OTHELLO.] The ftory is taken from Cynthio's Novels.

POPE.

I have not hitherto met with any translation of this novel (the feventh in the third decad) of fo early a date as the age of Shakfpeare; but undoubtedly many of thofe little pamphlets have perished between his time and ours.

It is highly probable that our author met with the name of Othello in fome tale that has escaped our refearches; as I likewife find it in God's Revenge against Adultery, standing in one of his Arguments as follows:" She marries Othello, an old German foldier." This Hiftory (the eighth) is profeffed to be an Italian one. Here alfo occurs the name of lago.

It may indeed be urged that these names were adopted from the tragedy before us: but I trust that every reader who is converfant with the peculiar ftyle and method in which the work of honeft John Reynolds is compofed, will acquit him of the slightest familiarity with the fcenes of Shakspeare.

This play was firft entered at Stationers' Hall, Oct. 6, 1621, by Thomas Walkely. STEEVENS.

I have seen a French tranflation of Cynthio, by Gabriel Chappuys, Par. 1584. This is not a faithful one; and I fufpect, through this medium the work came into English. FARMER.

This tragedy I have afcribed (but on no very fure ground) to the year 1611. See An Attempt to afcertain the order of Shakspeare's Plays, Vol. I. MALONE.

The time of this play may be afcertained from the following circumstances: Selymus the Second formed his defign against Cyprus in 1569, and took it in 1571. This was the only attempt the Turks ever made upon that ifland after it came into the hands of the Venetians, (which was in the year 1473,) wherefore the time must fall in with fome part of that interval. We learn from the play that there was a junction of the Turkish fleet at Rhodes, in order for the invafion of Cyprus, that it first came failing towards Cyprus, then went to Rhodes, there met another squadron, and then refumed its way to Cyprus. These are real historical facts which happened when Muftapha, Selymus's general, attacked Cyprus in May, 1570, which therefore is the true period of this performance. See Knolles's Hiftory of the Turks, p. 838, 846, 867.

REED.

75

PERSONS represented.

Duke of Venice,
Brabantio, a Senator.

Two other Senators.

Gratiano, brother to Brabantio.

Lodovico, kinfman to Brabantio.
Othello, the Moor:

Caffio, his Lieutenant ;

Iago, his Ancient.

Roderigo, a Venetian Gentleman.

Montano, Othello's predeceffor in the government of Cyprus.*

Clown, fervant to Othello.

Herald.

Defdemona, daughter to Brabantio, and wife to Othello.

Emilia, wife to Iago.

Bianca, a courtezan, miftrefs to Caffio.

Officers, Gentlemen, Meffengers, Muficians, Sailors, Attendants, &c.

SCENE, for the first Act, in Venice; during the reft of the play, at a fea-port in Cyprus.

• Though the rank which Montano held in Cyprus, cannot be exactly afcertained, yet from many circumftances, we are fure he had not the powers with which Othello was fubfequently invested.

Perhaps we do not receive any one of the Perfona Dramatis to Shakspeare's Plays, as it was originally drawn up by himself. These appendages are wanting to all the quartos, and are very rarely given in the folio. At the end of this play, however, the following enumeration of perfons occurs:

"The names of the actors.-Othello, the Moore.-Brabantio, Father to Defdemona.-Caffio, an Honourable Lieutenant.-Iago, a Villaine.-Rodorigo, a gull'd Gentleman.-Duke of Venice.-Senators.-Montano, Governour of Cyprus.-Gentlemen of Cyprus.Lodovico, and Gratiano, two noble Venetians.-Saylors.-Clowne.Desdemona, Wife to Othello.-Emilia, Wife to Iago.-Bianca, a Curtezan." STEEVENS.

OTHELLO,

THE MOOR OF VENICE,

ACT I. SCENE I.

Venice. A Street.

Enter RODERIGO and IAGO.

2

ROD. Tufh, never tell me, I take it much un

kindly,

That thou, Iago,-who haft had my purse,
As if the ftrings were thine,-fhould't know of this.

IAGO. 'Sblood, but you will not hear me:3

If ever I did dream of fuch a matter,

Abhor me.

ROD. Thou told'ft me, thou didst hold him in thy hate.

IAG. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city,

In perfonal fuit to make me his lieutenant,
Oft capp'd to him; and, by the faith of man,

Tush, never tell me,] Thus the quarto, 1622. The folio omits the interjection-Tuh. STEEVENS.

you

3 S'blood, but will not &c.] Thus the quarto: the folio fuppreffes this oath. STEEVENS.

4 Oft capp'd to him;] Thus the quarto. The folio reads,-Offcapp'd to him. STEEVENS.

In fupport of the folio, Antony and Cleopatra may be quoted: "I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes."

This reading I once thought to be the true one. But a more

I know my price, I am worth no worse a place:
But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
Evades them, with a bombaft circumftance,'
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;

And, in conclufion, nonfuits
My mediators; for, certes," fays he,
I have already chofe my officer.
And what was he?

Forfooth, a great arithmetician,'

One Michael Caffio, a Florentine,

intimate knowledge of the quarto copies has convinced me that they ought not without very strong reafon to be departed from.

MALONE. To cap is to falute by taking off the cap. It is ftill an academic phrafe. M. MASON.

5a bombaft circumftance,] Circumftance fignifies circumlocution. So, in Greene's Tu Quoque:

"You put us to a needlefs labour, fir,

"To run and wind about for circumftance,

"When the plain word, I thank you, would have ferv’d.”

Again, in Malinger's Picture:

"And therefore, without circumftance, to the point,
"Inftruct me what I am."

Again, in Knolles's Hiftory of the Turks, p. 576:

-where

fore I will not ufe many words to perfuade you to continue in your fidelity and loyalty; neither long circumftance to encourage you to play the men."

REED.

6 certes,] i. e. certainly, in truth. Obfolete. So, Spenfer, in The Faery Queen, Book IV. c. ix:

"Certes her loffe ought me to forrow moft."

STEEVENS. Forfooth, a great arithmetician,] So, in Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio fays: " one that fights by the book of arithmetick." STEEVENS.

33

Iago, however, means to reprefent Caffio, not as a perfon whofe arithmetick was "one, two, and the third in your bofom,' but as a man merely converfant with civil matters, and who knew no more of a fquadron than the number of men it contained. So afterwards he calls him this counter-cafter. MALONE.

8 a Florentine,] It appears from many paffages of this play (rightly understood) that Caffio was a Florentine, and lago a Venetian. HANMER.

A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;"

A fellow almoft damn'd in a fair wife;] Sir Thomas Hanmer fuppofed that the text must be corrupt, because it appears from a following part of the play that Caffio was an unmarried man. Mr. Steevens has clearly explained the words in the fubfequent note: I have therefore no doubt that the text is right; and have not thought it neceffary to infert Mr. Tyrwhitt's note, in which he propofed to read-" a fellow almost damn'd in a fair life." Shakfpeare, he conceived, might allude to the judgement denounced in the gospel against thofe of whom all men speak well. MALONE.

Mr. Tyrwhitt's conjecture is ingenious, but cannot be right; for the malicious Iago would never have given Caffio the highest commendation that words can convey, at the very time that he wishes to depreciate him to Roderigo: though afterwards, in fpeaking to himself, [Act V. fc. i.] he gives him his juft character. M. MASON.

That Caffio was married is not fufficiently implied in the words, a fellow almoft damn'd in a fair wife, fince they may mean, according to Iago's licentious manner of expreting himself, no more than a man very near being married. This feems to have been the cafe in refpect of Caffio.-Act IV. fc. i, Iago speaking to him of Bianca, fays,-Why, the cry goes, that you shall marry her. Caffio acknowledges that fuch a report had been raised, and adds, This is the monkey's own giving out: she is perfuaded I will marry her, out of her own love and felf-flattery, not out of my promife. Iago then, having heard this report before, very naturally circulates it in his prefent converfation with Roderigo. If Shakspeare, however, defigned Bianca for a courtezan of Cyprus, (where Caffio had not yet been, and had therefore never feen her,) Iago cannot be fuppofed to allude to the report concerning his marriage with her, and confequently this part of my argument muft fall to the ground.

Had Shakspeare, confiftently with Iago's character, meant to make him fay that Caffio was actually damn'd in being married to a handfome woman, he would have made him fay it outright, and not have interpofed the palliative almoft. Whereas what he fays at prefent amounts to no more than that (however near his marriage) he is not yet completely damn'd, because he is not abfolutely married. The fucceeding parts of Iago's converfation fufficiently evince, that the poet thought no mode of conception or expreffion too brutal for the character. STEEVENS.

There is no ground whatfoever for fuppofing that Shakspeare defigned Bianca for a courtezan of Cyprus. Caffio, who was a Florentine, and Othello's lieutenant, failed from Venice in a ship