What, do you shake at that? Bian. He supp'd at my house; but I therefore shake not. Iago. O, did he so? I charge you, go with me. Bian. I am no strumpet; but of life as honest, Emil. As I foh! fy upon thee! Iago. Kind gentlemen, let's go see poor Cassio dress'd: Come, mistress, you must tell us another tale.-- And tell my lord and lady what has happ'd.-- [Aside. That either makes me, or fordoes me quite.1 [Exeunt. Go know of Cassio where he supp'd to-night:] In the last scene of the preceding Act Iago informs Roderigo, that Cassio was to sup with Bianca; that he would accompany Cassio to her house, and would take care to bring him away from thence between twelve and one. Cassio too had himself informed Iago, Act IV, sc. i, that he would sup with Bianca, and Iago had promised to meet him at her house. Perhaps, however, here Iago chose to appear ignorant of this fact, conscious that he had way-laid Cassio, and therefore desirous of being thought ignorant of his motions during the evening. Malone. Yet, how happens it, that Bianca, instead of replying-He supp'd &c. did not answer, addressing herself to Iago: He supp'd &c. Why, you well know, The former line being imperfect, some such words might have been omitted. Or perhaps, our author was unwilling that Bianca should say in the presence of Iago's wife, that he too had been of Cassio's supper-party; and hence this seeming inconsistency. Steevens. 1 or fordoes me quite.] To fordo, is to undo, to ruin, to destroy. So, in Hamlet :. 66 did, with desperate hand, "Fordo its own life." Again, in the Interlude of Jacob and Esau, 1568: "If God were so pleased, I would that were fordonne.” Steevens SCENE II. A Bedchamber: DESDEMONA in bed asleep. A Light burning. Enter OTHELLO. Oth. It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,Let me not name it2 to you, you chaste stars!3. It is the cause.- -Yet I 'll not shed her blood; Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow, And smooth as monumental alabaster. [Takes off his Sword. Yet she must die, else she 'll betray more men.a Put out the light, and then put out the light:5 2 It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul, Let me not name it -] The abruptness of this soliloquy makes it obscure. The meaning, I think, is this:-I am here (says Othello in his mind) overwhelmed with horror. What is the reason of this perturbation? Is it want of resolution to do justice? Is it the dread of shedding blood? No; it is not the action that shocks me, but it is the cause, it is the cause, my soul; let me not name it to you, ye chaste stars! it is the cause. Johnson. Othello, full of horror at the cruel action which he is about to perpetrate, seems at this instant to be seeking his justification, from representing to himself the cause, i. e. the greatness of the provocation he had received. He may, however, meanIt is the cause of chastity and virtue, that I maintain. Steevens. - you chaste stars,] For the epithet-chaste, applied to the stars, there is perhaps no classical authority. Statius, when Achilles, disguised in a female habit, had proved his manhood on Deidamia, observes that 3 66 risit chorus omnis ab alto 5 Astrorum, et tenera rubuerunt cornua Zune." Hence we may infer that an occurrence offensive to the moon, was anciently supposed to put the less prudish stars (“ Diana's waiting-women") in good humour. Steevens. 4 Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men.] This is the second attempt of Othello to justify what he has undertaken. First he says, It is the cause, i. e. his own cause; now he is willing to suppose himself the preventer of mischief to others. Steevens. 5 Put out the light, and then put out the light:] It should be thus printed: Put out the light, and then-put out the light! The meaning is, I will put out the light, and then proceed to the execution of my purpose. But the expression of putting out the light, bringing to mind the effects of the extinction of the light If I quench thee, thou flaming minister, of life, he breaks short, and questions himself about the effects of this metaphorical extinction, introduced by a repetition of his first words, as much as to say,-But hold, let me first weigh the reflections which this expression so naturally excites. Warburton. This has been considered as a very difficult line. Fielding makes Betterton and Booth dispute about it with the author himself in the other world. The punctuation recommended by Dr. Warburton, gives a spirit to it which I fear was not intended. It seems to have been only a play upon words. To put the light out was a phrase for to kill. In The Maid's Tragedy, Melantius says: 'Tis a justice, and a noble one, "To put the light out of such base offenders." Farmer. This phrase is twice used in Sidney's Arcadia, for killing a lady, p. 460 and 470, edit. 1633. Again, in an unpublished play called The Second Maiden's Tragedy, by George Chapman, licensed by Sir George Buc, October 31st, 1611: (now in the library of the Marquis of Lansdowne, who honoured me with the use of it :) 66 O soul of cunning! "Came that arch subtilty from thy lady's counsel, "Or thine own sudden craft? confess to me "How oft thou hast been a bawd to their close actions, "Or all thy light goes out." Steevens. Put out the light, and then put out the light:] This is one of the passages to which I alluded to in a note on As you Like it, Vol. V, p. 148, in which, by a modern regulation, our poet's words have obtained a meaning, which in my opinion was not in his thoughts. Mr. Upton was the first person who introduced the conceit in this line, which has been adopted since his book appeared, by pointing it thus: Put out the light, and then--Put out the light! &c. I entirely agree with Dr. Farmer, that this regulation gives a spirit to this passage that was not intended. The poet, I think, meant merely to say," I will now put out the lighted taper which I hold, and then put out the light of life;" and this introduces his subsequent reflection and comparison, just as aptly, as supposing the latter words of the line to be used in the same sense as in the beginning of it, which cannot be done without destroying that equivoque and play of words of which Shakspeare was so fond. There are few images which occur more frequently in his works than this. Thus, in King Henry VI, P III, the dying Clifford says: "Here burns my candle out, ay, here it dies." Again, in Macbeth: "Out, out, brief candle!" Should I repent me :--but once put out thine, rose,9 When I have pluck'd thy I cannot give it vital growth again, Again, in King Henry VIII: "This candle burns not clear; 'tis I must snuff it; Again, in his Rape of Lucrece : "Fair torch, burn out thy light, and lend it not "To darken her, whose light excelleth thine!" Let the words-put out her light, stand for a moment in the place of darken her, and then the sentence will run-Burn out thy-light, fair torch, and lend it not to put out her light, whose light is more excellent than thine. In the very same strain, says Othello," let me first extinguish the light I now hold, and then put out the light of life. But how different in effect and importance are these two acts! The extinguished taper can be lighted again, but the light of life, when once extinguished, can never, alas, be relumined! The question is not, which regulation renders the passage most elegant and spirited, but what was the poet's idea.-I believe, however, that Shakspeare wrote-and then put out thy light; and the reading of the original quarto in a subsequent line, " but once put out thine," seems to me to countenance this emendation. In The Merchant of Venice the word light is used with equal ambiguity: "Let me give light, but let me not be light." Malone. 6 put out thine,] Thus the quarto. The folio readsput out thy light. I have chosen the former reading for the sake of measure, and to escape a useless repetition of the word-light. Steevens. 7 Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature,] So, in Palmerin D'Olivia 1588, p. 1: 66 those that beheld her, esteemed her for the chiefest piece of workmanshipp that ever nature framed." Reed. 8 That can thy light relume-] Thus the folio. The first quarto-return: the second quarto-relumine. Steevens. Our poet has illume for illuminate, in Hamlet: 9 "Had made his course, to illume that part of heaven, "Where now it burns." Malone. thy rose,] Thus the folio. The quarto reads, the rose. Again, the quarto reads: 66 The folio: I'll smell it on the tree." "I'll smell thee on the tree." Steevens. It needs must wither:--I'll smell it on the tree. [Kissing her. O balmy breath, that dost almost persuade But they are cruel tears: This sorrow 's heavenly ;1 Des. Who's there? Othello? Oth. Ay, Desdemona. Des. Ay, my lord. Oth. If you bethink yourself of any crime, Des. Alas, my lord, what may you mean by that? I would not kill thy unprepared spirit; No, Heaven forefend!--I would not kill thy soul.2 1 Oth. Ay, I do. This sorrow's heavenly;] This tenderness, with which I lament the punishment which justice compels me to inflict, is a holy passion. I wish these two lines could be honestly ejected. It is the fate of Shakspeare to counteract his own pathos. Johnson. Perhaps the poet would not have retained both these images, had he published the play himself, though in the hurry of composition he threw them both upon paper. The first seems adopted from the fabulous history of the crocodile, the second from a passage in the scripture. Steevens. "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth." M. Mason. 2 Iwould not kill thy soul.] So, in the First Part of the Straunge and Wonderful Adventures of Don Simonides, &c. bl. l. 4to. 1581: 66 - for that her Master would putte her Mistris to shrifte, before he destroyed her bodie, yet to the savegarde of her soule." Sir W. D'Avenant has also borrowed this thought in his Albovine King of Lombardy, 1629: "I am not fraught with devil's spleen; I would "Not hurt thy soul." Othello appears to have been a favourite of his author; for he has bestowed on him that piety which he had refused to Hamlet. See Hamlet, Act III, sc. iii, Vol. XV. Steevens. |