Rod. Tush, never tell me, I take it much unkindly,

That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse,

As if the strings were thine, should'st know of this.

Iago. 'Sblood, but you will not hear me:

If ever I did dream of such a matter,

Abhor me.

I prefer the reading of the folio, which omits these words. The folio has been followed by

Theobald and the edition of 1785.

Iago.

Ibid.

Three great ones of the city,

In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
Oft capp'd to him.

I prefer the reading of the folio off-capp'd, which has been followed by Theobald and the edition of 1785. I do not think that we are to understand that these great men had often repeated their suit to Othello. I see no reason to suppose that they did not receive their answer, such as it was, on their first application.

P. 538.-442.-378.

And what was he?

Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife.

Nothwithstanding all that has been written on this difficult passage, I still doubt what is its

true explanation.

P. 541.-446.-386.

Iago. For when my outward action doth demonstrate

The native act and figure of my heart

In compliment extern, 'tis not long after

But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve

For daws to peck at.

I concur with Mr. Steevens in preferring daws, the reading of the folio, to doves, that of the quarto.

(Which, when I know that boasting is an honour,
I shall promulgate,) I fetch my life and being
From men of royal siege.

I heartily concur with Mr. Steevens.

P. 551.-456.-400.

and my demerits

May speak, unbonneted, to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reach'd.

I do not think Mr. Steevens's explanation of unbonneted is the true one. There is, I think, much weight in the objection alleged against it by Mr. Malone. I rather incline to read and bonneted with Theobald. Perhaps Mr. Fuseli's is the true explanation.

P. 555.-461.-406.

Bra. Whether a maid-so tender, fair, and happy;
So opposite to marriage, that she shunn'd
The wealthy curled darlings of our nation,-
Would ever have, to incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as you; to fear, not to delight.

Mr. Malone's is the right explanation. Fear and delight are certainly substantives here.

P. 560.-461.-407.

Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense,
That thou has practis'd on her with foul charms;
Abus'd her delicate youth with drugs, or minerals,
That waken motion.

I incline to adopt Theobald's reading, that weaken notion, which, I think, receives support from the passage cited by Mr. Malone from King Lear. I should prefer the reading of the old copy (which is adopted in the edition of 1785) to the present.

P. 561.-463.-410.

Bra. For if such actions may have passage free,
Bond-slaves and pagans, shall our statesmen be.

I think pagans is the true reading.

P. 563.-465.-412.

1 Sen. And let ourselves again but understand,
That, as it more concerns the Turk than Rhodes,
So may he with more facile question bear it.

I think Mr. M. Mason's is the right explana

tion of question.

Oth..

P. 573.-474.-425.

and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart,
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
But not intentively.

I prefer the reading of the 2d folio distinctively. How she, who, as Othello says, had "with a " greedy ear devour'd up his discourse," could be said not to be attentive, I do not understand.

P. 577.-477.-429.

Bra.

I never yet did hear,

That the bruis'd heart was pierc'd through the ear.

Of this passage I doubt. I am not quite sure that we ought not to receive Warburton's emendation, pieced.

P. 580.-480.-433.

Des. That I did love the moor to live with him,
My downright violence and storm of fortunes

May trumpet to the world.

I rather incline to the reading of the quarto, scorn of fortune.

P. 582.-482.-436.

Oth. Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not,

To please the palate of my appetite;

Nor to comply with heat, the young affects,
In my distinct and proper satisfaction.

I incline to read distinct with Theobald and Sir T. Hanmer; but I am not sure that, in me defunct (notwithstanding the objections to it) may not be the true reading. I doubt much.

Iago.

P. 587.-488.-446.

it was a violent commence

ment, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration.

I believe Mr. Malone's is the true explanation of sequestration.

P. 587.-489.-447.

fill thy purse with money:

the food that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall
be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida.

On the locusts (ακριδες) which were the food of John the Baptist (Matth. iii. 4.) I find the following note: "Quidam per locustas volunt "intelligi arborum et herbarum summitates. "Victum non longe quæsitum, vel arte paratum, "sed quem Erernus ultro suppeditabat. Alii "locustas proprio et maxime recepto sensu esse "accipiendas statuunt, et has pro cibo Parthos, "Græcos, ipsosque etiam Hebræos, Bochartus et "alii luculentis testimoniis firmarunt; illorum " observationibus addere liceat quæ celeberri"mus peregrinator Guil. Dampier in Supple"mento Descriptionis orbis de Regno Funchino, " quod Indiæ Orientalis pars est, inter alia refert,

66

nempe stupendas locustarum turmas, mensibus "Januario et Februario, e terræ recessibus ubi "gignantur et alantur prodire; et Funchinenses " eas vel igne tostas comedere, vel sale conditas "in futuros usus reponere; obesas illas esse, et "succi plenas, et ab opulentioribus æque ac ab " infima fæce plebis in pretio haberi." Dr. Shaw (p. 188) says that "when they are sprinkled with "salt, and fried, they are not unlike, in taste, " to our fresh-water cray-fish." (Vide Hanmer's Observations, Vol. I. p. 297, 298.) Whether we understand the fruit or the insect to be meant in this place, is of little consequence.

P. 592.-492.-452.

Mon. What from the cape can you discern at sea?
1 Gent. Nothing at all; 1; it is a high-wrought flood;
I cannot, 'twixt the heaven and the main,
Descry a sail.

I think the heaven is the true reading.

Ibid.

Mon. A fuller blast ne'er shook our battlements:
If it hath ruffian'd so upon the sea,
What ribs of oak, when mountains melt on them,
Can hold the mortise.

Insequitur cumulo præruptus aquæ mons. Virg.

I think on them is right.

P. 595.-495.-457.

Cas. His bark is stoutly timber'd, and his pilot
Of very expert and approv'd allowance;
Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death,
Stand in bold cure.

I believe this passage (which I think a difficult one) is rightly explained by Mr. Malone.