Chapter 20

I.iii.144 (382,1) men whose heads/Do grow beneath their shoulders] Of these men there is an account in the interpolated travels of Mondeville, a book of that time.

I.iii.199 (384,4) Let me speak like yourself;] [W: our self] Hanmer reads,

_Let me_ now speak _more_ like your self.

Dr. Warburton's emendation is specious; but I do not see how Hanmer's makes any alteration. The duke seems to mean, when he says he will speak like Brabantio, that he will speak sententiously.

I.iii.213 (385,6) But the free comfort which from thence he hears] But the moral precepts of consolation, which are liberally bestowed on occasion of the sentence.

I.iii.232 (386,8) thrice-driven bed of down] A _driven_ bed, is a bed for which the feathers are selected, by _driving_ with a fan, which separates the light from the heavy.

I.iii.237 (337,9)

I crave fit disposition for my wife; Due reverence of place, and exhibition]

I desire, that a proper _disposition_ be made for my wife, that she may have _precedency_, and _revenue_, accommodation, and _company_, suitable to her rank.

For _reference_ of place, the old quartos have _reverence_, which Hanmer has received. I should read,

_Due_ preference _of place_.--

I.iii.246 (387,1) And let me find a charter in your voice] Let your favour _privilege_ me.

I.iii.250 (387,2) My down-right violence and storm of fortunes] [W: to forms, my fortunes] There is no need of this emendation. _Violence_ is not _violence suffered_, but _violence acted_. Breach of common rules and obligations. The old quarto has, _scorn_ of fortune, which is perhaps the true reading.

I.iii.253 (388,3) I saw Othello's visage in his mind] It must raise no wonder, that I loved a man of an appearance so little engaging; I saw his face only in his mind; the greatness of his character reconciled me to his form.

I.iii.264 (386,4)

Nor to comply with heat (the young affects, In me defunct) and proper satisfaction]

[T: me distinct, i.e. with that heat and new affections which the indulgence of my appetite has raised and created. This is the meaning of _defunct_, which has made all the difficulty of the passage. WARBURTON.] I do not think that Mr. Theobald's emendation clears the text from embarrassment, though it is with a little imaginary improvement received by Hanmer, who reads thus:

_Nor to comply with heat_, affects the young _In my_ distinct _and proper satisfaction_.

Dr. Warburton's explanation is not more satisfactory: what made the difficulty, will continue to make it. I read,

--_I beg it not, To please the palate of my appetite, Nor to comply with heat (the young affects In me defunct) and proper satisfaction; But to be free and bounteous to her mind._

_Affects_ stands here, not for _love_, but for _passions_, for that by which any thing is affected. _I ask it not_, says he, _to please appetite, or satisfy loose desires_, the passions of youth which I have now outlived, or _for any particular gratification of myself, but merely that I may indulge the wishes of my wife_.

Mr. Upton had, before me, changed _my_ to _me_; but he has printed young _effects_, not seeming to know that _affects_ could be a noun. (1773)

I.iii.290 (391,6) If virtue no delighted beauty lack] [W: belighted] Hanmer reads, more plausibly, _delighting_. I do not know that _belighted_ has any authority. I should rather read,

_If virtue no_ delight or _beauty lack_.

_Delight_, for _delectation_, or _power of pleasing_, as it is frequently used.

I.iii.299 (391,8) best advantage] Fairest opportunity.

I.iii.317 (392,9) a Guinea-hen] A showy bird with fine feathers.

I.iii.346 (392,1) defeat thy favour with an usurped beard] [W: disseat] It is more English, to _defeat_, than _disseat_. To _defeat_, is to _undo_, to _change_.

I.iii.350 (393,2) It was a violent commencement in her, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration] There seems to be an opposition of terms here intended, which has been lost in transcription. We may read, _It was a violent_ conjunction, _and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration_; or, what seems to me preferable, _It was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequel_.

I.iii.363 (393,4) betwixt an erring Barbarian] [W: errant] Hanmer reads, _errant_. _Erring_ is as well as either.

II.i.15 (396,1) And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole] Alluding to the star _Arctophylax_.

II.i.48 (397,3)

His bark is stoutly timber'd, and his pilot Of very expert and approv'd allowance; Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death, Stand in bold cure]

I do not understand these lines. I know not how _hope_ can be _surfeited to death_, that is, _can be encreased, till it is destroyed_; nor what it is _to stand in bold cure_; or why _hope_ should be considered as a disease. In the copies there is no variation. Shall we read

Therefore my fears, not surfeited to death, Stand in bold cure?

This is better, but it is not well. Shall we strike a bolder stroke, and read thus?

_Therefore my hopes, not_ forfeited _to death_, _Stand_ bold, not sure.

II.i.49 (398,4) Of very expert and approv'd allowance] I read, _Very expert, and of approv'd allowance_.

II.i.64 (308,5) And in the essential vesture of creation/Does bear all excellency; We in terrestrial] I do not think the present reading inexplicable. The author seems to use _essential_, for _existent, real_. She excels the praises of invention, says he, and in _real qualities_, with which _creation_ has _invested_ her, _bears all excellency_.

_Does bear all excellency_----] Such is the reading of the quartos, for which the folio has this,

_And in the essential vesture of creation_ Do's tyre the ingeniuer.

Which I explain thus,

_Does tire the_ ingenious verse.

This is the best reading, and that which the author substituted in his revisal.

II.i.112 (401,9) Saints in your injuries] When you have a mind to do injuries, you put on an air of sanctity.

II.i.120 (402,1) I am nothing, if not critical] That is, _censorious_.

II.i.137 (402,2) _She never yet was foolish_] We may read,

She ne'er was yet so foolish that was fair, But even her folly help'd her to an heir.

Yet I believe the common reading to be right; the lay makes the power of cohabitation a proof that a man is not a _natural_; therefore, since the foolishest woman, if _pretty_, may have a child, no _pretty woman_ is ever foolish.

II.i.146 (403,3) put on the vouch of very malice itself] _To put on the vouch of malice_, is to assume a character vouched by the testimony of malice itself.

II.i.165 (404,5) profane] Gross of language, of expression broad and brutal. So Brabantio, in the first act, calls Iago _profane_ wretch.

II.i.165 (404,6) liberal counsellor.] _Counsellor_ seems to mean, not so much a man that _gives counsel_, us one that discourses fearlessly and volubly. A talker.

II.i.177 (405,8) well kiss'd! an excellent courtesy!] [--_well kissed_, and _excellent courtesy_;--] This I think should be printed, _well kiss'd_! an _excellent courtesy_! Spoken when Cassio kisses his hand, and Desdemona courtesies. [The old quarto confirms Dr. Johnson's emendation. STEEVENS.]

II.i.208 (406,1) I prattle out of fashion] Out of method, without any settled order of discourse.

II.i.211 (406,2) the master] The pilot of the ship.

II.i.223 (406,3) Lay thy finger thus] On thy mouth, to stop it while thou art listening to a wiser man.

II.i.252 (407,5) green minds] Minds unripe, minds not yet fully formed.

II.i.254 (408,6) she is full of most bless'd condition] Qualities, disposition of mind.

II.i.274 (408,7) tainting his discipline] Throwing a slur upon hie discipline.

II.i.279 (408,8) sudden in choler] _Sudden_, is precipitately violent.

II.i.283 (408,9) whose qualification shall come into no true taste again] Whose resentment shall not be so _qualified_ or _tempered_, as to be _well tasted_, as not to retain _some bitterness_. The phrase is harsh, at least to our ears.

II.i.306 (409,1) like a poisonous mineral] This is philosophical. Mineral poisons kill by corrosion.

II.i.314 (411,4) I'll have our Michael Cassio on the hip] A phrase from the art of wrestling.

II.i.321 (411,6) Knavery's plain face is never seen] An honest man acts upon a plan, and forecasts his designs; but a knave depends upon temporary and local opportunities, and never knows his own purpose, but at the time of execution.

II.iii.14 (413,8) Our general cast us] That is, _appointed us to our stations_. To _cast the play_, is, in the stile of the theatres, to assign to every actor his proper part.

II.iii.26 (413,9) And when she speaks, is it not an alarum to love?] The voice may _sound_ an _alarm_ more properly than the _eye_ can _sound_ a _parley_.

II.iii.46 (413,1) I have drunk but one cap to-night, and that was carefully qualified too] Slily mixed with water.

II.iii.59 (414,2) The very elements; As quarrelsome as the as the _discordia semina rerum_; as quick in opposition as fire and water.

II.iii.64 (414,3) If consequence do but approve my dream] [T: my deer] This reading is followed by the succeeding editions. I rather read,

_If consequence do but approve my scheme_.

But why should _dream_ be rejected? Every scheme subsisting only in the imagination may be termed a _dream_.

II.iii.93-99 (416,6) _King Stephen was a worthy peer_] These stanzas are taken from an old song, which the reader will find recovered and preserved in a curious work lately printed, intitled, _Relicks of Ancient Poetry_, consisting of old heroic ballands, songs, &c. 3 vols. 12.

II.iii.95 (416,7) _lown_] Sorry fellow, paltry wretch.

II.iii.135 (417,8) He'll watch the horologe a double set] If he have no drink, he'll keep awake while the clock strikes two rounds, or four and twenty hours.

Chaucer uses the ward _horologe_ in more places than one.

"Well skirer was his crowing in his loge "Than is a clock or abbey _horologe_."]

The bracketed part of Johnson's note is taken verbatim from Zacbary Gray, _Critical ... Notes on Shakespeare_, 1754, II, 316.] (see 1765, VIII, 374, 6) (rev. 1778, I, 503, 9)

II.iii.145 (418,9) ingraft infirmity; An infirmity _rooted, settled_ in his constitution.

II.iii.175 (419,3) it frights the isle/From her propriety] From her regular and _proper state_.

II.iii.180 (419,4) In quarter] In their quarters; at their lodging.

II.iii.194 (420,5) you unlace your reputation thus] Slacken, or _loosen_. Put in danger of dropping; or perhaps strip of its ornaments.

II.iii.195 (420,6) spend your rich opinion] Throw away and squander a reputation as valuable as yours.

II.iii.202 (420,7) self-charity] Care of one's self.

II.iii.211 (421,9) he that is approv'd in this offence] He that is convicted by proof, of having been engaged in this offence.

II.iii.274 (423,1) cast in his mood] Ejected in his anger.

II.iii.343 (425,4) this advice is free] This counsel has an appearance of honest openness, of frank good-will.

II.iii.348 (425,5) free elements] Liberal, bountiful, as the elements, out of which all things are produced.

II.iii.355 (425,6) to this parallel course] i.e. a course level, and even with his design.

II.iii.363 (425,8) That she repeals him] That is, recalls him.

II.iii.382 (426,1)

Though ether things grew fair against the sun, Yet fruits, that blossom first, will first be ripe]

Of many different things, all planned with the same art, and promoted with the same diligence, some must succeed sooner than others, by the order of nature. Every thing cannot be done at once; we must proceed by the necessary gradation. We are not to _despair_ of slow events any _more_ than of tardy fruits, while the causes are in regular progress, and the fruits _grow fair against the sun_. Hanmer has not, I think, rightly conceived the sentiment; for he reads,

_Those fruits which blossom first_, are not first _ripe_.

I have therefore drawn it out at length, for there are few to whom that will be easy which was difficult to Hanmer.

III.i.3 (427,2) Why, masters, have your instruments been in Naples, that they speak i' the nose thus?] The venereal disease first appeared at the siege of Naples.

III.iii.14 (430,6)

That policy may either last so long, Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet, Or breed itself so out of circumstance, That I, being absent, and my place supplied, My general will forget my love and service]

He may either of himself think it politic to keep me out of office so long, or he may be satisfied with such slight reasons, or so many accidents may make him think my re-admission at that time improper, that I may be quite forgotten.

III.iii.23 (431,7) I'll watch him tame] It is said, that the ferocity of beasts, insuperable and irreclaimable by any other means, is subdued by keeping them from sleep.

III.iii.47 (431,8) His present reconciliation take] [W: make] To _take his reconciliation_, may be to accept the submission which he makes in order to be reconciled.

III.iii.65 (432,1) the wars must make examples/Out of their best] The severity of military discipline must not spare the _best men_ of the army, when their punishment nay afford a wholesome _example_.

III.iii.90 (433,2) Excellent wretch!--Perdition catch my soul,/But I do love thee!] The meaning of the word _wretch_, is not generally understood. It is now, in some parts of England, a term of the softest and fondest tenderness. It expresses the utmost degree of amiableness, joined with an idea, which perhaps all tenderness includes, of feebleness, softness, and want of protection. Othello, considering Desdemona as excelling in beauty and virtue, soft and timorous by her sex, and by her situation absolutely in his power, calls her _Excellent wretch!_ It may be expressed,

_Dear, harmless, helpless Excellence._

III.iii.91 (433,3) when I love thee not,/Chaos is come again] When my love is for a moment suspended by suspicion, I have nothing in my mind but discord, tumult, perturbation, and confusion.

III.iii.123 (435,4) They are close delations working from the heart,/ That passion cannot rule] _They are_ cold dilations _working from the heart,/That passion cannot rule_.] I know not why the modern editors are satisfied with this reading, which no explanation can clear. They might easily have found, that it is introduced without authority. The old copies uniformly give, _close dilations_, except that the earlier quarto has _close denotements_; which was the author's first expression, afterwards changed by him, not to _cold dilations_, for _cold_ is read in no ancient copy; nor, I believe, to _close dilations_, but to _close delations_; to _occult_ and _secret accusations, working_ involuntarily _from the heart_, which, though resolved to conceal the fault, cannot rule its _passion_ of resentment.

III.iii.127 (435,5) Or, those that be not, 'would they might seem none!] [W: seem knaves] I believe the meaning is, _would they might no longer seem_, or bear the shape of _men_.

III.iii.140 (436,6) Keep leets and law-days] [i.e. govern. WARBURTON.] Rather _visit_ than _govern_, but visit with authoritative intrusion.

III.iii.149 (437,8) From one that so improbably conceits]--imperfectly _conceits_,] In the old quarto it is,

--improbably _conceits_,

Which I think preferable.

III.iii.166 (437,9) the green-ey'd monster, which doth make/The meat it feeds on] _which doth_ mock _The meat it feeds on_.] I have received Hanmer's emendation ["make"]; because _to mock_, does not signify _to loath_; and because, when Iago bids Othello _beware of jealousy, the green-eyed monster_, it is natural to tell why he should beware, and for caution he gives him two reasons, that jealousy _often_ creates its own cause, and that, when the causes are real, jealousy is misery.

III.iii.173 (438,1) But riches, fineless] Unbounded, endless, unnumbered treasures.

III.iii.180 (438,3)

Exchange me for a goat, When I shall turn the business of my soul To such exsuffolate and blown surmises, Matching thy inference]

This odd and far-fetched word was made yet more uncouth in all the editions before Hanmer's, by being printed, _exsufflicate_. The allusion is to a bubble. Do not think, says the Moor, that I shall change the noble designs that now employ my thoughts, to suspicions which, like bubbles _blown_ into a wide extent, have only an empty shew without solidity, or that in consequence of such empty fears, I will close with thy inference against the virtue of my wife.

III.iii.188 (439,4) Where virtue is, those are most virtuous] An action in itself indifferent grows virtuous by its end and application.

III.iii.201 (439,6)

I know our country disposition well; In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks]

Here Iago seems to be a Venetian.

III.iii.207 (440,7) And, when she seem'd to shake, and fear your looks,/She lov'd them most] This and the following argument of Iago ought to be deeply impressed on every reader. Deceit and falsehood, whatever conveniencies they may for a time promise or produce, are, in the sum of life, obstacles to happiness. Those, who profit by the cheat, distruat the deceiver, and the act, by which kindness was sought, puts an end to confidence.

The same objection may be made with a lower degree of strength against the imprudent generosity of disproportionate marriages. When the first heat of passion is over, it is easily succeeded by suspicion, that the same violence of inclination, which caused one irregularity, may stimulate to another; and those who have shown, that their passions are too powerful for their prudence, will, with very alight appearances againat them, be censured, as not very likely to restrain them by their virtue. (see 1765, VIII, 397, 1)

III.iii.210 (440,8) To seel her father's eyes up, close as oak] There is little relation between _eyes_ and _oak_. I would read,

_She seel'd her father's eyes up close as_ owl's.

_As blind as an owl_, is a proverb.

III.iii.222 (441,1) My speech would fall into such vile success] [_Success_, far succession, i.e. conclusion; not prosperous issue. WARB.] I rather think there is a depravation, and would read,

_My speech would fall into such vile_ excess.

If _success_ be the right word, it seems to mean _consequence_ or _event_, as _successo_ is used in Italian.

III.iii.232 (441,2) will most rank] _Will_, is for wilfulness. It is so used by Ascham. A _rank will_, is _self-will_ overgrown and exuberant.

III.iii.249 (442,3) You shall by that perceive him, and his means] You shall discover whether he thinks his best _means_, his most powerful _interest_, is by the solicitation of your lady.

III.iii.250 (442,4) strain his entertainnent] Press hard his re-admission to his pay and office. _Entertainment_ was the military term for admission of soldiers.

III.iii.256 (442,5) Fear not my government] Do not distrust ay ability to contain my passion.

III.iii.259 (442,6) knows all qualities, with a learned spirit,/Of human dealings] The construction is, He knows with a learned spirit all qualities of human dealings.

III.iii.260 (442,7) If I do prore her haggard] A _haggard_ hark, is a _wild_ hawk, a _hawk unreclaimed_, or _irreclaimable_.

III.iii.262 (443,8) I'd whistle her off, and let her down the wind,/ To prey at fortune] The falconers always let fly the hawk against the wind; if she flies with the wind behind her, she seldom returns. If therefore a hawk was for any reason to be dismissed, she was _let down the wind_, and from that time shifted far herself, and _preyed at fortune_. This was told me by the late Mr. Clark.

III.iii.276 (443,9) forked plague] In allusion to a _barbed_ or _forked_ arrow, which, once infixed, cannot be extracted.

III.iii.312 (445,2) And, to the advantage, I, being here, took it up] I being _opportunely_ here, took it up.

III.iii.319 (445,3) Be not you known on't] Should it not rather be read,

_Be not you known_ in't?

The folio reads,

_Be not_ unknown _on't_.

The sense is plain, but of the expression I cannot produce any example.

III.iii.332 (446,5) that sweet sleep,/Which thou owedst yesterday] To _owe_ is, in our author, oftener to _possess_, than _to be indebted_, and such was its meaning here; but as that sense was growing less usual, it was changed unnecessarily by the editors to _hadst_; to the sane meaning, more intelligibly expressed.

III.iii.351 (447,6)

Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump, The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife]

Dr. Warburton has offered _fear-spersing_, for _fear-dispersing_. But _ear-piercing_ is an epithet so eminently adapted to the _fife_, and so distinct from the shrillness of the trumpet, that it certainly ought not to be changed. Dr. Warburton has been censured for this proposed emendation with more noise than honesty, for he did not himself put it in the text.

III.iii.369 (449,8) abandon all remorse] [_Remorse_, for repentance. WARBURTON.] I rather think it is, Let go all scruples, throw aside all restraints.

III.iii.429 (451,4) _Oth._ 'tis a shrewd doubt] [The old quarto gives this line, with the two following, to Iago; and rightly. WARB.] I think it more naturally spoken by Othello, who, by dwelling so long upon the proof, encouraged Iago to enforce it.

III.iii.448 (452,8) hearted throne] [W: parted] _Hearted_ throne, is the heart on which thou wast _enthroned_. _Parted_ throne has no meaning.

III.iii.467 (453,3)

Let him command, And to obey, shall be in me remorse, What bloody business ever]

[Pope: Not to obey] [T: Nor, to obey.] [W: me. Remord] Of these two emendations, I believe, Theobald's will have the greater number of suffrages; it has at least mine. The objection against the propriety of the declaration in Iago is a cavil; he does not say that he has no principle of remorse, but that it shall not operate against Othello's commands. _To obey shall be in me_, for _I will obey you_, is a mode of expression not worth the pains here taken to introduce it; and the word _remords_ has not in the quotation the meaning of _withhold_, or _make reluctant_, but of _reprove_, or _censure_; nor do I know that it is used by any of the contemporaries of Shakespeare.

I will offer an interpretation, which, if it be received, will make alteration unnecessary, but it is very harsh and violent. Iago devotes himself to wronged Othello, and says, _Let him command whatever bloody business_, and in me it shall be an act, not of cruelty, but _of tenderness, to obey him_; not of malice to other, but of _tenderness_ for him. If this sense be thought too violent, I see nothing better than to follow Pope's reading, as it is improved by Theobald.

III.iv.26 (457,5) cruzadoes] [A Portugueze coin, in value three shillings sterling. Dr. GREY.] So called from the cross stamped upon it.

III.iv.46 (458,6) The hearts, of old, gave hands] [Warburton explains this is an allusion to James the First's practice of creating baronets for money and emends to "The hands of old gave hearts"] The historical observation is very judicious and acute, but of the emendation there is no need. She says, that her hand gave away _her heart_. He goes on with his suspicion, and the hand which he had before called _frank_, he now terms _liberal_; then proceeds to remark, that _the hand was formerly given by the heart_; but now it neither gives it, nor is given by it.

III.iv.51 (459,7) salt and sullen rheum]--_salt and_ sorry rheum] The old quarto has,

--_salt and_ sullen _rheum_---

That is, a _rheum obstinately troublesome_. I think this better.

III.iv.70 (459,8)

A Sybil, that had numbred in the world The sun to course two hundred compasses]

The expression is not very infrequent; we say, _I counted the clock to strike four_; so she _number'd_ the sun _to course_, to run _two hundred compasses_, two hundred annual circuits.

III.iv.79 (460,1) Why do you speak so startingly, and rash?] Is _vehement, violent_.