ROD. Is that true? why, then Othello and Desdemona return again to Venice.

IAGO. O, no; he goes into Mauritania, and takes away with him the fair Desdemona, unless his abode be lingered here by some accident; wherein none can be so determinate, as the removing of Cassio. ROD. How do you mean-removing of him? LAGO. Why, by making him uncapable of Othello's place; knocking out his brains.

ROD. And that you would have me do?

LAGO. Ay; if you dare do yourself a profit, and a right. He sups to-night with a harlot 9, and thither will I go to him ;-he knows not yet of his honourable fortune: if you will watch his going thence, (which I will fashion to fall out between twelve and one,) you may take him at your pleasure; I will be near to second your attempt, and he shall fall between us. Come, stand not amazed at it, but go along with me; I will show you such a necessity in his death, that you shall think yourself bound to put it on him. It is now high supper-time1, and the night grows to waste 2: about it.

8

there is ESPECIAL commission-] Shakspeare probably wrote-a special-. MALONE.

9 He sups to-night with a HARLOT,] The folio reads-a harlotry, which may be right. Our author has the expression-" a peevish self-will'd harlotry," in two plays. RITSON.

I

It is now HIGH supper-time,] I believe we should read: "It is now nigh supper-time-." M. MASON. The old reading is the true one. There is no phrase more common than-" high time to go to bed-to get up," &c. High time, is full, complete time.

Thus Spenser, in his Fairy Queen :

Again :

High time now 'gan it wax for Una fair
"To think of those her captive parents—."

High time it is this war now ended were." Clarendon is frequent in his use of this expression. STEEVENS. 2-and the night grows to WASTE :] I suppose lago means to say, that it is near midnight. Perhaps we ought to print-waist.

ROD. I will hear further reason for this.

IAGO. And you shall be satisfied.

SCENE III.

Another Room in the Castle.

[Exeunt.

Enter OTHELLO, LODOVICO, DESDEMONA, EMILIA, and Attendants.

LOD. I do beseesh you, sir, trouble yourself no

further.

ОTH. O, pardon me; 'twill do me good to walk. LOD. Madam, good night; I humbly thank your

OTH. Get you to bed on the instant; I will be returned forthwith: dismiss your attendant there; look, it be done.

DES. I will, my lord.

[Exeunt OTHELLO, LODOVICO, and Attendants. EMIL. How goes it now? he looks gentler than he did.

DES. He says, he will return incontinent;

Both the old copies, the quarto 1622, and the folio 1623, read— wast, which was the old spelling of waist.

So, Hamlet:

"In the dead wast [waist] and middle of the night." See note on that passage, vol. vii. p. 209, n. 6.

See also, The Puritan, a comedy, 1607:

66

ere the day

"Be spent to the girdle, thou shalt be free."

The words, however, may only mean-the night is wasting apace.

MALONE.

The last is certainly the true explanation. So, in Julius Cæsar : "Sir, March is wasted fourteen days," STEEVENs.

He hath commanded me to go to bed,
And bade me to dismiss you.

EMIL.

Dismiss me!

DES. It was his bidding; therefore, good Emilia, Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu;

We must not now displease him.

EMIL. I would, you had never seen him!

DES. So would not I; my love doth so approve

him,

That even his stubbornness, his checks, and

frowns,

Pr'ythee, unpin me,—have grace and favour in them. EMIL. I have laid those sheets you bade me on the bed.

DES. All's one ;-Good father3! how foolish are our minds!

If I do die before thee, pr'ythee, shroud me
In one of those same sheets.

EMIL.
Come, come, you talk.
DES. My mother had a maid call'd-Barbara;
She was in love; and he, she lov'd, prov'd mad,
And did forsake her': she had a song of-willow,
An old thing 'twas, but it express'd her fortune,
And she died singing it: That song, to-night,
Will not go from my mind; I have much to do,

3 Good father!] Thus the folio. The quarto 1622 reads 's one, good faith. MALONE.

-all's

4- and he, she lov'd, prov'd mad,

And did forsake her :] I believe that mad only signifies wild,

frantick, uncertain. JOHNSON.

Mad, in the present instance, ought to mean-inconstant.

RITSON.

We still call a wild giddy girl a mad-cap: and, in The First Part of King Henry VI. are mentioned:

66

Mad, natural graces that extinguish art."

Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

Come on, you mad-cap.” Again, in Love's Labour's Lost: "Do you hear, my

mad wenches?"

STERVENS.

5

But to go hang my head all at one side,

And sing it like poor Barbara. Pr'ythee, despatch.
EMIL. Shall I go fetch your night-gown?
DES.

No, unpin me here.

This Lodovico is a proper man.

EMIL. A very handsome man.
DES.

And he speaks well.

EMIL. I know a lady in Venice, who would have walked barefoot to Palestine, for a touch of his nether lip.

I.

DES. The poor soul sat sighing' by a sycamore

tree,

Sing all a green willow®;

[Singing.

Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing willow, willow, willow:

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 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 was likewise the remaining part of the song. STEEVens.

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.

sat SIGHING] The folio reads-singing. The passage, as has been already observed, is not in the original copy printed in 1622. The reading of the text is taken from a quarto of no authority printed in 1630. Sighing, as Mr. Steevens has observed, is also the reading in the black-letter copy of this ballad, in the

The fresh streams' ran by her, and murmur'd her

moans;

Sing willow, &c.

Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the

stones;

Lay by these:

Sing willow, willow, willow;

Pr'ythee, hie thee; he'll come anon.—

Sing all a green willow must be my garland.

II.

Let nobody blame him, his scorn I approve1‚—

Nay, that's not next.-Hark! who is it that knocks? EMIL. It is the wind.

Pepys Collection, which Dr. Percy followed. See The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. i. 192. MALOne.

8 Sing all a green willow; &c.] In the Gallery of Gorgious Inuentions, &c. 4to. 1578, there is also a song to which the burden is

"Willow, willow, willow, sing all of green willow; "Sing all of greene willow shall be my garland." Sig. L. ii. STEEVENS.

9 The fresh streams, &c.] These lines are formed with some additions from two couplets of the original song:

"The cold streams ran by him, his eyes wept apace;
"O willow, &c.

"The salt tears fell from him, which drowned his face;
"O willow, &c.

"The mute birds sate by him, made tame by his mones; "O willow, &c.

"The salt tears fell from him, which soften'd the stones.”

MALONE.

1 Let nobody blame him, his scorn I approve,] In the original: "Let nobody blame me, her scorns I do prove,

"O willow, &c.

"She was born to be fair; I to die for her love."

VOL. IX.

2 G

MALONE.