More than a spinster; unless the bookish theorick', Wherein the toged consuls can propose 2 Othello, we same vessel with him; or followed him afterwards? may suppose, with some of the Venetian troops, sailed in another vessel; and Desdemona and Iago embarked in a third. lago, after he has been at Cyprus but one day, speaks of Bianca, (Act IV. Sc. I.) as one whom he had long known he must therefore (if the poet be there correct) have known her at Venice: "Now will I question Cassio of Bianca, "A huswife, that, by selling her desires, 66 Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature, "That dotes on Cassio -as 'tis the strumpet's plague, "To beguile many, and be beguil'd by one." MALONE. Ingenious as Mr. Tyrwhitt's conjecture may appear, it but ill accords with the context. Iago is enumerating the disqualifications of Cassio for his new appointment; but surely his being well spoken of by all men could not be one of them. It is evident from what follows that a report had prevailed at Venice of Cassio's being soon to be married" to the most fair Bianca." Now as she was in Shakspeare's language a customer," it was with a view to such a connection that lago called the new Lieutenant a fellow almost damned. It may be gathered from various circumstances that an intercourse between Cassio and Bianca had existed before they left Venice; for Bianca is not only well known to lago at Cyprus, but she upbraids Cassio (Act III. Sc. IV.) with having been absent a week from her, when he had not been two days on the island. Hence, and from what Cassio himself relates, (Act IV. Sc. I.) "I was the other day talking on the seabank with certain Venetians, and thither comes the bauble; by this hand, she falls thus about my neck ;"-it may be presumed she had secretly followed him to Cyprus: a conclusion not only necessary to explain the passage in question, but to preserve the consistency of the fable at large.-The sea-bank on which Cassio was conversing with certain Venetians, was at Venice; for he had never till the day before been at Cyprus: he specifies those with whom he conversed as Venetians, because he was himself a Florentine; and he mentions the behaviour of Bianca in their presence, as tending to corroborate the reports he had spread that he was soon to marry her. HENLEY. I think, as I have already mentioned, that Bianca was a Venetian courtezan: but the sea-bank of which Cassio speaks, may have been the shore of Cyprus. In several other instances beside this, our poet appears not to have recollected that the persons of his play had only been one day at Cyprus. I am aware, however, that this circumstance may be urged with equal force against the concluding part of my own preceding note; and the term sea 3 As masterly as he : mere prattle, without practice bank certainly adds support to what Mr. Henley has suggested, being the very term used by Lewkenor, in his account of the Lito maggior of Venice. See p. 236, n. 8. MALONE. Yet I Thus far our commentaries on this obscure passage are arranged as they stand in the very succinct edition of Mr. Malone. cannot prevail on myself, in further imitation of him, to suppress the note of my late friend Mr. Tyrwhitt, a note that seems to be treated with civilities that degrade its value, and with a neglect that few of its author's opinions have deserved. My inability to offer such a defence of his present one, as he himself could undoubtedly have supplied, is no reason why it should be prevented from exerting its own proper influence on the reader. STEEVENS. The poet has used the same mode of expression in The Merchant of Venice, Act I. Sc. I. : 66 O my Antonio, I do know of those "Who therefore only are reputed wise, "For saying nothing; who, I'm very sure, "If they should speak, would almost damn those ears, 66 Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools." And there the allusion is evident to the gospel-judgment against those, who calls their brothers fools. I am therefore 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. I. he speaks thus of him : 66 if Cassio do remain, "He hath a daily beauty in his life, "That makes me ugly." I will only add, that, however hard or far-fetched 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, [Biograph. 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.” TYRWHITT. And I,-of whom his eyes had seen the proof, That Mr. Tyrwhitt has given us Shakspeare's genuine word and meaning I have not the least doubt. Bianca is evidently a courtezan of Cyprus, and Cassio, of course, not yet acquainted with her. But even admitting that she might have followed him thither, and got comfortably settled in a "house," still, I think, the improbability of his having any intention to marry her is too gross for consideration. What, the gallant Cassio, the friend and favourite of his general, to marry a "customer," a fitchew," a "huswife who by selling her desires buys herself bread and Ches!" Iago, indeed, pretends that she had given out such a report, but it is merely with a view to make Cassio laugh the louder. There can be no reason for his practising any similar imposition upon Roderigo. RITSON. 1-theorick,] Theorick, for theory. against Garnet on the Powder-Plot: "" the theoricke of trust, as the lay disciples conspiracie." STEEVENS. So, in The Proceedings as much deceived in were in the practicke of This was the common language of Shakspeare's time. See All's Well that Ends Well, Act IV. Sc. III. MALONE. 2 Wherein the toged CONSULS] Consuls, for counsellors. WARBURTON. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, council. Mr. Theobald would have us read, counsellors. Venice was originally governed by consuls: and consuls seems to have been commonly used for counsellors, as afterwards in this play. In Albion's Triumph, a Masque, 1631, the Emperor Albanact is said to be "attended by fourteen consuls." Again: "the habits of the consuls were after the same manner." Geoffrey of Monmouth, and Matthew Paris after him, call both dukes and earls, consuls. STEEVENS. The rulers of the state, or civil governours. The word is used by Marlowe, in the same sense, in Tamburlaine, a tragedy, 1590: "Both we will raigne as consuls of the earth." MALONE. By toged perhaps is meant peaceable, in opposition to the warlike qualifications of which he had been speaking. He might have formed the word in allusion to the Latin adage,-Cedant arma toga. STEEVENS. 66 The folio reads tongued, which agrees better with the words which follow: mere prattle without practice." BOSWELL. 3 More than a spinster; unless the BOOKISH theorick, Wherein the toged consuls can propose As masterly AS HE: mere prattle without practice,] This play has many redundant lines, like the first and third of the foregoing. I cannot help regarding the words distinguished by small capitals, as interpolations. In the opening scene of 5 By debitor and creditor, this counter-caster ; ancient. * Omitted in the first folio. King Henry V. Shakspeare thought it unnecessary to join an epithet to theorick; and if the monosyllables-as he, were omitted, would Iago's meaning halt for want of them? STEEVENS. 4 - must be BE-LEE'D and calm'd-] The old quarto. The first folio reads, be-lee'd: but that spoils the measure. I read, let, hindered. WARBURTON. Be-lee'd suits to calm'd, and the measure is not less perfect than in many other places. JOHNSON. Be-lee'd and be-calm'd are terms of navigation. I have been informed that one vessel is said to be in the lee of another, when it is so placed that the wind is intercepted from it. lago's meaning therefore is, that Cassio had got the wind of him, and be-calm'd him from going on. To be-calm (as I learn from Falconer's Marine Dictionary,) is likewise to obstruct the current of the wind in its passage to a ship, by any contiguous object. STEEVENS. 5 By DEBITOR -] All the modern editors read—by debtor; but debitor (the reading of the old copies) was the word used in Shakspeare's time. So, in Sir John Davies's Epigrams, 1598 : "There stands the constable, there stands the whore,— "There by the serjeant stands the debitor." 6 66 - See also the passage quoted from Cymbeline, n. 6. MALONE. - this COUNTER-CASTER;] It was anciently the practice to reckon up sums with counters. To this Shakspeare alludes again in Cymbeline, Act V: - it sums up thousands in a trice: you have no true debitor and creditor, but it; of what's past, is, and to come, the discharge. Your neck, sir, is pen, book, and counters; &c. Again, in Acolastus, a comedy, 1540: "I wyl cast my counters, or with counters make all my reckenynges." STEEVENS. So, in The Winter's Tale : fifteen hundred shorn,What comes the wool to ?-I cannot do't without counters." MALONE. 7 - bless the mark !] Kelly. in his comments on Scots proverbs, observes, that the Scots, when they compare person to person, use this exclamation. ROD. By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman. IAGO. But there's no remedy, 'tis the curse of service; Preferment goes by letter, and affection, Not by the old gradation', where each second Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself, Whether I in any just term am affin'd2 To love the Moor. ROD. I would not follow him then. LAGO. O, sir, content you; I follow him to serve my turn upon him: We cannot all be masters, nor all masters I find, however, this phrase in Churchyard's Tragical Discourse of a Dolorous Gentlewoman, &c. 1593: "Not beauty here I claime by this my talke, "For browne and blacke I was, God blesse the marke! It is singular that both Churchyard and Shakspeare should have used this form of words with reference to a black person. STEEVENS. Our author uses it in Henry IV. Part I. without any such reference: 66 'Of guns and drums and wounds, God save the mark!” BOSWELL. his MOORSHIP's-] The first quarto reads-his worship's. STEEVENS. 9-by letter,] By recommendation from powerful friends. JOHNSON. Not by the old gradation,] Old gradation, is gradation established by ancient practice. JOHNSON. 2 Whether I in any just term am AFFIN'D-] Affin'd is the reading of the third quarto and the first folio. The second quarto and all the modern editions have assign'd. The meaning is,→ "Do I stand within any such terms of propinquity, or relation to the Moor, as that it is my duty to love him?" JOHNSON. The original quarto, 1622, has assigu'd, but it was manifestly an error of the press. MALONE. |