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324. "That has an eye can stamp and counterfeit advantages, though true advantage never present itself.'

He will interpret her looks of affable innocence into signals for solicitation; and his address and impudence will support him in taking advantage of his feigned mistake.

326. "Whose qualification shall come into no true taste again," &c.

I do not think that either Mr. Steevens or Dr. Johnson has cleared this passage:-is not this the meaning? Whose office will not be relished by them, until the indignity thrown upon it by Cassio, shall be atoned by his disgrace.

329.

"Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me,

"For

quiet

Practising upon his peace and

"Even to madness."

This part of Iago's conduct has always appeared to me to have been either mismanaged or neglected by the poet, there are no sufficient motives apparent for this excess of malignity: jealousy, indeed, a real jealousy, might do much, as with Othello: but that pernicious affection is so faint in Iago's breast, and has so little influence on his actions throughout the play, that, if he had not himself hinted at it in two places, nobody could suppose that it at all belonged to him: as for his wife, he seems perfectly indifferent towards her; and though he tells us once that he loves Desdemona, we see no effort made to prevail with her, nor the slightest solicitation; and Cassio, as

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well as the Moor, is "suspected" of wearing his night-cap, without any corresponding manners between the parties, to render the fact probable.

'Tis here, but yet confus'd."

This passage seems to have suggested an idea in one of Glenalvon's soliloquies, in Douglas, where it is amplified and illustrated by a simile, which is beautiful in itself, but whether very properly introduced, may, perhaps, be doubted:

Darkly a project peers upon my mind, "Like the red moon, when rising in the east, "Cross'd and divided by strange-colour'd clouds." LORD CHEDWORTH.

SCENE III.

333. "As my young mistress' dog. Now, my sick fool, Roderigo."

The excess of this line might be lopped thus: "As my young mistress' dog-my fool Roderigo."

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Hold their honours in a wary distance." Keep carefully aloof from any thing that might seem derogatory to their honour.

334

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They have given me a rouse."

A rouse, I believe, is only a stimulus, a dose that bestirs and agitates the spirits; as in Hamlet:

"The king doth wake to-night, and takes his

335.

rouse.'

VOL. II.

Potent in potting."

Y

I suppose the author wrote, for the sake of the jingle, not "potting," but "pōting,"-drinking. 337. "And give direction: and do but see his

vice."

"The one as long as the other, 'tis pity of him.”

These lines, though apparently exuberant, may be uttered in due time.

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"And give direction, and do but see his vice.' "The one as long as th' other; 'tis pity of him." In the same manner the following verse might stand:

"Will shake this island.

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These redundancies, however, as it has already been remarked, though warrantable, occasionally, in dramatic verse, should not recur too often; and, in this last instance, it might easily be avoided : "Will shake this isle.

66

- But is he often thus ?"

$38. "And looks not on his evils; is not this true?"

A slight and common contraction is wanted: "And looks not on his evils: is't not true?"

"How now, Roderigo? I pray you, after the lieutenant."

The words, "I pray you" are as unsuitable to the spirit of the scene as they are to the measure of the verse; there is neither time nor occasion for entreaty; and Roderigo only wanted his cue.

After the lieutenant.”

This is managed with consummate skill:-Iago would dismiss Roderigo, from a double motive; the design to embroil him with Cassio, and the policy to prevent Roderigo's hearing the sentiments he was about to utter concerning the lieu

tenant.

339. "It were an honest action, to say."

"Action," undoubtedly, may be extended, as it often is, to three syllables; but as, without necessity, it is uncouth, we might read,

"It were an honest action to say so."
"You rogue! you rascal !" &c.

The metre, in this tumultuous colloquy, might, with a little care, be redeemed:

Cas.

"You rogue! you rascal!"

Mont. "

Cas.

What's the matter, lieutenant ?" "A knave! teach me my duty! I will

beat

"The knave into a twiggen bóttlě."

(Quarto, "wicker bottle.")

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Cas "Dost thou prate, rogue

Mont. "

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Nay, good lieutenant, hold,

"I pray you hold your hand.

Cas. 66

Let me go, sir,

"Or I will knock you o'er the mazzard.”

Mont. "

Come,

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340. "You will be sham'd for ever."

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What is the matter here?"

This exuberance is easily cleared:

"You will be sham'd for ever."

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This hemistic and the subsequent disorder in the metre, might be prevented thus:

Oth. "Hold for your lives."

Iag.

Hold, hold, lieutenant, sir,
"Montano! gentlemen! have you forgot
"All sense of place and duty? Hold! I say,
"The general speaks to you; hold! hold!
for shame!"

341. "

To carve for his own rage.”

To cut-out, or shape the course of his rage. This strange phrase, which seems to be taken from the mechanic's bench, occurs in Hamlet:

"He may not, as unvalued persons do,
"Carve for himself,"

which Voltaire ludicrously interpreted, he may
not cut his own meat.

343. "How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot?"

The quarto, much better, I think, reads, "How came it, Michael, you were thus forgot."

Cassio, at present, is not "forgot," but the recent disorder calls forth the question, how he had so forgotten himself and his duty as to suffer this uproar to take place, or be concerned in it.

"In mouths of wisest censure."

The quarto:

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