Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies

III.iv.51 (459,7) salt and sullen rheum]—salt and sorry rheum] The old quarto has,

—salt and sullen rheum—-

That is, a rheum obstinately troublesome. I think this better.

III.iv.70 (459,8)

A Sybil, that had numbred in the world
The sun to course two hundred compasses]

The expression is not very infrequent; we say, I counted the clock to strike four; so she number'd the sun to course, to run two hundred compasses, two hundred annual circuits.

III.iv.79 (460,1) Why do you speak so startingly, and rash?] Is vehement, violent.

III.iv.103 (461,2) 'Tis not a year, or two, shews us a man] From this line it may be conjectured, that the author intended the action of the play to be considered as longer than is marked by any note of time. Since their arrival at Cyprus, to which they were hurried on their wedding-night, the fable seems to have been in one continual progress, nor can I see any vacuity into which a year or two, or even a month or two, could be put. On the night of Othello's arrival, a feast was proclaimed; at that feast Cassio was degraded, and immediately applies to Desdemona to get him restored. Iago indeed advises Othello to hold him off a while, but there is no reason to think, that he has been held off long. A little longer interval would increase the probability of the story, though it might violate the rules of the drama. See Act. 5. Sc. 2. (see 1765, VIII, 416, 1)

III.iv.113 (461,3) the duty of my heart] —the office of my heart.] The elder quarto reads,

—the duty of my heart.

The author used the more proper word, and then changed it, I suppose, for fashionable diction; but, as fashion is a very weak protectress, the old word is now ready to resume its place.

III.iv.119 (462,4)

But to know so, must be my benefit]
"Si nequeo placidas affari Caesaris aures,
"Saltem aliquis veniat, qui mihi dicat, abi."

III.iv.125 (462,7) in favour] In look, in countenance.

III.iv.128 (462,8) within the blank of his displeasure] Within the shot of his anger.

III.iv.141 (463,9) some unhatch'd practice] Some treason that has not taken effect.

III.iv.146 (463,1)

for let our finger ach,
And it endues our other healthful members
Even to that sense of pain]

Endue with a sense of pain, is an expression, which, though it might be endured, if it were genuine, cannot deserve to be introduced by artifice. The copies, both quarto and folio, read, Endue our other healthful members even to a sense of pain. I believe it should be rather, SUBDUE our other healthful members to a sense of pain.

III.iv.151 (463,2) (unhandsome warrior as I am)] [W: wrangler] Unhandsome warrior, is evidently unfair assailant.

III.iv.178 (464,3) a more continuate time]—more convenient time] The folio has,

—more continuate time;

Time less interrupted, time which I can call more my own. It gives a more distinct image than convenient.

III.iv.180 (464,4) Take me this work out] The meaning is not, "Pick out the work, and leave the ground plain;" but, "Copy this work in another handkerchief."

IV.i.5 (466,6)

Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm?
It is hypocrisy against the devil]

Hypocrisy against the devil, means hypocrisy to cheat the devil. As common hypocrites cheat men, by seeming good, and yet living wickedly, these men would cheat the devil, by giving him flattering hopes, and at last avoiding the crime which he thinks them ready to commit.

IV.i.22 (467,8) Boding to all] Thus all the old copies. The moderns, less grammatically,

Boding to ill—

IV.i.42 (468,2) without sone instruction] [W: induction] This is a noble conjecture, and whether right or wrong does honour to its author. Yet I am in doubt whether there is any necessity of emendation. There has always prevailed in the world an opinion, that when any great calamity happens at a distance, notice is given of it to the sufferer by some dejection or perturbation of mind, of which he discovers no external cause. This is ascribed to that general communication of one part of the universe with another, which is called sympathy and antipathy; or to the secret monition, instruction, and influence of a superior Being, which superintends the order of nature and of life. Othello says, Nature could not invest herself in such shadowing passion without instruction. It is not words that shake me thus. This passion, which spreads its clouds over me, is the effect of some agency more than the operation of words; it is one of those notices which men have of unseen calamities.

IV.i.76 (471,4) Confine yourself but in a patient list] For attention; act of listening.

IV.i.82 (471,5) encave yourself] Hide yourself in a private place.

IV.i.89 (471,6) Or I shall say, you are all in all in spleen,/And nothing of a man] I read,

Or shall I say, you're all in all a spleen.

I think our author uses this expression elsewhere.

IV.i.121 (472,8) Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?] Othello calls him Roman ironically. Triumph, which was a Roman ceremony, brought Roman into his thoughts. What (says he) you are now triumphing as great as a Roman?

IV.i.123 (472,9) a customer!] A common woman, one that invites custom.

IV.i.130 (473,1) Have you scar'd me? Have you made my reckoning? have you settled the term of my life? The old quarto reads, stored me. Have you disposed of me? have you laid me up?

IV.i.150 (473,2) 'Tis such another fitchew! marry, a perfum'd one] Shakespeare has in another place mentioned the lust of this animal. He tells Iago, that she is as lewd as the polecat, but of better scent, the polecat being a very stinking animal.

IV.i.244 (476,4) atone them] Make them one; reconcile them.

IV.i.256 (477,5)

If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,
Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile]

If womens tears could impregnate the earth. By the doctrine of equivocal generation, new animals were supposed producible by new combinations of matter. See Bacon.

IV.i.277 (478,7)

whose solid virtue
The shot of accident, nor dart of chance,
Could neither graze nor pierce]