Olympus-high; and duck again as low As hell's from heaven! If it were now to die, That not another comfort like to this Des. The heavens forbid, But that our loves and comforts should increase, Oth. Amen to that.-Sweet powers I cannot speak enough of this content, It stops me here; it is too much of joy :— That e'er our hearts shall make! [Kissing her. Iago. O, you are well tun'd now! But I'll set down the pegs that make this musick, As honest as I am. Oth. [Aside. Come, let's to the castle.— News, friends; our wars are done, the Turks are drown'd. How do our old acquaintance of this isle ?— I have found great love amongst them. O my sweet, In mine own comforts.-I pr'ythee, good Iago, 30 So Cherea in The Eunuch of Terence, Act iii. Sc. 5:"Proh Jupiter! Nunc tempus profecto est, cum perpeti me possum interfici, Ne vita aliquâ hoc gaudium contaminet ægritudine." 31 Thus in Marlowe's Lust's Dominion : "I pri'thee chide, if I have done amiss, But let my punishment be this and this. [Kissing the Moor. Marlowe's play was written before that of Shakespeare, who might possibly have acted in it. 32 i. e. much solicited by invitation. So in The Letters of the Paston Family, vol. i. p. 299:-" At the which weddyng I was with myn hostes, and also desyryd by ye jentylman hymselfe." 33 i. e. out of method, without any settled order of discourse. Go to the bay, and disembark my coffers: Does challenge much respect.-Come, Desdemona, [Exeunt OTHELLO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants. Iago. Do thou meet me presently at the harbour. Come hithera. 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,-list me. The lieutenant to-night watches on the court of guard 35 : -First, I must tell thee this-Desdemona is directly in love with him. Rod. With him! why, 'tis not possible. Iago. Lay thy finger-thus 36, and let thy soul be instructed. Mark me with what violence she first loved the Moor, but for bragging, and telling her fantastical lies: And will she love him still for prating 37? let not thy discreet heart think it. Her eye must be fed; and what delight shall she have to look on the devil? When the blood is made dull with the act of sport, there should be,—again to inflame it, and to give satiety a fresh appetite, -loveliness in favour; sympathy in years, manners, and beauties; all which the Moor is defective in: Now, for want of these required conveniences, her delicate tender 34 The master is a distinct person from the pilot of a vessel, and has the principal care and command of the vessel under the captain, where there is a captain; and in chief where there is none. Dr. Johnson confounded the master with the pilot, and the poet himself seems to have done so. See the first line of Sc. 2, Act iii. a The folio erroneously reads "thither." 35 That is, the place where the guard musters. 36 i. e. on thy mouth to stop it, while thou art listening to a wiser man. 37 The folio, "To love him still for prating." ness will find itself abus'd, begin to heave the gorge, disrelish and abhor the Moor; very nature will instruct her in it, and compel her to some second choice. Now, sir, this granted (as it is a most pregnant and unforced position), who stands so eminently 38 in the degree of this fortune, as Cassio does? a knave very voluble, no further conscionable, than in putting on the mere form of civil and humane seeming, for the better compassing of his salt and most hidden loose affection? why, none; why, none: A slippery and subtle knave 39 39; a finder out of occasions; that has an eye can stamp and counterfeit advantages, though true advantage never present itself: A devilish knave! besides, the knave is handsome, young; and hath all those requisites in him, that folly and green minds 40 look after: A pestilent complete knave; and the woman hath found him already. Rod. I cannot believe that in her; she is full of most bless'd condition 41. Iago. Bless'd fig's end! the wine she drinks is made of grapes: if she had been bless'd, she would never have lov'd the Moor; Bless'd pudding! Didst thou not see her paddle with the palm of his hand ? didst not mark that? Rod. Yes, that I did; but that was but courtesy. Iago. Lechery, by this hand; an index 42, and obscure prologue to the history of lust and foul thoughts. They met so near with their lips, that their breaths embrac'd together. Villainous thoughts, Roderigo! when these mutualities 4 43 so marshal the way, hard 38 The folio," eminent." 39 The folio, "A slipper and subtle knave." 40 i. e. minds unripe, minds not yet fully formed. 41 Condition, i. e. qualities, disposition of mind. 42 It has already been observed that indexes were formerly prefixed to books. See vol. vii. p. 182, note 46. 43 The folio misprints "mutabilities;" and in Iago's next speech omits" with his truncheon." at hand comes the master and main exercise, the incorporate conclusion: Pish!-But, sir, be you ruled by me: I have brought you from Venice. Watch you to-night; for the command, I'll lay't upon you: Cassio knows you not;-I'll not be far from you: Do you find some occasion to anger Cassio, either by speaking too loud, or tainting his discipline; or from what other course you please, which the time shall more favourably minister. Rod. Well. Iago. Sir, he is rash, and very sudden 45 in choler; and, haply, with his truncheon may strike at you : Provoke him, that he may: for, even out of that, will I cause these of Cyprus to mutiny; whose qualification 46 shall come into no true taste again, but by the displanting of Cassio. So shall you have a shorter journey to your desires, by the means I shall then have to prefer47 them; and the impediment most profitably removed, without the which there were no expectation of our prosperity. Rod. I will do this, if you can bring it to any opportunity. Iago. I warrant thee. Meet me by and by at the citadel: I must fetch his necessaries ashore. Farewell. Rod. Adieu. [Exit. Iago. That Cassio loves her, I do well believe it; 44 i. e. throwing a slur upon his discipline. So in Troilus and Cressida, Act i. Sc. 3: "In taint of our best man." 66 45 Sudden is precipitately violent. So Malcolm, describing Macbeth:I grant him bloodySudden, malicious." 46 Johnson has erroneously explained this. Qualification, in our old writers, signifies appeasement, pacification, asswagement of anger. "To appease and qualifie one that is angry; tranquillum facere ex irato."-Baret. 47 Prefer, i. e. to advance them. That she loves him, 'tis apt, and of great credit: And, I dare think, he'll prove to Desdemona For that I do suspect the lusty 48 Moor Hath leap'd into my seat: the thought whereof 48 The quartos, "lustful." Which thing to do, 49 Thus the quarto 1622. The folio, "till I am even'd with him :" i. e." till I am on a level with him by retaliation. 50 The folio reads: "If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trace For his quick hunting, bear the putting on," &c. The quarto 1622 reads crush instead of trace. think there can be no doubt that the word trash, as Warburton suggested, is a misprint for brach, and crush in the quarto for trash. The converse has happened in the Induction to the Taming of the Shrew, where brach has been misprinted for trash. Roderigo, in the third scene, says of himself, "I do follow here in the chase, not like a hound that hunts, but one that fills up the cry." The word trace is probably intended in the sense of trash or trass, to keep back. Roderigo is checked or trashed by Iago for his quick hunting; i. e. he is in too great a hurry to come to an explanation with Desdemona. See vol. i. p. 12, note 11. The phrase to have on the hip, means to have at an entire advantage: it is a term used in wrestling. See Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 3, note 3. 51 In the rank garb, which has puzzled Steevens and Malone, |