1

Gra. 'Tis a strange truth.
Mon. O monstrous act!
Emil.

Villany, villany, villany!-
I think upon't,-I think,-I smell't;-O villany!
I thought so then?—I'll kill myself for grief.—
O villany, villany!

Iago. What, are you mad? I charge you, get you home.

Emil. Good gentlemen, let me have leave to
speak;

'Tis proper I obey him, but not now :-
Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home.
Oth. O! O! O!
[Hanging over his wife.
Emil.
Nay, lay thee down, and roar;
For thou hast kill'd the sweetest innocent,
That e'er did lift up eye.
Oth.

O, she was foul!-[Rising.
I scarce did know you, uncle: There lies your niece,
Whose breath, indeed, these hands have newly
stopp'd:

I know, this act shows horrible and grim.

Gra. Poor Desdemona! I am glad thy father's

dead;

Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief
Shore his old thread in twain: did he live now,
This sight would make him do a desperate turn,
Yea, curse his better angel from his side,

And fall to reprobation.

Oth. 'Tis pitiful: but yet Iago knows,

That she with Cassio hath the act of shame

Come, guard the door without let him not pass,
But kill him rather; I'll after that same villain,
For 'tis a damned slave. [Exe. Mon. and Gra.
Oth.
I am not valiant neither,
But every puny whipster gets my sword.-
But why should honour outlive honesty?
Let it go all.
Emil. What did thy song bode, lady?
Hark, canst thou hear me? I will play the swan
And die in music;-Willow, willow, willow.-
Moor, she was chaste; she lov'd thee, cruel Moor,
So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true;
So speaking as I think, I die,-I die.

[Dies.

Oth. I have another weapon in this chamber,
It is a sword of Spain, the ice brook's temper;2
O, here it is :-Uncle, I must come forth.
Gra. [Within.] If thou attempt it, it will cost
thee dear;

Thou hast no weapon, and perforce must suffer.
Oth. Look in upon me then, and speak with me,
Or, naked as I am, I will assault thee.
Re-enter Gratiano.

Gra. What is the mater?
Oth.

Behold! I have a weapon;

A better never did itself sustain
Upon a soldier's thigh: I have seen the day,
That, with this little arm, and this good sword,
I have made my way through more impediments
Than twenty times your stop:-But, O vain boast!

A thousand times committed; Cassio confess'd it: Who can control his fate? 'tis not so now.

And she did gratify his amorous works
With that recognizance and pledge of love
Which I first gave her: I saw it in his hand;
It was a handkerchief, an antique token
My father gave my mother.

Emil. O heaven! O heavenly powers!
Iago.
Come, hold your peace.
Emil. Twill out, 'twill out:-I hold my peace,

sir? no;

No, I will speak as liberal' as the air;
Let heaven, and men, and devils, let them all,
All, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak.
Iago. Be wise, and get you home.
Emil.

Gra.

I will not.

Be not afraid, though you do see me weapon'd;
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,
And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.
Do you go back dismay'd? 'tis a lost fear;
Man but a rush against Othello's breast,
And he retires ;-Where should Othello go?-
Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starr'd wench!
This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven,
Pale as thy smock! when we shall meet at compt,
And fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl?
Even like thy chastity.-

O cursed, cursed slave!-Whip me, ye devils,
From the possession of this heavenly sight!
Blow me about in winds! roast me in sulphur!
[Iago offers to stab his wife. Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!—
O Desdemona! Desdemona! dead?
Dead? O! O! O!

Your sword upon a woman?

Fie!

Emil. O thou dull Moor! that handkerchief thou
speak'st of,

I found by fortune, and did give my husband;
But often, with a solemn earnestness

(More than, indeed, belong'd to such a trifle,)
He begg'd of me to steal it.
lago.

Villanous whore!

no, alas; I found it,

Filth, thou liest.

Emil. She gave it Cassio!
And I did give't my husband.
Iago.
Emil. By heaven, I do not; I do not, gentlemen:
O murd'rous coxcomb! what should such a fool
Do with so good a wife?

[lago stabs Emilia, then runs out.
Oth.
Are there no stones in heaven,
But what serve for the thunder 7-Precious villain!
Gra. The woman falls; sure he has kill'd his

wife.

Emil. Ay, ay; O lay me by my mistress' side!
Gra. He's gone, but his wife's kill'd.

Mon. 'Tis a notorious villain. Take you this
weapon,

Which I have here recover'd from the Moor: (1) Free.

Steel is hardened by being put red-hot into very cold water.

Oth. Ay.

Cas. Dear general, I never gave you cause.
Oth. I do believe it, and I ask your pardon.
Will you, I pray you, demand that demi-devil,
Why he hath thus ensnar'd my soul and body
Iago. Demand me nothing: What you know,
you know:

From this time forth I never will speak word.
Lod. What? not to pray?
Gra.

Torments will ope your lips.
Oth. Well, thou dost best.
Lod. Sir, you shall understand what hath be-
fall'n,

Which, as I think, you know not: Here is a letter,
Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo;
And here, another: the one of them imports
The death of Cassio to be undertook

By Roderigo.

Oth. O villain!
Cas.

Most heathenish, and most gross!
Lod. Now here's another discontented paper,
Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems,
Roderigo meant to have sent this damned villain;
But that, belike, Iago in the interim
Came in and satisfied him.

Oth.

Cas.

I found it in my chamber:
And he himself confess'd, but even now,
That there he dropp'd it, for a special purpose,
Which wrought to his desire.

[Dies.

Oth. I kiss'd thee, ere I kill'd thee;-No way but this, [Falling upon Desdemona. Killing myself, to die upon a kiss. Cas. This did I fear, but thought he had no weapon;

For he was great of heart.

Lod.
O Spartan dog,
More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea!
Look on the tragic loading of this bed; [To Iago.
This is thy work: the object poisons sight;-
Let it be hid.-Gratiano, keep the house,
And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor,
For they succeed to you.-To you, lord governor,
Remains the censure of this hellish villain;
The time, the place, the torture,-O enforce it!
Myself will straight aboard; and, to the state,
This heavy act with heavy heart relate.

[Exeunt.

The beauties of this play impress themselves so strongly upon the attention of the reader, that they can draw no aid from critical illustration. The fiery openness of Othello, magnanimous, artless, and credulous, boundless in his confidence, ardent O the pernicious caitiff!-in his affection, inflexible in his resolution, and How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief obdurate in his revenge; the cool malignity of lago, That was my wife's? silent in his resentment, subtle in his designs, and studious at once of his interest and his vengeance; the soft simplicity of Desdemona, confident of merit, and conscious of innocence, her artless perseverance in her suit, and her slowness to suspect that she can be suspected, are such proofs of Shakspeare's skill in human nature, as, I suppose, it is vain to seek in any modern writer. The gradual progress which lago makes in the Moor's conviction, and the circumstances which he employs to inflame him, are so artfully natural, that, though it will, perhaps, not be said of him as he says of himself, that he is a man not easily jealous, yet we cannot but pity him, when at last we find him perplexed in the extreme.

Oth.
O fool! fool! fool!
Cas. There is, besides, in Roderigo's letter,-
How he upbraids Iago, that he made him
Brave me on the watch; whereon it came
That I was cast: And even but now he spake,
After long seeming dead,-Iago hurt him,
Iago set him on.

Lod. You must forsake this room, and go with us;
Your power and your command is taken off,
And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave,-
If there be any cunning cruelty,

That can torment him much, and hold him long,
It shall be his. You shall close prisoner rest,
Till that the nature of your fault be known
To the Venetian state:-Come, bring him away.

Oth. Soft you; a word or two, before you go..
I have done the state some service, and they know it;
No more of that:-I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak
Of one, that lov'd not wisely, but too well;
Of one, not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
Perplex'd in the extreme; of one, whose hand,
Like the base Júdean, threw a pearl away,
Richer than all his tribe; of one, whose subdu'd

There is always danger, lest wickedness, conjoined with abilities, should steal upon esteem, though it misses of approbation; but the character of Jago is so conducted, that he is from the first scene to to the last hated and despised.

Even the inferior characters of this play would be very conspicuous in any other piece, not only for their justness, but their strength. Cassio is brave, benevolent, and honest, ruined only by his want of stubbornness to resist an insidious invitation. Roderigo's suspicious credulity, and impatient submission to the cheats which he sees practised upon him, and which, by persuasion, he suffers to be repeated, exhibit a strong picture of a weak mind, betrayed by unlawful desires, to a false friend; and the virtue of Emilia is such as we often find, worn loosely, but not cast off, easy to commit small crimes, but quickened and alarmed at atrocious villanies.

The scenes from the begining to the end are busy, varied by happy interchanges, and regularly promoting the progression of the story; and the narrative in the end, though it tells but what is known already, yet is necessary to produce the death of Othello.

Had the scene opened in Cyprus, and the preceding incidents been occasionally related, there had been little wanting to a drama of the most exact and scrupulous regularity. JOHNSON.

FINIS.

A

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GLOSSARY

OF OBSOLETE WORDS, AND OF WORDS VARYING FROM THEIR ORDINARY SIGNIFICATION.

Accuse, accusation.

Achieve, to obtain.

Aconitum, wolf's-bane.

Acquittance, requital.

Action, direction by mute signs,charge,
or accusation.

Action-taking, litigious.
Actures, actions.

Additions, titles or characters.
Address, to prepare, to make ready.
Addressed, or addrest, ready.
Admittance, favour.

Advance, to prefer.

Advertising, attentive.

Adversity, contrariety.

Advertisement, admonition.

Advice, consideration, discretion,
thought.

Advise, to consider, to recollect.
Advised, cool, cautious.

Aery or Aiery, a hawk's or eagle's

Appeared, made apparent.
Apple-john, an apple that will
for two years.

Attornied, supplied by substitution of
embassies.

Audacious, spirited, animated.
Audrey, a corruption of Ethelrea.
Augurs, prognostications.

Aukward, adverse,

Aunts, strumpets.

Authentic, learned.

Awful, reverend.

Awless, failing to produce awe

B.

keep Baccare, stand back, give place. Bairn, brushwood.

Apply, to attend to, consider.
Appointment, preparation.
Apprehension, opinion.
Apprehensive, quick of comprehen-
sion.

Approbation, entry or probation.
Approof, approbation, proof.
Approve, to justify, prove, establish.
Approved, experienced.
Approvers, those who try.

Aqua-vitæ, strong waters, probably
usquebaugh.

Arabian bird, the phoenix.
Arch, chief.

Argentine, silver.

Argentine, the goddess Diana.
Argier, Algiers.

Argostes, ships laden with great
wealth.

Argument, subject for conversation,
evidence, proof.

Arm, to take up in the arms.
Aroint, avaunt, begone.
A-row, successively.

Art, practice as distinguished from
theory; also, theory.
Articulate, to enter into articles.
Artificial, ingenious, artful.
As, as if.

Ascaunt, askew, sideways.

Aspect, countenance.

Aspersion, sprinkling.

Aglet-baby, a diminutive being, not As point, completely armed.

exceeding the tag of a point, from
aiguilettes.

Agnize, acknowledge, confess, vow.
A-good, in good earnest.

Alm, guess, suspicion.

Airy fame, mere verbal eulogy

Aider-liefest, best beloved.
Ale, a merry-meeting.

A'life, at life.

Assay, test.

Ascapart, a giant.
Assinego, a male ass.

Astringer, a gentleman falconer.
Assurance, conveyance or deed.
Assured, afflanced.

Ates, instigate from Ate, the goddess
of bloodshed.

Atomies, minute particles visible in

the sun's rays.

Attasked, taken to task.

Attended, waited for.

Attent, attentive.

Atone, to reconcile.

Attest, attestation.

Attorney, deputation.

of another.

Baldrick, a belt.
Bale, misery.
Baleful, baneful.

Balked, bathed or piled up.
Ballase, ballast.

Balm, the oil of consecration.
Ban, curse.

Band, bond.

Bandog, village-dog.

Bandy, to exchange smartly.
Bank, to sail along banks.
Banning, cursing.

Banquet, a slight repast.
Bar, barrier.

Barbason, the name of a demon.
Barbe, a kind of veil.

Barbed, warlikely caparisoned.
Barber-monger,an associate of barbers.
Bare, to shave.

Bare, mere.

Barful, full of impediments.
Barm, yeast.

Barn, or bairn, a child.
Barnacles, a shell-fish.
Barns, keeps in a barn.
Barren, ignorant.
Base, dishonoured.

Base, a rustic game called prison-base.
Bases, a kind of loose breeches worn

by equestrian knights.

Basilisks, a species of cannon.

Basta, 'tis enough.

Bastard, raisin wine.

Bat, a club.

Bate, strife.

Bate, to flutter as a hawk.

Batlet, an instrument with which
washers used to beat clothes.
Batten, to grow fat,
Battle, army.

Bawcock, a jolly fellow.

Bay, the space between the main
beams of a house.

Bay-curtal, a bay docked horse.
Bay-window, a bow-window.
Beadsmen, religious persons, main.

tained to pray for their benefactor. Beak, the forecastle.

Bear a brain, to perfectly resemble

Attorneyship, the discretional agency Beard, to defy.

Bearing, demeanour.