The thoughts of people: she told her, while she kept it, 'Twould make her amiable, and subdue my father Entirely to her love; but if she lost it, Or made a gift of it, my father's eye Should hold her loathly, and his spirits should hunt DES. Is it possible? OTH. 'Tis true: there's magick in the web of it: A sibyl, that had number'd in the world The sun to make two hundred compasses, Devil to cause him to worke wonders." In this Discourse is an enumeration of the wonders done by inchanters, as raising storms and tempests, &c. and at the conclusion it is said: "- by witches we understand not those only which kill and torment, but all diviners, charmers, jugglers, all wizzards, commonly called wise men and wise women; yea, whosoever do any thing (knowing what they do) which cannot be effected by nature or art." REED. 3 TO LOSE or giv't away,] Thus the quarto 1622. The folia -To lose't, &c. STEEVENS. Shakspeare, in this incident of the handkerchief, may have recollected Soliman and Perseda, 1599, a drama which he has frequently quoted, where the same importance is ascribed to a carka "Perseda. Accept this carkanet, MALONE. 4 A sibyl, &c.] This circumstance perhaps is imitated by Ben Jonson in The Sad Shepherd: "A Gypsan lady, and a right beldame, 66 Wrought it by moonshine for me, and star-light," &c. number'd The sun TO MAKE, &c.] Thus the quarto 1622. The folio -to course. STEEVENS. In her prophetick fury sew'd the work: The worms were hallow'd, that did breed the silk; And it was died in mummy o, which the skilful Conserv'd of maidens' hearts". DES. Indeed! is't true? OTH. Most veritable; therefore look to't well. DES. Then 'would to heaven, that I had never seen it. ОTH. Ha! wherefore ? DES. Why do you speak so startingly and rash? That is, numbered the sun's courses: badly expressed. WARBURTON. The expression is not very infrequent we say, I counted the clock to strike four; so she number'd the sun to course, to run two hundred compasses, two hundred annual circuits. JOHNSON. I have preferred the original reading, because we have in Hamlet: "When yon same star, that's eastward from the pole, "Had made his course, to illume that part of heaven." MALONE. 6 And it was died in MUMMY, &c.] The balsamick liquor running from mummies, was formerly celebrated for its anti-epileptick virtues. We are now wise enough to know, that the qualities ascribed to it are all imaginary; and yet this fanciful medicine still holds a place in the principal shops where drugs are sold. So, in The Bird in a Cage, by Shirley, 1633: 66 make mummy of my flesh, and sell me to the apothecaries." Again, in The Honest Lawyer, 1616: "That I might tear their flesh in mammocks, raise Mummy, however, is still much coveted by painters, as a transparent brown colour that throws a warmth into their shadows. STEEVENS. 7 -WHICH the skilful Conserv'd of maidens' hearts.] Thus the folio. The quarto So, in The Microcosmos of John Davies of Hereford, 4to. 1605: Mummy made of the mere hart of love." STEEVENS. rash ?] Is vehement, violent. JOHNSON. Oгн. Is't lost? is't gone? speak, is it out of the way? DES. Heaven bless us ! Отн. Say you ? DES. It is not lost; But what an if it were? ОTH. Ha! DES. I say, it is not lost. Отн. Fetch't, let me see it. DES. Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now; This is a trick, to put me from my suit; I pray, let Cassio be receiv'd again. OTH. Fetch me that handkerchief: my mind misgives. DES. Come, come; You'll never meet a more sufficient man. OTH. The handkerchief, DES. I pray, talk me of Cassio 9. OTH. The handkerchief, DES. A man that, all his time, Hath founded his good fortune on your love; ОTH. The handkerchief,- DES. In sooth, you are to blame. OTH. Away! EMIL.IS not this man jealous? [Exit OTHELLO. Sure, there's some wonder in this handkerchief: EMIL. 'Tis not a year or two shows us a man1: 9 I pray, talk me of Cassio.] This and the following short speech, are omitted in all the ancient editions but the first quarto. STEEVENS. ''Tis not a year or two shows us a man:] From this line it may be conjectured, that the author intended the action of this play to be considered as longer than is marked by any note of time. Since their arrival at Cyprus, to which they were hurried on their wedding-night, the fable seems to have been in one con They are all but stomachs, and we all but food; They eat us hungerly, and when they are full, They belch us. Look you! Cassio, and my husband. Enter LAGO and CASSIO. LAGO. There is no other way; 'tis she must do't; And, lo, the happiness! go, and impórtune her. DES. How now, good Cassio? what's the news with you? CAS. Madam, my former suit: I do beseech you, That, by your virtuous means, I may again Exist, and be a member of his love, Whom I, with all the duty of my heart", tinual progress, nor can I see any vacuity in which a year or two, or even a month or two, could be put. On the night of Othello's arrival, a feast was proclaimed; at that feast Cassio was degraded, and immediately applies to Desdemona to get him restored. Iago, indeed, advises Othello to hold him off a while, but there is no reason to think, that he has been held off long. A little longer interval would increase the probability of the story, though it might violate the rules of the drama. See Act V. Sc. II. JOHNSON. This line has no reference to the duration of the action of this play, or to the length of time that Desdemona had been married. What Emilia says, is a sort of proverbial remark, of general application, where a definite time is put for an indefinite. Besides, there is no necessity for fixing the commencement of Emilia's year or two, to the time of the marriage or the opening of the piece. She would with more propriety refer to the beginning of the acquaintance and intimacy between the married couple, which might extend beyond that period. STEEVENS. 2 the DUTY of my heart,] The elder quarto reads: 66 — The author used the more proper word, and then changed it, I suppose, for fashionable diction: [" the office of my heart," the reading of the folio ;] but, as fashion is a very weak protectress, the old word is now ready to resume its place. JOHNSON. A careful comparison of the quartos and folio incline me to believe that many of the variations which are found in the later copy, did not come from the pen of Shakspeare. See vol. vii. Entirely honour; I would not be delay'd: Can ransome me into his love again, But to know so must be my benefit 3; So shall I clothe me in a forc'd content, p. 477, n. 3. That duty was the word intended here, is highly probable from other passages in his works. So, in his 26th Sonnet : "Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage "Thy merit has my duty strongly knit." Again, in his Dedication of Lucrece, to Lord Southampton: "Were my worth greater, my duty would shew greater; mean time, as it is, it is bound to your lordship." MALONE. Office may be the true reading. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: his goodly eyes-now turn 66 "The office and devotion of their view," &c. STEEVENS. 3 But to know so must be my benefit ;] Si nequeo placidas affari Cæsaris aures, Saltem aliquis veniat, qui mihi dicat, abi. JOHNSON. 4 And SHUT myself up in some other course, To fortune's alms.] Shoot is the reading of one of the early quartos. The folio, and all the modern editions, have— "And shut myself up--." JOHNSON. I cannot help thinking this reading to be the true one. The idea seems taken from the confinement of a monastick life. The words, forc'd content, help to confirm the supposition. The meaning will therefore be, "I will put on a constrained appearance of being contented, and shut myself up in a different course of life, no longer to depend on my own efforts, but to wait for relief from the accidental hand of charity." Shakspeare uses the same expression in Macbeth : and shut up 66 "In measureless content." Again, in All's Well That Ends Well: "Whose basest stars do shut us up in wishes." STEEVENS. The quarto 1622 reads-And shoot myself, &c. I think, with Mr. Steevens, that it was a corruption, and that the reading of the folio is the true one. Hanmer reads: |