Iago. I am one, Sir, that comes to tell you, 5 your daughter and the Moor are now making the beaft with two backs.

Bra. Thou art a villain.

Iago. You are

a fenator.

Bra. This thou fhalt anfwer; I know thee, Rode

rigo.

Rod. Sir, I will anfwer any thing. But, I befeech

you,

[* If't be your pleasure and most wise consent,
(As partly, I find, it is) that your fair daughter,
At this odd even and dull watch o' the night,
Tranfported, with no worfe nor better guard,
But with a knave of hire, a Gondalier,
To the grofs clafps of a lafcivious Moor:
If this be known to you, and your allowance,
We then have done you bold and faucy wrongs;
But, if you know not this, my manners tell me,
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe,
That from the fenfe of all civility

I thus would play and trifle with your reverence.
Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,
I fay again, hath made a grofs revolt;
Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes
To an extravagant and wheeling ftranger,

Of here and every where. Straight fatisfy yourself.]
If fhe be in her chamber, or your house,
Let loofe on me the juftice of the state
For thus deluding you.

your daughter and the Moor, &c.] In the " Dictionaire "des Proverbes François, par G.D. B. Bruffels 1710." 12°. under the word dos, I find the following article:

"Faire la bete a deux dos" pour dire faire l'amour. PERCY.

The lines printed in crotchets are not in the first edition, but in the folio of 1623. JOHNSON.

6 this odd even-] The even of night is midnight, the time when night is divided into even parts. JOHNSON.

Odd is here ambiguoufly ufed, as it fignifies ftrange, uncouth,

or unwonted, and as it is oppofed to even.

STEEVENS.

Bra.

Bra. Strike on the tinder, ho!
Give me a taper. Call up all my people.
This accident is not unlike my dream;
Belief of it oppreffes me already.
Light! I fay, light!

Iago. Farewell; for I muft leave you.
It seems not meet, nor wholfome to my place,
To be produc'd (as, if I stay, I fhall)
Against the Moor. For I do know, the ftate,
However this may gall him with 7 fome check,
Cannot with fafety & caft him: for he's embark'd
With fuch loud reafon to the Cyprus' war,
(Which even now ftands in act) that, for their fouls,
Another of his fathom they have none,

To lead their bufinefs. In which regard,
Though I do hate him as I do hell's pains,.
Yet, for neceffity of prefent life,

I muft fhew out a flag and fign of love,

Which is, indeed, but fign. That you may furely find him,

Lead to the Sagittary the rais'd fearch;

And there will I be with him. So, farewell. [Exit.

Enter below Brabantio and fervants.

Bra. It is too true an evil :-gone fhe is; And what's to come of my defpifed time, Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo,

7 -fome check,] Some rebuke. JOHNSON.

caft him-] That is, difmifs him; reject him. We ftill fay, a caft coat, and a caft ferving-man. JOHNSON. 9 And what's to come of my DESPISED time,] Why defpifed time? We thould read,

DESPITED time,

i. e. vexatious. WARBURTON.

Defpifed time, is time of no value; time in which

"There's nothing ferious in mortality,

"The wine of life is drawn, and the mere dregs
"Are left, this vault to brag of." Macbeth.

JOHNSON.

Where

Where didft thou fee her?-Oh unhappy girl!With the Moor, faidft thou?-Who would be a father?

How didft thou know 'twas fhe?-1 Oh, thou deceiv'st

me

Paft thought!-What faid fhe to you?-Get more
tapers;

Raife all my kindred.-Are they married think you?
Rod. Truly, I think, they are.

Bar. Oh heaven! how got fhe out?

Oh treason of the blood!

Fathers, from hence truft not your daughters' minds
By what you fee them act. Are there not charms,

2

By which the property of youth and maidhood May be abus'd? Have you not read, Roderigo, Of some such thing?

Rod. Yes, Sir; I have, indeed.

Bra. Call up my brother.-Oh, 'would you had
had her!

-Some one way, fome another.Do you know
Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?

Rod. I think, I can difcover him; if you please
To get good guard, and go along with me.

Bra. Pray you, lead on. At every houfe I'll call;
I may command at moft: get weapons, ho!
And raise fome special officers of might.

On, good Roderigo, I'll deferve your pains. [Exeunt.

Oh, thou deceiveft me

Paft thought!] Thus the quarto 1622. The folio 1623, and the quartos 1630 and 1655 read,

Oh, fhe deceives me

Paft thought.

I have chofen the apostrophe to his abfent daughter, as the moft fpirited of the two readings.

2

By which the property and youth of maidhood

STEEVENS.

May be abus'd?] By which the faculties of a young virgin may be infatuated, and made subject to illufions and to falfe imagination.

Wicked dreams abuse

"The curtain'd fleep." Macbeth.

Enter Othello, Lago, and attendants.

Iago. Though in the trade of war I have flain men, Yet do I hold it very ftuff 3 o' the conscience To do no contriv'd murder. I lack iniquity Sometimes to do me fervice :-nine or ten times I thought to have yerk'd him here under the ribs. Oth. 'Tis better as it is.

Iago. Nay, but hé prated,

And spoke fuch fcurvy and provoking terms
Against your honour;

That, with the little godlinefs I have,

I did full hard forbear him. But I pray, Sir,
Are
you faft married? for, be fure of this,
That the Magnifico is much belov'd;
And hath, in his effect, a voice potential
+ As double as the duke's: he will divorce

you;

Or

3-fluff o' the confcience] This expreffion to common readers appears harfh. Stuff of the confcience is, fubftance, or effence of the confcience. Stuff is a word of great force in the Teutonic languages. The elements are called in Dutch, Hoefd Roffen, or head stuffs. JOHNSON.

As double as the duke's:] Rymer feems to have had his eye on his paffage, amongst others, where he talks fo much of the impropriety and barbarity in the ftile of this play. But it is an elegant Grecifm. As double, fignifies as large, as extenfive for thus the Greeks ufe di8s. Diofc. 1. 2. c. 213. And in the fame manner and construction, the Latins fometimes ufed duplex. And the old French writers fay, La plus double. Dr. Bentley has been as fevere on Milton for as elegant a Grecism, Yet virgin of Proferpina from Jove, lib. 9. ver. 396. "Tis an imitation of the Пacevov Ex Janaus of Theocritus, for an unmarried virgin. WARBURTON.

This note has been much cenfured by Mr. Upton, who denies that the quotation is in Diofcorides, and disputes, not without reafon, the interpretation of Theocritus.

Or put upon you what restraint, or grievance
The law (with all his might to enforce it on)
Will give him cable.

Oth. Let him do his fpite:

My fervices, which I have done the Signiory,
Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know,
(Which, when I know that boafting is an honour,
I fhall promulgate) I fetch my life and being
From 5 men of royal fiege; and my demerits
May 7 speak, unbonnetted, to as proud a fortune

As

All this learning, if it had even been what it endeavours to be thought, is, in this place, fuperfluous. There is no ground of fuppofing, that our author copied or knew the Greek phrase; nor does it follow, that, becaufe a word has two fenfes in one language, the word which in another anfwers to one sense, fhould answer to both. Manus, in Latin, fignifies both a hand and troop of foldiers, but we cannot fay, that the captain marched at the head of his hand; or, that he laid his troop upon his fword. It is not always in books that the meaning is to be fought of this writer, who was much more acquainted with naked reason and with living manners.

Double has here its natural fenfe. The prefident of every deliberative affembly has a double voice. In our courts, the chief juftice and one of the inferior judges prevail over the other two, because the chief juftice has a double voice.

Brabantio had, in his effect, though not by law, yet by weight and influence, a voice not actual and formal, but potential and operative, as double, that is, a voice that when a queftion was fufpended, would turn the balance as effectually as the duke's. Potential is ufed in the fenfe of science; a caustic is called potential fire. JOHNSON.

5

-men of royal fiege;-] Men who have fat upon royal thrones. The quarto has,

men of royal height.

Siege is used for feat by other authors. So in Maflinger's Guardian:

66

-a crow purfu'd, a hern put from her fiege." STEEV. and my demerits] Demerits has the fame meaning in

our author, and many others of that age, as merits.

66

Opinion that fo fticks on Martius, may

"Of his DEMERITS rob Cominius." Coriol. STEEV. 7-Speak, UNBONNETTED,-] Thus all the copies read. It fhould be UNBONNETTING, i. e. without putting off the bonnet.

VOL. X.

POPE.