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Oth.

Bid her come hither:-go.

[Exit EMILIA.

She says enough:-yet she's a simple bawd,
That cannot say as much. This is a subtle whore,
A closet-lock-and-key of villanous secrets:

And yet she'll kneel, and pray; I have seen her do't.

Re-enter EMILIA, with DESDEMONA.

Des. My lord, what is your will?

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'Pray, chuck, come hither.

Let me see your eyes;

What horrible fancy's this?

[To EMILIA.

Oth. Some of your function, mistress;

Leave procreants alone, and shut the door;
Cough, or cry-hem, if any body come:

Your mystery, your mystery;-nay, despatch.

[Exit EMILIA. Des. Upon my knees, what doth your speech import?

I understand a fury in your words,

But not the words 3.

Oth. Why, what art thou?

Des.

And loyal wife.

Oth.

Your wife, my lord; your true

Come, swear it, damn thyself;

Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves Should fear to seize thee: therefore be double damu'd, Swear-thou art honest.

Des.

Heaven doth truly know it. Oth. Heaven truly knows, that thou art false as

hell.

Des. To whom, my lord? with whom? How am I false?

3 This line is not in the folio.

Oth. O Desdemona!-away! away! away!

Des. Alas, the heavy day!-Why do you weep? Am I the occasion of these tears, my lord? If, haply, you my father do suspect,

An instrument of this your calling back,

Lay not your blame on me; if you have lost him, Why, I have lost him too.

Oth.

Had it pleas'd heaven To try me with affliction; had he rain'd

All kinds of sores, and shames, on my bare head;
Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips;

Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes;
I should have found in some part of my soul
A drop of patience: but (alas!) to make me
A fixed figure, for the time of scorn 4

4 Rowe reads the hand of scorn,' an elegant and satisfactory emendation; and it is to be wished that there was sufficient authority to admit it into the text. Steevens thinks the old reading right, saying, that Othello takes his idea from a clock: To make me (says he) a fixed figure (on the dial of the world) for the hour of scorn to point and make a full stop at!' adducing many similar expressions in defence of it, as 'the hour of death,' 'the day of judgment,' the moment of evil;' and in King Richard the Third:

'Had you such leisure in the time of death?' Also in Marston's Insatiate Countess :

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I'll poison thee; with murder curbe thy paths,
And make thee know a time of infamy.'

He afterwards suggests that Shakspeare may have written
for the scorn of time

To point his slow unmoving finger at.'

i. e. the marked object for the contempt of all ages and all time. The folio reads and moving instead of unmoving. To me there seems to be no objection in slow moving;' about which Malone and Mason make difficulties. The epithet derives support from Shakspeare's 104th Sonnet:

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Ah! yet doth beauty, like a dial hand,

Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;

So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,

Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived.'

The finger of the dial was the technical phrase. And in The Comedy of Errors we have

'Time's deformed [i. e. deforming] hand.'

To point his slow unmoving finger at,

O! O!

Yet could I bear that too; well, very

well:

But there, where I have garner'd 5 up my heart;
Where either I must live, or bear no life ;
The fountain from the which my current runs,
Or else dries up; to be discarded thence!
Or keep it as a cistern, for foul toads

To knot and gender in?!-turn thy complexion there!
Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubim;
Ay, there, look grim as hell!

Des. I hope, my noble lord esteems me honest.
Oth. O, ay; as summer flies are in the shambles,
That quicken even with blowing. O thou weed9,
Who art so lovely fair, and smell'st so sweet,
That the sense aches at thee.-'Would, thou had'st
ne'er been born!

Des. Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed? Oth. Was this fair paper, this most goodly book, Made to write whore upon? What committed 10! Committed!-0 thou public commoner!

I should make very forges of my cheeks,

5 i. e. treasured up.

6

'Whereby we do exist or cease to be.'

7 So in Antony and Cleopatra :

8

'So half my Egypt were submerg'd, and made

A cistern for scal'd snakes.'

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Lear.

At such an object do thou, patience, thyself change colour; at this do thou, even thou, rosy cherub as thou art, look grim as hell.' The old copies have, I here look grim as hell.' I was written for ay; and here was an evident error of the press for there. Theobald made the correction.

9 The quarto reads:

'O thou black weed, why art so lovely fair?

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Thou smell'st so sweet, that the sense aches at thee,' &c. 10 This and the three following lines are not in the first quarto. The peculiar sense in which committed is here used may be gathered from King Lear, Act iii. Sc. 14 :- Commit not with man's sworn spouse.' It is so used by many of our old writers, and comes from the transgression, being a violation of the commandment, Thou shalt not commit adultery.'

That would to cinders burn

up

11

modesty, Did I but speak thy deeds. What committed! Heaven stops the nose at it, and the moon winks; The bawdy wind, that kisses all it meets 11, Is hush'd within the hollow mine of earth, And will not hear it: What committed!. Impudent strumpet!

Des.

By heaven, you do me wrong.

Oth. Are not you a strumpet?

Des.

If to

preserve

No, as I am a Christian: lord 12,

this vessel for

my

From any other foul unlawful touch,

Be-not to be a strumpet, I am none.
Oth. What, not a whore?
Des.

Oth. Is it possible?

No, as I shall be saved.

Des. O, heaven forgive us!

I

Oth. cry you mercy, then; I took you for that cunning whore of Venice, That married with Othello.-You, mistress,

Re-enter EMILIA.

That have the office opposite to Saint Peter,
And keep the gate of hell; You! you! ay, you!
We have done our course; there's money for

pains;

your

I pray you, turn the key, and keep our counsel.

[Exit.

Emil. Alas, what does this gentleman conceive?— How do you, madam? how do you, my good lady? Des. 'Faith, half asleep.

Emil. Good madam, what's the matter with my lord? Des. With who?

So in The Merchant of Venice :

Hugg'd and embraced by the strumpet wind.'

12 This expression is from Sacred Writ:

To possess his

vessel in sanctification.'

Emil.

Why, with my lord, madam.

Des. Who is thy lord 13?

Emil.

He that is yours, sweet lady.

Des. I have none: Do not talk to me, Emilia;

I cannot weep; nor answer I have none,

But what should go by water 14. 'Pr'ythee, to-night Lay on my bed my wedding sheets,-remember;And call thy husband hither.

Emil. Here is a change, indeed!

[Exit. Des. 'Tis meet I should be us'd so, very meet. How have I been behav'd, that he might stick The small'st opinion on my great'st abuse 15 ?

Re-enter EMILIA, with IAGO.

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Iago. What is your pleasure, madam? How is it with you?

Des. I cannot tell. Those, that do teach young babes,

Do it with gentle means, and easy tasks:

He might have chid me so; for, in good faith,
I am a child to chiding.

Iago.

What's the matter, lady? Emil. Alas, Iago, my lord hath so bewhor❜d her, Thrown such despite and heavy terms upon her, As true hearts cannot bear.

Des. Am I that name, Iago?

Iago.

What name, fair lady? Des. Such as, she says, my lord did say I was.

13 This and the following speech are not in the quarto. 14 There are some lines on the death of Queen Elizabeth in Camden, also to be found in Decker's Wonderful Yeare, 1603, which conclude with a similar conceit:

'I think the barge-men might with easier thighs
Have rowed her thither in her people's eyes:

For how-so-ere, thus much my thoughts have scann'd,
Sh'ad come by water, had she come by land.'

15 This is the reading of the quarto; which Dr. Johnson thought preferable to the reading of the folio-on my least mis

use.

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