Receive it from me:-I speak not yet of proof.
Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio;
Wear you eye-thus, not jealous, nor secure:
I would not have your free and noble nature,
Out of self-bounty 27, be abus'd; look to't:
I know our country disposition well;

In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks

They dare not show their husbands; their best conscience

Is-not to leave undone, but keep unknown 28.
Oth. Dost thou say so?

Iago. She did deceive her father, marrying you; And, when she seem'd to shake, and fear

She lov'd them most.

Oth.
Iago.

your looks,

And so she did.

Why, go to, then;

She that, so young, could give out such a seeming, To seel her father's eyes up, close as oak 29,

He thought, 'twas witchcraft:-But I am much to blame;

I humbly do beseech you of your pardon,
For too much loving you.

27 Self bounty for inherent generosity.

28 This and the following argument of Iago ought to be deeply impressed on every reader. Deceit and falsehood, whatever conveniences they may for a time promise or produce, are in the sum of life obstacles to happiness. Those who profit by the cheat, distrust the deceiver, and the act by which kindness is sought puts an end to confidence. The same objection may be made with a lower degree of strength against the imprudent generosity of disproportionate marriages. When the first heat of passion is over, it is easily succeeded by suspicion, that the same violence of inclination, which caused one irregularity, may stimulate to another; and those who have shown that their passions are too powerful for their prudence will, with very slight appearances against them, be censured, as not very likely to restrain them by their virtue.-Johnson.

29 An expression from falconry: to seel a hawk is to sew up his eyelids. Close as oak means as close as the grain of oak.

Oth.

I am bound to thee for ever.

Iago. I see, this hath a little dash'd your spirits. Oth. Not a jot, not a jot.

Iago.

Trust me, I fear it has.

I hope, you will consider, what is spoke Comes from my love; -But, I do see you are mov'd:

I am to pray you, not to strain my speech

Το

30 issues grosser

Than to suspicion.

Oth. I will not.

Iago.

nor to larger reach,

Should you do so, my lord,

My speech should fall into such vile success
As my thoughts aim not at.

Oth.

31

Cassio's my worthy

No, not much mov'd:

I do not think but Desdemona's honest.

Iago. Long live she so! and long live you to think so!

Oth. And yet, how nature erring from itself,Iago. Ay, there's the point:--As,—to be bold with you,

Not to affect many proposed matches,

Of her own clime, complexion, and degree;
Whereto, we see, in all things nature tends:
Foh! one may smell, in such, a will32 most rank,
Foul disproportion, thoughts unnatural.—
But pardon me; I do not, in position,

30 Issues for conclusions.

31 Success here means consequence or event; as successo, in Italian. So in Sidney's Arcadia, p. 39, ed. 1613 :-' Straight my heart misgave me some evil success!' And in The Palace of Pleasure:- Fearing lest their case would sort to some pitifull successe.'

32 Will for inclination or desire. A rank will is a lustful inclination.

Distinctly speak of her: though I may fear,
Her will, recoiling to her better judgment,
May fall to match you with her country forms,
And (happily) repent.

Oth.

Farewell, farewell:

If more thou dost perceive, let me know more;
Set on thy wife to observe: Leave me, Iago.
Iago. My lord, I take my leave.

[Going. Oth. Why did I marry?—This honest creature, doubtless,

Sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds. Iago. My lord, I would, I might entreat your honour

33:

To scan this thing no further; leave it to time:
And though it be fit that Cassio have his place
(For, sure, he fills it up with great ability),
Yet, if you please to hold him off a while,
You shall by that perceive him and his means
Note, if your lady strain his entertainment 34
With any strong or vehement importunity;
Much will be seen in that. In the mean time,
Let me be thought too busy in my fears
(As worthy cause I have, to fear-I am),
And hold her free, I do beseech your honour.
Oth. Fear not my government 35.
Iago. I once more take my leave.

[Exit.

Oth. This fellow's of exceeding honesty, And knows all qualities, with a learned spirit 36, Of human dealings: If I do prove her haggard 37,

33 You shall discover whether he thinks his best means, his most powerful interest, is by the solicitation of your lady.'

34 i. e. press hard his readmission to his pay and office. Entertainment was the military term for the admission of soldiers. 35 Do not distrust my ability to contain my passion.

36 Learned for experienced. The construction is, ' He knows with an experienced spirit all qualities of human dealings.' 37 Haggard is wild, and therefore libertine. A haggard falcon VOL. X.

૨૨

Though that her jesses 38 were my dear heart-strings,
I'd whistle her off, and let her down the wind,
To prey at fortune. Haply, for I am black;
And have not those soft parts of conversation
That chamberers have 39:-Or, for I am declin'd
Into the vale of years;-yet that's not much;-
She's gone; I am abus'd; and my relief
Must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage,
That we can call these delicate creatures ours,
And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad,
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon,

was a wild hawk that had preyed for herself long before she was taken; sometimes also called a ramage falcon. From a passage in The White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona, 1612, it appears that haggard was a term of reproach, sometimes applied to a wanton: Is this your perch, you haggard? fly to the So in Shakerley Marmion's Holland's Leaguer, 1633: Before these courtiers lick their lips at her,

stews.'

I'll trust a wanton haggard in the wind.'

Again:

For she is ticklish as any haggard,
And quickly lost.'

38 Jesses are short straps of leather tied about the foot of a hawk, by which she is held on the fist. The falconers always let fly the hawk against the wind; if she flies with the wind behind her, she seldom returns. If therefore a hawk was for any reason to be dismissed, she was let down the wind, and from that time shifted for herself and preyed at fortune.' This was told to Dr. Johnson by Mr. Clark. So in the Spanish Gipsie, 1653: That young lannerd (i. e. hawk)

Whom you have such a mind to; if you can whistle her To come to fist, make trial, play the young falconer.' Again in Bonduca, by Beaumont and Fletcher:

ke that basely

Whistled his honour off to the wind,' &c.

And in Dryden's Annus Mirabilis :-

Have you not seen, when whistled from the fist,
Some falcon stoops at what her eye design'd,

And with her eagerness the quarry miss'd,

Straight flies at cheek, and clips it down the wind.'

39 Men of intrigue. Chambering and wantonness are mentioned together in the Scriptures.

με ΚΟΙΤΑΙΣ is rendered

not in chambering in the common version.

Than keep a corner in the thing I love,

For others' uses. Yet, 'tis the plague of great ones; Prerogativ'd are they less than the base;

"Tis destiny unshunnable, like death;

Even then this forked 40 plague is fated to us,
When we do quicken 41.

Desdemona comes:

Enter DESDEMONA and EMILIA.

If she be false, O, then heaven mocks itself!-
I'll not believe it.

Des.

How now, my dear Othello? Your dinner, and the generous 42 islanders

By you invited, do attend your presence.
Oth. I am to blame.

Des. Why is your speech so faint? are you not
well?

Oth. I have a pain upon my forehead here.

Des. 'Faith, that's with watching; 'twill away

again :

Let me but bind it hard, within this hour
It will be well.

Oth.

Your napkin 43 is too little;

[He puts the Handkerchief from him, and it drops. Let it alone. Come, I'll go in with you.

40 One of Sir John Harington's Epigrams will illustrate this forked plague:

'Acteon guiltless unawares espying

Naked Diana bathing in ber bowre

Was plagued with HORNES; his dogs did him devoure;
Wherefore take heed, ye that are curious, prying,
With some such forked plague you be not smitten,
And in your foreheads see your faults be written.'

41 i. e. when we begin to live.

42 The generous islanders' are the islanders of rank, distinction: generosi, Lat. See vol. ii. p. 92, note 4. This explanation however (as Steevens observes) may be too particular; for generous also signified valiant, of a brave spirit.

43 In the north of England this term for a handkerchief is still used. The word occurs in Macbeth, Julius Cæsar, and other of these plays.