He hath a daily beauty in his life, That makes me ugly; and, besides, the Moor May unfold me to him; there stand I in much peril : No, he must die :-But so, I hear him coming. Enter CASSIO. ROD. I know his gait, 'tis he;-Villain, thou diest. [Rushes from his post, and makes a pass at CASSIO. CAS. That thrust had been mine enemy indeed, But that my coat is better than thou think'st; I will make proof of thine. ROD. [Draws, and wounds RODERIGO. O, I am slain! [LAGO rushes from his post, cuts CASSIO behind in the Leg', and exit. CAS. I am maim'd for ever:-Help, ho! murder! murder! Enter OTHELLO, at a distance. [Falls. ОTH. The voice of Cassio:-Iago keeps his word. ROD. O, villain that I am! Отн. Hark! 'tis even so. CAS. O, help! ho! light! a surgeon! OTн. 'Tis he;-O brave Iago, honest, and just, That hast such noble sense of thy friend's wrong! Thou teachest me,-Minion, your dear lies dead, And your fate hies apace :-Strumpet, I come : Forth of my heart those charms, thine eyes, are blotted; 7 9 8 in the leg,] Iago maims Cassio in his leg, in consequence of what he had just heard him say, from which he supposed that his body was defended by some secret armour. MALONE. 8 And your fate hies apace:] Thus the first quarto. The second quarto and the folio read-And your unblest fate hies. STEEVENS. A Thy bed, lust-stain'd, shall with lust's blood be [Exit OTHELLO. spotted. Enter LODOVICO and GRATIANO, at a distance. CAS. What, ho! no watch? no passage1? murder murder! GRA. "Tis some mischance; the cry is very direful. CAS. O, help! LOD. ROD. Hark! O wretched villain! LOD. Two or three groans;-it is a heavy night2: These may be counterfeits; let's think't unsafe 9 Forth of my heart, &c.] Thus the first quarto. The folio reads-For of. STEEVENS. Mr. Whalley observes to me that the reading of the quarto is the true one. Forth signifies both out and from. So, in Hamlet: "Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep." Again, in Jonson's Volpone : "Forth the resolved corners of his eyes." Mr. Henley has also made the same observation, and in proof of it produced the following passages from King Kichard III.: I clothe my naked villainy 66 "With old odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ." Again : 66 'Faith, none but Humphrey Houre, that call'd your grace, "To breakfast once, forth of my company." REED. For off [once proposed by Mr. Steevens] is the conjectural reading introduced by the editor of the second folio, and is one of a thousand proofs of capricious alterations made in that copy, without any regard to the most ancient editions. The original reading is undoubtedly the true one. So, in Mount Tabor, or the Private Exercises of a Penitent Sinner, 1639: " - whilst all this was acting, there came forth of another door at the farthest end of the stage, two old men," &c. MALONE. -no passage?] No passengers? nobody going by? So, in The Comedy of Errors: 2 JOHNSON. "Now in the stirring passage of the day." STEEVENS. - a heavy night :] A thick cloudy night, in which an ambush may be commodiously laid. JOHNSON. So, in Measure for Measure : "Upon the heavy middle of the night." STEEVENS. To come in to the cry, without more help. ROD. No body come? then shall I bleed to death Enter LaGo, with a Light. LOD. Hark! GRA. Here's one comes in his shirt, with light and weapons. IAGO. Who's there? whose noise is this, that cries on murder? LOD. We do not know. IAGO. Did you not hear a cry? What's the matter? CAS. Here, here; for heaven's sake, help me. 3-whose noise is this, that cries oN murder?] Thus the quarto 1622, and the folio 1623; and such was the phraseology of Shakspeare's age. So, in Eastward Hoe, a comedy, 1605: "Who cries on murder? lady, was it you? That line is a parody on one in The Spanish Tragedy.-To cry on, as Dr. Johnson has observed in a note on Hamlet, vol. vii. p. 517, is to exclaim against. The editor of the second folio, who altered whatever he did not understand, for cries on, substituted cries out, and has been followed by all the modern editors. To " MALONE. cry on " any thing, is not, I believe, a phrase more ancient than to 66 cry out on any thing. In King Henry IV. Part II. these prepositions act together in one line: "And that same word even now cries out on us.” Perhaps they would both also have been employed in the passage under consideration, but that the structure of our author's verse required only one of them.-I mention these circumstances, that the enormous guilt of the second folio, and its copiers, may be in some degree extenuated. STEEVENS. The ignorance of the editor of the second folio (not his enormous guilt), and the carelessness of those who followed him, are not at all extenuated by this remark. The question is, whether cry on was not a phrase of Shakspeare's time, which it is proved to have been; and therefore need not have been altered. Shakspeare might indeed have written cry out on; but he did not so write; and the text would not have been disturbed if the person who made the alteration had understood his language. MALONE. LAGO. What are you here that cry so grievously? Cas Iago? O, I am spoil'd, undone by villains! Give me some help. LAGO. O me, lieutenant! what villains have done this? CAS. I think, that one of them is hereabout, And cannot make away. LAGO. O treacherous villains! What are you there? come in, and give some help. [To LODOVICO and Gratiano. ROD. O, help me here! CAS. That's one of them. LAGO. O murderous slave! O villain ! [IAGO stabs RODERIGO. ROD. O damn'd Iago! O inhuman dog!— O! O! O! [Dies. IAGO. Kill men i'the dark!-Where be these bloody thieves ? How silent is this town!-Ho! murder! murder! What may you be? are you of good, or evil? LOD. As you shall prove us, praise us. Light, gentlemen; I'll bind it with my shirt. 4 Enter BIANCA. BIAN. What is the matter, ho? who is't that cry'd ? are you of good, or evil ?] So, in Hamlet : STEEVENS. IAGO. Who is't that cry'd? BIAN. O my dear Cassio! my sweet Cassio! O Cassio! Cassio! Cassio! LAGO. O notable strumpet!-Cassio, may you suspect Who they should be, that have thus mangled you? CAS. No. GRA. I am sorry, to find you thus: I have been to seek you. IAGO. Lend me a garter 5: So.-O, for a chair, To bear him easily hence! BLAN. Alas, he faints:-O Cassio! Cassio! Cassio! LAGO. Gentlemen all, I do suspect this trash Patience a while, good Cassio.-Come, come; LAGO. Even he, sir; did you know him? GRA. Know him? ay. IAGO. Signior Gratiano? I cry you gentle pardon; These bloody accidents must excuse my manners, That so neglected you. GRA. I am glad to see you. IAGO. How do you, Cassio?-O, a chair, a chair! GRA. Roderigo ! the chair: LAGO. He, he, 'tis he:-O, that's well said;[A Chair brought in. Some good man bear him carefully from hence; 5 Lend me a garter, &c.] This speech is omitted in the first quarto. STEEVENS. To be a party in this injury,] Thus the folio. The quarto 1622 reads to bear a part in this. STEEVENS. 7 Alas! my friend, and my dear cOUNTRYMAN,] This passage incontestably proves that lago was meant for a Venetian. STEEVENS. |