NOTES. "One Michael Cassio, a Florentine, A fellow almost damned in a fair wife.” Act I., Scene 1. If the text in the second line is correct, Iago probably means that Cassio is likely to ruin himself by a marriage! with Bianca. On a subsequent occasion (act iv., scene 1), he acquaints Cassio himself that such a report is in circulation. "What tell'st thou me of robbing? This is Venice: My house is not a grange.”—Act I., Scene 1. That is, we are in a populous city, not in a lone house where a robbery might easily be committed. A grange is, strictly, the farm of a monastery; but in some counties every lone house or farm which stands solitary is called a grange. "You'll have your nephews neigh to you.”—Act I., Scene 1. Nephew, in this instance, has the power of the Latin word nepos, and signifies a grandson or any lineal descendant. "Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes, The word "in" is here used in the sense of " to." This is one of the many obsolete peculiarities of ancient phraseology. Extravagant" has its Latin signification of "wandering." As in "HAMLET:"-"The extravagant and erring spirit hies to his confine." I fetch my life and being From men of royal siege; and my demerits The term "men of royal siege" signifies men who have sat upon royal seats or thrones. "Siege" is used for "seat" by many other writers. "Demerits" has here the significa tion of "merits." As in "CORIOLANUS:" Opinion, that so sticks on Martius, may Mereo and demereo had the same meaning in the Latin. Mr. Fuseli has given the best explanation yet offered of the term "unbonneted: "-" I am his equal or superior in rank and were it not so, such are my merits, that unbonneted, without the addition of patrician or senatorial dignity, they may speak to as proud a fortune," &c. "Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you Against the general enemy Ottoman."-Act 1., Scene 3. It was part of the policy of the Venetian state never to entrust the command of an army to a native. By land (says Thomas), they are served of strangers, both for generals, for captains, and for all other men of war; because their law permitteth not any Venetian to be captain over an army by land: fearing, I think, Cæsar's example." "Send for the lady to the Sagittary."—Act I., Scene 3. "Sagittary" was the name applied to a fictitious being, compounded of man and horse. As used in the text, it has been generally supposed to be the sign of an iun; but it now appears that it was the residence of the commanding officers of the republic. It is said that the figure of an archer, over the gate, still indicates the spot. "The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders."—Act I., Scene 3. Legends of this description had long been popular: the allusion in the text is probably directed in a particular manner to a passage in Raleigh's narrative of his voyage to Guiana:-" Next unto the Arvi are two rivers, Atoica and Caova; and on that branch which is called Caova are a nation of people whose heads appear not above their shoulders: which, though it may be thought a mere fable, yet for mine own part I am resolved it is true, because every child in the province of Arromaia and Canuri affirm the same. They are called Ewaipanoma; they are reported to have their eyes in their shoulders and their mouths in the middle of their breasts, and that a long train of hair groweth backward between their shoulders." devils mean to instigate men to commit the most atrocious crimes, they prompt or tempt at first with appearances of virtue. "I humbly thank you for 't.--I never knew A Florentine more kind and honest." Act III., Scene 1. Cassio was undoubtedly a Florentine; and, as Iago was a Venetian, what Cassio means to say, in the quoted passage, is, that he never knew one of his own countrymen more kind and honest. "(Sure that they say the wars must make examples That is, the severity of military discipline must not spare the best men of the army, when their punishment may afford a wholesome example. "Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul The meaning of the word wretch is not generally understood. It is now, in some parts of England, a term of the softest and fondest tenderness. It expresses the utmost degree of amiableness, joined with an idea, which perhaps all tenderness includes, of feebleness, softness, and want of protection. JoHNSON. "Who has a breast so pure But some uncleanly apprehensions Keep leets and law-days, and in session sit With meditations lawful."-Act III, Scene 3. That is, who has so virtuous a breast that some 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 lawful thoughts? "O beware, my lord, of jealousy: It is the green-eyed monster which doth make The old copies have "mock." The correction was made by Sir T. Hanmer. I have not the smallest doubt that Shakspere wrote "make," and have, therefore, inserted it in the text. The words "make" and "mocke" (for such was the old spelling) are often confounded in these plays.MALONE. I have received Hanmer's emendation: because, "to mock" does not signify "to loathe;" and because, when lago bids Othello "beware of jealousy, the green-eyed monster," it is natural to tell why he should beware; and, for caution, he gives him two reasons:-that jealousy often creates its own cause, and that, when the causes are real, jealousy is misery. -JOHNSON. Various passages, both from Shakspere and other writers, are quoted in support of this reading. The chief is what Emilia says of jealousy, in the last scene of this Act:-""T is a monster begot upon itself, born on itself" "She did deceive her father, marrying you: And when she seemed to shake and fear your looks, She loved them most."-Act III., Scene 3. for their prudence, will, with very slight appearances against them, be censured as not very likely to restrain them by their virtue.-JOHNSON. "To seel her father's eyes up close as oak."-Act III., Scene 3. "To seel" is an expression from falconry. To seel a hawk was to subject it to the barbarous operation of sewing up its eyelids. Close as oak" means, as close as the grain of the oak. This and the following argument of Othello ought to be deeply impressed on every reader. Deceit and falsehood, whatever conveniences they may for a time promise or produce, are in the sum of life obstacles to happiness. Those who profit by the cheat distrust the deceiver, and the act by which kindness was sought, puts an end to confidence. The same objection may be made, with a lower degree of strength, against the imprudent generosity of disproportionate marriages. When the first heat of passion is over, it is easily succeeded by suspicion that the same violence of inclination which caused one irregularity, may stimulate to another: | and those who have shewn that their passions are too violent Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings, I'd whistle her off, and let her down the wind, To prey at fortune."-Act III., Scene 3. "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.'"-JOHNSON. "I'll have the work ta'en out, And give it Iago."-Act III., Scene 3. By having the "work ta'en out," Emilia means that she will have it copied. This is her first thought; but the sudden coming in of Iago, in a surly humour, makes her alter her resolution. The same phrase afterwards occurs between Cassio and Bianca, in the last scene of this Act. It is impossible not to regret the execrable conduct which the poet (most likely from inadvertence) has assigned to Emilia in this matter of the handkerchief.-In Cinthio's novel, while Desdemona is caressing the child of the Iago of the play, the villain steals the handkerchief, which hung at her girdle, without the knowledge of his wife. "OTH. But this denoted a fo ejone conclusion. IAGO. 'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream." Act III., Scene 3. The last of these lines is usually given to Othelle, on the authority of the folio: the quarto ascribes it to Iago; and we coincide with Warburton in thinking the latter arrangement preferable. Othello believes that the dream leaves no ambiguity about the matter: in his judgment, it "denoted a foregone conclusion." Iago, with affected reluctance, merely admits it "a shrewd doubt." "She was in love; and he she loved proved mad, And did forsake her."—Act IV., Scene 3. "Mad" must here be understood in the sense of wild, unruly, fickle. As in "LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST:""Do you hear, my mad wenches?" "She had a song of willow."-Act IV., Scene 3. The original of this ballad (in two parts) is preserved in Percy's collection. "Marry, I would not do such a thing for a joint-ring." Act IV., Scene 3. A joint-ring was anciently a common token between lovers. Their nature will be best understood by a passage from Dryden's "DON SEBASTIAN:" "A curious artist wrought them, Her part had 'Juan' inscribed, and his had ‘Zayda' "Pr'y thee, Emilia, Go know of Cassio where he supped to-night." Act V., Scene 1. In the last scene of the preceding Act, Iago informs Roderigo that Cassio was to sup with Bianca; that he would accompany him to her house, and would take care to bring him away from thence between twelve and one. Cassio, too, had informed lago that he would sup with Bianca, and Iago had indirectly promised to meet him at her house. The villain, however, thought it safest to waylay his victim, and in the passage quoted professes a politic ignorance of Cassio's motions during the evening. "Put out the light, and then-Put out the light!" Act V., Scene 2. The old copy gives the line thus:- "Put out the light, and then put out the light." The present regulation of the passage, by which so much beauty and spirit are added to it, was proposed by Mr. Upton; but it is to be found in Ayres's "LIFE OF POPE:" it may therefore have originated with Warburton, who thus explains it:-The meaning is, "I will put out the light, and then proceed to the execution of my purpose." But the expression of putting out the light, bringing to mind the effects of the extinction of the light of life, he breaks short, and questions himself about the effects of this metaphorical extinction, introduced by a repetition of his first words; as much as to say,-" But hold, let me first weigh the reflection which this expression naturally excites."-SINGER. "O perjured woman! thou dost stone my heart, Act V., Scene 2. That is, "Thou hast hardened my heart, and mak'st me kill thee with the rage of a murderer, when I thought to have sacrificed thee to justice with the calmness of a priest striking a victim.”—JOHNSON. "O mistress, villany hath made mocks with love!" Act V., Scene 2. That is, villany hath taken advantage to play upon the weakness of love. "Go to, charm your tongue."-Act V., Scene 2. To charm is to conjure, to enchant, to lay or still as with an incantation. So in "KING HENRY V. :"— Charming the narrow seas To give you gentle pass." "It was a handkerchief; an antique token My father gave my mother."-Act V., Scene 2. In the third Act, Othello states that this fatal handkerchief was given by his mother to his father. The transposition of giver and receiver, in the passage above quoted, was probably a mere inadvertence either of the poet or the transcriber. "Of one whose hand, Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away Richer than all his tribe."-Act V., Scene 2. It has been a point much disputed whether "Indian" or "Júdean" is the proper reading of the text in this place. The earliest quarto gives "Indian," and two passages are quoted from other writers which strongly support this version. The first is from Habington ("To Castara weeping"): "So the unskilful Indian those bright gems The second quotation is from Sir R. Howard's "WOMAN'S CONQUEST:" "Behold my queen, Who with no more concern I 'll cast away Than Indians do a pearl-that ne'er did know "Judean" (or rather Iudean) is the reading of the first folio; and, being now generally received, we have not thought it advisable to make a doubtful alteration, the effect of the passage being, in either case, precisely the same. Those who support this last version suppose the allusion in the text is to Herod and his savage sacritice of Mariamne. ["OTHELLO" furnishes one of the very few instances in which Dr. Johnson has spoken of Shakspere's plays in anything like adequate terms of eulogy. In justice to him, therefore, as well as to the poet, we willingly avail ourselves on this occasion of the critic's cogent "summary remarks."] THE beauties of this play impress themselves so strongly upon the attention of the reader, that they can draw no aid from critical illustration. The fiery openness of Othello, magnanimous, artless, and credulous, boundless in his confidence, ardent in his affection, inflexible in his resolution, and obdurate in his revenge ;-the cool malignity of lago, silent in his resentment, subtle in his designs, and studious at once of his interest and his vengeance;-the soft simplicity of Desdemona, confident of merit and conscious of innocence; her artless perseverance in her suit, and her slowness to suspect that she can be suspected;-are such proofs of Shakspere's skill in human nature as, I suppose, it is in vain to seek in any modern writer. The gradual progress which Iago makes in the Moor's conviction, and the circumstances which he employs to inflame him, are so artfully natural, that though it will not, perhaps, be said of him, as he says of himself, that he is a man "not easily jealous," yet we cannot but pity him when at last we find him "perplexed in the extreme." There is always danger lest wickedness, conjoined with abilities, should steal upon esteem, though it misses of approbation but the character of lago is so conducted that he is, from the first scene to the last, hated and despised. Even the inferior characters of this play would be very conspicuous in any other piece, not only for their justness but their strength.-Cassio is brave, benevolent, and honest; ruined only by his want of stubbornness to resist an insidious invitation.-Roderigo's suspicious credulity and impatient submission to the cheats which he sees practised upon him (and which by persuasion he suffers to be repeated), exhibit a strong picture of a weak mind betrayed by unlawful desires to a false friend :-and the virtue of Emilia is such as we often find,-worn loosely, but not cast off; easy to commit small crimes, but quickened and alarmed at atrocious villanies. The scenes, from the beginning to the end, are busy, varied by happy interchanges, and regularly promoting the progress of the story: and the narrative in the end, though it tells but what is known already, yet is necessary to produce the death of Othello. Had the scene opened in Cyprus, and the preceding incidents been occasionally related, there had little wanting to a drama of the most exact and scrupulous regularity. ALL the passions, all the mind of the play, are Shakspere's. He was indebted to Cinthio for the circumstances of his plot, and some individual traits of Othello's and Iago's characters, particularly of that of the latter. Desdemona he chastened into beauty; and the Captain (Cassio), whose character in the novel is scarcely distinguishable, he invested with qualities exactly correspondent to the purpose he was intended to fulfil. The wife of the Lieutenant (Iago) perhaps the poet had better have left as he found her; for in raising Emilia above insignificance, he unfortunately rendered her inexplicable. Roderigo is his own absolute creation.-SKOTTOWE. |