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Lear. And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life.

And my poor fool is hang'd!] This is an expression of tenderness for his dead Cordelia (not his fool, as some have thought) on whose lips he is still intent, and dies away while he is searching for life there.

I may add that the Fool of Lear was long ago forgotten. Having filled the space allotted him in the arrangement of the play, he appears to have been silently withdrawn in the sixth scene of the third act.-That the thoughts of a father in the bitterest of all moments, while his favorite child lay dead in his arms, should recur to the antic who had formerly diverted him, has somewhat in it that I cannot reconcile to the idea of genuine sorrow and despair.

Besides this, Cordelia was recently hanged; but we know not that the Fool had suffered in the same manner, nor can imagine why he should. The party adverse to Lear was little interested in the fate of his jester. The only use of him was to contrast and alleviate the sorrows of his master; and, that purpose being fully answered, the poet's solicitude about him

was at an end.

The term-poor fool might indeed have misbecome the mouth of a vassal commiserating the untimely end of a princess, but has no impropriety when used by a weak, old,' distracted king; in whose mind the distinctions of nature only survive, while he is uttering bis last frantic exclamations over a murdered daughter. STEEV.

"And my poor fool is hang'd." I read " pure soot" is hang'd!-pure in the sense of innocent, free from all imputed crime. Soot for sweet, a word of endearment. "And my innocent sweet, or my sweet innocent is murdered! The little difference in sound between pure and poor might lead to mistake: while in soot the s was scarcely distinguishable from f: and the same may be observed of t in respect of . This latter word (soot) is used by Chaucer and Spenser. Shakspeare has it likewise in the Tempest-"my soot, my tutor." B.

Athello.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Iago. One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,

A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;

In a fair wife.] In the former editions this hath been printed, a fair wife; but surely it must from the beginning have been a mistake, because it appears from a following part of the play, that Cassio was an unmarried man: on the other hand, his beauty is often hinted at, which it is natural enough for rough soldiers to treat with scorn and ridicule.. I read therefore:

"A fellow almost damn'd in a fair phyz."

a Florentine,

A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife.

ΗΑΝΜ.

But it was lago, and not Cassio, who was the Florentine, as appears from act iii. scene i. The passage therefore should be read thus:

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"A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife."

These are the words of Othello (which lago in this relation repeats) and signify, that a Florentine was an unfit person for command,as being always a slave to a fair wife; which was the case of Iago. The Oxford Editor, supposing this was said by Iago of Cassio, will have Cassio to be the Florentine; which, he says, is plain from many passages in the play, rightly understood. But because Cassio was no narried man (though I wonder it did not appear he was, from some passages rightly understood) he alters the line thus:

"A fellow almost damn'd in a fair phyz."

A White-friars' phrase.

SHAK.

WARB.

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As Mr. Theobald's, note or this passage appears to have been written in concert with Dr. Warburton, it were useless to insert them both. The former, however, concludes his observations thus:

"Iago, not Cassio, was the Florentine; lago not Cassio, was the married man; Iago's wife attends Desdemona to Cyprus; Cassio has a mistress there, a common strumpet; and Iago tells him in the fourth act:

"She gives it out that you shall marry her," which would be absurd, if Cassio had been already married at Venice. Besides, our poet follows the authority of his novel in giving the villainous ensign a fair wife." STEEV.

This is one of the passages which must for the present be resigned to corruption and obscurity. I have nothing that I can, with any approach to confidence, propose. I cannot think it very plain from Act III. Sc. 1. that Cassio was or was not a Florentine. JOHN. I am inclined to believe, that the true reading here is, "A fellow almost damn'd in a fair life;"

and that Shakspeare alludes to the judgment denounced in the gospel against those of whom all men speak well.

The character of Cassio is certainly such, as would be very likely to draw upon him all the peril of this denunciation literally understood. Well-bred, easy, sociable, good-natured; with abilities enough to make him agreeable and useful, but not sufficient to excite the envy of his equals, or to alarm the jealousy of his superiors. It may be observed too, that Shakspeare has thought it proper to make lago, in several other passages, bear his testimony to the amiable qualities of his rival. In Act v. Sc. 1. he speaks thus of him:

"" -If Cassio do remain,

"He hath a daily beauty in his life
"That makes me ugly."

I will only add, that, however hard or farfetch'd this allusion (whether Shakspeare's, or only mine) may seem to be, Archbishop Sheldon had exactly the same conceit, when he made that singular compliment, as the writer calls it, [Biog. Britan. Art. TEMPLE] to a nephew of Sir William Temple, that "he had the curse of the gospel, because all men spoke well of him." TYRW.

"In a fair wife." Mr. Tyrwhitt's conjecture is ingenious, and his emendation might be admitted, were it not that to say of Cassio that he is damned in a fair life,' accords not with what lago, in another place, and speaking to Roderigo, observes of him-" Now, Sir, who stands so eminently in the degree of this fortune as Cassio does? a knave very voluble : no farther conscionable, than in putting on the mere form of civil and humane feeling, for the better compassing of his salt and most hidden loose affection! A slippery and subtle knave: a devilish knave! A pestilent complete knave!"-I am of opinion, therefore, that "life" cannot be right, and that for

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"wife we should read wise, i. e. manner. The construction is this:

"A fellow, in a fair wise, almost damned."

The expression may be called elliptical. Iago's meaning, however, is-" A fellow of whom it may be fairly said, or to use a fair manner of speaking, that he is almost damned" (a worthless fellow)-and this, I must repeat, agrees with what is reported by him of Cassio in other places. There can be no doubt but that Cassio is the Florentine, and unmarried. B.

Iago. Do; with like timorous accent, and dire yell, As when, by night and negligence, the fire

Is spy'd in populous cities.

As when, by night, and negligence, the fire
Is spy'd in populous cities.]

This is not sense, take it which way you will. If night and negli gence relate to spied, it is absurd to say, the fire was spied by negligence. If night and negligence refer only to the time and occasion, it should then be night and through negligence. Otherwise the particle by would be made to signify time applied to one word, and. cause applied to the other. We should read, therefore, Is spred, by which all these faults are avoided. WARB.

"As when by night and negligence, the fire." The expression "night and negligence" is faulty, though it certainly may be understood. A very slight change will give an easier reading, and a better sense :

"As when the fire, in negligence, is spied

"By night, in populous cities."

"The fire occasioned by or through negligence."

Rod.

Your fair daughter,

At this odd even and dull watch o' the night.

B.

-this odd even-] The even of night is midnight, the time when night is divided into even parts. JOHN.

Odd is here ambiguously used, as it signifies strange, uncouth, or unwonted; and as it is opposed to even.

This expression, however explained, is very harsh; and the poet might have written-At this odd steven. Steven is an ancient word signifying time. So, in the old ballad of Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne.

"We may chance to meet with Robin Hood

"Here at some unsett steven.”

STEEV.

Much pains have been taken by some of the editors, especially by Dr. Warburton, to introduce into the text a parcel of obsolete words

which Shakspeare never dreamed of: for the obscurity of his style does not arise from the frequent use of antiquated terms, but from his peculiar manner of applying and combining the words which he found in common use in his day and when he deviates from the received Janguage of the times, it is rather by coining some harsh and highsounding words of his own, than by looking back for those which had fallen into disuse. If therefore it be necessary to amend this passage, I should choose to read "at this dull season," rather than this dull steven as an expression that would more naturally occur either to Shakspeare or to Roderigo. MONCK MASON.

This odd even.' Mr. Steevens observes, that, this odd even,' in whatever way interpreted, is harsh. The fact is, that there is no possibility of explaining it at all. It is nonsense: 1 read,

Your fair daughter,

Even at this odd, and dull watch of the night.' 'Odd' has here the sense of unlucky, baleful, perniciousQualities which by the Greeks and Romans were particularly attributed to night: a goddess, indeed, who favored the operations not only of the magicians of old, but of the modern illuminées, whose incantations have ever been hidden from the vulgar eye. The Eleusinia Sacra had not to boast of greater secrecy, than might the Cabbala Germanica, of which Cabbala, however, we no longer hear. Mr. S. would introduce steven, but the word is nowhere used for time. As to Mr. M. M. he shows himself little acquainted with Shakspeare. B.

Oth.

And my demerits

May speak, unbonnetted, to as proud a fortune

As this that I have reach'd.

speak, unbonnetted-] Thus all the copies read. It should be unbonneting, i. e. without putting off the bonnet. POPE.

-and my demerits

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

Thus all the copies read this passage. But, to speak unbonnetted is to speak with the cap off, which is directly opposite to the poet's meaning. Othello means to say, that his birth and services set him upon such a rank, that he may speak to a senator of Venice with his hat on; i. e. without shewing any marks of deference or inequality. I therefore am inclined to think Shakspeare wrote:

"May speak, and bonnetted," &c. THEOB.

I do not see the propriety of Mr. Pope's emendation, though adopted by Dr. Warburton. Unbonnetting may as well be, not putting on, as not putting off, the bonnet. Hanmer reads e'en bonnetted. JOHN.

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