Should I repent me:-but once put out thine", 66 light is more excellent than thine." In the very same strain, says Othello, let me first extinguish the light I now hold, and then put out the light" of life. But how different in effect and importance are these two acts! The extinguished taper can be lighted again, but the light of life, when once extinguished, can never, alas, be relumined! The same image is to be found in Shakspeare's contemporaries. Thus, in Strange and Tragical Hystories, &c. 1577: "What enorme and strange tragedyes have every one sene in the empire of the east, that is stayned with the bloude of fathers shead by the children, and of the lighte of the children obscured by the handes of their owne mothers." The question is not, which regulation renders the passage most elegant and spirited, but what was the poet's idea.-I believe, however, that Shakspeare wrote-and then put out thy light; and the reading of the original copy in a subsequent line," but once puts out thine," seems to me to countenance this emendation. In The Merchant of Venice the word light is used with equal ambiguity: "Let me give light, but let me not be light." MALONE. I have felt myself bound to print the text according to Mr. Malone's opinion; but if Warburton's explanation be an error, it is demptus per vim, I for one am very sorry to part with it. Broken sentences, as Mr. Malone has more than once observed, are very much in our poet's manner, and are surely natural in the perturbed state of Othello's mind. I am unwilling to persuade myself that a regulation of the text which contains so much beauty could be merely the refinement of a critic, and that our great author, in one of his most highly-wrought scenes, instead of it, intended nothing but a cold conceit. Boswell. 9 - put out THINE,] Thus the quarto. The folio readsput out thy light. I have chosen the former reading for the sake of measure, and to escape a useless repetition of the word-light. STEEVENS. Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature,] So, in Palmerin D'Oliva, 1588, p. 1: "—those that beheld her, esteemed her for the chiefest piece of workmanshipp that ever nature framed.” Reed. 2 That can thy light RELUME-] Thus the folio. The first quarto-return: the second quarto-relumine. STEEVENS. I cannot give it vital growth again, It needs must wither:-I'll smell it on the tree. [Kissing her. O balmy breath, that dost almost persuade more. one Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee, Отн. Ay, Desdemona. DES. Will you come to bed, my lord? Отн. Have you pray'd to-night, Desdemona ? DES. Ay, my lord. OTH. If you bethink yourself of any crime, Unreconcil'd as yet to heaven and grace, Solicit for it straight. DES. Alas, my lord, what may you mean by that ? Our poet has illume for illuminate, in Hamlet: "Had made his course, to illume that part of heaven, 3-THY rose,] Thus the folio. The quarto reads,—the rose. Again, the quarto reads: 66 The folio: I'll smell it on the tree." "I'll smell thee on the tree." STEEVENS. -This sorrow's heavenly;] This tenderness, with which I lament the punishment which justice compels me to inflict, is a holy passion. I wish these two lines could be honestly ejected. It is the fate of Shakspeare to counteract his own pathos. JOHNSON. Perhaps the poet would not have retained both these images, had he published the play himself, though in the hurry of composition he threw them both upon paper. The first seems adopted from the fabulous history of the crocodile, the second from a pas*sage in the Scripture. STEEVens. "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth." M. MASON. OTн. Well, do it, and be brief; I will walk by: I would not kill thy unprepared spirit; No,-Heaven forefend!-I would, not kill thy soul. DES. Talk you of killing? Отн. DES. Have mercy on me! Отн. Ay, I do. Then, heaven Amen, with all my heart! DES. If you say so, I hope you will not kill me. OTH. Humph! DES. And yet I fear you; for you are fatal then, When your eyes roll so°: Why I should fear, I know not, Since guiltiness I know not; but yet, I feel, I fear”. 5 I would not kill thy soul.] So, in the First Part of the Straunge and Wonderful Adventures of Don Simonides, &c. bl. 1. 4to. 1581: "for that her Master would putte her Mistris to shrifte, before he destroyed her bodie, yet to the savegarde of her soul." Sir W. D'Avenant has also borrowed this thought in his Albovine King of Lombardy, 1629: "I am not fraught with devil's spleen; I would "Not hurt thy soul." Othello appears to have been a favourite of his author; for he has bestowed on him that piety which he had refused to Hamlet. See vol. vii. p. 382. STEEVENS. for you are fatal then, When your EYES ROLL SO.] A similar indication of the power of savage jealousy is found in Straunge, Lamentable, and Tragicall Hystories, translated out of the French into English by R. S. 4to. 1577, sign. E 4, verso: “-hee was changed into suche a choler, by the impoysoning of the dangerous venime jelosy, as one distraught and frantick, and remayned in the chamber a great space rolling his eyes in whitenesse, grinding his teeth, and saying the dogges paternoster against him of whome he thought he had receyved such an unworthy outrage." MALONE. 7 Since GUILTINESS I know not; but yet, I feel, I fear.] Read: "Since guilt I know not; but yet, I feel, I fear." Guiltiness has been already misprinted for guilt. [See p. 461, line 1.] It is impossible that Shakspeare should lengthen a word merely to spoil his metre. RITSON. In the page referred to by Mr. Ritson the reader will only find OTH. Think on thy sins. DES. They are loves I bear to you. Огн. Аy, and for that thou diest. DES. That death's unnatural, that kills for loving 8. Alas, why gnaw you so your nether lip? Отн. Peace, and be still! DES. I will so: What's the matter? ОTH, That handkerchief, which I so lov'd, and gave thee, Take heed of perjury; thou'rt on thy death-bed. DES. Ay, but not yet to die. Отн. Yes, presently: Therefore confess thee freely of thy sin; For to deny each article with oath, Cannot remove, nor choke, the strong conception, another instance in which he would wish to tamper with the text. His alteration in this instance would not make the metre correct. BOSWELL. The chivalry of criticism does not, in my opinion, require us to defend the old copies (those grannams of the stage, balba de nare locuta) when they so grossly offend against the laws of metre. In the earlier part of this work I have got rid of some of their deformities, but in this and a few of the latter plays I have been content with exposing them, being certain that their notoriety will hereafter prove the means of securing a privilege which, respecting the present editors, may be litigated. STEEVENS. 8 That death's unnatural, that kills for loving.] This thought is likewise found in The Legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, a poem, by H. L. 16mo. 1597: 66 Unnatural, which kill where you should kisse." Again, in our poet's King Richard III.': "It is a quarrel most unnatural, "To be reveng'd on him that loveth thee." MALONÝ. That I do groan withal. Thou art to die. Отн. I say, amen. DES. And have you mercy too!—I never did Offend you in my life; never lov'd Cassio, But with such general warranty of heaven As I might love: I never gave him token. ОTH. By heaven, I saw my handkerchief in his hand. O perjur'd woman! thou dost stone my heart, DES. He found it then; I never gave it him :-Send for him hither, 9 A murder, which I thought a sacrifice :] This line is difficult. Thou hast hardened my heart, and makest me kill thee with the rage of a murderer, when I thought to have sacrificed thee to justice with the calmness of a priest striking a victim. It must not be omitted, that one of the elder quartos reads,― "thou dost stone thy heart;" which I suspect to be genuine. The meaning then will be,-thou forcest me to dismiss thee from the world in the state of the murdered without preparation for death, when I intended that thy punishment should have been a sacrifice atoning for thy crime. I am glad that I have ended my revisal of this dreadful scene. It is not to be endured. JOHNSON. Thy heart, is the reading of the original quarto, 1622. MALONE. I That he hath-US'D THEE. E.] The quarto 1622 exhibits this "That he hath-uds death." MALONE. line thus : |