And often did beguile her of her tears, She fwore, "In faith, 'twas ftrange, 'twas paffing ftrange, ""Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful". She wifh'd fhe had not heard it ;-yet she wish'd, Sir Walter Raleigh made this voyage to Guiana in 1595. Mr. Lawrence Keymish, (fometime his lieutenant) who went thither the next year, and who dedicates his relation to Sir Walter, mentions the fame people; and, speaking of a person who gave him confiderable informations, he adds, "He certified me of the headless men, and that their "mouths in their breasts are exceeding wide." Sir Walter, at the time that his travels were publifh'd, is filed Captain of her Majefty's guard, Lord Warden of the Stannaries, and Lieutenant general of the county of Cornwal. If we confider the reputation, as the ingenious Martin Folkes, Efq; obferv'd to me, any thing from fuch a perfon, and at that time in fuch pofts, must come into the world with, we fall be of opinion that a paffage in Shakespeare need not be degraded for the mention of a story, which, however ftrange, was countenane'd with fuch an authority. Shakespeare, on the other hand, has fhewn a find addrefs to Sir Walter, in facrificing fo much credulity to fuch a relation. Befides, both the paffages in our Author have this further ufe; that they do in fome measure fix the chronology of his writing Othello, as well as the Tempeft: for as neither of them could be wrote before the year 1597; fo the mention of thefe circumstances should perfuade us, they appear'd before thefe Travels became ftale to the publick, and their authority was too narrowly fcrutiniz'd. We may be able to account, perhaps, in a few lines, for the mystery of these fuppos'd beadless people; and with that. I will clofe this long note, OLEARIUS, fpeaking of the manner of cloathing of the Samojeds, a people of northern Muscovy, fays; "Their garments are "made like thofe that are call'd cofaques, open only at the necks. "When the cold is extraordinary, they put their cofaques over their 6.6. heads, and let the fleeves hang down; their faces being not to be "feen, but at the cleft which is at the neck. Whence fome bave "taken occafion to write, that in thefe northern countries there are people "without heads, having their faces in their breafts,” M 4 This This only is the witchcraft I have us’d. Here comes the lady, let her witness it. Enter Defdemona, Iago, and Attendants. Duke. I think, this tale would win my daughter tooGood Brabantio, Take up this mangled matter at the best. Men do their broken weapons rather use, Bra. I pray you, hear her speak; If the confefs that she was half the wooer, Def. My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty; Bra. God be with you: I have done. I here do give thee that with all my heart, For thy escape would teach me tyranny, To hang clogs on them. I have done, my Lord. When remedies are paft, the griefs are ended By feeing the worft, which late on hopes depended. Το To mourn a mischief that is past and gone, The robb'd, that fmiles, fteals fomething from the thief; Bra. So, let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile, Being ftrong on both fides, are equivocal. Duke. The Turk with a moft mighty preparation makes for Cyprus: Othello, the fortitude of the place is best known to you. And though we have there a fubftitute of moft allowed fufficiency; yet opinion, a fovereign mistress of effects, throws a more fafe voice (16) But words are words; I never yet did hear, That the bruis'd beart was pierced thro' the ear.] One fuperfluous letter has for thefe hundred years quite fubverted the sense of this paffage; and none of the editors have ever attended to the reafoning of the context, by which they might have difcover'd the error. The Duke has by fage fentences been exhorting Brabantio to patience, and to forget the grief of his daughter's stolen marriage; to which Brabantio is made very pertinently to reply, to this effect: "My "Lord, I apprehend very well the wisdom of your advice; but tho' 66 you would comfort me, words are but words; and the heart, already "bruis'd, was never pierc'd, or wounded, thro' the ear.' -Well! if we want arguments for a fenator, let him be educated at the feet of our fagacious editors. It is obvious, I believe, to my better readers, that the text must be reftor'd, as Mr. Warburton acutely ob. ferv'd to me. That the bruis'd beart was pieced tho' the ear. i. e. That the wounds of forrow were ever cur'd, or a man made beart whole meerly by words of confolation. I ought to take notice, this very emendation was likewife communicated to me by an inge nious, unknown, correspondent, who fubfcribes himself only L. H. M 5 on on you; you must therefore be content to flubber the glofs of your new fortunes, with this more ftubborn and boisterous expedition. Oth. The tyrant cuftom, moft grave senators, I find in hardness; and do undertake Duke. Why, at her father's. Bra. I will not have it fo. Def. Nor would I there refide, To put my father in impatient thoughts. Duke. What would you, Desdemona? Def. That I did love the Moor to live with him, I faw Othel's visage in his mind, The rites, for which I love him, are bereft me: By his dear abfence. Let me go with him. Oth. Your voices, Lords; 'befeech you, let her will Have a free way. I therefore beg it not, (17) To To please the palate of my appetite; And heav'n defend your good fouls, that you think, That my difports corrupt and taint In my defunct and proper fatisfaction; But to be free and bounteous to her mind.] As this has been all along hitherto printed and stop'd, it seems to me a period of as ftubborn nonfenfe, as the editors have obtruded upon poor Shakespeare throughout his whole works. What a prepofterous creature is this Othello made, to fall in love with, and marry, a fine young lady, when appetite and beat, and proper satisfaction are dead and defunct in him! (for, defunct fignifies nothing elfe, that I know of, either primitively or metaphorically:) but if we may take Othello's own word in the affair, when he speaks for himself, he was not reduc❜d to this fatal unperforming state. or, for I am declin'd, Into the vale of years; yet that's not much. Again, why should our Poet fay, (for so he says, as the paffage has been pointed) that the young affect heat? Youth, certainly, bas it, and has no occafion or pretence of affecting it, whatever fuperannuated lovers may have. And, again, after defunct, would he add fo abfurd a collateral epithet as proper? But, I think, I may venture to affirm, that affects was not defign'd here as a verb; and that defunct was not defign'd here at all. I have, by a flight change, rescued the Poet's text from abfurdity; and this I take to be the tenour of what he would fay; "I do not beg her company with me, "merely to please myself; nor to indulge the heat and affects (i. e. "affections) of a new married man, in my own diftinct and pro66 per fatisfaction; but to comply with her in her requeft, and defire, "of accompanying me. Affects, for affections, our Author in feveral other paffages ufes. For ev'ry man with his affects is born. M 6 Love's Labour Loft. Richard II. Titus Andronicus. Duke |