OTн. Certain, men should be what they seem. LAGO. Why, then, I think Cassio's an honest man. Отн. Nay, yet there's more in this: 9 I pray thee, speak to me as to thy thinkings, As thou dost ruminate; and give thy worst of thoughts The worst of words. IAGO. Good my lord, pardon me; Though I am bound to every act of duty, I am not bound to that all slaves are free to 1. Utter my thoughts? Why, say, they are vile and false, As where's that palace, whereinto foul things Keep leets, and law-days, and in session sit 9 — THAT Cassio-] For the sake of measure, I have ventured to insert the pronoun-that. STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens arranges these lines thus : “Oth. Certain, men should be what they seem. 66 Why, then, "I think that Cassio's an honest man." BOSWELL. I to that all slaves are FREE TO.] I am not bound to do that, which even slaves are not bound to do. MALONE. So, in Cymbeline: 66 66 - O, Pisanio, Every good servant does not all commands, "No bond but to do just ones." STEEVENS. 2- where's that palace, whereinto foul things Sometimes intrude not?] So, in The Rape of Lucrece : 66 no perfection is so absolute, "That some impurity doth not pollute." MALONE. 3 —who has a breast so pure, But some uncleanly apprehensions Keep leets, and law-days, and in session sit With meditations lawful?] Leets, and law-days, are synonymous terms: "Leet (says Jacob, in his Law Dictionary,) is otherwise called a law-day." They are there explained to be courts, or meetings of the hundred, "to certify the king of the good manners, and government, of the inhabitants," and to en OTH. Thou dost conspire against thy friend, Iago, If thou but think'st him wrong'd, and mak'st his ear A stranger to thy thoughts. IAGO. I do beseech you,Though I, perchance, am vicious in my guess *, quire of all offences that are not capital. The poet's meaning will now be plain: Who has a breast so little apt to form ill opinions of others, but that foul suspicion will sometimes mix with his fairest and most candid thoughts, and erect a court in his mind, to enquire of the offences apprehended.' STEEVENS. Who has so virtuous a breast that some uncharitable surmises and impure conceptions will not sometimes enter into it; hold a session there as in a regular court, and "bench by the side" of authorised and lawful thoughts?—In our poet's 30th Sonnet we find the same imagery: "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought "I summon up remembrance of things past." "A leet, (says Bullokar, in his English Expositor, 1616,) is a court or law-day, holden commonly every half year." To keep a leet was the verbum juris; the title of one of the chapters in Kitchin's book on Courts, being, "The manner of keeping a court-leet." MALONE. 4 I do beseech you, THOUGH I, perchance, am vicious in my guess,] Not to mention that, in this reading, the sentence is abrupt and broken, it is likewise highly absurd. I beseech you give yourself no uneasiness from my unsure observance, though I am vicious in my guess. For his being an ill guesser was a reason why Othello should not be uneasy: in propriety, therefore, it should either have been, though I am not vicious,' or 'because I am vicious.' It appears then we should read: I do beseech you, "Think, I, perchance, am vicious in my guess.” Which makes the sense pertinent and perfect. WARBURTON. That abruptness in the speech which Dr. Warburton complains of, and would alter, may be easily accounted for. Iago seems desirous by this ambiguous hint, Though I-to inflame the jealousy of Othello, which he knew would be more effectually done in this manner, than by any expression that bore a determinate meaning. The jealous Othello would fill up the pause in the speech, which lago turns off at last to another purpose, and find a more certain cause of discontent, and a greater degree of torture arising from the doubtful consideration how it might have concluded, than he could have experienced had the whole of what he enquired after been reported to him with every circumstance of aggravation. As, I confess, it is my nature's plague To spy into abuses; and, oft, my jealousy Shapes faults that are not,-I entreat you then 5, We may suppose him imagining to himself, that Iago mentally continued the thought thus, Though I-know more than I choose to speak of.' "Vicious in my guess" does not mean that he is an ill guesser, but that he is apt to put the worst construction on every thing he attempts to account for. Out of respect for the subsequent opinions of Mr. Henley and Mr. Malone, I have altered my former regulation of this passage; though I am not quite convinced that any change was needful. STEEVENS. I believe nothing is here wanting, but to regulate the punctuation: Iago. I do beseech you "Though I, perchance, am vicious in my guess, 66 "To spy into abuses; and, oft, my jealousy 66 Shapes faults that are not," &c. HENLEY. The reader should be informed, that the mark of abruption which I have placed after the word you, was placed by Mr. Steevens after the word perchance: and his note, to which I do not subscribe, is founded on that regulation. I think the poet intended that Iago should break off at the end of the first hemistich, as well as in the middle of the fifth line. What he would have added, it is not necessary very nicely to examine. The adversative particle, though, in the second line, does not ideed appear very proper; but in an abrupt and studiously clouded sentence like the present, where more is meant to be conveyed than meets the ear, strict propriety may well be dispensed with. The word perchance, if strongly marked in speaking, would sufficiently show that the speaker did not suppose himself vicious in his guess. By the latter words, Iago, I apprehend, means only, though I perhaps am mistaken, led into an errour by my natural disposition, which is apt to shape faults that have no existence.' MALONE. S I entreat you then, &c.] Thus the quarto 1622. The folio reads: 66 and of, my jealousy Shapes faults that are not, that your wisdom "From one that so imperfectly conceits, "Would take no notice." MALONE. To conject, i. e. to conjecture, is a word used by other writers. So, in Acolastus, a comedy, 1540: From one that so imperfectly conjects, You'd take no notice; nor build yourself a trouble Отн. What dost thou mean? LAGO. Good name, in man, and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls * : Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something, nothing'; 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands"; But he, that filches from me my good name, OTн. By heaven, I'll know thy thought. * Quarto, our souls. "Now reason I, or conject with myself.” Again: "I cannot forget thy saying, or thy conjecting words." STEEVENS. 5 GOOD NAME, in man, and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls: Who steals MY PURSE, steals trash, &c.] The sacred writings were here perhaps in our poet's thoughts: "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour than silver and gold." Proverbs, xxii. 1. MALONE. 6 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands ;] Thus translated by Drant, 1567 : "Now Umbren's grounde, of late Ofells, "Now myne, now thine, so muste we take So, in Cambden's Remaines, 1605, 107: Nunc mea, mox hujus, sed postea nescio cujus. MALONE. LAGO. You cannot, if my heart were in your hand; Nor shall not, whilst 'tis in my custody. ОTH. Ha* ! LAGO. O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth make The meat it feeds on': That cuckold lives in bliss, The meat it feeds on ;] i. e. loaths that which nourishes and sustains it. This being a miserable state, Iago bids him beware of it. The Oxford editor reads: Implying that its suspicions are unreal and groundless, which is the very contrary to what he would here make his general think, as appears from what follows: That cuckold lives in bliss," &c. In a word, the villain is for fixing him jealous: and therefore bids him beware of jealousy, not that it was an unreasonable, but a miserable state; and this plunges him into it, as we see by his reply, which is only: 66 O misery!" WARBURTON. I have received Hanmer's emendation; because to mock, does not signify to loath; and because, when lago bids Othello beware of jealousy, the green ey'd monster, it is natural to tell why he should beware, and for caution he gives him two reasons, that jealousy often creates its own cause, and that, when the causes are real, jealousy is misery. JOHNSON. In this place, and some others, to mock seems the same with to mammock. FARMER. If Shakspeare had written a green ey'd monster, we might have supposed him to refer to some creature existing only in his particular imagination; but "the green-ey'd monster" seems to have reference to an object as familiar to his readers as to himself. It is known that the tiger kind have green eyes, and always play with the victim to their hunger, before they devour it. So, in our author's Tarquin and Lucrece : "Like foul night-waking cat, he doth but dally, "While in his hold-fast foot the weak mouse panteth-." Thus, a jealous husband, who discovers no certain cause why he may be divorced, continues to sport with the woman whom he suspects, and, on more certain evidence, determines to punish. There |