As masterly as he: mere prattle, without practice, Is all his foldiership. But, he, fir, had the elec t tion: And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof, calm'd' • More than a spinster; unless the bookish theorick, Wherein the toged confuls can propose As masterly as he: mere prattle, without practice,] This play has many redundant lines, like the first and third of the foregoing. I cannot help regarding the words diftinguished by the Roman character, as interpolations. In the opening scene of King Henry V. Shakspeare thought it unnecessary to join an epithet to theorick ; and if the monofyllables-as he, were omitted, would lago's meaning halt for want of them? STEEVENS. smust be be-lee'd and calm'd-) The old quarto-led. The first folio reads, be-lee'd: but that spoils the measure. I read, let, hindered. WARBURTON. Be-lee'd fuits to calm'd, and the measure is not less perfect than in many other places. JOHNSON. Be-lee'd and be-calm'd are terms of navigation. I have been informed that one vessel is faid to be in the lee of another, when it is so placed that the wind is intercepted from it. lago's meaning therefore is, that Cassio had got the wind of him, and be-calm'd him from going on. To be-calm (as I learn from Falconer's Marine Dictionary) is likewife to obstruct the current of the wind in its passage to a ship, by any contiguous object. STEEVENS. I fufpect therefore that Shakspeare wrote must be lee'd and calm'd. The lee-fide of a ship is that on which the wind blows. To lee, or to be lee'd, may mean, to fall to leeward, or to lose the advantage of the wind. The reading of the text is that of the folio. I doubt whether there be any fuch fea-phrafe as to be-lee; and suspect the word be was inadvertently repeated by the compofitor of the folio. Mr. Steevens has explained the word becalm'd, but where is it found in the text? MALONE. Mr. Malone is unfortunate in his present explanation. The lee By debitor and creditor, this counter-caster;" And I, (God bless the mark! *) his Moor-ship's ancient. fide of a ship is directly contrary to that on which the wind blows, if I may believe a skilful navigator whom I have confulted on this occafion. Mr. Malone asks where the word becalm'd is to be found in the text. To this question I must reply by another. Is it not evident, that the prefix-be is to be continued from the former naval phrafe to the latter? Shakspeare would have written be-calm'd as well as be-lee'd, but that the close of his verse would not admit of a dissyllable. Should we say that a ship was lee'd, or calm'd, we should employ a phrase unacknowledged by sailors. STEEVENS. 6 By debitor -) All the modern editors read-By debtor; but debitor (the reading of the old copies) was the word used in Shakfpeare's time. So, in Sir John Davies's Epigrams, 1598 : 7 "There stands the conftable, there stands the whore,"There by the serjeant stands the debitor." See also the passage quoted from Cymbeline in n. 7. MALONE. this counter-caster;) It was anciently the practice to reckon up fums with counters. To this Shakspeare alludes again in Cymbeline, Act V: " - - it sums up thousands in a trice: you have no true debitor and creditor, but it; of what's paft, is, and to come, the discharge. Your neck, fir, is pen, book, and counters;" &c. Again, in Acolastus, a comedy, 1540: "I wyl caft my counters, or with counters make all my reckenynges." STEEVENS. So, in The Winter's Tale: " fifteen hundred shorn,What comes the wool to ?-I cannot do't without counters." 8 MALONE. -bless the mark!] Kelly, in his comments on Scots proverbs, observes, that the Scots, when they compare perfon to per. son, use this exclamation. I find, however, this phrase in Churchyard's Tragicall Discourje of a dolorous Gentlewoman, &c. 1593: "Not beauty here I claime by this my talke, "For I was form'd when winter nights was darke, 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 person. STEEVENS. -bis Moorship's-) The first quarto reads his worship's. STEEVENS. -by letter,] By recommendation from powerful friends. JOHNSON. 3 Not by the old gradation, Old gradation, is gradation established by ancient practice. JOHNSON. ▲ Whether I in any just term am affin'd-] Afin'd is the reading of the third quarto and the first folio. The second quarto and all the modern editions have afsign'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;' Whip me such honest knaves:" 6 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. For, fir, 7 It is as fure as you are Roderigo,1 Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago: 5 For nought but provender; and, when he's old, casbier'd;] Surely this line was originally shorter. We might fafely read, For nought but provender; when old, cashier'd. STEEVENS. 6 honeft knaves:) Knave is here for fervant, but with a fly mixture of contempt. JOHNSON. 1 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 fecms." STEEVENS. 9 For daws &c.] The first quarto reads, -For doves-. STEEVENS. I have adhered to the original copy, because I suspect Shak ROD. What a full fortune does the thick-lips IAGO. Call up her father, Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight, Proclaim him in the streets; incenfe her kinsmen, And, though he in a fertile climate dwell, Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy, Yet throw fuch changes of vexation on't, As it may lose some colour. 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, fo 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 blister 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 say, 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. 2 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 joldier is put for a complete foldier. 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 same sense in his Troilus, B. L: "Sufficeth this, my full friend Pandare, "That I have faid -." See alfo Vol. XII. p. 580, n. 5. MALONE. |