SCENE changes to another STREET, before the Sagittary. Enter Othello, Iago, and Attendants with Torches. Tago. Tho' in the trade of war I have flain men, Iago. Nay, but he prated, And spoke fuch fcurvy and provoking terms That, with the little godliness I have, I did full hard forbear him. But I pray, Sir, And hath in his effect a voice potential (6) Oth. Let him do his fpight: My fervices, which I have done the Signory, (6) And bath in his effect a Voice potential, As double as the Duke's] Rymer feems to have had his Eye on this Paffage amongst others, when he talks fo much of the Impropriety and Barbarity in the Style of this Play. But it is, in Truth, a very ele gant Grecifm. As double, fignifies, as large, as extenfive. So the Greeksus'd was, for, latus, grandis, as well as, duplex and, in the fame Manner and Conftructions, the Latines fometimes us'd their duplex. Mr. Warburton: (7) Ifetch my Life and Being From Men of royal Siege; and my Demerits May fpeak unbonnetted to as proud a Fortune As this that I have reach'd.] Thus all the Copies read this Paffage, But From men of royal fiege; and my demerits I would not my unhoufed free condition: For the fea's worth. But look! what lights come yonder? Enter Caffio, with torches. Tago. Thofe are the raised father, and his friends: You were beft go in. in. Oth. Not I: I must be found. My parts, my title, and my perfect Soul Shall manifeft me rightly. Is it they? lago. By Janus, I think, no. Oth. The Servants of the Duke, and my lieutenant: Caf. The Duke does greet you, General; And he requires your hafte, post-haste, appearance, But, to speak unbonnetted, is to speak with the Cap off, which is 'directly opposite to the Poet's Meaning. So, in King Lear; This Night, in which the cub-drawn Bear would couch, The Lion, and the belly-pinched Wolf, Keep their Furr dry, unbonnetted he runs, And bids what will take all. Othello means to fay, that his Birth and Services fet him upon fuch a Rank, that he may fpeak to a Senator of Venice with his Hat on ; i. e. without fhewing any Marks of Deference, or Inequality. I, therefore, am inclin❜d to think, Shakespeare wrote; May Speak, and bonnetted, &c. Ör, if any like better the Change of the Negative un, in the corrupted Reading, into the Epitatic im, we may thus reform it : May fpeak imbonnetted, &c. I propos'd the Correction of this Paffage in my SHAKESPEARE reftored; upon which, Mr. Pope, in his laft Edition, has found out an other Expedient, and would read, May Speak unbonnetting, &c. i. e. as he fays, without pulling off the Bonnett. But the Senfe thus is equivocal and obfcure: and unbonnetting more naturally fignifies, pulling off the Bonnett, than the contrary. Oth. Oth. What is the matter, think you ? Caf. Something from Cyprus, as I may divine: (8) Are at the Duke's already. You have been hotly call'd for, To fearch you out. Oth. 'Tis well I am found by you : I will but spend a word here in the house, Caf. Ancient, what makes he here? [Exit Othello! Iago. Faith, he to night hath boarded a land-carrack ; If it prove lawful prize, he's made for ever. Caf. I do not understand. Iago. He's married. Caf. To whom? Iago. Marry to-Come, Captain, will Enter Othello. Oth. Have with you. you go? Caf. Here comes another troop to feek for you. Enter Brabantio, Rodorigo, with officers and torches: Iago. It is Brabantio: General, be advis'd; He comes to bad intent. Oth. Holla! ftand there. Rod. Seignior, it is the Moor. Bra. Down with him, thief! [They draw on both fides: 'em. (8) And many of the Confuls, rais'd and met, Are at the Duke's already.] Thus all the Editions concur in reading; but there is no fuch Character as a Conful appears in any Part of the Play. I change it to, Counsellors i. e. the Grandees that conftitute the great Council at Venice. The Reafon I have already given, above, in the Clofe of the 5th Note, Good 1 Good Signior, you shall more command with years, Bra. O thou foul thief! where, haft thou ftow'd my daughter? Damn'd as thou art, thou haft enchanted her; 30 If fhe in chains of magick were not bound, 1. (9) that the fhunn'd The wealthy curled Darlings of our Nation.] Tho' I have not difturb'd the Text here, I ought to fubjoin a very probable Conjecture which Mr. Warburton propos'd to me. The wealthy culled Darlings of our Nation. i. e. pick'd, felect, chosen, from the common Suitors. For the Epithet curled, as he obferves, was no Mark of Diftinction or Difference between a Venetian and a Moor; which latter People are remarkably curl'd by Nature. And tho' culled now, when our Ears are nicer than our Underftandings, may not fo frequently find a Place in the Drama; the fame Objection did not lie to the Sound of it in Shakespeare's Days. Of all Complexions the cull'd Sov'reignty. Call for our chiefest Men of Difcipline Before 1 drew this gallant Head of War, For who is He, whofe Chin is but enrich'd Thefe cull'd and choice-drawn Cavaliers to France?" And here's a Lord, come Knights from Eaft to Weft, Love's Labour lost. King John. ib. ib. Henry V. I Henry VI. Troil. and Creff. Rom. and Jul. ibid. Of fuch a thing as thou, to fear, not to delight? (10) Judge me the World, if 'tis not grofs in Senfe, That weaken Motion.] Brabantio is here accufing Othello of having us'd fome foul Play, and intoxicated Defdemona by Drugs and Potions to win her over to his Love. But why, Drugs to weaken Motion? How then could he have run away with him voluntarily from her Father's Houfe? Had he been averfe to chufing Othello, tho' he had given her Medicines that took away the Ufe of her Limbs, might the not still have retain'd her Senfes, and oppos'd the Marriage? Her Father, 'tis evident, from several of his Speeches, is pofitive that the muft have been abused in her rational Faculties; or fhe could not have made fo prepofterous a Choice, as to wed with a Moor, a Black, and refuse the finest young Gentlemen in Venice. What then have we to do with her Motion being weaken'd? If I understand any thing of the Poet's Meaning here, I I cannot but think, he must have wrote; Abus'd her delicate Youth with Drugs, or Minerals, i. e. her Apprehenfion, right Conception and Idea of Things, Understanding, Are lethargied, &c. Your Fudgments, my grave Lords, Muft give this Cur the Lye; and his own Notion, Who wears my Stripes, &c. And all things elfe, that might To half a Soul, and to a Notion craz'd Say, thus did Banquo. King Lear. Coriolanus. Macbeth. And, in Cymbeline, he has exprefs'd the fame Idea by an equivalent Term. The Drug he gave me, which he faid was precious And cordial to me, have 1 not found it Murth'rous to th' Senfes ? I made this Emendation in the Appendix to my SHAKESPEARE reftor'd, and Mr. Pope has adopted it in his laft Edition. That |