By you invited, do attend your presence.
Oth. I am to blame.

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.

you.

Let it alone. Come, I'll go in with
Des. I am very sorry that you are not well.

[Exeunt ОTH. and DES.

Emil. I am glad I have found this napkin.
This was her first remembrance from the Moor:
My wayward husband hath a hundred times.
Woo'd me to steal it; but she so loves the token,
(For he conjur❜d her she should ever keep it)
That she reserves it evermore about her,

To kiss, and talk to. I'll have the work ta'en out3,
And give't Iago: what he will do with it,
Heaven knows, not I;

I nothing, but to please his fantasy1.

Enter IAGO.

Iago. How now! what do you here alone?
Emil. Do not you chide, I have a thing for you.

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.

Emil. Ha?

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.
Look, here it is.

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.

Iago. Be not acknown on't'; I have use for it.
Go; leave me.

I will in Cassio's lodging lose this napkin,
And let him find it: trifles, light as air,
Are to the jealous confirmations strong

[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."

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 асknown" 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®:
Dangerous conceits are in their natures poisons,
Which at the first are scarce found to distaste;
But with a little act upon the blood',

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
Which thou ow'dst yesterday.

Oth.

Ha ha! false to me? to me??

Iago. Why, how now, general! no more of that.
Oth. Avaunt! be gone! thou hast set me on the

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."

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.

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:

He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stolen,
Let him not know't, and he's not robb'd at all.
Iago. I am sorry to hear this.

Oth. I had been happy, if the general camp,
Pioneers and all, had tasted her sweet body,
So I had nothing known. O! now, for ever,
Farewell the tranquil mind; farewell content :
Farewell the plumed troop', and the big wars,
That make ambition virtue: O, farewell!
Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,

Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!
And O! you mortal engines, whose rude throats3
Th' immortal Jove's dread clamours counterfeit,
Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone!

Iago. Is it possible?-My lord,

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,
Thou hadst been better have been born a dog,
Than answer my wak'd wrath.

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.

6 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.

Oth. If thou dost slander her, and torture me, Never pray more: abandon all remorse;

On horror's head horrors accumulate;

Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amaz'd,
For nothing canst thou to damnation add,

Greater than that.

Iago.

O grace! O heaven defend me?! Are you a man? have you a soul, or sense?

God be wi' you; take mine office.-O wretched fool, That liv'st to make thine honesty a vice!—

O monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world!
To be direct and honest, is not safe.-

I thank you for this profit; and, from hence,
I'll love no friend, since love breeds such offence.
Oth. Nay, stay.-Thou shouldst be honest.
Iago. I should be wise; for honesty's a fool,
And loses that it works for.

Oth.

By the world,

I think my wife be honest, and think she is not;
I think that thou art just, and think thou art not.
I'll have some proof: her name, that was as fresh
As Dian's visage, is now begrim'd and black
As mine own face. If there be cords, or knives,
Poison, or fire, or suffocating streams,

I'll not endure it.-Would I were satisfied!

Iago. I see, sir, you are eaten up with passion': I do repent me that I put it to you.

You would be satisfied?

Oth.

Would! nay, I will.

Iago. And may; but how? how satisfied, my lord?

7- O heaven defend me!] The folio poorly substitutes "forgive me" for "defend me," of both the quartos. Three lines lower, it misprints lov'st for "liv'st," which last is equally authorized.

8 By the world,] This speech is not in the quarto, 1622: our text is that of the quarto, 1630, which agrees with the folio, excepting that the former corrects an error of the latter by reading "her name' " for "my name."

I see, sir, you are eaten up with passion:] The folio omits "sir," necessary to the regular construction of the line. Two lines lower it reads, "nay, and I will," obviously a syllable too much.