appearance of honest openness, of frank good-will.

JOHNSON.

Rather gratis, not paid for, as his advice to RodeHENLEY.

rigo was.

693. Probable] The old editions concur in reading probal. There may be such a contraction of the word, but I have not met with it in any other book. Yet, abbreviations as violent occur in our ancient writers. STEEVENS.

696. fruitful] Corresponding to benignus, apdovose

HENLEY.

697. free elements:] Liberal, bountiful, as the elements, out of which all things are produced.

JOHNSON. 704. —to this parallel course,] i. e. a course level,

and even with his design.

JOHNSON. 706. When devils will their blackest sins put on,

They do suggest-] When devils would instigate men to the commission of the most atrocious crimes. To suggest, in old language, is to tempt.

MALONE.

711. I'll pour this pestilence-] Pestilence, for poiWARBURTON.

son.

712. That she repeals him—] That is, recalls him. JOHNSON.

717. That shall enmesh_them all.-] A metaphor from taking birds in meshes.

POPE.

Why not from the taking fish, for which purpose nets are more frequently used? MONCK MASON.

723. -a little more wit,] Thus the folio. The first quarto reads-and with that wit. STEEVENS. 731. Though other things grow fair against the sun,

Yet fruits, that blossom first, will first be ripe.] Of many different things, all planned with the same art, and promoted with the same diligence, some must succeed sooner than others, by the order of nature. Every thing cannot be done at once; we must proceed by the necessary gradation. We are not to despair of slow events any more than of tardy fruits, while the causes are in regular progress, and the fruits grow fairer against the sun. Hanmer has not, I think, rightly conceived the sentiment; for he reads,

Those fruits which blossom first, are not first ripe. I have therefore drawn it out at length, for there are few to whom that will be easy which was difficult to Hanmer. JOHNSON.

741. will draw] The old copies read—to draw, which may be right, and consistent with the tenor of this interrupted speech. Iago is still debating with himself concerning the means to perplex Othello.

STEEVENS.

742. bring him jump] Unexpectedly:-an expression taken from the bound, or start, with which we are shocked, at the sudden and unlooked-for appearance of any offensive object. HENLEY.

ACT

ACT III.

Line 3.

WHY, masters, have your instruments been in

Naples, that they speak i' the nose thus ?] The venereal disease first appeared at the siege of Naples.

JOHNSON.

When Mr. Stuart, in sifting the grounds of evidence relative to the Douglas cause, pressed Menager to account for La Marr's assertion, that he had passed ten months at Naples, though he never had been in Italy-the answer was, “that his friend was very mụch of a libertin, and that he had often suffered by the maladie venerienne; and that as that disease in France often goes under the name of the maladie de Naples, from whence it came, La Marr, by the voyage de Naples, had probably meant to intimate, that he had lately passé le grand remede pour la maladie venerienne." Letters to Lord Mansfield, from Andrew Stuart, Esq; No. iii. p. 19. HENLEY.

13. of all loves.-] The folio reads--for love's STEEVENS.

sake. 20. -vanish into air.] So the folio and one of the quartos. The eldest quarto reads-Vanish away.

STEEVENS.

52. To take the safest occasion by the front,] This line is wanting in the folio.

61.

STEEVENS.

I am much bound to you.] This speech is omitted in the first quarto.

STEEVENS.

63.

-state:] The folio reads-senate. MALONE. 72. As if the case were his.] The folio reads-As STEEVENS.

if the cause were his.

84. That policy may either last so long,]. He may either of himself think it politick to keep me out of office so long, or he may be satisfied with such slight reasons, or so many accidents may make him think my re-admission at that time improper, that I may be quite forgotten. JOHNSON.

93. I'll watch him tame-] It is said, that the ferccity of beasts, insuperable and irreclaimable by any other means, is subdued by keeping them from sleep. JOHNSON.

Hawks and other birds are tamed by keeping them from sleep, and it is to the management of those Shakspere alludes.

In the Booke of Haukyng, Huntyng, &c. bl. let. no date: "Wake her all nyght, and on the morrowe all daye, and then she will be previ enough to be reclaymed."

STEEVENS.

119. His present reconciliation take:] To take his reconciliation, may be to accept the submission which JOHNSON.

he makes in order to be reconciled.

121. -and not in cunning,] Cunning, for design, WARBURTON. 127. To suffer with him:] The first quarto reads

or purpose, simply.

I suffer with him.

141. -the wars must make examples

MALONE.

Out of their best] The severity of military discipline must not spare the best men of the army,

when their punishment may afford a wholesome ex

JOHNSON.

ample. 146. -so mammering on ?] To hesitate, to stand in suspense. The word often occurs in old English writings, and probably takes its original from the French m' Amour, which men were apt often to repeat when they were not prepared to give a direct answer. HANMER.

I find the same word in Acolastus, a comedy, 1540: "I stand in doubt, or in a mamorynge between hope and fear." STEEVENS. 159. -full of poize-] i. e. of weight. So, in The Dumb Knight, 1633:

"They are of poize sufficient-"

STEEVENS, 168. Excellent wretch !-Perdition catch my soul,

But I do love thee! &c.] The meaning of the word wretch, is not generally understood. It is now, in some parts of England, a term of the softest and fondest tenderness. It expresses the utmost degree of amiableness, joined with an idea, which perhaps all tenderness includes, of feebleness, softness, and want of protection. Othello, considering Desdemona as excelling in beauty and virtue, soft and timorous by her sex, and by her situation absolutely in his power, calls her, Excellent wretch! It may be expressed: JOHNSON.

Dear, harmless, helpless Excellence. Sir W. D'Avenant uses the same expression in his Cruel Brother, 1630, and with the same meaning. It Occurs twice: "Excellent wretch! with a timorous modesty she stifleth up her utterance." STEEVENS.