Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings, 'Tis destiny unshunnable, like death: Enter DESDEMONA and EMILIA. If she be false, O! then heaven mocks itself.— Des. How now, my dear Othello! Your dinner and the generous islanders, Religio Medici, sect. 10:-" Thus I teach my haggard and unreclaimed reason to stoop to the lure of faith." In the preceding line the folio misprints quantities for "qualities." 8 Though that her JESSES were my dear heart-strings,] "Jesses," Hanmer tells us, were short straps of leather tied about the foot of a hawk, by which she was held on the fist. I'd whistle her off, and let her down the wind, To prey at fortune.] The falconers, Johnson observes, always let fly the hawk against the wind; if she flies with the wind behind her, she seldom returns. If, therefore, a hawk was for any reason to be dismissed, she was let down the wind, and from that time shifted for herself, and preyed at fortune. 1 Desdemona comes:] Our text, here and in the next line, is that of both the quartos: the folio has, "Look where she comes: If she be false, hearen mock'd itself." This is evidently wrong. Afterwards, in the question, "Why is your speech so faint?" we also follow the quartos: the folio gives it, "Why do you speak so faintly?" another reading injurious to the measure. By you invited, do attend your presence. Des. Why is your speech so faint? are you not well? Oth. I have a pain upon my forehead here. Des. Faith, that's with watching; 'twill away again: Let me but bind it hard, within this hour It will be well. Oth. Your napkin is too little; [Lets fall her Napkin2. Let it alone. Come, I'll go in with you. [Exeunt ОTH. and DES. Emil. I am glad I have found this napkin. That she reserves it evermore about her, To kiss, and talk to. I'll have the work ta'en out3, Heaven knows, not I; I nothing, but to please his fantasy1. Enter IAGO. Iago. How now! what do you here alone? 2 [Lets fall her Napkin.] We take this necessary stage-direction from a manuscript note in a hand-writing of the time, in the Duke of Devonshire's copy of the quarto, 1622. It is wanting in all the old editions. 3 I'll have the work TA'EN OUT,] "Ta'en out," in the phraseology of the time, meant copied out, not picked out. So in Middleton's "Women beware Women," "She intends To take out other works in a new sampler ;" a passage which the Rev. Mr. Dyce (Middleton's Works, vol. iv. p. 520) has not thought it necessary to illustrate, recollecting, perhaps, this line in "Othello." The expression occurs again afterwards. ♦ I nothing, but to please his fantasy.] Thus the folio, and the quarto, 1630 the quarto, 1622, reads, "I nothing know, but for his fantasy." Iago. A thing for me?-it is a common thing. Iago. To have a foolish wife. Emil. O is that all? What will you give me now For that same handkerchief? Iago. Emil. What handkerchief! What handkerchief? Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona; That which so often you did bid me steal. Iago. Hast stolen it from her? Emil. No, 'faith": she let it drop by negligence; And, to th' advantage, I, being here, took 't up. Iago. A good wench; give it me. Emil. What will you do with't, that you have been so earnest To have me filch it? Iago. Why, what's that to you? [Snatching it. Emil. If it be not for some purpose of import, Give't me again: poor lady! she'll run mad, When she shall lack it. Tago. Be not acknown on't'; I have use for it. I will in Cassio's lodging lose this napkin, [Exit EMILIA. As proofs of holy writ. This may do something. 5 A thing for me?] The folio alone makes the line of twelve syllables, by reading," You have a thing for me? It is a common thing." 6 No, 'faith:] The Master of the Revels seems to have been capriciously scrupulous in this play: here, according to the folio, "faith" was erased as an oath, and this is not the first time the circumstance has occurred: just before in this scene Desdemona was not allowed to say, ""Faith, that's with watching," but, "Why, that's with watching." The manuscript from which the quarto, 1630, was printed must have been similarly castigated. 7 Be not ACKNOWN on't ;] So the folio: the quarto, 1630, has the word "acknown" also, but with the addition of " you," "Be not you acknown on't." The quarto, 1622, reads, "Be not you known on't." The meaning of course is, "Be not acquainted with it-know nothing about it." The Moor already changes with my poison®: Burn like the mines of sulphur.-I did say so: Enter OTHELLO. Look, where he comes! Not poppy, nor mandra gora', Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep Oth. Ha ha! false to me? to me?? Iago. Why, how now, general! no more of that. rack. I swear, 'tis better to be much abus'd, Than but to know't a little. Iago. How now, my lord! Oth. What sense had I of her stolen hours of lust? I saw it not, thought it not, it harm'd not me: I slept the next night well, was free and merry3; The Moor already changes with my poison :] This line, which is in the folio, and in the quarto, 1630, is not in the quarto, 1622. 9 ACT upon the blood,] The quarto, 1622, alone reads art for "act," and in the next line, minds for "mines." 1 — nor MANDRAGORA,] The "mandragora," or mandrake, has a soporific quality, and the ancients, says Steevens, used it when they wanted an opiate of the most powerful kind. 2- to me?] This expressive repetition, "to me?" is in the two quartos, but not in the folio. In the previous line, "ow'dst" is ownedst, a sense of the verb "owe" of which we have had so many previous examples, that it is unnecessary here to refer to them. 3 I slept the next night well, was free and merry ;] So the perfect line stands in the quartos of 1622 and 1630: the folio thrusts the words fed well into the middle of it. "I slept the next night well, fed well, was free and merry," a strange corruption, for which it is difficult to account, but continued in the later folios. In the first line of this speech the folio, 1623, has in for "of," "What sense had I in her stolen hours of lust ;" but, as we have several times remarked, the use of prepositions in the time of Shakespeare was much more arbitrary than at present. Both the quartos have "of." I found not Cassio's kisses on her lips: Oth. I had been happy, if the general camp, Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war! Iago. Is it possible?-My lord,— 5 Oth. Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore; Be sure of it give me the ocular proof, [Seizing him by the Throat. Or, by the worth of mine eternal soul, Iago. Is it come to this? Oth. Make me to see't; or, at the least, so prove it, That the probation bear no hinge, nor loop, To hang a doubt on, or woe upon thy life! Iago. My noble lord, Farewell the plumed TROOP,] Thus the quartos, 1622 and 1630: the folio "plumed troops." 5 whose RUDE throats] The two quartos read "wide throats," which may possibly be considered the better epithet; and in the next line great for "dread:" great is of course not to be preferred, and we follow the folio in both places. of MINE eternal soul;] The folio has "mine," the quarto, 1630, my: the quarto, 1622, "man's eternal soul." Boswell says, that a quarto (he does not give the date of it) in the next line but one reads, "Than answer man's wak'd wrath." This is probably a mistake, as no quarto we have ever seen has such a variation from the received text. |