ROD. By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman. IAGO. But there's no remedy, 'tis the curse of service; Preferment goes by letter, and affection, Stood heir to the first. Now, fir, be judge your felf, 4 Whether I in any just term am affin'd + To love the Moor. ROD. I would not follow him then. IAGO. O, fir, content you; I follow him to serve my turn upon him: It is fingular that both Churchyard and Shakspeare should have used this form of words with reference to a black perfon. STEEVENS. •his Moorship's-) The first quarto reads his worship's. - by letter, By recommendation from powerful friends. JOHNSON. 3 Not by the old gradation, Old gradation, is gradation established by ancient practice. JOHNSON. 4 Whether I in any just term am affin'd-] Affin'd is the reading of the third quarto and the first folio. The fecond quarto and all the modern editions have affign'd. The meaning is, - Do I stand within any fuch terms of propinquity, or relation to the Moor, as that it is my duty to love him? JOHNSON. The original quarto, 1622, has assign'd, but it was manifestly an error of the press. MALONE. VOL. XV. Cc : For nought but provender; and, when he's old, cashier'd;' 6 Whip me such honeft knaves: Others there are, Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty, Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves; And, throwing but shows of service on their lords, Do well thrive by them, and, when they have lin'd their coats, Do themselves homage: these fellows have some foul; And fuch a one do I profess myself. 7 It is as fure as you are Roderigo, s For nought but provender; and, when he's old, cashier'd;] Surely this line was originally shorter. We might fafely read, For nought but provender; when old, cashier'd. STEEVENS. honest knaves:] Knave is here for fervant, but with a fly mixture of contempt. JOHNSON. 7 For, fir,] These words, which are found in all the ancient copies, are omitted by Mr. Pope, and most of our modern editors. STEEVENS. 8 In compliment extern,) In that which I do only for an outward show of civility. JOHNSON. So, in Sir W. D'Avenant's Albovine, 1629: - that in fight extern "A patriarch seems." STEEVENS. 9 For daws &c.] The first quarto reads, -For doves-. STEEVENS. I have adhered to the original copy, because I fuspect Shak ROD. What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe, If he can carry't thus! Call up her father, Rouse him: make after him, poifon his delight, ROD. Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud. speare had in his thoughts a passage in Lyly's Euphues and his England, 1580: "As all coynes are not good that have the image of Cæfar, nor all gold, that is coyned with the kings stampe, so all is not truth that beareth the shew of godlinesse, nor all friends that beare a faire face. If thou pretend such love to Euphues, carry thy heart on the backe of thy hand, and thy tongue in thy palme, that I may fee what is in thy minde, and thou with thy finger clafpe thy mouth. I can better take a blifter of a nettle, than a pricke of a rose; more willing that a raven should peck out mine eyes, than a turtle peck at them." MALONE. I read with the folio. Iago certainly means to fay, he would expose his heart as a prey to the most worthless of birds, i. e. daws, which are treated with universal contempt. Our author would fcarcely have degraded the amiable tribe of doves to fuch an office; nor is the mention of them at all fuitable to the harsh turn of Iago's speech. STEEVENS. What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe, Full fortune is, I believe, a complete piece of good fortune, as in another scene of this play a full foldier is put for a complete soldier. So, in Cym beline: "Our pleasure his full fortune doth confine." To owe is in ancient language, to own, to possess. STEEVENS. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: -not the imperious show "Of the full-fortun'd Cæfar-." Full is used by Chaucer in the fame sense in his Troilus, B. L: " Sufficeth this, my full friend Pandare, "That I have faid -." See also Vol. XII. p. 580, n. 5. MALONE. IAGO. DO; with like timorous accent, and dire yell, As when, by night and negligence, the fire ROD. What ho! Brabantio! fignior Brabantio, ho! IAGO. Awake! what, ho! Brabantio! thieves! thieves! thieves! Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags! Thieves! thieves! BRABANTIO, above, at a window. BRA. What is the reason of this terrible sum mons? What is the matter there? ROD. Signior, is all your family within? IAGO. Are your doors lock'd?4 BRA. Why? wherefore ask you this? IAGO. 'Zounds, fir, you are robb'd; for shame, put on your gown; 3 As when, by night and negligence, the fire Is spied in populous cities. The particle is used equivocally; the fame liberty is taken by writers more correct: "The wonderful creature! a woman of reason! JOHNSON. By night and negligence ineans, during the time of night and negligence. M. MASON. The meaning, as Mr. Edwards has observed, is, "not that the fire was spied by negligence, but the fire, which came by night and negligence, was spied. --And this double meaning to the fame word is common to Shakspeare with all other writers, especially where the word is fo familiar a one, as this in question. Ovid seems even to have thought it a beauty instead of a defect." MALONE. 4 Are your doors lock'd?] The first quarto reads, Your heart is burst, you have lost half your foul; Even now, very now, an old black ram BRA. What, have you loft your wits? voice? BRA. Not I; What are you? ROD. My name is-Roderigo. BRA. The worse welcome: I have charg'd thee, not to haunt about my doors: nefs, Being full of fupper, and distempering draughts, Upon malicious bravery, doft thou come To start my quiet. 5 is burst,] i. e. is broken. Burst for broke is used in our author's King Henry IV. Part II: “ -and then he burst his head for crowding among the marshal's men." See Vol. IX. p. 147, n. 6. STEEVENS. See also Vol. VI. p. 386, n. 6; and p. 494, n. 4. MALONE. 6-tupping your white ewe.] In the north of England a ram is called a tup. MALONE. I had made the fame observation in the third act of this play, scene iii. -your white ewe.] It appears from a passage in Decker's O per se O, 4to. 1612, that this was a term in the cant language used by vagabonds: "As the men haue nicke-names, so likewife haue the women: for fome of them are called the white ewe, the lambe," &c. STEEVENS. 7-distempering draughts,] To be distempered with liquor, was, in Shakspeare's age, the phrafe for intoxication. In Hamlet, the King is faid to be marvellous distempered with wine." See Vol. IX. p. 321, n. 3. STEEVENS. MALONE. 7 |