L. 7. Their dearest action] That is dear, for which much is paid, whether money or labour; dear action, is action performed at great expence, either of eafe or safety. JOHNS. L. 23. -Perfection fo could err Against all rules of nature;] Perfection erring, feems a contradiction in terminis, as the fchoolmen call it. Befides, Brabantio does not blazon his daughter out for a thing of abfolute perfection; he only fays, the was indued with fuch an extreme innate modefty, that for her to fall in love fo prepofteroufly, no found judgment could allow, but it must be by magical practice upon her. I have ventur'd to imagine that our author wrote; That will confefs, Affection fo could err, &c. This is entirely confonant to what Brabantio would say of her; and one of the fenators, immediately after, in his examination of the Moor, thus addreffes himself to him; -But, Othello, fpeak; Did you by indirect and forced courfes Subdue and poifon this young maid's affections, &c. THEOB. Ibid. The objection is childish; perfection is ufed here, as almost every where elfe, for a high degree of excellence. JOHNS. L. 31.-overt teft,] Open proofs, external evidence. JOHNS. L. 32. pearance. -thin habits Of modern feeming] Weak fhew of flight ap P. 629. 1. 1. And portance, &c.] I have reftored, And with it, all my travel's hiftory: from the old edition. It is in the reft, And portance in my travel's hiftory. JOHNS. Rymer, in his criticism on this play, has changed it to portents, instead of portance. POPE.* Ibid.] Mr. Pope has reftored a line, to which there is little objection, but which has no force. I believe purtance was the author's word in fome revifed copy. I read thus, Of being fold To flavery, of my redemption thence, My redemption from slavery, and behaviour in it. JOHNS, P. 625. 15. And prays you to believe bim.-] The late learned and ingenious Mr. Thomas Clark of Lincoln's Inn, read the paffage thus, And prays you to relieve him. But the prefent reading may ftand. He intreats you not to doubt the truth of this intelligence. JOHNS. P. 626. 1. 1. general care.] The word care, which encumbers the verfe, was probably added by the players. Shakespeare uses the general as a fubftantive, though, I think, not in this fenfe. JOHNS. L. 11. By spells and medicines, bought of mountebanks ;] Rymer has ridiculed this circumftance as unbecoming (both for its weakness and fuperftition) the gravity of the accufer, and the dignity of the Tribunal: But his criticism only expofes his own ignorance. The circumftance was not only exactly in character, but urged with the greateft address, as the thing chiefly to be infifted on. For, by the Venetian law, the giving Love-potions was very criminal, as Shakespear without question well understood. Thus the Law, De i maleficii & berbarie, cap. 17. of the Code intled, "Della pro"miffion del maleficio. Statuimo etiamdio, che-fe alcun homo, o femina harra fatto maleficii, iquali fe dimandano "vulgarmente amatorie, o veramente alcuni altri maleficii, "che alcun homo o femina fe haveffon in odio, fia frufta & "bollado, & che hara confegliado patifca fimile pena." And therefore in the preceding Scene, Brabantio calls them, -Arts inhibited, and out of warrant. L. 20. Stood in your action.] Were the man exposed to your charge or accufation. P. 627. 1. 2. The very bead and front of my offending] The main, the whole, unextenuated. WARE. JOHNS. JOHNS. L. 4. And little blefs'd with the foft phrafe of peace ;] This apology, if addreffed to his miftrefs, had been well expreffed. But what he wanted in fpeaking before a Venetian Senate, was not the foft blandishments of speech, but the art and method of masculine eloquence. The old Quarto reads it, therefore, as I am perfuaded Shakespear wrote, -the fet phrafe of peace; Ibid.] Soft is the reading of the folio. WARB. JOHNS. fpeech, which is explained by, fuch was the process, that is, the courfe of the tale required it. If bent be restored, it may be explained by bardle. I had a handle, or opportunity, to fpeak of Cannibals. JOHNS. L. 4. Beginning at "fuch was the Procefs." to "their houlders." incluf. in line 7, rejected by -fuch was the process : L. 5. And of the canibals that each other eat, HANM.* Do grow beneath their fhoulders.] This paffage Mr. Pope has thought fit to throw out of the text, as containing incredible matter, I prefume: but why, if he had any equality in his critical judgment, did he not as well caftrate the Tempeft of thefe lines? Who would believe, that there were mountaineers Dewlapt like buils, whose throats had hanging at 'em Whofe heads food in their breafts? : I have obferv'd several times, in the course of these notes, our Author's particular defence of Sir Walter Raleigh; and both these paffages feem to me intended complimentally to him. Sir Walter, in his Travels, has given the following account, which I fhall fubjoin as briefly as may. "Next "unto Arvi, there are two rivers, Atoica and Caora; and on that branch which is called Caora, are a nation of a "people whose beads appear not above their fhoulders which "tho' it may be thought a meer fable, yet, for mine own "part, I am refolv'd it is true; becaufe every child in the "provinces of Arromaia and Canuri affirm the fame. They are call'd Ewaipanomaws; they are reported to have their eyes in their foulders, and their mouths in the middle of "their breasts. It was not my chance to hear of them, till "I was come away; and if I had but spoken one word of "it while I was there, I might have brought one of them "with me, to put the matter out of doubt. Such a nation was written of by Mandeville, whofe reports were holden "for fables for many years; and yet fince the East-Indies. 66 were discover'd, we find his relations true of fuch things as heretofore were held incredible. Whether it be true, or 66 no, the matter is not great; for mine own part, I faw "them not; but I am refolv'd, that fo many people did not all " combine, or forethink to make the report. To the weft of Caroli "are diverfe nations of canibals, and of those Ewaipanomaws without heads." Sir Walter Raleigh made this voyage to Guiana in 1595. Mr. Lawrence Keymish, (fometime his lieutenant) who went thither the next year, and who dedicates his relation to Sir Walter, mentions the fame people; and, fpeaking of a perfon who gave him confiderable informations, he adds, "He "certified me of the headless men, and that their mouths in "their breafts are exceeding wide." Sir Walter, at the time that his travels were publish'd, is ftiled Captain of her Majefty's guard, Lord Warden of the Stannaries, and Lieutenant general of the county of Cornwal. If we confider the reputation, as the ingenious Martin Folkes, Efq; obferv'd to me, any thing from fuch a perfon, and at that time in fuch pofts, must come into the world with, we shall be of opinion that a paffage in Shakespeare need not be degraded for the mention of a ftory, which, however ftrange, was countenanc'd with fuch an authority. Shakespeare, on the other hand, has fhewn a fine addrefs to Sir Walter, in facrificing fo much credulity to fuch a relation. Befides both the paffages in our Author have this further ufe; that they do in fome measure fix the chronology of his writing Othello, as well as the Tempeft: for as neither of them could be wrote before the year 1597; fo the mention of thefe circumstances fhould perfuade us, they appear'd before thefe Travels became tale to the public, and their authority was too narrowly ferutiuiz'd. We may be able to account, perhaps, in a few lines, for the mystery of these fuppos'd beadless people; and with that I will clofe this long note. Olearius, fpeaking of the manner of cloathing of the Samojeds, a people of northern Mufcovy, fays; "Their garments are made like those that " are call'd cofaques, open only at the necks. When the "cold is extraordinary, they put their cofaques over theis "heads, and let the fleeves hang down; their faces bein, "not to be seen, but at the cleft which is at the neck. "Whence fome have taken occafion to write, that in thefe "northern countries there are people without heads, having "their faces in their breafts." THEOB.* Ibid.] Of thefe men there is an account in the interpolated travels of Mandevile, a book of that time. JOHNS. L. 21. a world of fighs :] It was kifles in the later editions: But this is evidently the true reading. The lady had been forward indeed to give him a world of kiffes upon the bare recital of his ftory; nor does it agree with the following lines. POPE. P. 631. 1. 1. Let me speak like your felf;] It should be, like our felf. i. e. Let me mediate between you as becomes a prince and common father of his people: For the prince's opinion, here delivered, was quite contrary to Brabantio's fentiment. WARB. Ibid.] Hanmer reads, Let me now speak more like your felf, D. Warburton's emendation is fpecious; but I do not fee how Hanmer's makes any alteration. The Duke seems to mean, when he fays he will fpeak like Brabantio, that he will fpeak fententiously. Ibid.] i, e. let me fpeak as yourself would speak, were you not too much heated with paffion. REYNOLDS. Ibid. The paffages marked thus (") are wanting in the folio, but found in the quarto. JOHNS. L. 15. But the free comfort which from thence be hears;] But the moral precepts of confolation, which are liberally bestowed on occafion of the fentence.. JOHNS. L. 20. But words are words; I never yet did bear, That the bruis'd heart was pierced through the car.] The Duke had by fage fentences been exhorting Brabantio to pa. tience, and to forget the grief of his daughter's stol'n marriage, to which Brabantio is made very pertinently to reply to this effect: "My lord, I apprehend very well the wisdom of your advice; but tho' you would comfort me, words are "but words; and the heart, already bruis'd, was never "pierced or wounded through the ear. It is obvious that the text must be reftor'd thus, That the bruis'd heart was pieced through the ear. c. That the wounds of forrow were ever cur'd, or a man |