Caf. How now, my fweet Bianca? how now? how now? Oth. By heaven, that should be my handkerchief. [Afide. Bian. If you'll come to fupper to-night, you may; if you will not, come when you are next prepar'd før. Iago. After her, after her. Caf. I muft, fhe'll rail in the ftreets elfe. lago. Will you fup there? Caf. Yes, I intend fo. [Exit. Iago. Well, I may chance to see you; for I would very fain fpeak with you. Caf. Pr'ythee, come, will you? Iago. Go to, fay no more. Manent Othello, and Iago. Oth. How fhall I murder him, Iago? [Exit Caffio. Jago. Did you perceive, how he laugh'd at his vice ? Oth. Oh, lago! Iago. And did you fee the handkerchief? Oth. Was that mine? : lago. Yours, by this hand and to see how he prizes the foolish woman your wife-She gave it him, and he hath given it his whore. Oth. I would have him nine years a killing: fweet woman! A fine woman! a fair woman! Oth. Ay, let her rot and perish, and be damn'd tonight; for the fhall not live. No, my heart is turn'd to ftone: I ftrike it, and it hurts my hand. Oh, the world hath not a fweeter creature-She might lie by an Emperor's fide and command him tasks. lago. Nay, that's not your way. Oth. Hang her, I do but fay what she is fo delicate with her needle.- -An admirable musician-Oh, fhe will fing the favagenefs out of a bear: of fo high and plenteous wit and invention! lago. She's the worse for all this. Oth. Oh, a thousand, a thousand times: And then of fo gentle condition! Iago. Ay, too gentle. Oth. Nay, that's certain. But yet the pity of it, Iago-Oh, Iago, the pity of it, Lago lago. If you are fo fond over her iniquity, give her patent to offend; for if it touch not you, it comes near no body. Oth. I will chop her into meffes: cuckold me! lago. Oh, 'tis foul in her. Oth. With mine officer! lago. That's fouler. Oth, Get me fome poifon, lago, this night; I'll not expoftulate with her, left her body and her beauty unprovide my mind again: this night, lago. lago. Do it not with poifon, ftrangle her in her bed, Ev'n in the bed fhe hath contaminated. Oth. Good, good: The juftice of it pleases; very good. lago. And for Caffio, let me be his undertaker: You fhall hear more by midnight. [A Trumpet aithin. Oth. Excellent good:-What trumpet is that fame? Jago. Something from Venice, fure. 'Tis Lodovico. Come from the Duke: and, fee, your wife is with him. Enter Lodovico, Desdemona, and Attendants, from the Palace Lod. Save you, worthy-General. Lod. The Duke and the Senators of Venice greet you. [Gives him a letter Oth. I kifs the inftrument of their pleasures. Def. And what's the news, good cousin Lodovico? lago. I am very glad to fee you, fignior. Welcome to Cyprus. Lod. I thank you; how does lieutenant Cassio? Iago. Lives, Sir. Def. Coufin, there's fall'n between him and my Lord An unkind breach: but you fhall make all well. VOL. VIII. P Othe Oth. Are you fure of that? Def. My Lord ? Oth. This fail you not to do, as you will- Def. My Lord! · Cth. Are you wife? Def. What, is he angry? Lod. 'May be, the letter mov'd him... [Afide. [Reads. For, as I think, they do command him home, (45) Def. Trust me, I am glad on't. Lod. My Lord, this would not be believ'd in Venice, Though I fhould fwear, I faw't. 'Tis very much; Make her amends, she weeps. Oth. Oh devil, devil! If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, (45) For, as I think, they do command bim bome, Deputing Caffio in his government.] Had Mr. Rymer intended, or known how, to make a serious and fenfible critic on this play, methinks, here is a fair opening given for enquiry and animadverfion. Othello is, as it were, but juft arriv'd at Cyprus upon an emergency of defending it against the Turks ; the fenate could hardly yet have heard of the Ottoman fleet being scatter'd by tempeft; and Othello is at once remanded home, without any imputation fuggefted on his conduct, or any hint of his being employ'd in a more urgent commiffion. 'Tis true, the deputation of Caffio in his room feems defign'd to heighten the Moor's refentment: but fome probable reafon should have been affign'd, and thrown into the audience, for his being recall'd. As to what lago fays afterwards, that Orbello is to go to Mauritania, this is only a lye of his own invention to carry a point with Rodorigo. -It is in little omiffions of this fort that Shakespeare's indolence, or neglect of art, is frequently to be cenfur'd. Each Each drop, fhe falls, would prove a crocodile : Out of my fight Df. I will not stay t'offend you. Led. Truly, an obedient lady: I do befeech your Lordship, call her back. Oth. Miftrefs, Def. My Lord. Oth. What would you with her, Sir? Lod. Who, I, my Lord? [Going. Oth. Ay; you did wish, that I would make her turn; Sir, she can turn and turn, and yet go on; And turn again. And the can weep, Sir, weep; [Exit Defd. Manent Lodovico, and Iago. [Exit. Lod. Is this the noble Moor, whom our full Senate Call all-in-all fufficient? this the Nature, Which paffion could not shake? whofe folid virtue (46) The fhot of accident, nor dart of change, Could neither raze, nor pierce ? Iago Could neither graze nor pierce.] But 'tis no commendation to the most folid virtue to be free from the attacks of fortune: but that it is fo impenetrable as to fuffer no impreffion. Now, to graze, fignifies, only to touch the fuperficies of any thing. That is the attack of Fortune and by that virtue is try'd, but not difcredited. We ought certainly therefore to read, Can neither raze nor pierce. i.e. neither lightly touch upon, nor pierce into. The ignorant tranfcribers being acquainted with the phrafe of a bullet grazing, and shot P 2 being Jego. He is much chang'd. Lod. Are his wits fafe? is he not light of brain? Lod. What, ftrike his wife!. lago. 'Faith, that was not fo well; yet 'would I knew, That stroke would prove the worst. Lod. Is it his ufe? Or did the letters work upon his blood, Tago. Alas, alas! It is not honefty in me to speak What I have seen and known. You fhall obferve him, That I may fave my speech. Do but And mark how he continues. go after, Lod. I'm forry, that I am deceiv'd in him. [Exeunt. being mention'd in the line before, they corrupted the true word. Befides, we do not fay, graze a thing; but graze on it. Mr. Warburton. The fame diftinction, betwixt raz: and pierce, our Author has inark'd, I remember, in his tranßation of Paris's epiftle to Helen. My wound is not a flight raze with an arrow, But it hath pierc'd my heart, and burn'd my marrow. In the fame manner the French us'd their word rafer, which fometimes fignifies, brushing over, touching a thing but lightly. Il fe dit des corps qui palent fort près de quelques autres, & ne les touchent que Légerément; fays RICHELET. So, with them, rafer les aux, `means, to fkim lightly over the water. And in the fame manner, the best Latin poets ufed their verb, radere; to skim along by, run gently Lucret. V. 257. over. ripas radentia flumina rodunt. Fit quoque enim interdum, ut non tam concurrere nubes Radimus. -Projectaque Saxa Pachini Idem VI. 117. Virg. Æn. V. 170. Idem Æn. III. 699. Id. Æn. VII, 10. I Proxima Circaa raduntur littora terræ. &c. &. But to return to our Author. I have ventur'd to attack another part of this fentence, which my ingenious friend flip'd over. cannot fee, for my heart, the difference betwixt the fhot of accident and dart of chance. The words, and things they imply, are purely fynony |