And she did gratify his amorous works
With that recognizance aud pledge of love
Which I first gave her: I saw it in his hand;
It was a handkerchief, an antique token
My father gave my mother.

Emil. O heaven! O heavenly powers!
Iago. Come, hold your peace.

Emil. "Twill out, 'twill out;-I hold my peace,
Sir? no;

No, I will speak as liberal as the air;

Let heaven, and men, and devifs, let them all,
All, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak.
Jugo. Be wise, and get you hoine.

Emil. I will not.

wench!

Pale as thy smock! when we shall meet at
compt
[ven,

This look of thine will hurl my soul from hea-
And fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my
girl?
Even like thy chastity.-

[LAGO offers to stab his Wife. O cursed, cursed slave !-Whip me ye devils,
From the possession of this heavenly sight!
Blow me about in winds! roast me in sulphur !
Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire !—
O Desdemona! Desdemona ! dead!
Dead? OOFOL

Gra. Fie!
Your sword upon a woman?
Emil. O thou dull Moor! that handkerchief
thou speak'st of,

I found by fortune, and did give my husband;
For often with a solemn earnestness,
(More than indeed belong'd to such a trifle,)
He begg'd of me to steal it.

lago. Villanous whore!

Emil. She gave it Cassio! no, a alas; I found it,
And I did giv't my husband.
lago. Filth, thou liest.

Emil. By heaven, I do not; I do not, gen-
tlemen :-

O murd'rous coxcomb! what should such a
fool

Do with so good a wife?

[IAGO stabs EMILIA, then runs out.
Oth. Are there no stones in heaven
But what serve for the thunder? - Precious
villain!

Gra. The woman falls; sure, he has kill'd

his wife.

side!

Emil. Ay, ay; O lay me by my mistress'
Gra. He's gone, but his wife's kill'd.
Mon. 'Tis a notorious villain. Take you this

wrapon,

Which I have here recover'd from the Moor:
Come, guard the door without; let him not pass,
But kill him rather; I'll after that same villain,
For 'tis a damned slave.

[Exeunt MONTANO and GRATIANO.
Oth. I am not valiant neither.
But every pany whipster gets my sword :-
But why should honour outlive honesty?
Let it go all.

Emil. What did thy song bode, lady?
Hark, canst thou hear me? I will play the

swan,

* And die in music;-Willow, willow, willow.Moor, she was chaste; she lov'd thee, cruel

Moor;

00

So

as I

So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true Dies.
Oth. I have another weapon in this chamber,
It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook's tem-

per

O here it is :-Uncle, I must come forth.
Gra. [Within.] If thou attempt it, it will
cost thee dear;
Thou hast no weapon, and perforce must suffer.
Oth. Look in upon me then, and speak with

me,

Or, naked as I am, I will assault thee.

Re-enter GRATIANO.

Gra. What's the matter?

Oth. Behold! I have a weapon;

A better never did itself sustain
Upon a soldier's thigh: I have seen the day,
That with this little arm, and this good sword,
I have made my way through more impedi-

ments

Be not afraid, though you do see me weapon'd
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,
And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.

Than twenty times your stop:-But, O vain

boast!

Who can control bis fate? 'tis not so now.

• Freely. + Steel is hardened by being put redhot into very cold water.

Do you go back dismay'd? 'tis a lost fear;
Man but a rush against Othello's breast,
And he retires :-Where should Othello go?-
Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starr'd

Enter LODOVICO, MONTANO, CASS10, carried in a Chair, and Officers with IAGO prisoner. Lod. Where is this rash and most unfortunate man?

Oth. That's he, that was Othello; here I am. Lod. Where is that viper? bring the villain forth.

Oth. I look down towards his feet; +-but
that's a fable:

If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee.
[OTHELLO Wounds IAGO.
Lod. Wrench his sword from him.
Iago. I bleed, Sir; but not kill'd.
Oth. I am not sorry neither; I'd have thee
live;

For, in my sense, 'tis happiness to die.

Lod. O thou Othello, that wast once so good,
Fall'n in the practice of a cursed slave,
What shall be said to thee?

From this time forth I never will speak word.
Lod. What? not to pray?

Gra. Torments will ope your lips.
Oth. Well, thou dost best.

Lod. Sir, you shall understand what hath
befall'n,

Which, as I think, you know not: Here is a

letter,

Cas. I found it in my chamber:
And he himself confess'd, but even now
That there he dropp'd it, for a special purpose
Which wrought to his desire.

Oth. O fool! fool! fool!

Cas. There is, besides, in Roderigo's letter,

• Account.

To see if his feet be cloven.
By the stratagem,

How he upbraids Iago, that he made him.
Brave me on the watch; whereon it came
That I was cast; and even but now he spake,
After long seeming dead,-lago hurt him,
lago set him on.

Lod. You must forsake this room, and
with us;

Your power and your command is taken off,
And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave,-
If there be any cunning cruelty,
That can torment him much, and hold him
long,

It shall be his: You shall close prisoner rest,
Till that the nature of your fault be known
To the Venetian state-Come, bring him
away.

Oth. Soft you; a word or two, before you go. I have done the state some service, and they know it;

Their medicinal gum: Set you down this:
And say, besides,-that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk
Beat a Venetian, and traduc'd the state,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog,
And smote him-thus.
[Stabs himself.

go

Lod. O bloody period!

Gra. All, that's spoke, is marr❜d.
Oth. I kiss'd thee, ere I kill'd thee ;-No way
but this,

eyes,

Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees

[Falling upon DESDEMONA. Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.

[Dies,
Cas. This did I fear, but thought he had no
weapon;

For he was great of heart.
Lod. O Spartan dog,

More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea!
Look on the tragic loading of this bed;

No more of that :-I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you
speak
Of one that lov'd not wisely, but too well;
Of one, not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
Perplex'd in the extreme; of one, whose hand,The time, the place, the torture,-O enforce it!
Like the base Júdean, threw a pearl away, Myself will straight aboard; and, to the state,
Richer than all his tribe; of one, whose subdu’dThis heavy act with heavy heart relate.

[To IAGO.
This is thy work; the object poisons sight-
Let it be hid.-Gratiano, keep the house,
And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor,
For they succeed to you.-To you, lord gover
nor,
Remains the censure of this bellish villain;

[Excant

• Sentence.

THE reader will frequently be at a loss to reconcile the order and passages of Othello, as given in the present edition, with their accustomed delivery on the stage; but it is considered a trifling inconvenience, when coun teracted by the pleasure of possessing (as nearly as the most authentic resources can afford them,) the actual language and construction of the drama, as given by Shakspeare. In the authorized copies of the prompters' books, and in many editions reprinted from them, the beauty of the original has been somewhat obscured by green-room critics, of conflicting taste, and obsequious managers, more penny-wise than poetical. The scene with the musicians, which introduces Act II.--that incongruous nuisance, the clown---and that equally trouble. come excrescence, Bianca the prostitu ---are however, with real judgment, omitted in the representation; and many of the less important passages, such as occur in the scene before the senate---in the soliloquies of lago--in the dialogues between Montano and a gentleman of Cyprus, on the tempest of the preceding night, and between Desdemona and Emilia, on the temptations to adultery, are very considerably abridged. The order of the scenes is also perpetually varied; each theatrical copartnership retaining its peculiar programme of Richard or Othello, in common with its wardrobe, thunder, side-scenes, and mould-candles.

ROMEO AND JULIET.

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE.

IN 1561 Mr. Arthur Brooke published a poem on “The Tragicall Historie of Romeus and Juliett ;" the materials for which he chiefly obtained from a French translation (by Boisteau) of an Italian novel by Luigi da Porto, a Venetian gentleman, who died in 1529. A prose translation of Bøisteau's work was also published 1576, by Paister, in his Palace of Pleasure, vol. II.; and upon the incidents of these two works, especially of the poem, Malone decides that Shakspeare constructed his entertaining tragedy. Dr. Johnson has declared this play to be "one of the most pleasing of Shakspeare's performances:" but it contains some breaches of irregularity--many superfluities, tumid conceits, and bombastic ideas, inexcusable even in a lover; with a continued recurreace of jingling periods and trifling quibbles, which obscure the sense, or disgust the reader. Several of the characters are, however, charmingly designed, and not less happily executed; the catastrophe is intensely affecting; the incidents various and expressive; and as the passion which it delineates is one of universal acceptance in the catalogue of human wishes, the tinder-like character of the lady, and the notable constancy of the gentleman, are forgotten in the dangers and the calamities of both. The numerous rhymes which occur, are probably seedlings from Arthur Brooke's stock plant. "The nurse (says Dr. Johnson) is one of the characters in which Shakspeare delighted: he has, with great subtilty of distinction, drawn her at once loquacious and secret, obsequious and insolent, trusty and dishonest."

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

ESCALUS, Prince of Verona.
ABRAM, Servant to Montague.
PARIS, a young Nobleman, Kinsman to the AN APOTHECARY.
THREE MUSICIANS.

Prince.

MONTAGUE, Heads of two Houses at vari-CHORUS.-BOY, Page to Paris.-PETER, an
CAPULET,

ance with each other.
AN OLD MAN, Uncle to Capulet.

ROMEO, Son to Montague.

MERCUTIO, Kinsman to the Prince, and Friend

to Romeo.

BENVOLIO, Nephew to Montague, and Friend

to Romeo.

TYBALT, Nephew to Lady Capulet..
FRIAR LAWRENCE, a Franciscan.
FRIAR JOHN, of the same Order.
BALTHAZAR, Servant to Romeo.
SAMPSON,
GREGORY, J

Servants to Capulet.

SCENE, during the greater part of the Play, in Verona: once, in the fifth Act, at Mantua.

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil bands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows
Do, with their death, bury their parents' strife.

Officer.

LADY MONTAGUE, Wife to Montague.
LADY CAPULET, Wife to Capulet.
JULIET, Daughter to Capulet.
NURSE to Juliet.

PROLOGUE.

ACT I.

SCENE I. A public Place.
Enter SAMPSON and GREGORY, armed with
Swords and Bucklers.

Sam. Gregory, o'my word, we'll not carry
coals.

Gre. No, for then we should be colliers.
Sam. I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw.

Aphrase formerly in use to signify the bearing

and

Citizens of Verona; several Men
Women, relations to both Houses:
Maskers Guards, Watchmen, and Al-
tendants.

me.

Gre. To move, is-to stir; and to be valiant, is-to stand to it: therefore, if thou art mov'd, thou run'st away.

Sam. A dog of that house shall move me to in-stand: I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's.

Gre. That shows thee a weak slave; for the | Down with the Capulets! down with the Mon weakest goes to the wall.

tagues!

Sam. True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall:therefore I will push Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall.

Gre. The quarrel is between our masters, and us their meu.

Sam. 'Tis all one, I will show myself a tyrant: when I have fought with the men, I will be cruel with the maids; I will cut off their heads.

Gre. The heads of the maids?

Sam. Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads; take it in what sense thou wilt.

Gre. They must take it in sense, that feel

it.

Sam. Me they shall feel, while I am able to stand and 'tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.

Gre. 'Tis well, thou art not fish: if thou badst, thou hadst been poor John. ⚫ Draw thy tool; here comes two of the house of the Montagues.

Gre. How? turn thy back, and run?

Sam. Fear me not.

Gre. No, marry: I fear thee! Sam. Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin.

Cre. I will frown as I pass by: and let them take it as they list.

Sam. Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.

Abr. Do you bite your thumb at us, Sir?
Sam. I do bite my thumb, Sir.

Enter ABRAM and BALTHAZER.

That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins,

back thee.

Sam. My naked weapon is out; quarrel, I will On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
Throw your mistemper'd weapons to the
ground,

And hear the sentence of your moved prince.-
Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
By thee, old Capulet and Montague,
Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets;
And made Verona's ancient citizens
Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments,
To wield old partizans, in hands as old,
Canker'd with peace to part your canker'd hate :
If ever you disturb our streets again,
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
For this time, all the rest depart away:
You, Capulet, shall go along with me;
And, Montague, come you this afternoon,
To know our further pleasure in this case,
Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.
To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.

[Exeunt PRINCE and Attendants; CAPU-
LET, LADY CAPULET, TYBALT, CITI
ZENS, and Servants.

Mon. Who set this ancient quarrel new
abroach?

Abr. Do you bite your thumb at us, Sir?
Sem. Is the law on our side, if I say,-ay?
Gre. No.

Sam. No, Sir, I do not bite my thumb at you,

Sir; but I bite my thumb, Sir.

Gre. Do you quarrel, Sir?
Abr. Quarrel, Sir? no, Sir.

Sam. If you do, Sir, I am for you; I serve as good a man as you.

Abr, No better.
Sam. Well, Sir

Sam. Yes, better, Sir.

Abr. You lie.

Sam. Draw, if you be men.-Gregory, remember thy smashing blow.

As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee:
Have at thee, coward.

Enter BENVOLIO, at a Distance.

master's kinsmen.

Gre. Say-better; here comes one of my And your's, close fighting ere I did approach :
I drew to part them; in the instant came
The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepar'd ;
Which, as he breath'd defiance to my ears,
He swung about his head, and cut the winds,
Who, nothing hurt withal, hiss'd him in scorn:
While we were interchanging thrusts and blows
Came more and more and fought on part and
part,
Till the prince came, who parted either part.
La. Mon. O where is Romeo?-saw you him
to-day ?
Right glad I am, he was not at his fray.
Ben. Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd

1 Cit. Clubs, bills, and partizans ! strike! beat them down!

Poor John is hake, dried and salted. †The disregard of concord is in character.

↑ Clubs! was equivalent to the modern cry of Watch!

Enter MONTAGUE, and LADY MONTAGUE.
Mon. Thou villain, Capulet,-Hold me not,
let me go.

La. Mon. Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek
a foe.

Enter PRINCE, with Attendants.
Prin. Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,—
Will they not hear?-what ho! you men, you
beasts,-

[They fight., Enter several Partizans of both Houses, who join the Fray: then enter CITIZENS with

Clubs.

[They fight. Ben. Part, fools; put up your swords; you know not what you do.

[Beats down their Swords. Enter TYBALT.

sun,

Tyb. What, art thou drawn among these
heartless hinds?
Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.
Ben. I do but keep the peace; put up thy Peer'd through the golden window of the east,
A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad;
Where, underneath the grove of sycamore,

sword,

Or manage it to part these men with me.

Tyb. What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate That westward rooteth from the city's side,-
So early walking did I see your sou:

the word,

Towards him I made; but he was 'ware of me,
And stole into the covert of the wood:

measuring his affections by my own,
That most are busied when they are most alone,
And gladly shunn'd who gladly fled from me.
Pursu'd my humour, not pursuing his,
Mon. Many a morning hath he there been
seen,

Speak, nephew, were you by when it began ?
Ben. Here were the servants of your ad-

versary,

With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew.
Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep
sighs:

• Angry.

But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
Should in the furthest east begin to draw
The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,
Away from light steals home my heavy son,
And private in his chamber pens himself;
Shuts up his windows, locks fair day-light out,
And makes himself an artificial night:
Black and portentous must this humour prove,
Unless good counsel may the cause remove.

Ben. My noble uncle, do you know the cause?
Mon. I neither know it, nor can learn of him.
Bea. Have you importan'd him by any means?
Mon. Both by myself, and many other friends:
But be, his own affections' counsellor,
Is to himself-I will not say, how true,-
But to himself so secret and so close,
So far from sounding and discovery,

Enter ROMEO, at a distance.

Ben. See, where he comes: So please you,
step aside:

I'll know his grievance, or be much de
Mon. I would thou wert so happy by thy stay,
To hear true shrift,-Come, madani, let's away.
[Exeunt MONTAGUE and LADY.
Ben. Good morrow, cousin.
Rom. Is the day so young?
Ben. But new struck nine.

Rom. Ah me! sad hours seem long.
Was that my father that went hence so fast?
Ben. It was:-What sadness lengthens Ro-
meo's hours?

Rom. Not having that, which having, makes them shor.

Ben. In love?

Rom. Out-
Ben. Of love?

Ram. Out of her favour, where I am in love.
Ben. Alas, that love, so gentle in his view,
Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!

Ram. Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still.
Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!
Where shall we dine?-0 me!-What fray
was here?

Yet tell not, for I have heard it all. [love:
Here's much to do with hate, but more with
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O any thing, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick
health!

Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!-
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dest thou not laugh?

Ben. No, coz, I rather weep.
Rom. Good heart, at what?

Ben. At thy good heart's oppression.

Rom. Why, such is love's transgression.Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast; Which thou wilt propagate, to have it press'd With more of thine: this love, that thou hast

Rom. What, shall I groan, and tell thee?
Ben. Groan? why, no;

But sadly tell me, who.

Rom. Bid a sick man in sadness make his
will:-

Ah word ill urg'd to one that is so ill!-
In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.
Ben. I aim'd so near, when I suppos'd you
lov'd.

• la seriousness.

Rom. A right good marksman !—And she's fair I love.

Ben. A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest

bit.

Rom. Well, in that hit, you miss: she'll not
be hit

With Cupid's arrow, she hath Dian's wit;
And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd,
From love's weak childish bow she lives an
harm'd.

She will not stay the siege of loving terms,
Nor bide th' encounter of assailing eyes,
Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold:
O she is rich in beauty; only poor,
That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store.
Ben. Then she hath sworn, that she will still
live chaste?

Rom. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste;

For beauty, starv'd with her severity,
Cuts beauty off from all posterity.
She is too fair, too wise; wisely too fair,
To merit bliss by making me despair:
She hath forsworn to love; and, in that vow,
Do I live dead, that live to tell it now.

Ben. Be rul'd me, forget to think of her.
Rom. O teach me how I should forget to
think.

Ben. By giving liberty unto thine eyes:
Examine other beauties.

Rom. 'Tis the way

To call her's exquisite, in question more:
These happy masks, that kiss fair ladies' brows,
Being black, put us in mind they hide the
fair;

He, that is strucken blind, cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost:
Show me a mistress that is passing fair,
What doth her beauty serve, but as a note
Where I may read, who pass'd that passing
fair?
Farewell; thou canst not teach me to forget.
Ben. I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in
debt.
[Exeunt.

SCENE II-A Street.

Enter CAPULET, PARIS, and SERVANT.
Cap. And Montague is bound as well as I,
In penalty alike; and 'tis not hard, I think,
For men so old as we to keep the peace.

Par. Of honourable reckoning are you both;
And pity 'tis, you liv'd at odds so long.
But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?

Cap. But saying o'er what I have said be-
fore:

My child is yet a stranger in the world,
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;
Let two more summers wither in their pride,
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.

Par. Younger than she are happy mothers
made.

shown,

eth add more grief to too much of mine own.
Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs;
Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in a lover's eyes;
Beng vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:
What is it else? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.
Farewell, my coz.

[Going.

The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she;
She is the hopeful lady of my earth:
But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,
My will to her consent is but a part;
An she agree, within her scope of choice
Lies my consent, and fair according voice.
This night I hold au old accustom'd feast,
Whereto I have invited many a guest,

Ben. Soft, I will go along;
And if you leave me so, you do me wrong.
Bom, Tut, I have lost myself; I am
here;
This is not Romeo, he's some other where.
Lea. Tell me in sadness, who she is you
love.

not

Cap. And too soon marr'd are those so early made.

A compliment to Queen Elizabeth, in whose reign the play was first represented.