difficulties where he could not remove them. I would therefore observe, that Othello's speech is printed word for word from the folio edition, though the quarto reads: O thou black weed! Had this epithet, black, been admitted, there would still have remained an incomplete verse in this speech: no additional beauty would have been introduced; but instead of it, a paltry antithesis between the words black and fair. STEEVENS. 395. Was this fair paper, &c.] Massinger has imitated this passage in The Emperor of the East: 66 -can you think "This master-piece of heaven, this precious vellum "Of such a purity and virgin whiteness, "Could be design'd to have perjury and whore dom STEEVENS. "In capital letters writ upon't?" 396. Committed!] This, and the three following lines, are omitted in the first quarto. STEEVENS. This word in Shakspere's time, besides its general signification, seems to have been applied particularly to unlawful acts of love. Hence perhaps it is so often repeated by Othello.-So, in Sir Thomas Overbury's Very Woman, 1610: She commits with her ears for certain; after that she may go for a maid, but she has. been lain with in her understanding." The word is used in the same sense in King Lear: Commit not with man's sworn spouse." Liij Again, Again, in Decker's Honest Whore, first Part: -if all committers stood in a rank, "They'd make a lane in which your shame might MALONE. dwell." 408. If to preserve this vessel for my lord.] This expression, as well as many others, our author has borrowed from the sacred writings :-"to possess his vessel in sanctification,""-1 Thess. iv. 4. 409. any other,] Thus the folio. reads—any bated. MALONE. The quarto 428. Who is thy lord?] This, and the following speech, are omitted in the first quarto. STEEVENS. 438. The small'st opinion on my least misuse.] The old quarto reads: The small'st opinion on my great'st abuse. Which I think is better. JOHNSON. 452. —such terms upon his callet.] This word is of great antiquity in the English language. Chaucer has it in his Remedy of Love: C, for calet, for of, we have O, "L, for leude, D, for demeanure," &c. PERCY. I meet this word in The Translation of Ariosto, 1591: "And thus this old ill-favour'd spitefull callet”— Harrington, in a note on that line, says that "callet is a nick-name used to a woman," and that "in Irish it signifies a witch." MALONE. 473. notoroius-] For gross, not in its proper meaning for known, JOHNSON. 474. such companions] Companion, in the time of Shakspere was used as a word of contempt in the same sense as fellow is at this day. MALONE. 478. Speak within door.] Do not clamour so as to be heard beyond the house. JOHNSON. 480. the seamy side without:] That is, inside out. JOHNSON. This idea has already occurred. Iago speaks of Roderigo as of one, outward. Whom love hath turn'd almost the wrong side STEEVENS. 486. Here I kneel, &c.] The first quarto omits the STEEVENS. rest of this speech. 488. Either in discourse, or thought,] The folio reads-discourse of thought-and perhaps rightly. See Milton, P. L. b. v. l. 488. STEEVENS. 502. chide with you.] This line is from the quarto, 1622. STEEVENS. 506. And the great messengers of Venice stay;] Thus the quarto. The folio reads: 526. The messengers of Venice stay the meat. STEEVENS. and acquaintance ;—] Thus the folio. The quarto reads and acquittance. STEEVENS. 580. -and the night grows to waste :] I suppose Iago means to say, that it is near midnight. Perhaps we ought to read waist. The folio reads-wast, as it does in the following line in Hamlet : "In the dead wast and middle of the night." So also, in the Puritan, a comedy, 1607: -ere the day "Be spent to the girdle, thou shalt be free." The words however may only mean-the night is wastMALONE. ing apace. 612. and he, she lov'd, prov'd mad, And did forsake her.-] We should read: And she prov'd mad. WARBURTON. I believe that mad only signifies wild, frantick, uncer tain. JOHNSON. We still call a wild girl a mad-cap: and in the first Part of King Henry VI. are mentioned : "Mad, natural graces that extinguish art." Again, in the Two Gentlemen of Verona: "Come on, you mad-cap." Again, in Love's Labour Lost: "Do you hear, my mad wenches?" 617. I've much ado, STEEVENS. But to go hang my head-] I have much ado to do any thing but hang my head. We might read: Not to go hang my head. This is perhaps the only insertion made in the latter editions which has improved the play. The rest seem to have been added for the sake of amplification, or of ornament. When the imagination had subsided, and the mind was no longer agitated by the horror of the action, it became at leisure to look round for specious additions. This addition is natural. Desdemona can at first hardly forbear to sing the song; she endeavours endeavours to change her train of thoughts, but her imagination at last prevails, and she sings it. JOHNSON. From I have much to do, to Nay, that's not next, was inserted after the first edition, as likewise the remaining part of the song. 626. The poor soul, &c.] This song, in two parts, is printed in a late collection of old ballads; the lines preserved here differ somewhat from the copy discovered by the ingenious collector. JOHNSON. 626. -sat singing-] Thus the old copies: but the song as published by Dr. Percy, in the first volume of his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, reads—“ sat sighing." STEEVENS. 641. I call'd my love false love;-] This couplet is not in the ballad, which is the complaint, not of a woman forsaken, but of a man rejected. These lines were properly added when it was accommodated to a JOHNSON. woman. 643. you'll couch with more men.] This verb is found also in The Two noble Kinsmen, 1634: 647. Ihave heard it said so.] This, as well as the following speech, is omitted in the first quarto. STEEVENS. 676. to the 'vantage,]i. e. to boot, over and above. STEEVENS. 678. But I do think, &c] The remaining part of this speech is omitted in the first quarto. STEEVENS. |