Def. Ay, footh, fo humbled,
That he hath left part of his grief with me,
To fuffer with him. Good love, call him back.

Oth. Not now, fweet Desdemona; fome other time.
Def. But fhalf't be shortly?

Oth. The fooner, sweet, for you.

Des. Shall't be to-night at supper?

Oth. Not to-night.

Def. To-morrow dinner then?
Oth. I shall not dine at home;

I meet the Captains at the citadel.

*Def. Why then to-morrow night, or Tuesday

morn,

Or Tuesday noon, or night, or Wednesday morn:
I pr'ythee name the time; but let it mot
Exceed three days; in faith, he's penitent:
And yet his trespass, in our common reason,
(Save that, they say, the wars must make examples
Out of their best), is not almost a fault
T' incur a private check. When shall he come?
Tell me, Othello. I wonder in my foul,
What you would ask me, that I would deny,
Or stand so mutt'ring on? what? Michael Caffio!---
That came a-wooing with you, and many a time,
When I have spoke of you difpraifingly,
Hath ta'en your part, to have so much to do
To bring him in? trust me, I could do much----

Oth. Pr'ythee, no more; let him come when he will, I will deny thee nothing.

Def. Why, this is not a boon:

Tis as I should entreat you wear your gloves, Or feed on nourishing meats, or keep you warm; Or fue to you, to do peculiar profit

To your own person. Nay, when I have suit

Wherein I mean to touch your love indeed,
VOL. XII.

:

It shall be full of poize and difficulty,
And fearful to be granted.

Oth. I will deny thee nothing.
Whereon I do beseech thee, grant me this,
To leave me but a little to myself.

Def. Shall I deny you? no.: Farewel, my Lord. Oth. Farewel, my Desdemona, I'll come strait. Def. Æmilia, come; be, as your fancies teach you. Whate'er you be, I am obedient. [Exeunt.

Manent OTHELLO and IAGO.

Oth. Excellent wench!-----Perdition catch my

foul, (32)

But I do love thee; and when I love thee not,

Chaos is come again.

lago. My noble Lord,-----

Oth. What dost thou say, Iago?

Iago. Did Michael Caffio, when you wooed my

Know of your love?

(32) Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my foul,

[Lady,

But I do love thes, &c.] Though all the printed copies concur in this reading, I think it is very reasonably to be fuspected. Othello is exclaiming here with admiration and rapturous fondness; but wretch can scarce be admitted to be used, unless in compaffion or contempt. I make no queftion but the Poet wrote;

Excellent wench! Perdition catch my foul, &c. It is to be observed, that, in Shakespeare's time, wench, lafs, and girl were not used in that low and vulgar acceptation as they are at this time of day; but very frequently with dignity. To appeal to a few instances:

Oh ill-starred wench!

Pale as thy smock!

Agrip. Royal wench!

She made great Cæfar lay his sword to bed, &c.

Othello.

Antony and Cleopatre.

Ibid.

Now boast thee, Death, in thy poffeffion lyes

A lafs unparagoned.

-What, girl! though gray

Do fomething mingle with our younger brown, &c. Ibid.

1

Oth. He did, from first to last; why dost thou ask?

Iago. But for a fatisfaction of my thought,

No farther harm.

Oth. Why of thy thought, Iago ? lago. I did not think he'd been acquainted with it.

Oth. Oh yes, and went between us very oft.

lago. Indeed!

Oth. Indeed! ay, indeed. Difcernest thou aught

Is he not honest?

Iago. Honest, my Lord?

Oth. Honeft? ay, honest.

lage. My Lord, for aught I know. Oth. What dost thou think?

Iago. Think, my Lord!-----

[in that?

Oth. Think, my Lord! why, by Heaven, thou

echoeft me;

As if there were some monster in thy thought,
Too hideous to be shewn. Thou dost mean fome-

thing;

I heard thee say but now, thou lik'dst not that-----
When Caflio left my wife. What did'st not like?
And when I told thee, he was of my counsel,
In my whole course of wooing; thou criedst, indeed?
And didit contract and purse thy brow together,"
As if thou then hadit shut up in thy brain
Some horrible conceit: if thou doft love me,
Shew me thy thought.

lago. My Lord! you know I love you.
Oth. I think thou doft:

i

And for I know thou art full of love and honesty, And weighest thy words before thou givest them.

breath,

Therefore these stops of thine fright me the more:
For fuch things in a false disloyal knave
Are tricks of custom; but, in a man that's just,

They're cold dilations working from the heart, (33) That paffion cannot rule.

lago. For Michael Caffio,

I dare be fworn, I think, that he is honeft.
Oth. I think fo too.

lago. Men should be what they seem.

Or those that be not, would they might feem none!
Oth. Certain, men should be what they feem.
lago. Why, then, I think Caffio's an honest man.
Oth. Nay, yet there's more in this;
I pray thee speak to me as to thy thinkings,
As thou dost ruminate; and give thy worst of

thoughts

The worst of words.

Lago. Good my Lord, pardon me.. Tho I am bound to every act of duty, I am not bound to that all flaves are free to; Utter my thoughts!---Why, fay, they're vile and

falfe;

As where's that Palace, whereinto foul things Sometimes intrude not? who has a breast fo pure, But fome uncleanly apprehenfions

Keep leets and law-days, and in feffions fit

With meditations lawful?

Oth. Thou dost conspire against thy friend, Iago,.

(33)but, in a man that's just,

4

They're close denotements working from the heart. That poffion cannot rule) I cannot see why this readingshould be preferred into the text; and another degraded, which makes the sentiment admirably fine:

'They're cold dilations working from the heart,
That paffion cannot rule.

"These stops and breaks which thou makest, (says Othello)-
are cold dilations, or the cold keeping back a fecret, which
men of phlegmaticconftitutions, whose hearts are not ruled or
governed by their paffions, we find, can do; while more fan..
guine tenipers reveal themselves at once, and without re-
ferve."
Mr Warburton.

If thou but think'st him wronged, and mak'st his ear A stranger to thy thoughts.

lago. I do beseech you,

Though I, perchance, am vicious in my gues
(As, I confefs, it is my nature's plague
To spy into abuse; and oft my jealoufy
Shapes faults that are not ;) I entreat you then,
From one that so imperfectly conceits,
Your wisdom would not build yourself a trouble
Out of my scattering and unsure obfervance:
It were not for your quiet, nor your good,
Nor for my manhood, honesty and wisdom,
To let you know my thoughts.
Oth. What dost thou mean?

lago. Good name in man and woman, dear my

Is the immediate jewel of their fouls.

[Lord,

Who ffeals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something.

nothing; (34)

'Twas mine, 'tis his; and has been flave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name,

(34) Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis fomething, nothing: 'Twas mine, 'lis his; and has been flave to thousands;]

Of riches, and other temporal poffeffions, being uncertain, and often changing their mafters, we meet with feveral paffages in the claffics, which might have given our Author a hint for this fentiment:

Nunc ager Umbreni fub nomine, nuper Ofelli
Dictus, erit mult proprius; fedcedet in ufum
Nunc mihi, nunc alii.

Horat. Serm. lib. ii. 2.

This Lucian feems to have imitated in an epigram:
̓Αγρὸς ̓Αχαιμενίδες γενόμεν πολέ, νῦν δὲ Μενίπα,
Καὶ πάλιν ἐξ ἑτέρο βήσομαι εἰς ἔλερον
Καὶ γὰρ ἐκεινος ἔχειν μὲ ποι' μελος ὰ πάλιν ὅτὸς
«Οίεθαι, εἰμὶ δὲ ὅλως ἐδένος ἀλλὰ τύχης.

Nil proprium dicas, quod mutarier poteft..

Pab!. Syruss.

Ουκ διδ ̓ ὅτω τσέασιθὰς ἀργυρίω, πάτερ,
Ο καιρὸς ὁ τυχών τοῖς μὲν ἐκεκλημένοις
Ἔδωκε, τῶν κεκλημένων δ ̓ ἀφείλελο. 10. A Apollodorus..

Χρήματα δ ̓ ἀνθρώπων ἄλλοίε ἄλλος έχειν

Solon