P. 686.582.-576.

What hath he said?

Oth.
Iago. 'Faith, that he did,-I know not what he did.

I do not think this line should be pointed as Mr. M. Mason recommends: I think the common pointing is right.

P. 687.-582.-577.

Oth.

Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion, without some instruction.

I am not sure that I yet understand this passage, though we have the notes of no fewer than five commentators upon it.

P. 688.-584.-578.

Oth. It is not words, that shake me thus:-
Pish!-Noses, ears, and lips :-Is it possible?

Mr. Steevens's first explanation of these words is clearly the true one.

P. 698-593-591.

Oth.

and she can weep, sir, weep; And she's obedient, as you say,obedient,— Very obedient;-Proceed you in your tears.—

I agree with Mr. Malone.

Ibid.

Oth. Concerning this, sir,-O well-painted passion!
I am commanded home:-Get you away;

I'll send for you anon.

I can by no means agree with Mr. Steevens. I think an abrupt sentence was intended.

P. 698-594.-592.

Oth.
Sir, I obey the mandate,
And will return to Venice ;-hence, avaunt!

Cassio shall have my place. And,-sir, to-night,
I do intreat that we may sup together.

Exit Desdemona.

I cannot think with Mr. Steevens that this is addressed to Desdemona.

Ibid.

Oth. You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.-Goats and monkies!

[Exit.

I heartily concur with Mr. Steevens.

P. 702.-597.-597.

Oth.
but (alas!) to make me
A fixed figure, for the time of scorn
To point his slow unmoving finger at.

P. 703.-528.-598.

I wish to read the hand of scorn, with Mr. Rowe and the subsequent editors.

unmoving finger.

I prefer the reading of the folio, and moving.

P. 702.-604.-606.

Des.

Here I kneel :

If e'er my will did trespass 'gainst his love,
Either in discourse of thought, or actual deed.

I think we should read or thought, with Mr. Pope; though the old reading is certainly explicable.

P. 711.-606.-610.

Iago. Sir, there is especial commission come from
Venice, to depute Cassio in Othello's place.

I think with Mr. Malone that we should read a special. This reading is adopted in the edition of 1785.

P. 711.-607.-611.

Iago.
and the night grows to waste.

Mr. Steevens is right.

It is now high supper-time,

Ibid.

grows to waste.

This is the right reading. I agree with Mr. Steevens that Mr. Malone's last explanation is the true one.

P. 720.-615.-622.

Lod. Two or three groans;—it is a heavy night :
These may be counterfeits; let's think't unsafe
To come in to the cry, without more help.

I doubt whether these words are rightly explained by Dr. Johnson. We have afterwards in this act, O heavy hour! where heavy certainly has not the sense attributed by Dr. Johnson to it in this place.

P. 723-618.-626.

Iago. [To Bian.] What, look you pale ?-O, bear him
out o' the air.
[Cas. and Rod. are borne off.
Stay you, good gentlemen:-Look you pale, mistress ?

I concur with Mr. Steevens and Mr. Reed in preferring the reading of the folio, gentlemen, to that of the quarto, gentlewoman.

P. 724.-619.-628.

Oth. It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,-
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!-
It is the cause.

I think Dr. Johnson has misapprehended the meaning of this passage, which is rightly explained by Mr. Steevens.

P. 725-620-629.

Oth. Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men.
Put out the light, and then put out the light.

I am persuaded that Dr. Farmer and Mr. Malone are right, and that it was not the author's intention that the line should be pointed in the manner suggested by Upton and Warburton. I do not agree with Mr. Malone in thinking that we should read thy light.

P. 726-622-633.

When I have pluck'd thy rose

Oth.
I cannot give it vital growth again,
It needs must wither.

I incline to prefer the rose, the reading of the folio, to that of the quarto, thy rose.

P.727.-628-633.

Des. Why I should fear, I know not,

Since guiltiness I know not; but yet, I feel, I fear.

I think Messrs. Ritson and Steevens are clearly right.

P. 739.-634.-648.

Are there no stones, in heaven,

Oth.
But what serve for the thunder?

I think this is rightly explained by Mr. Malone.

P. 746.-640.-656.

Oth.
one, whose hand,
Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away,
Richer than all his tribe.

I think Judean is the right reading. I understand the pearl in the literal sense. I find it difficult to conceive that there is any allusion to the story of Herod and Mariamne; if there be, I think the allusion is extremely obscure. Mr. Steevens's explanation and illustration of this passage appear to me happy and highly probable.

P. 749.-642-659.

Oth.

one, whose subdu'd eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinal gum.

I prefer medicinal, the reading of the quarto of 1622, to that of the folio, medicinable.

66

P. 752.-646-663.

Lod.

To you, lord governor,
Remains the censure of this hellish villain;
The time, the place, the torture,—-O enforce it!

Rymer's censure of the character of Iago is unfounded, and deserved no answer; but Warburton's answer to it is not just. Had there been no other soldier in the play but Iago, no solid objection would have lain against his character: it would not have been inferred thence that all soldiers are villains. In the Eunuch of Terence there is no soldier but Thraso; but who ever dreamt of concluding, on that account, that all soldiers are vain-glorious boasters? "Shakespeare (says Dr. Johnson) always makes "nature predominate over accident, and, if he preserves the essential character, is not very "careful of distinctions superinduced and ad"ventitious. His story requires Romans or "kings, but he thinks only on men. He knew