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Cas. He speaks home, madam; you may relish him more in the foldier, than in the scholar.

IAGO. [Afide.] He takes her by the palm: Ay, well faid, whisper: with as little a web as this, will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. Ay, smile upon her, do; I will gyve thee in thine own courtship. You say true; 'tis so, indeed: if such tricks as these strip you out of your lieutenantry, it had been better you had not kiss'd your three fingers so oft, which now again you are most apt to play the fir in. Very good; well kiss'd! an excellent courtesy! 'tis so, indeed. Yet again your fingers to your lips? would, they were clyster-pipes for your fake![Trumpet.] The Moor, -I know his

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trumpet.

See p. 295, n. 4. MALONE.

Counsellor feems to mean, not so much a man that gives counsel, as one that difcourses fearlessly and volubly. A talker. JOHNSON. Counsellor is here used in the common acceptation. Desdemona refers to the answers she had received from lago, and particularly her last. HENLEY.

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I will gyve thee - i. e. catch, shackle. POPE. The first quarto reads I will catch you in your own courtefies; the second quarto-I will catch you in your own courtship. The folio as it is in the text.

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STEEVENS.

to play the fir in.] That is, to show your good breeding and gallantry. HENLEY.

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well kiss'd! an excellent courtesy!] Spoken when Caffio

kisses his hand, and Desdemona courtefies. JOHNSON.

This reading was recovered from the quarto, 1622, by Dr. Johnfon. The folio has-and excellent courtefy.

I do not believe that any part of these words relates to Defdemona. In the original copy, we have just seen, the poet wrote

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ay, fmile upon her, do; I will catch you in your own courtefies." Here therefore he probably meant only to speak of Caffio, while kifling his hand. "Well kiss'd! an excellent courtesy !" i. e. an excellent falute. Courtesy, in the sense of an obeisance or falute, was in Shakspeare's time applied to men as well as women. Vol. VIII. p. 510, n. 4. MALONE.

See

CAS. 'Tis truly fo.

DES. Let's meet him, and receive him.

CAS. Lo, where he comes!

Enter OTHELLO, and Attendants.

Отн. O my fair warrior!s
DES.

My dear Othello!

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Отн. It gives me wonder great as my content, To fee you here before me. O my foul's joy! If after every tempeft come such calms, May the winds blow till they have waken'd death! And let the labouring bark climb hills of feas, Olympus-high; and duck again as low

As hell's from heaven! If it were now to die,

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5 O my fair warrior!] Again, in Act III. Desdemona says: - unhandsome warrior as I am." This phrase was introduced by our copiers of the French Sonnetteers. Ronsard frequently calls his mistresses guerrieres; and Southern, his imitator, is not less prodigal of the fame appellation. Thus, in his fifth Sonnet:

"And, my warrier, my light shines in thy fayre eyes."

Again, in his fixth Sonnet:

" I am not, my cruell warrier, the Thebain," &c.

Again, ibid:

" I came not, my warrier, of the blood Lidain."

Had I not met with the word thus fantastically applied, I should have concluded that Othello called his wife a warrior, because she had embarked with him on a warlike expedition, and not in confequence of Ovid's obfervation

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Militat omnis amans, et habet fua castra Cupido. STEEVENS. - come fuch calms,) Thus the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads-calmness. STEEVENS.

And let the labouring bark climb bills of feas,
Olympus-bigh; and duck again as low

As hell's from heaven!] So, in Sidney's Arcadia, B. I: "The fea, making mountaines of itself, over which the tossed and tottering ship should climbe, to be straight carried downe againe to a pit of bellish darkenesse." STEEVENS.

'Twere now to be most happy;" for, I fear,
My foul hath her content fo abfolute,
That not another comfort like to this

Succeeds in unknown fate.

DES.

The heavens forbid,

But that our loves and comforts should increase,

Even as our days do grow!*

Отн.

Amen to that, sweet powers!

I cannot speak enough of this content,
It stops me here; it is too much of joy:

And this, and this, the greatest difcords be,

That e'er our hearts shall make!

IAGO.

[Kiffing ber

O, you are well tun'd now!

But I'll fet down the pegs that make this musick,

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If it were now to die,

'Twere now to be most happy ;) So Cherea, in The Eunuch of

Terence, Act III. fc. v:

"

Proh Jupiter!

"Nunc tempus profecto eft, cum perpeti me possum interfeci,

" Ne vita aliquâ hoc gaudium contaminet ægritudine."

MALONE.

8 Even as our days do grow!] Here is one of those evident interpolations which abound in our author's dramas. Who does not perceive that the words-Even as our days, refer to the verb-increase in the foregoing line? Omit therefore the profaick-do grow, (which is perfectly useless) and the metre will be restored to its original regularity.

Fenton has adopted this thought in his Mariamne :

" And mutual passion with our years increase!" STEEVENS. 9 And this, and this, &c. Kissing her.] So, in Marlowe's Luft's Dominion:

"I pri'thee, chide, if I have done amiss,
"But let my punishment be this and this." [Kissing the Moor.
MALONE.

Marlowe's play was written before that of Shakspeare, who might poffibly have acted in it. STEEVENS.

I'll fet down) Thus the old copies, for which the

As honest as I am.
Отн.

[Afide.

Come, let's to the caftle.

News, friends; 3 our wars are done, the Turks are

drown'd.

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How do our old acquaintance of this ifle?
Honey, you shall be well defir'd in Cyprus,
I have found great love amongst them. O my

fweet,

I prattle out of fashion, and I dote

In mine own comforts. I pr'ythee, good Iago,
Go to the bay, and disembark my coffers:
Bring thou the master to the citadel;

modern editors, following Mr. Pope, have substituted-let down. But who can prove that to fet down was not the language of Shakspeare's time, when a viol was spoken of?-To fet formerly fignified to tune, though it is no longer used in that fenfe. "It was then," says Anthony Wood in his Diary, "that I fet and tuned in strings and fourths," &c. So, in Skialetheia, a Collection of Satires, &c. 1598:

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to a nimbler key

"Set thy wind instrument." MALONE.

To "fet down" has this meaning in no other part of our author's works. However, virtus poft nummos: we have fecured the phrafe, and the exemplification of it may follow when it will.

STEEVENS.

3 News, friends ;) The modern editors read (after Mr. Rowe) Now friends. I would observe once for all, that (in numberless instances in this play, as well as in others) where my predeceffors had filently and without reason made alterations, I have as filently reftored the old readings. STEEVENS.

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- well defir'd in Cyprus,] i. e. much folicited by invitation.

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So, in The Letters of the Pafton Family, Vol. I. p. 299: the whych weddyng I was with myn hoftes, and alfo defyryd by ye jentylman hymselfe." STEEVENS.

5 I prattle out of fashion, Out of method, without any fettled order of difcourse. JOHNSON.

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the master] Dr. Johnson supposed, that by the mafter was meant the pilot of the ship, and indeed had high authority for this fuppofition; for our poet himself feems to have confounded

He is a good one, and his worthiness
Does challenge much respect. -Come, Desdemona,
Once more well met at Cyprus.

[Exeunt OTHELLO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants. IAGO. Do thou meet me presently at the harbour. Come hither. If thou be'st valiant as (they say) base men, being in love, have then a nobility in their natures more than is native to them,-lift me. The lieutenant to-night watches on the court of guard: -First, I must tell thee this-Defdemona is directly in love with him.

ROD. With him! why 'tis not possible.

LAGO. Lay thy finger-thus, and let thy foul be instructed. Mark me with what violence she first loved the Moor, but for bragging, and telling her fantastical lies: And will the love him still for prating? let not thy difcreet heart think it. Her

them. See Act III. fc. ii. 1. 1. But the master is a distinct person, and has the principal command, and care of the navigation of the ship, under the captain, where there is a captain; and in chief, where there is none. The pilot is employed only in navigating the ship into or out of port. MALONE.

"The master (fays Smith in his Sea-grammar, 1627) and his mates, are to direct the course, command all the failors, for fteering, trimming, and failing the ship," &c. STEEVENS.

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base men, being in love, have then a nobility in their natures ) So, in Hamlet:

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"Nature is fine in love." MALONE.

the court of guard:] i. e. the place where the guard musters. So, in The Family of Love, 1608:

"Thus have I pass'd the round and court of guard." Again, in The Beggar's Bujh, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "Vifit your courts of guard, view your munition."

STEEVENS.

Lay thy finger-thus,] On thy mouth, to stop it while thou

art liftening to a wiser man. JOHNSON.

2 And will the love him ftill for prating?] The folio reads-To love him still for prating! STEEVENS.

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