lago. Well, I may chance to fee you; for I would very fain fpeak with you. Caf. Pr'ythee, come. Lago. Go to, fay no more.

Will you?

SCENE V.

Manent Othello, and Iago.

Otb. How fhall I murder him, Iago?

lago. Did you perceive, how he laugh'd at his vice? Oth. Oh, Iago!

Jago. And did you fee the handkerchief?

Oth. Was that mine?

[Exit Caffio.

lage. Yours, by this hand; and to fee how he prizes the foolish woman your wife She gave it him,

and he hath given it his whore.

Oth. I would have him nine years a killing: A fine woman! a fair woman! a fweet woman!

Iago. Nay, you must forget that.

Oth. Ay, let her rot and perish, and be damn'd tonight; for the fhall not live. No, my heart is turn'd to stone: I ftrike it, and it hurts my hand. Oh, the world hath not a sweeter creature She might lie by an Emperor's fide and command him tasks. Iago. Nay, that's not your way.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Oth. Hang her, I do but fay what she is

licate with her needle.

An admirable

fo demusician.

Oh, fhe will fing the favagenefs out of a bear. Of fo high and plenteous wit and invention!

Iago. She's the worfe for all this.

Orb. Oh, a thousand, a thousand times :

And then of fo gentle condition!
Iago. Ay, too gentle.
Oth. Nay that's certain.
But yet the pity of it, Iago
it, lago

Oh, Iago, the pity of

lago. If you are fo fond over her iniquity, give her patent to offend; for if it touch not you, it comes near no body.

Oth. I will chop her into meffes. Cuckold me! lago. Oh, 'tis foul in her.

Oth

R 5

Oth. With mine officer ! lago. That's fouler.

Oth. Get me fome poifon, Iago, this night; I'll not expoftulate with her, left her body and her beauty unprovide my mind again; this night, lago.

lago. Do it not with poifon, ftrangle her in her bed, Even in the bed the hath contaminated.

Oth. Good, good.

The juftice of it pleases. Very good.

Iago. And for Caffio, let me be his undertaker. You shall hear more by midnight.

[A trumpet within. Otb. Excellent good. - What Trumpet is that

fame?

lago. Something from Venice, fure. 'Tis Lodovico Come from the Duke. And, fee, your wife is with him.

SCENE VI.

Enter Lodovico, Defdemona, and Attendants, from the Palace.

Lod. Save you, worthy General.
Oth. With all my heart, Sir.

Lod. The Duke and the Senators of Venice greet you. [Gives him a letter.

Oth. I kifs the inftrument of their pleasures.
Def. And what's the news, good coufin Lodovico?
Iago. I am very glad to fee you, fignior.
Welcome to Cyprus.

Lod. I thank you; how does lieutenant Caffio?
Iago. Lives, Sir.

Def. Coufin, there's fall'n between him and my Lord
An unkind breach, but you fhall make all well.
Oth. Are you fure of that?
Def. My Lord?

Oth. This fail you not to do, as you will
Lod. He did not call; he's bufy in the paper.
Is there divifion 'twixt my Lord and Caffio?

[Reads.

Def.

Def. A most unhappy one; I would do much
T' (2) atone them, for the love I bear to Caffio.
Oth. Fire and brimstone!
Def. My Lord!

Otb. Are you wife?
Def. What, is he

angry ?

Lod. 'May be, the letter mov'd him.
For, as I think, they do command him home,
Deputing Caffio in his Government.

Def. Trust me, I am glad on't.
Oth. Indeed!

Def. My Lord!

Oth. I am glad to fee you mad.
Def. Why, fweet Othello?
Oth. Devil!

[Striking ber.

Def. I have not deferv'd this.

Lod. My Lord, this would not be believ'd in Venice, Though I fhould fwear, I saw't. 'Tis very much. Make her amends, the weeps.

Oth. Oh devil, devil!

(3) If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,
Each drop, fhe falls, would prove a crocodile.
Out of my fight!

Def. I will not ftay t' offend you.
Lod. Truly, an obedient lady:

I do befeech your Lordship, call her back.
Oth. Miftrefs,

Def. My Lord.

Oth. What would you with her, Sir?

Lod. Who, I, my Lord?

[Going,

Oth. Ay; you did wish, that I would make her turn : Sir, fhe can turn and turn, and yet go on; And turn again. And she can weep, Sir, weep; And she's obedient: as you fay, obedient; Very obedient-Proceed you in your tearsConcerning this, Sir-Oh well-painted paffion!

(2) atone them-] Make them one; reconcile them.

(3) If that the earth could teem, &c.] If womens tears could impregnate the earth. By the doctrine of equivocal generation, new animals were fuppofed producible by new combinations of

matter. See Bacon,

I

I am commanded home

-Get you away,

I'll fend for you anon.—— -Sir, I obey the mandate,
And will return to Venice. -Hence, avant!

[Exit Defdemona.

Caffio fhall have my Place. And, Sir, to-night
I do entreat that we may fup together.
You are welcome, Sir, to Cyprus

Goats and Monkies!

[Exit.

SCENE VII.

Manent Lodovico, and Iago.

Lod. Is this the noble Moor, whom our full Senate Call all in all fufficient? this the Nature,

Which paffion could not shake? (4) whofe folid virtue -Whofe folid virtue

(4)

The foot of accident nor dart of chance

Could neither graze nor pierce ?] But 'tis no commendation to the moft folid virtue to be free from the attacks of fortune: but that it is fo impenetrable as to fuffer no impreffion Now to graze fignifies, only to touch the fuperficies of any thing. That is the attack of fortune: And by that virtue is try'd, but not difcredited. We ought certainly therefore to read,

Can neither raze nor pierce.

i.e. neither lightly touch upon, nor pierce into. The ignorant tranfcribers being acquainted with the Phrafe of a bullet grazing, and hot being mentioned in the line before, they corrupted the true word. Befides, we do not fay, graze a thing, but graze on it.

WARBURTON.

I have ventured to attack another part of this fentence, which my ingenious friend flip'd over. I cannot fee, for my heart, the difference betwixt the fhot of accident and dart of chance. The wards, and things, they imply, are purely fynonimous; but that the Poet intended two different things, feems plain from the dif eretive adverb. Chance may afflict a man in fome circumstances; but other diftreffes are to be accounted for from a different caufe. I am perfuaded, our author wrote;

The hot of accident, nor dart of change, &c.

And, in a number of other places, our Poet induftriously puts thefe two words in oppofition to each other.

THEOBALD.

To graze is not merely to touch fuperficially, but to strike not directly, not fo as to bury the body of the thing ftriking in the matter ftruck.

Theobald trifles as is ufual. Accident and Chance may admit a fubtle diftinction; Accident may be confidered as the act, and Chance as the power or agency of Fortune; as, It was by chance that this accident befel me. At leaft, if we fuppofe all corrupt that is inaccurate, there will be no end of emendation.

The