convenient to the age, sex, and condition. Etatis cujufque notandi funt tibi mores, &c. only remark on Shakespeare, which, I think, deferves an anfwer, is upon Iago's character, fays Horace. Put how has our Hh 4 critic |