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Away, I say; thou shalt know more hereafter :
Nay, get thee gone. [Exit ROD.] Two things are
to be done,-

My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress;
I'll set her on :

Myself, the while, to draw1 the Moor apart,

And bring him jump2 when he may Cassio find
Soliciting his wife; Ay, that's the way;
Dull not device by coldness and delay.

ACT III.

[Exit.

Cas. I humbly thank you for't. I never knew A Florentine more kind and honest."

Enter EMILIA.

Emil. Good morrow, good lieutenant: I am sorry
For your displeasure; but all will soon be well.
The general, and his wife, are talking of it;
And she speaks for you stoutly: The Moor replies,
That he you hurt, is of great fame in Cyprus,
And great affinity; and that, in wholesome wisdom,
He might not but refuse you: but, he protests, ha
loves you;

And needs no other suitor, but his likings,

SCENE I. Before the Castle. Enter CASSIO To take the saf'st occasion by the front,
and some Musicians.
To bring you in again.

Cas. Masters, play here, I will content your pains,
Something that's brief; and bid-good morrow,
general.3
[Music.

Enter Clown.

Clo. Why, masters, have your instruments been at Naples, that they speak i' the nose thus ?4 1 Mus. How, sir, how!

Clo. Are these, I pray you, called wind instruments?

1 Mus. Ay, marry, are they, sir. Clo. O, thereby hangs a tail,

1 Mus. Whereby hangs a tale, sir?

Clo. Marry, sir, by many a wind instrument that I know. But, masters, here's money for you; and the general so likes your music, that he desires you of all loves, to make no more noise with it. 1 Mus. Well, sir, we will not.

5

Clo. If you have any music that may not be heard, to't again : but, as they say, to hear music, the general does not greatly care.

1 Mus. We have none such, sir.

Clo. Then put up your pipes in your bag, for I'll away: Go; vanish into air; away.

[Exeunt Musicians. Cas. Dost thou hear, my honest friend? Clo. No, I hear not your honest friend; I hear

you.

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Cas.

Yet, I beseech you,-
If you think fit, or that it may be done,
Give me advantage of some brief discourse
With Desdemona alone.
I will bestow you where you shall have time
'Pray you, come in ;
To speak your bosom freely.
Cas.

Emil.

I am much bound to you.'
[Exeunt.

SCENE II. A Room in the Castle. Enter

OTHELLO, IAGO, and Gentlemen.
Oth. These letters give, Iago, to the pilot;
And, by him, do my duties to the state:11
That done, I will be walking on the works,
Repair there to me.
Iago.
Well, my good lord, I'll do't.
Oth.This fortification, gentlemen,-shall we see't?
SCENE III. Before the Castle. Enter DESDE
Gent. We'll wait upon your lordship. [Exeunt.
MONA, CASSIO, and EMILIA.

Des. Be thou assur'd, good Cassio, I will do
All my abilities in thy behalf.

Emil. Good madam, do; I know, it grieves my husband,

As if the case12 were his.

Des. O, that's an honest fellow.-Do not doubt,
Cassio,

Cas. Pr'ythee, keep up thy quillet. There's a poor piece of gold for thee: if the gentlewoman But I will have my lord and you again that attends the general's wife be stirring, tell her, As friendly as you were. there's one Cassio entreats her a little favour of Cas. Bounteous madam, speech: Wilt thou do this? Whatever shall become of Michael Cassio, He's never any thing but your true servant. Des. O, sir, 13 I thank you: You do love my lord: You have known him long; and be you well assur'd,

Clo. She is stirring, sir; if she will stir hither, I sqall seem to notify unto her. [Exit.

Enter IAGO,

Cas. Do, good my friend.-In happy time, Iago. He shall in strangeness stand no further off

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Than in a politic distance.

Cas.
Ay, but, lady,
That policy may either last so long, 14
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.

Des. Do not doubt that; before Emilia here,
I give thee warrant of thy place: assure thee,
If I do vow a friendship, I'll perform it

was a Venetian is proved by a speech in the third scene of this act, and by what he says in the fifth act, after having stabbed Roderigo :

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couple on the morning after the celebration of the mar-All that Cassio means to say in the present passage is, riage, or to greet them with a morning song to bid them never experienced more honesty and kindness even in good-morrow. See Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. Sc. 5. one of my own countrymen. Ritson's note about the waits is nothing to the purpose. 4 So in The Merchant of Venice :- The bagpipe sings i' the nose.' Rabelais somewhere speaks of 'a blow over the nose with a Naples cowl-staff.' The allusion is obvious.

5 i. e. for love's sake. We have this adjuration again In The Merry Wives of Windsor.

6 See Hamlet, Act v. Sc. i. p. 506. note 8.

8 i. e. the displeasure you have incurred from Othello
9 This line is wanting in the folio.

10 This speech is omitted in the first quarto.
11 Thus the quarto 1622. Folio-'to the senate.'
12 Folio reads- As if the cause were his.'

13 Thus the quarto of 1622. The folio reads-'1 know't, I thank you.'

14 'He may either of himself think it politic to keep 7 In consequence of this line a doubt has been enter-me out of office so long, or he may be satisfied with such tained concerning the country of Iago. Cassio was un-slight reasons, or so many accidents may make hin doubtedly a Florentine, as appears by the first scene of think my readmission at that time improper, that I ma▾ the play, where he is expressly called one. That Iago | be quite forgotten.”—Johnson.

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Tell me,
Othello. I wonder in my soul,
What you could ask me, that I should deny,
Or stand so mammerings on. What Michael.
Cassio,

That came a wooing with you, and so many a time,
When I have spoke of you dispraisingly,
Hath ta'en your part; to have so much to do
To bring him in! Trust me, I could do much,-
Oth. "Pr'ythee, no more: let him come when he
will;

I will deny thee nothing.
Des.
Why, this is not a boon;
'Tis as I should entreat you wear your gloves,
Or feed on nourishing dishes, or keep you warm;
Or sue to you to do peculiar profit

To your own person: Nay, when I have a suit,
Wherein I mean to touch your love indeed,
It shall be full of poize" and difficulty,
And fearful to be granted.

Oth.

I will deny thee nothing: Whereon, I do beseech thee, grant me this, To leave me but a little to myself. Des. Shall I deny you? no: Farewell, my lord. Oth. Farewell, my Desdemona: I will come to thee straight.

Des. Emilia, come :-Be it as your fancies teach

you ; Whate'er you be, I am obedient.

[Exit with EMILIA. Oth. Excellent wretch ! Perdition catch my soul, But I do love thee! and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.s

Jago. My noble lord,Oth.

What dost thou say, Iago? Iago. Did Michael Cassio, when

lady,

Know of your love?

you woo'd

my

Oth. He did,from first to last: Why dost thou ask? Iago. But for a satisfaction of my thought; No further harm.

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I heard thee say but now-Thou lik'dst not that,
When Cassio left my wife; What did'st not like?
And, when I told thee-he was of my counsel
In my whole course of wooing, thou cry'dst, Indeed?

1 Hawks and other birds are tamed by keeping them from sleep. To this Shakspeare alludes.-So in Cart-of the fondest and softest tenderness. It expresses the utwright's Lady Errant :

We'll keep you

As they do hawks, watching until you leave
Your wildness.'

And in Davenant's Just Italian :

'They've watch'd my hardy violence so tame.' 2 i. e. take his present atonement,' or submission. The words were formerly synonymous.

3 Cunning here signifies knowledge, the ancient

sense of the word.

4 The severity of military discipline must not spare the best men of the army, when their punishment may afford a wholesome example.

5 So hesitating, in such doubtful suspense. So in Lyly, Euphues, 1580:- Neither stand in a mamering whether it be best to depart or not. The quarto 1622 reads-muttering.

6 See Act i. Sc. 2.

7 i. e. of weight.

8 'The meaning of the word wretch is not generally understood. It is now in some parts of England a term

most 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 timɔrous by her sex, and by her situation absolutely in his power, calls her Excellent wretch! It may be expressed, 'Dear. harmless, helpless excellence.'-Johnson. Sir W. Da venant, in his Cruel Brother, uses the word twice with the same meaning:-' Excellent wretch! with a timo rous modesty she stifleth up her utterance.'

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9 I think with Malone, that Othello is meant to say duced to its primitive chaos. So in Venus and Adonis: 'Ere I cease to love thee, the world itself shall be re 'For he being dead, with him is beauty slain, And beauty dead, black Chaos comes again. Shakspeare's meaning is more fully expressed in Thr Winter's Talc :—

:

'It cannot fail but by

The violation of my faith,—and then

Let nature crush the sides o' the earth together And mar the seeds within "

And didst contract and purse thy brow together,
As if thou then had'st shut up in thy brain
Some horrible conceit: If thou dost love me,
Show me thy thought.
Iago.
My lord, you know I love you.
Oth.
I think thou dost :
And,—for I know thou art full of love and honesty,
And weigh'st thy words before thou giv'st them
breath,

Therefore these stops of thine fright me the more:
For such things, in a false disloyal knave,
Are tricks of custom; but, in a man that's just,
They are close denotements, working from the
heart,

That passion cannot rule. Iago.

1

For Michael Cassio,I dare be sworn, I think that he is honest. Oth. I think so too. Iago.

Men should be what they seem; Or, those that be not, 'would, they might seem

none !2

Oth. Certain, men should be what they seem. Iago. Why, then, I think Cassio's an honest man. Oth. Nay, yet there's more in this :

I pray thee, speak to me as to thy thinkings,

As, I confess, it is my nature's plague
To spy into abuses: and, oft, my jealousy
Shapes faults that are not,-I entreat you, then,
From one that so imperfectly conjects,
You'd take no notice? nor build yourself a trouble
Out of his scattering and unsure observance:
It were not for your quiet, nor your good,
Nor for my manhood, honesty, or wisdom,
To let you know my thoughts.
Oth.
What dost thou mean?
Iago. Good name, in man, and woman, dear my
lord,

Is the immediate jewel of their souls:

Who steals my purse, steals trash;" 'tis something, nothing:

'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands :8

But he that filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.

Oth. By heaven, I'll know thy thought.
Iago. You cannot, if my heart were in your hand.
Nor shall not, whilst 'tis in my custody.
Oth. Ha!

Iago. O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;

As thou dost ruminate; and give thy worst of It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth makes

The worst of words.

thoughts

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Keep leets, and law-days, and in session sit
With meditations lawful?

Oth. Thou dost conspire against thy friend, Iago, If thou but think'st him wrong'd, and mak'st his ear A stranger to thy thoughts.

Iago.

I do beseech you,Though I, perchance, am vicious in my guess,

1 Thus the earliest quarto. The first folio reads'close dilations.' Which Johnson says was intended for cold delations, i. e. occult and secret accusations, working involuntary from the heart. The second folio reads cold dilations,' which Warburton explains 'cold, keeping back a secret,' which men of phlegmatic constitutions, whose arts are not swayed or governed by their passions, we find can do: while more sanguine tempers reveal themselves at once, and without reserve.' Upton says dilalons comes from the Latin dilationes, delayings, pauses.

2 I believe the meaning is, would they might no longer seem or bear the shape of men.'—Johnson. 3 'I am not bound to do that which even slaves are not bound to do.' So in Cymbeline :

O, Pisanio,

Every good servant does not all commands, No bond but to do just ones.'

No perfection is so absolute

That some impurity doth not pollute.' Rape of Lucrece. 5'Who has so virtuous a breast that some impure conceptions and uncharitable surmises will not sometimes enter into it; hold a session there, as in a regular court, and "bench by the side" of authorised and law. ful thoughts. In the poet's thirtieth sonnet we find the same imagery :

"When to the sessions of sweet silent thoughts I summon up remembrance of things past.' A leet is also called a law day. This court, in whose manor soever kept, was accounted the king's court, and commonly held every half year,' it was a meeting of the hundred to certify the king of the good manners and government of the inhabitants,' &c.

6 i. e. conjectures. Thus the quarto 1622. The folio reads:

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The meat it feeds on: That cuckold lives in bliss,
Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;
But, O, what damned minutes tells he o'er,
Who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strongly loves!
Oth. O, misery!

Iago. Poor, and content, is rich and rich enough ;
But riches, fineless, 10 is as poor as winter,
To him that ever fears he shall be poor :-
Good heaven, the souls of all my tribe defend
From jealousy!

Oth.

Why! why is this? Think'st thou, I'd make a life of jealousy, To follow still the changes of the moon With fresh suspicions? No: to be once in doubt, Is-once to be resolv'd: Exchange me for a goat, When I shall turn the business of my soul To such exsufflicate11 and blown surmises,

9 Nunc ager Umbreni sub nomine nuper Ofelli Dictus, erit nulli proprius; sed cedet in usum Nunc mihi, nunc alii.' Horat. Sat. lib. ä. 2.

So in Camden's Remaines, 1605, p. 107:-

'Nunc mea, mox hujus, sed postea nescio cujus.' 9 The old copy reads mock. The emendation is Hanmer's. Steevens attempted to justify the old reading; but his arguments are not convincing; and the slight alteration of the text renders it much more clear, elegant, and poetical, and has been so well defended by Malone and others, that I have not hesitated to adopt it. The following passages have been adduced in confirmation of Hanmer's reading. At the end of the third Act, Desdemona remarks on Othello's jealousy :

'Alas the day! I never gave him cause'

To which Emilia replies:

'But jealous fools will not be answer'd so,
They are not jealous ever for the cause,

But jealous, for they are jealous: 'tis a monster
Begot upon itself, born on itself."

10 i. e. endless, unbounded. Warburton observes that this is finely expressed-winter producing no fruits.

11 No instance of this word has elsewhere occurred It appears to me to be intended to convey the meaning of whispered, or made out of breath. Suftation is interpreted by Phillips, a puffing up, a making to swell with blowing. In Plautus we have, 'Sufflavit nescio quid uxore;' which Cooper renders, 'He hath whispered somewhat in his wives eare, whatsoever it be.' He also translates 'Rumoris nescio quid afflaverat, a certain brute or rumour come to my hearing. Though I do not agree with the following explanation, I think it right to lay it before the reader :-'It seems to me, (says Mr. Todd,) that all the critics have overlooked the meaning of the passage. Exsuflicates may be traced to the low Latin exsuflare, to spit down upon, an ancient form of exorcising; and, figuratively, to spit out in abhorrence or contempt. See Du Cange, in v. exsuflare. Exsuflicate may thus signify contemptible: and Othello may be supposed to mean, that he would not change the noble designs, that then employed his thoughts, for contemptible and despicable surmises. ' Johnson's Dict. in v. Ézsuffolate.

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Matching thy inference.' 'Tis not to make me | As my thoughts aim not at. Cassio's my worthy

jealous,

To say-my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company,
Is free of speech, sings, plays, and dances well;
Where virtue is, these are more virtuous :2
Nor from mine own weak merits will I draw
The smallest fear, or doubt of her revolt;
For she had eyes, and chose me: No, Iago;
I'll
see, before I doubt; when I doubt, prove;
And, on the proof, there is no more but this,
Away at once with love, or jealousy.

Iago. I am glad of this, for now I shall have reason
To show the love and duty that I bear you
With franker spirit: therefore, as I am bound,
Receive it from me :-I speak not yet of proof.
Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio;
Wear your eye-thus, not jealous, nor secure :
I would not have your free and noble nature,
Out of self-bounty, be abus'd; look to 't:
I know our country disposition well;

3

In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks
They dare not show their husbands; their best con-

science

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friend :

My lord, I see you are mov'd.
Oth.

No, not much mov'd:-
I do not think but Desdemona's honest.
Iago. Long live she so! and long live you tc
think so!

Oth. And yet, how nature erring from itself,-
Iago. Ay, there's the point :-As,-to be bold
with you,-

Not to affect many proposed matches,

Of her own clime, complexion, and degree;
Whereto, we see, in all things nature tends:
Foh! one may smell, in such, a will most rank,
Foul disproportion, thoughts unnatural.-
But pardon me; I do not, in position,
Distinctly speak of her: though I may fear,
Her will, recoiling to her better judgment,
May fall to match you with her country forms,
And (happily) repent.

Oth.

Farewell, farewell :
If more thou dost perceive, let me know more;
Set on thy wife to observe: Leave me, Iago.
lago. My lord, I take my leave. [Going.
Oth. Why did I marry ?-This honest creature,
doubtless,

Sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds.
Iago. My lord, I would, I might entreat your

honour

To scan this thing no further; leave it to time:
And though it be at that Cassio have his place,
(For, sure, he fills it up with great ability,)
Yet, if you please to hold him off a while,
You shall by that perceive him and his means
Note, if your lady strain his entertainment1o
With any strong or vehement importunity;
Much will be seen in that. In the mean time,
Let me be thought too busy in my fears,
(As worthy cause I have, to fear-I am,)
And hold her free, I do beseech your honour.
Oth. Fear not my government.11
Iago. I once more take my leave.
Oth. This fellow's of exceeding honesty,
And knows all qualities, with a learned spirit12
Of human dealings: If I do prove her haggard,13
Though that her jesses14 were my dear heart-strings,
I'd whistle her off, and let her down the wind,
To prey at fortune. Haply, for I am black;
And have not those soft parts of conversation
That chamberers have: 15-Or, for I am declin'd

[Exu.

10 i. e. press hard his readmission to his pay and Entertainment was the military term for the admission of soldiers.

2 A passage in All's Well that Ends Well is perhaps the best comment on the sentiments of Othello:-office. have those good hopes of her education promises: his disposition she inherits; which makes fair gifts fairer.' Gratior e pulchro veniens et corpore virtus. 3 Self bounty for inherent generosity.

11 Do not distrust my ability to contain my passion 12 Learned for experienced. The construction is, 'He knows with an experienced spirit all qualities of human dealings.'

4 This and the following argument of Iago ought to te deeply impressed on every reader. Deceit and false- 13 Haggard is wild, and therefore libertine. A hag hood, whatever conveniences they may for a time pro-gard falcon was a wild hawk that had preyed for hermise or produce, are in the sum of life obstacles to self long before she was taken; sometimes also called happiness. Those who profit by the cheat, distrust the a ramage falcon. From a passage in The White Dedeceiver, and the act by which kindness is sought puts vil, or Vittoria Corombona, 1612, it appears that hag. an end to confidence. The same objection may be gard was a term of reproach, sometimes applied to a made with a lower degree of strength against the im- wanton:- Is this your perch, you haggard fly to the prudent generosity of disproportionate marriages. stews.' So in Shakerley Marmion's Holland's LeaWhen the first heat of passion is over, it is easily suc-guer, 1633: ceeded by suspicion, that the same violence of inclina- 'Before these courtiers lick their lips at her, tion, which caused one irregularity, may stimulate to I'll trust a wanton haggard in the wind.' another; and those who have shown that their passions Again :— are too powerful for their prudence, will, with very slight appearances against them, be censured, as not very likely to restrain them by their virtue.-Johnson. 5 An expression from falconry: to seel a hawk is to sew up his eyelids. Close as oak means as close as the grain of oak.

6 Issues for conclusions

7 Success here means consequence or event; as successo, in Italian. So in Sidney's Arcadia, p. 39, ed. 1613- Straight my heart misgave me some evil suc. cess!' And in The Palace of Pleasure:- Fearing | lest their case would sort to some pitiful successe.'

8 Will for inclination or desire. A rank will is a Instful inclination.

9 You shall discover whether he thinks his best means, his most powerful interest, is by the solicitation of your lady.'

For she is ticklish as any haggard,
And quickly lost.?

14 Jesses are short straps of leather tied about the foot of a hawk, by which she is held on the fist.-"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 for herself and preyed at fortune.' This was told to Dr. Johnson by Mr. Clark. So in the Spanish Gipsie, 1653:

That young lannerd (i. e. hawk)

Whom you have such a mind to; if you can whistle

her

To come to fist, make trial, play the young falconer · 15 Men of intrigue. Chambering and wantonness are mentioned together in the Scriptures.

Into the vale of years;-yet that's not much ;-
She's gone; I am abus'd; and my relief
Must be to loathe her. O, curse of marriage,
That we can call these delicate creatures ours,
And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad,
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon,
Than keep a corner in the thing I love,

For others' uses. Yet, 'tis the plague of great ones;
Prerogativ'd are they less than the base;
'Tis destiny unshunnable, like death;
Even then this forked plague' is fated to us,
When we do quicken.2 Desdemona comes:
Enter DESDEMONA and EMILIA.

If she be false, Ọ, then heaven mocks itself!
I'll not believe it.
Des.

How now, my dear Othello?
Your dinner, and the generous islanders
By you invited, do attend your presence.
Oth. I am to blame.

Des. Why is your speech so faint? are you not
well?

Oth. I have a pain upon my forehead here.
Des. 'Faith, that's with watching; 'twill away
again:

Let me but bind it hard, within this hour
It will be well.

Oth.

Your napkin is too little;
[He puts the Handkerchief from him, and it drops.
Let it alone. Come, I'll go in with you.
Des. I am very sorry that you are not well.
[Exeunt ОTH. and DES.

Emil. I am glad I have found this napkin;
This was her first remembrance from the Moor:
My wayward husband hath a hundred times
Woo'd me to steal it: but she so loves the token,
(For he conjur'd her, she would ever keep it,)
That sne reserves it evermore about her,

To kiss, and talk to. I'll have the work ta'en out,"
And give 't Iago:

What he'll do with it, heaven knows, not I;
I nothing, but to please his fantasy.

Enter IAGO.

you.

Lago. How now! what do you here alone?
Emil. Do not you chide; I have a thing for
Iago. A thing for me?-it is a common thing.
Emil. Ha!

Iago. To have a foolish wife.

1 One of Sir John Harington's Epigrams will illustrate this forked plague :-

'Acteon guiltless unawares espying
Naked Diana bathing in her bowre

Was plagued with hornes; his dogs did him devoure;
Wherefore take heed, ye that are curious, prying,
With some such forked plague you be not smitten,
And in your foreheads see your faults be written.'
2 i. e. when we begin to live.

3 The generous islanders' are the islanders of rank, distinction: generosi, Lat. This explanation however (as Steevens observes) may be too particular; for generous also signified valiant, of a brave spirit.

4 In the north of England this term for a handkerchief is still used. The word occurs in Macbeth, Julius Cæsar, and other of these plays.

5 That is, copied. Her first thoughts are to have a copy made of it for her hushand, and restore the original to Desdemona: but the sudden coming in of Iago, in a surly humour, makes her alter her resolution, to please him. The same phrase afterwards occurs between Cassio and Bianca, in Sc. iv.

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been so earnest

To have me filch it?
Iago.

Why, what's that to you?
[Snatching it
Emil. If it be not for some purpose of import,
Give it me again: Poor lady! she'll run mad
When she shall lack it.

Iago. Be not you known of't; I have use for it
Go, leave me.
[Exit EMILIA
I will in Cassio's lodging lose this napkin,
And let him find it: Trifles light as air,
Are, to the jealous, confirmations strong
As proofs of holy writ. This may do something.
The Moor already changes with my poison:
Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons,
;
Which, at the first, are scarce found to distaste
But, with a little act upon the biood,

Burn like the mines of sulphur.-I did say so :8-
Enter OTHELLO.

Look, where he comes! Not poppy, nor mandra
9
gora,"

Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou ow'dst1o yesterday.

Oth.
To me?

Ha! ha! false to me?

Iago. Why, how now, general? no more of that.
Oth. Avaunt! be gone! thou hast set me on the
rack.

I swear, 'tis better to be much abus'd,
Than but to know't a little.

Icgo.

How now, my lord? Oth. What sense had I of her stolen hours of lust ?11

I saw it not, thought it not, it harm'd not me :
I slept the next night well, was free and merry;

apology to be admitted, as there is no reason why Emi-
lia should be present when Othello demands the hand-
kerchief."--Pye.

6 That is, I being opportunely here, took it up.

7' Seem as if you knew nothing of the matter.' The folio reads, "Be not acknown on't.'-This word occurs in the Life of Ariosto, subjoined to Sir John Harington's translation of the Orlando Furioso, p. 418, ed. 1607: some say he was married to her privilie, but durst not be acknowne to it. Again, in Cornelia, a tragedy, by Thomas Kyd, 1594 :—

Our friend's misfortune doth increase our own.
Cic. But ours of others will not be acknown.'

8 Iago first ruminates on the qualities of the passion which he is labouring to excite; and then proceeds to comment on its effects. 'Jealousy, (says he,) with the smallest operation on the blood, flames out with all the violence of sulphur,' &c.

I did say so;
Look where he comes!"

look where Othello approaches, to confirm the propriety and justice of my observation.--Steevens.

9 The mandrake has a soporific quality, and the ancients used it when they wanted an opiate of the most powerful kind. See Antony and Cleopatra, Act. i. Sc. 6. 10 i. e. possessedst.

i. e. I knew the least touch of such a passion would not "This scheme of getting the work of this valued permit the Moor a moment of repose-I have just said handkerchief copied, and restoring the original to Des-that jealousy is a restless commotion of the mind; and demona, was probably introduced by the poet to render Emilia less unamiable. It is remarkable that when she perceives Othello's fury on the loss of this token, though she is represented as affectionate to her mistress, she never attempts to relieve her from her distress; which she might easily have done by demanding the handkerchief from her husband, or divulging the story if he refused to restore it. But this would not have served the plot.-In Cinthio's Novel, while the artless Desdemona is caressing the child of Othello's ancient, the villain steals the handkerchief which hung at her girdle without the knowledge of his wife.'-Malone.

This observation is very just; it is particularly striking in the representation; neither is the concluding

11 A similar passage to this, and what follows it, ia found in The Witch, by Middleton. In the same drama there is also a scene between Francisca and her brother Antonio, when she first excites his jealousy, which has several circumstances in common with the dialogue which passes between Iago and Othello on the same subject. It is more than probable that Middleton was the imitator.

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