That never set a squadron in the field, belonging to Verona, at the fame time with the Moor; and what difficulty is there in fuppofing that Bianca, who, Caffio himfelf informs us," haunted him every where," took her paffage in the fame veffel with him; or followed him afterwards? Othello, we may fuppofe, with fome of the Venetian troops, failed in another veffel; and Defdemona and Iago embarked in a third. Iago, after he has been at Cyprus but one day, fpeaks of Bianca, (Act IV. fc. i.) as one whom he had long known: he muft therefore (if the poet be there correct) have known her at Venice: "Now will I queftion Caffio of Bianca, "A hufwife, that, by felling her defires, "Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature, "That dotes on Caffio;-as 'tis the ftrumpet's plague, "To beguile many, and be beguil'd by one.' MALONE. Ingenious as Mr. Tyrwhitt's conjecture may appear, it but ill accords with the context. Iago is enumerating the difqualifications of Caffio for his new appointment; but furely his being well spoken of by all men could not be one of them. It is evident from what follows that a report had prevailed at Venice of Caffio's being foon to be married to the most fair Bianca." Now as fhe was in Shak fpeare's language "a cuftomer," it was with a view to fuch a connexion that lago called the new lieutenant a fellow almost damn'd. It may be gathered from various circumstances that an intercourfe between Caffio and Bianca had existed before they left Venice; for Bianca is not only well known to lago at Cyprus, but the upbraids Caffio (A& III. fc. iv.) with having been abfent a week from her, when he had not been two days on the ifland. Hence, and from what Caffio himself relates, (Act IV. fc. i.) I was the other day talking on the SEA-BANK WITH CERTAIN VENETIANS, and THITHER comes the bauble; by this hand, she falls thus about my neck ;—it may be prefumed she had fecretly followed him to Cyprus: a conclufion not only neceffary to explain the paffage in queftion, but to preferve the confiftency of the fable at large. The fea-bank on which Caffio was converfing with certain Venetians, was at Venice; for he had never till the day before been at Cyprus: he specifies thofe with whom he converfed as Venetians, because he was himself a Florentine; and he mentions the behaviour of Bianca in their prefence, as tending to corroborate the report she had spread that he was foon to marry her. HENLEY. I think, as I have already mentioned, that Bianca was a Venetian courtezan: but the fea-bank of which Caffio speaks, may have been the shore of Cyprus. In feveral other inftances befide this, XIX. Nor the divifion of a battle knows 225, our poet appears not to have recollected that the perfons of his play had only been one day at Cyprus. I am aware, however, that this circumftance may be urged with equal force against the concluding part of my own preceding note; and the term fea-bank certainly adds fupport to what Mr. Henley has fuggefted, being the very term ufed by Lewkenor, in his account of the Lito maggior of Venice. See p. 396, n. 4. MALONE. Thus far our commentaries on this obfcure paffage are arranged as they stand in the very fuccinct edition of Mr. Malone. Yet I cannot prevail on myself, in further imitation of him, to fupprefs the note of my late friend Mr. Tyrwhitt, a note that seems to be treated with civilities that degrade its value, and with a neglect that few of its author's opinions have deferved. My inability to offer fuch a defence of his prefent one, as he himself could undoubtedly have fupplied, is no reason why it should be prevented from exerting its own proper influence on the reader. STEEVENS. The poet has ufed the fame mode of expreffion in The Merchant of Venice, A&t I. fc. i: "O my Antonio, I do know of those "Who therefore only are reputed wife, "For faying nothing; who, I'm very fure, "If they fhould fpeak, would almoft damn thofe ears, "Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools." And there the allufion is evident to the gofpel-judgement against thofe, who call their brothers fools. I am therefore inclined to believe, that the true reading here is : A fellow almoft damn'd in a fair life; and that Shakspeare alludes to the judgement denounced in the gofpel against those of whom all men fpeak well. The character of Caffio is certainly fuch, as would be very likely to draw upon him all the peril of this denunciation, literally unWell-bred, eafy, fociable, good-natured; with abilities enough to make him agreeable and useful, but not sufficient to excite the envy of his equals, or to alarm the jealoufy of his fuperiors. It may be obferved too, that Shakspeare has thought it proper to make lago, in feveral other paffages, bear his testimony to the amiable qualities of his rival. In Act V. fc. i. he fpeaks thus of him: if Caffio do remain, "He hath a daily beauty in his life, "That makes me ugly." I will only add, that, however hard or farfetch'd this allufion (whether Shakspeare's or only mine) may feem to be, arch More than a spinfter; unless the bookish theorick,* Wherein the toged confuls' can propofe bishop Sheldon had exactly the fame conceit, when he made that fingular compliment, as the writer calls it, [Biograph. Britan. Art. TEMPLE,] to a nephew of fir William Temple, that "he had the curfe of the gofpel, because all men spoke well of him." TYRWHITT. That Mr. Tyrwhitt has given us Shakspeare's genuine word and meaning Í have not the leaft doubt. Bianca is evidently a courtezan of Cyprus, and Caffio, of courfe, not yet acquainted with her. But even admitting that the might have followed him thither, and got comfortably fettled in a "houfe," ftill, I think, the improbability of his having any intention to marry her is too grofs for confideration. What! the gallant Caffio, the friend and favourite of his general, to marry a "customer," a " fitchew,” a "hufwife who by felling her defires buys herself bread and clothes!” Iago, indeed, pretends that the had given out fuch a report, but it is merely with a view to make Caffio laugh the louder. There can be no reafon for his practising any fimilar impofition upon Roderigo. RITSON. 2 So, in The Proceedings as much deceived in theorick,] Theorick, for theory. against Garnet on the Powder-Plot: " the theoricke of truft, as the lay difciples were in the practicke of confpiracie." STEEVENS. This was the common language of Shakspeare's time. See Vol. VI. p. 324, n. 8. MALONE. 3 Wherein the toged confuls-] Confuls, for counsellors. WARBURTON. Sir T. Hanmer reads, council. Mr. Theobald would have us read, counsellors. Venice was originally governed by confuls: and confuls feems to have been commonly used for counsellors, as afterwards in this play. In Albion's Triumph, a mafque, 1631, the Emperor Albanact is faid to be "attended by fourteen confuls." Again, the habits of the confuls were after the fame manner." Geoffery of Monmouth, and Matthew Paris after him, call both dukes and earls, confuls. STEEVENS. - The rulers of the ftate, or civil governours. The word is used by Marlowe, in the fame fenfe, Tar burlaine, a tragedy, 1590: "Both we will raigne as confuls of the earth." MALONE. By toged perhaps is meant peaceable, in oppofition to the warlike qualifications of which he had been fpeaking. He might have formed the word in allufion to the Latin adage,-Cedant arma tiga. STEEVENS. As mafterly as he: mere prattle, without practice,* tion: And I,-of whom his eyes had seen the proof, • More than a fpinfter; unless the bookish theorick, Wherein the toged confuls can propofe As mafterly as he: mere prattle, without practice,] This play has many redundant lines, like the first and third of the foregoing. I cannot help regarding the words diftinguished by the Roman character, as interpolations. In the opening scene of King Henry V. Shakspeare thought it unneceffary to join an epithet to theorick; and if the monofyllables-as he, were omitted, would Iago's meaning halt for want of them? STEEVENS. must be be-lee'd and calm'd-] The old quarto-led. The firft folio reads, be-lee'd: but that fpoils the measure. I read, let, hindered. WARBURTON. Be-lee'd fuits to calm'd, and the measure is not lefs perfect than in many other places. JOHNSON. Be-lee'd and be-calm'd are terms of navigation. I have been informed that one veffel is faid to be in the lee of another, when it is fo placed that the wind is intercepted from it. Iago's meaning therefore is, that Caffio had got the wind of him, and be-calm'd him from going on. To be-calm (as I learn from Falconer's Marine Dictionary) is likewise to obftruct the current of the wind in its paffage to a fhip, by any contiguous object. STEEVENS. I fufpect therefore that Shakspeare wrote-must be lee'd and calm'd. The lee-fide of a fhip is that on which the wind blows. To lee, or to be lee'd, may mean, to fall to leeward, or to lose the advantage of the wind. The reading of the text is that of the folio. I doubt whether there be any fuch fea-phrase as to be-lee; and fufpect the word be was inadvertently repeated by the compofitor of the folio. Mr. Steevens has explained the word becalm'd, but where is it found in the text? MALONE. Mr. Malone is unfortunate in his prefent explanation. The lee By debitor and creditor, this counter-caster;" And I, (God bless the mark!) his Moor-fhip's' fide of a fhip is directly contrary to that on which the wind blows, if I may believe a skilful navigator whom I have confulted on this occafion. Mr. Malone afks where the word becalm'd is to be found in the text. To this question I must reply by another. Is it not evident, that the prefix-be is to be continued from the former naval phrafe to the latter? Shakspeare would have written be-calm'd as well as be-lee'd, but that the close of his verfe would not admit of a diffyllable. Should we fay that a fhip was lee'd, or calm'd, we fhould employ a phrafe unacknowledged by failors. STEEVENS. 6 By debitor-] All the modern editors read-By debtor; but debitor (the reading of the old copies) was the word ufed in Shakfpeare's time. So, in Sir John Davies's Epigrams, 1598: "There ftands the constable, there stands the whore,— "There by the ferjeant ftands the debitor." See alfo the paffage quoted from Cymbeline in n. 7. MALONE. 7this counter-cafter;] It was anciently the practice to reckon up fums with counters. To this Shakspeare alludes again in Cymbeline, A&t V: " -it fums up thoufands in a trice: you have no true debitor and creditor, but it; of what's paft, is, and to come, the difcharge. Your neck, fir, is pen, book, and counters;" &c. Again, in Acoleftus, a comedy, 1540: “I wyl caft my counters, or with counters make all my reckenynges." STEEVENS. So, in The Winter's Tale :-" fifteen hundred fhorn,What comes the wool to ?—I cannot do't without counters." MALONE. 8 bless the mark!] Kelly, in his comments on Scots proverbs, obferves, that the Scots, when they compare perfon to perfon, ufe this exclamation. I find, however, this phrase in Churchyard's Tragicall Discourse of a dolorous Gentlewoman, Sc. 1593: "Not beauty here I claime by this my talke, "For browne and blacke I was, God bleffe the marke! |