To mourn a mischief that is paft and gone, The robb'd, that fmiles, fteals fomething from the thief; Bra. So, let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile, We lose it not, fo long as we can fmile; He bears the fentence well, that nothing bears Being ftrong on both fides, are equivocal. (10) But Words are Words; I never yet did hear, That the bruis'd Heart was pierced thro' the Ear.] One fuperfluous Letter has for thefe hundred Years quite fubverted the Senfe of this Paffage; and none of the Editors have ever attended to the Reasoning of the Context, by which they might have difcover'd the Error. The Duke bas by fage Sentences been exhorting Brabantio to Patience, and to forget the Grief of his Daughter's ftoln 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 pierc'd, " or wounded, thro' the Ear." Well! If we want Arguments for a Senator, let him be educated at the Feet of our fagacious Editors. It is obvious, I believe, to my better Readers, that the Text must be refior'd, as Mr. Warburton acutely obferv'd to me. That the bruis'd Heart was pieced thro' the Ear. i. e. That the Wounds of Sorrow were ever cur'd, or a Man made heart-whole meerly by Words of Confolation. I ought to take notice, this very Emendation was likewife communicated to me by an ingenious, unknown, Correfpondent, who fubfcribes himself only L. H. Duke. Duke. The Turk with a moft mighty preparation makes for Cyprus: Othello, the fortitude of the place is best known to you. And though we have there a substitute of most allowed fufficiency; yet opinion, a fovereign miftrefs of effects, throws a more fafe voice on you; you must therefore be content to flubber the glofs of your new fortunes, with this more ftubborn and boisterous expedition. Oth. The tyrant cuftom, moft grave fenators, I find in hardness; and do undertake Duke. Why, at her father's. Def. Nor would I there refide, Duke. What would you, Desdemona? Def. That I did love the Moor to live with him, I faw Othello's vifage in his mind, By By his dear abfence. Let me go with him. Oth. Your voices, lords; befeech you, let her will Nor to comply with heat, the young Affects, But to be free and bounteous to her mind. (11) I therefore beg it not To pleafe the Palate of my Appetite, In my defun& and preper Satisfaction; But to be free and bounteous to her Mind.] As this has been all along hitherto printed and stop'd, it seems to me a Period of as stubborn Nonsense, as the Editors have obtruded upon poor Shakespeare throughout his whole Works. What a prepofterous Creature is this Othello made, to fall in Love with, and marry, a fine young Lady, when Appetite and Heat, and proper Satisfaction are dead and defunct in him! (For, defunct fignifies nothing else, that I know of, either primitive. ly or metaphorically:) But if we may take Othello's own Word in the Affair, when he speaks for himself, he was not reduc'd to this fatal, unperforming, State. -or, for I am declin'd Into the Vale of Tears; yet That's not much. Again, Why fhould our Poet fay, (for fo he fays, as the Paffage has been pointed;) that the young affect Heat? Youth, certainly, has it, and has no occafion or Pretence of affecting it, whatever fuperannuated Lovers may have. And, again, after defunct, would he add fo abfurd a collateral Epithet as proper? But, I think, I may venture to affirm, that affects was not defign'd here as a Verb; and that defunct was not defign'd here at all. I have, by a flight Change, refcued the Poet's Text from Abfurdity; and this I take to be the Tenour of what he would fay; "I do not beg her Company with me, merely to "please myself; nor to indulge the Heat and Affects (ise. Af"fections) of a new-married Man, in my own diftinct and proper Satisfaction; but to comply with her in her Requeft, "and Defire, of accompanying me. Affects, for Affections, our Author in feveral other Paffages uses. For For fhe is with me. -No, when light-wing'd toys That my difports corrupt and taint my business; Duke. Be it as you fhall privately determine, You must hence to night. Def. To night, my lord? Oth. With all my heart. Duke. At nine i'th' morning here we'll meet again. Othello, leave fome officer behind, And he fhall our commiffion bring to you; And fuch things elfe of quality and respect As doth import you. Oth. Please your Grace, my Ancient ; (A man he is of honefty and truft,) To his conveyance I affign my wife, With what else needful your good Grace fhall think Duke. Let it be fo; Good night to every one. And, noble Signior, Your fon-in-law is far more fair than black. Sen. Adieu, brave Moor, ufe Desdemona well. Bra. Look to her, Moor, if thou haft eyes to fee, She has deceiv'd her father, and may thee. [Exit Duke, with Senators. Honeft lago, Oth. My life upon her faith. To speak with thee. We must obey the time. [Exeunt. Manent Rod. Iago Manent Rodorigo and Iago. Iago. What fayeft thou, noble heart? Rod. I will incontinently drown myself. Iago. Well, if thou doft, I fhall never love thee after. Why, thou filly gentleman! Rod. It is fillinefs to live, when to live is a torment; and then have we a prescription to die, when death is our phyfician. Iago. O villainous! I have look'd upon the world for four times feven years, and fince I could diftinguish betwixt a benefit and an injury, I never found man that knew how to love himself. Ere I would fay, I would drown my self for the love of a Guinney-hen, I would change my humanity with a baboon. Rod. What fhould I do? I confess, it is my shame to be fo fond, but it is not in my virtue to amend it. or thus. Iago. Virtue? a fig: 'tis in our felves that we are thus Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardiners. So that if we will plant nettles, or fow lettuce; fet hyffop, and weed up thyme; fupply it with one gender of herbs, or diftra&t it with many; either have it fteril with idleness, or manured with induftry; why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our will. (12) If the beam of our lives had not one (12) If the Balance of our Lives had not one Scale of Reason If the Scale of our Lives to poife another of Senfuality.] i. e. had not one Scale, &c. which muft certainly be wrong. Some of the old Quarto's have it thus, but the two elder Folio's read, If the Braine of our Lives had not one Scale, &c. This is corrupt; and I make no doubt but Shakespeare wrote, as I have reform'd the Text, If the Beame of our Lives, &c. And my Reason is this ; that he generally distinguishes betwixt the |