Which, as I think, you know not: here's a letter,
Found in the pocket of the flain Rodorigo,
And here another; one of them imports
The death of Caffio to be undertook

By Rodorigo.

Oth. Oh villain!

Caf. Most heathenish and most grofs.
Lod. Now here's another discontented paper
Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems,
Rodorigo meant t' have fent this damned villain;
But that, belike, Iago in the interim
Came in and fatisfied him.

Oth. Oh thou pernicious caitiff!
How came you, Caffio, by that handkerchief
That was my wife's?

Caf. I found it in my chamber;
And he himself confefs'd it but even now,
That there he dropp'd it for a special purpose,
Which wrought to his defire.
Oth. Oh fool, fool, fool!

Caf. There is befides, in Rodorigo's letter,
How he upbraids lage that he made him
Brave me upon the watch; whereon it came
That I was caft; and even now he spake,
After long feeming dead, Iago hurt him,
Iago set him on.

Lod. You must forsake this room, and go with
Your power and your command is taken off, us:
And Caffio rules in Cyprus. For this flave,
If there be any cunning cruelty,

That can torment him much, and hold him long,
It shall be his. You shall close prifoner reft,
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've done the State some service, and they know't

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 fet down aught in malice. Then must you

fpeak

Of one that loved, not wisely, but too well;
Of one, not easily jealous, but being wrought,

Perplexed in the extreme; of one, whose hand, (55)

(55)

of one, whose hand,

Like the bafe Indian, threw a pearl away Richer than all his tribe.] Thave restored, Julion, from the elder Quarto, as the genuine and more eligible reading. Mr Pope thinks, this was occafioned probably by the word tribe just after: I have many reasons to oppose to this opi nion. in the first place, the most ignorant Indian, I be lieve, is fo far the reverse of the dunghil-cock in the fable, as to know the estimation of a pearl, beyond tha of a barley-corn So that, in that refpect, the thought itself would not be just. Then, if our Author had designed to reflect on the ignorance of the Indian without any farther reproach, he would have called him rude, and not base. Again, I am perfuaded, as my friend Mr Warburton long ago ob. ferved, the phrafe is not here literal, but metaphorical: and, by his pearl, our Author, very properly means a fine wo To inftance only in two pallages from his Troilus, of

man.

the like ufage;

Her bed is India; there the lyes, a pearl.
Is the worth keeping why, he is a pearl
Whose price hath launched above a thousand Chips,
And turned crowned Kings to merchants.

But Mr Pope objects farther to reading Fudian, because, to make fenfe of this, we muft prefuppose fome particular ftory of a Jew alluded to, which is much lefs obvious: Lut has Shakespeare never done this but in this fingle instance! Let us turn back, for proof, to his Twelfth Night;

Why should I not. had I the heart to do't,
Like to th' Ægyptian thief, at point of death,
Kill what I love?

Here is a particular story hinted at, (which I have explain ed in the proper place) much less obvious than the story above presupposed. But this we are to observe of Shake,

Like the base Judian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe; of one, whose eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinal gum. Set you down this;
And say befides, that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk
Beat a Venetian, and traduced the State,
I took by the throat the circumcifed dog,
And fmote him thus.

Lod. Oh bloody period!

Gra. All that is spoke is marred.

[Stabs himself.

speare, that though both his stories are introduced tacito nomine, his allusion and fimile are as clear as if he had given us the express history. Ben Johnfon, I am fure, does not always convey his allusions in the fame clearness.

I have a husband, and a two-legged one,
But fuch a moonling, as no wit of man,
Or rofes, can redeem from being an afs.

Here is a story presupposed, but so darkly couched, that, I dare warrant, scarce one reader in five hundred of this Poet ever guessed at it. Nor can any one know what he would be at, who has not read either Lucian or Apuleius; and obferved, that when Lucius, by a magical unguent, was converted into an ass, the only means of recovering his own form, was for him to browse on fresh rofes. I hope the explication of this obfcure paflage will compenfate for the digression. But, to return to my Author. I am fatisfied, in his Judian, he is alluding to Herod; who, in a fit of blind jealousy, threw away fuch a jewel of a wife as Mariamne was to him. What can be more parallel in circumstance, than the conduct of Herod and Othello? Nor was the story so little obvious as Mr Pope seems to imagine: for, in the year 1613, the Lady Elizabeth Carew published a Tragedy called Mariam, the fair Queen of Jewry. I shall only add, that our Author might write Judian or Judean, (if that should be alledged as any objection) instead of Judaan, with the fame license and change of accent, as, in his Antony and Cleopatra, he 'thortens the second syllable of Euphrates in pronunciation.

Oth. I kiss'd thee, ere I killed thee.- No way but

this,

Killing myself, to die upon a kifs.

[To Desdem.

[Dies.

Caf. This did I fear, but thought he had no

For he was great of heart.

[weapon,

[To lago,

Lod. Oh Spartan dog! More fell than anguish, hunger, or the fea! Look on the tragic loading of this bed; This is thy work. The object poisons fight,--Let it be hid. Gratiano, keep the house, And feize upon the fortunes of the Moor, For they fucceed to you. To you, Lord Governor, Remains the cenfure of this hellish villain: The time, the place, the torture, oh! inforce it. Myself will straight aboard; and to the State This heavy act with heavy heart relate.

[Exeunt.

IND E

OF THE

CHARACTERS, SENTIMENTS,

SIMILIES,

SPEECHES and DESCRIPTIONS

IN

SHAKESPEARE.

Dd2