Def. My Lord.

Oth. Get you to bed on th' instant, I will be returned forthwith; dismiss your attendant there; look it be done.

Def. I will, my Lord.

[Exit.

Emil. How goes it now? he looks gentler than he did.

Def. He fays he will return incontinent; And hath commanded me to go to bed, And bid me to dismiss you.

Emil. Difmiss me?

Def. It was his bidding; therefore, good Æmilia, Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu. We must not now displease him.

Emil. I would you had never seen him !

Def. So would not I; my love doth fo approve him, That even his stubbornness, his checks, and frowns, (Pr'ythee, unpin me) have grace and favour in them. Emil. I have laid those fheets you bade me on

the bed.

[our minds! Def. All's one: good Father! how foolish are If I do die before thee, pr'ythee, shroud me In one of these fame sheets.

Emil. Come, come; you talk.

Def. My mother had a maid called Barbara, She was in love; and he fhe loved, proved mad, And did forfake her. She had a fong of willow, An old thing 'twas, but it exprefs'd her fortune, And fhe died finging it. That fong to-night Will not go from my mind; I've much ado, But to go hang my head all at one fide, And fing it like poor Barbara. Pr'ythee, difpatch. Emil. Shall I go fetch your night-gown?

Def. No, unpin me here;

This Lodovico is a proper man.
Emil. A very handfome man.
VOL. XII.

Bb

Def. He speaks well.

Emil. I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot to Paleftine for a touch of his nether lip.

Def." The poor foul fat finging by a fycamore[Singing.

"tree,

Sing all a green willow:

"Her hand on her bofom, her head on her knee, Sing willow, willow, willow: "The fresh ftreams ran by her, and murmur'd "Sing willow, &c. [her moans; "Her falt tears fell from her,and foftned the ftones; Sing willow, &c.

66

Willow, willow, &c."

(Pr'ythee, hye thee, he'll come anon.)

"Sing all a green willow must be my garland. "Let no body blame him, his scorn I approve."

Nay that's not next

Emil. It's the wind.

Hark, who is it that knocks?

Def." I called my love falfe love; but what "Sing willow, &c. [faid he then? "If I court more women, you'll couch with more

"men."

So, get thee gone, good night; mine eyes do itch, Doth that bode weeping?

Emil. 'Tis neither here nor there.

Def. I have heard it faid fo; oh these men, these men!

Doft thou in confcience think, tell me, Æmilia,
That there be women do abuse their husbands
In fuch grofs kind?

Emil. There be fome fuch, no question.

Def. Wouldit thou do such a deed for all the world?

Emil. Why, would not you?
Def. No, by this heavenly light.

Emil. Nor I neither, by this heavenly light: I might do't as well i' th' dark.

Def. Wouldst thou do fuch a deed for all the world?

Emil. The world is a huge thing;

It is a great price, for a fmall vice.

Def. In troth I think thou wouldst not.

Emil. In troth, I think I fhould; and undo't, when i had done. Marry, I would not do fuch a thing for a joint-ring, nor for measures of lawn, nor for gowns, petticoats, nor caps; nor any petty exhibition. But for all the whole world; why, who would not make her husband a cuckold, to make him a monarch? I should venture purgatory for't.

Def. Befhrew me, if I would do such a wrong For the whole world..

Emil. Why, the wrong is but a wrong i' th' world; and having the world for your labour, 'tis a wrong in your own world, and you might quickly make it right. (49)

Def. I do not think there is any fuch woman. Emil. Yes, a dozen; and as many to th' vantage, Would ftore the world they played for.

[as

But, I do think, it is their husbands' faults,
If wives do fall: fay, that they flack their duties,
And pour our treasures into foreign laps;

(49) And, having the world for your labour, 'tis a wrong in your own world, and you might quickly make it right.] I am miftaken, if by this fentiment the Author did not intend to ridicule the opinion of thofe philofophers, who hold, that right and wrong are of so arbitrary natures, that God, confiftently with his attributes, may authorize injuftice. For, because it becomes injuftice only by his will, it ceafes to be fo when that will is altered. Mr Warburton.

Or elfe break out in peevish jealoufies,

Throwing restraint on us; or fay, they strike us,
Or fcant our former having in defpight; [grace,
Why, we have galls, and though we have fome
Yet have we fome revenge. Let husbands know,
Their wives have fenfe like them; they fee and
fmell,

And have their palates both for fweet and four,
As husbands have. What is it that they do,
When they change us for others? is it sport?
I think it is; and doth affection breed it?
I think it doth: is't frailty that thus errs?
It is fo too. And have we not affections?
Defires for fport? and frailty, as men have?
Then let them ufe us well; elfe let them know,
The ills we do, their ills inftruct us to.

Def. Good-night, good-night; Heaven me fuch ufes fend,

Not to pick bad from bad; but by bad, mend!

A CT V.

SCENE, a Street before the Palace.

Enter 1AGO and RODORIGO.

LAGO.

[Exeunt.

H

ERE, stand behind this bulk. Straight will he

come:

Wear thy good rapier bare, and put it home;
Quick, quick, fear nothing; I'll be at thy elbow.
It makes us, or it mars us: think on that,
And fix moft firm thy refolution.

Rod. Be near at hand, I may miscarry in't

Iago. Here at thy hand; be bold and take thy fword.

Rod. I have no great devotion to the deed, Yet he hath given me fatisfying reafons; 'Tis but a man gone. Forth, my fword; he dies. [Stands apart.

Iago. I've rubbed this young knot almost to the fenfe, (50)

And he grows angry. Now, whether he kill Caffio,
Or Caffio him, or each do kill the other,

Every way makes my gain. Live Rodorigo,
He calls me to a reftitution large

Of gold and jewels, that I bob'd from him,
As gifts to Desdemona.

It must not be.--------If Caffio do remain,
He hath a daily beauty in his life,

That makes me ugly; and, befides, the Moor
May unfold me to him; there ftand I in peril;
No, he must die. Be it fo; I hear him coming.

(5c) I've rubbed this young goat almost to the sense,

And he grows angry.] The rubbing a gnat to sense, is, I believe, an experiment that never was communicated even to the Royal Society. The leaft frication, on the contrary, would not only rub him out of all fenfe, but out of life into the bargain. The old Quartos have it quat: a word, which, I confefs, I am abfolutely a ftranger to. I have ventured to conjecture,

I've rubbed this young knot, &c.

The knat, or knot, is a fmall bird, plentiful with us in Lincolnshire and Lancashire; which took its name, as Camden fays, from its being a delicious morfel with King Canute, who was likewife called Knout. This bird, being once taken, as Gefner tells us, is above all others tame and tractable In this refpect it forts with Rodorigo's character, an eafy, manageable cully. And, again, as he is amorous in his purfuit, fo this bird is of the fpecies of thofe qия clunes agitant. It is called by some of the Latin writers, cinclus.