In my whole courfe of wooing, thou cry'dft, Indeed? LAGO. My lord, you know I love you. Отн. I think, thou dost; And, for I know thou art full of love and honesty, And weigh'ft thy words before thou giv'ft them breath, Therefore these ftops of thine fright me the more: For fuch things, in a falfe difloyal knave, Are tricks of cuftom; but, in a man that's juft, They are clofe denotements, working from the heart, That paffion cannot rule." "They are clofe denotements, working from the heart, That pain cannot rule.] Dr. Warburton be heard in reading of the fecond folio. Thus the earlieft quarto. But let defence of cold dilations," the I fhould willingly, however, have adopted an emendation propofed by Dr. Johnfon in the fubfequent note, could I have dif covered that the word-delation was ever used in its Roman fenfe of—accufation, during the time of Shakspeare. Bacon frequently employs it, but always to fignify carriage or conveyance. STEEVENS Thefe ftops and breaks are cold dilations, or cold keeping back a fecret, which men of phlegmatick conftitutions, whofe hearts are not fwayed or governed by their paffions, we find, can do: while more fanguine tempers reveal themselves at once, and without referve. WARBURTON. The old copies give,-dilations, except that the earlier quarto has-denotements; which was the author's firft expreffion, afterwards changed by him, not to dilations, but to delations; to occult and fecret accufations, working involuntarily from the heart, which, though refolved to conceal the fault, cannot rule its paffion of refentment. JOHNSON. They are clofe denotements, &c.] i. e. indications, or discoveries, not openly revealed, but involuntarily working from the heart, which cannot rule and fupprefs its feelings. The folio reads-They are close dilations; but nothing is got by the change, for dilations was undoubtedly ufed in the fenfe of IAGO. For Michael Caffio, I dare be fworn, I think that he is honeft. OTH. I think fo too. LAGO. Men fhould be what they feem; Or, thofe that be not, 'would they might feem none! Отн. Certain, men fhould be what they feem. IAGO. I think that Caffio is an honest man. OT. Nay, yet there's more in this: Why then, I pray thee, fpeak to me as to thy thinkings, LAGO. Good my lord, pardon me; Though I am bound to every act of duty, dilatements, or large and full expofitions. See Minfheu's Dict. 1617: "To dilate or make large." Dilatement is ufed in the fenfe of dilation by Lodge, our poet's contemporary : "After all this foul weather follows a calm dilatement of others too forward harmfulness." Rofalynde, or Euphues Golden Legacie, 4to. 1592." Dr. Johnfon very elegantly reads-They are clofe delations. But the objection to this conjectural reading is, that there is ftrong ground for believing that the word was not used in Shakfpeare's age. It is not found in any dictionary of the time, that I have feen, nor has any paffage been quoted in fupport of it. On the contrary, we find in Mintheu the verb, " To delate," not fignifying, to accufe, but thus interpreted : "to speak at large of any thing, vid. to dilate:" so that if even delations were the word of the old copy, it would mean no more than dilations. To the reading of the quarto no reasonable objection can be made. MALONE. 6 Or, thofe that be not, would they might feem none!] I believe the meaning is, would they might no longer feem, or bear the shape of men. JOHNSON. May not the meaning be, 'Would they might not seem honeft! MALONE. 7 that Caffio-] For the fake of measure, I have ventured to infert the pronoun-that. STEEVENS. to that all flaves are free to.] I am not bound to do that, which even flaves are not bound to do. MALONE. Utter my thoughts? Why, fay, they are vile and falfe, As where's that palace, whereinto foul things Keep leets, and law-days, and in feffion fit OTH. Thou doft conspire against thy friend, Iago, If thou but think'ft him wrong'd, and mak'ft his ear A ftranger to thy thoughts. 2 -rwhere's that palace, whereinto foul things no perfection is fo abfolute, "That fome impurity doth not pollute." MALONE. who has a breaft fo pure, But fome uncleanly apprehenfions Keep leets, and law-days, and in feffion fit With meditations lawful?] Leets, and law-days, are fynony mous terms: "Leet (fays Jacob, in his Law Dictionary) is otherwife called a law-day." They are there explained to be courts, or meetings of the hundred," to certify the king of the good manners, and government, of the inhabitants," and to enquire of all offences that are not capital. The poet's meaning will now be plain. Who has a breaft fo little apt to form ill opinions of others, but that foul fufpicions vill fometimes mix with his fairest and most candid thoughts, and erect a court in his mind, to enquire of the offences apprehended. STEEVENS. Who has fo virtuous a breaft, that fome uncharitable furmizes and impure conceptions will not fometimes enter into it; hold a feffion there as in a regular court, and "bench by the fide" of authorised and lawful thoughts?—In our poet's 30th Sonnet we find the fame imagery: "When to the feffions of sweet filent thought "I fummon up remembrance of things pait." "A lect," fays Bullokar, in his English Expofitor, 1616: “is a court or law-day, holden commonly every half year." To keep a leet was the verbum juris; the title of one of the chapters in Kitchin's book on Courts, being, "The manner of keeping a court-leet." The leet, according to Lambard, was a court or jurifdiction above the wapentake or hundred, comprehending three or four hundreds. The jurifdiétion of this court is now in moft places merged in that of the County Court. MALONE. LAGO. I do beseech you,— Though I, perchance, am vicious in my guess,' 3 I do befeech you,— Though I, perchance, am vicious in my guefs,] Not to mention that, in this reading, the fentence is abrupt and broken, it is likewife highly abfurd. I befeech you give yourself no uneafinefs from my unfure obfervance, though I am vicious in my guefs. For his being an ill gueffer was a reafon why Othello fhould not be uneafy: in propriety, therefore, it fhould either have been, though I am not vicious, or because I am vicious. It appears then we should read: I do befeech you, Think, I, perchance, am vicious in my guefs. Which makes the fenfe pertinent and perfect. WARBURTON. That abruptnefs in the speech which Dr. Warburton complains of, and would alter, may be eafily accounted for. Iago feems defirous by this ambiguous hint, Though I to inflame the jealoufy of Othello, which he knew would be more effectually done in this manner, than by any expreffion that bore a determinate meaning. The jealous Othello would fill up the paufe in the fpeech, which Iago turns off at laft to another purpofe, and find a more certain caufe of difcontent, and a greater degree of torture arifing from the doubtful confideration how it might have concluded, than he could have experienced had the whole of what he enquired after been reported to him with every circumftance of aggravation. We may fuppofe him imagining to himfelf, that Iago mentally continued the thought thus, Though I—know more than I choose to Speak of. Vicious in my guess does not mean that he is an ill-gueffer, but that he is apt to put the worst conftruction on every thing he attempts to account for. Out of refpect for the fubfequent opinions of Mr. Henley and Mr. Malone, I have altered my former regulation of this passage; though I am not quite convinced that any change was needful. STEEVENS. I believe nothing is here wanting, but to regulate the punctuation: Iago. I do befeech you Though I, perchance, am vicious in my guess, As, I confefs, it is my nature's plague To fpy into abuses; and, oft, my jealoufy Shapes faults that are not,- &c. HENLEY. The reader fhould be informed, that the mark of abruption which I have placed after the word you, was placed by Mr. Steevens after the word perchance: and his note, to which I do not fubfcribe, is founded on that regulation. I think the poet intended As, I confefs, it is my nature's plague You'd take no notice; nor build yourself a trouble Отн. What doft thou mean? LAGO. Good name, in in man, and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their fouls: that Iago should break off at the end of the first hemiftich, as well as in the middle of the fifth line. What he would have added, it is not neceffary very nicely to examine. The adverfative particle, though, in the fecond line, does not indeed appear very proper; but in an abrupt and ftudioufly clouded. fentence like the prefent, where more is meant to be conveyed than meets the ear, ftrict propriety may well be difpenfed with. The word perchance, if ftrongly marked in fpeaking, would fufficiently fhew that the speaker did not fuppofe himself vicious in his guefs. By the latter words, Iago, I apprehend, means only, "though I perhaps am mistaken, led into an errour by my natural difpofition, which is apt to fhape faults that have no existenee." 4 folio reads: MALONE. I entreat you then, &c] Thus the quarto, 1622. The and of, my jealousy Shapes faults that are not) that your wisdom From one that fo imperfectly conceits, Would take no notice. MALONE. To conjec, i. e. to conjecture, is a verb ufed by other writers. So, in Acolaftus, a comedy, 1540: Again: "Now reafon I, or conject with myself." "I cannot forget thy faying, or thy conjecting words." STEEVENS. |