Gra. 'Tis a strange truth.
Mon. O monstrous act!

Emil.

Come, guard the door without; let him not pass,
But kill him rather; I'll after that same villain,

Villany, villany, villany! - For 'tis a damned slave. [Exe. Mon. and Gra.

I think upon't, I think, -I smell't; - villany!
I thought so then?-I'll kill myself for grief.-
O villany, villany!

Jago. What, are you mad? I charge you, get

you home.

Emil. Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak;

'Tis proper I obey him, but not now:Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home.

Oth. O! O! O!

Emil.

[Hanging over his wife.

Nay, lay thee down, and roar;
For thou hast kill'd the sweetest innocent,
That e'er did lift up eye.
Oth.

O, she was foul!-[Rising.
I scarce did know you, uncle: There lies your niece,
Whose breath, indeed, these hands have newly
stopp'd:

I know, this act shows horrible and grim.

Gra. Poor Desdemona! I am glad thy father's

dead;

Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief
Shore his old thread in twain: did he live now,
This sight would make him do a desperate turn,
Yea, curse his better angel from his side,

Oth.

I am not valiant neither.

But every puny whipster gets my sword.-
But why should honour outlive honesty ?
Let it go all.
Emil.

What did thy song bode, lady?
Hark, canst thou hear me? I will play the swan
And die in music; -Willow, willow, willow.-
Moor, she was chaste; she lov'd thee, cruel Moor,
So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true;
So speaking as I think, I die, -I die.

[Dies.

Oth. I have another weapon in this chamber,
It is a sword of Spain, the ice brook's temper;-
O, here it is:-Uncle, I must come forth.

Gra. [Within.] If thou attempt it, it will cost
thee dear;

Thou hast no weapon, and perforce must suffer.
Oth. Look in upon me then, and speak with me,
Or, naked as I am, I will assault thee.

Be not afraid, though you do see me weapon'd;
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,
And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.

A thousand times committed; Cassio confess'd it: Who can control his fate? 'tis not so now.

And fall to reprobation.

Oth. 'Tis pitiful: but yet lago knows,

That she with Cassio hath the act of shame

Do you go back dismay'd? 'tis a lost fear;
Man but a rush against Othello's breast,

And he retires; - Where should Othello go?-
Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starr'd wench!
This look of thine will hurliny soul from heaven
Pale as thy smock! when we shall meet at compt,
And fiends will suatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl?
Even like thy chastity.-

O cursed, cursed slave!-Whip me, ye devils,
From the possession of this heavenly sight!
Blow me about in winds! roast me in sulphur!

[lago offers to stab his wife. Wash me in steep-down guifs of liquid fire!

Fie! O Desdemona! Desdemona! dead?
Dead? O! 0! 0!

Your sword upon a woman?
Emil. O thou dull Moor! that handkerchief thou Enter Lodovico, Montano, Cassio, carried in a

I bleed, sir; but not kill'd.

Oth. I am not sorry neither; I'd have thee live;
For, in my sense, 'tis happiness to die.
Lod. O thou Othello, that was once so good,
Fall'n in the practice of a cursed slave,

[lago stabs Emilia, then runs out.
Are there no stones in heaven,
But what serve for the thunder?-Precious villain!
Gra. The wife. woman falls; sure he has kill'd his What shall be said to thee?

Emil. Ay, ay; O lay me by my mistress' side!
Gra. He's gone, but his wife's kill'd.

Mon. 'Tis a notorious villain. Take you this
weapon,

Which I have here recover'd from the Moor:

(2) Steel is hardened by being put red-hot into (3) Account. (4) To see if his feet be cloven. very cold water.

Most heathenish, and most gross!

Lod. Now here's another discontented paper, Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems, Roderigo meant to have sent this damned villain; But that, belike, Iago in the interim

Came in and satisfied him.

Oth.

O the pernicious caitiff!How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief

That was my wife's?

Cas.

I found it in my chamber:

And he himself confess'd, but even now,
That there he dropp'd it, for a special purpose,
Which wrought to his desire.

Oth.

O fool! fool! fool!

Cas. There is, besides, in Roderigo's letter,

How he upbraids Iago, that he made him
Brave me on the watch; whereon it came
That I was cast: And even but now he spake,
After long seeming dead,-Iago hurt him,

Iago set him on.

For he was great of heart.

Lod.

O Spartan dog,
More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea!
Look on the tragic loading of this bed; [To lago.
This is thy work: the object poisons sight;-
Let it be hid.-Gratiano, keep the house,
And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor,
For they succeed to you. To you, lord governor,
Remains the censure of this hellish villain;
The time, the place, the torture, -O enforce it!
Myself will straight aboard; and, to the state,
This heavy act with heavy heart relate.

[Exeunt.

The beauties of this play impress themselves so strongly upon the attention of the reader, that they can draw no aid from critical illustration. The fiery openness of Othello, magnanimous, artless, and credulous, boundless in his confidence, ardent in his affection, inflexible in his resolution, and obdurate in his revenge; the cool malignity of lago, silent in his resentment, subtle in his designs, and studious at once of his interest and his vengeance; the soft simplicity of Desdemona, confident of merit, and conscious of innocence, her artless perseverance in her suit, and her slowness to suspect that she can be suspected, are such proofs of Shakspeare's skill in human nature, as, I suppose, it is vain to seek in any modern writer. The gradual progress which lago makes in the Moor's conviction, and the circumstances which he employs to inflame him, are so artfully natural, that, though it will, perhaps, not be said of him as he says of himself,

Lod. You must forsake this room, and go with us; that he is a man not easily jealous, yet we cannot

Your power and your command is taken off,

And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave,

If there be any cunning cruelty,

That can torment him much, and hold him long,
It shall be his. You shall close prisoner rest,
Till that the nature of your fault be known
To the Venetian state: -Come, bring him away.

Oth. Soft you; a word or two, before you go.
I have done the state some service, and they know it;
No more of that: -I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak
Of one, that lov'd not wisely, but too well;
Of one, not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
Perplex'd in the extreme; of one, whose hand,
Like the base Júdean, threw a pearl away,

Richer than all his tribe; of one, whose subdu'd

eyes,

Albeit unused to the melting mood,

Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees

Their medicínal gum: Set you down this:
And say, besides, that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk

Beat a Venetian, and traduc'd the state,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog,
And smote him-thus.

Lod. Gra.

O bloody period !

[Stabs himself.

All, that's spoke, is marr'd.

(1) Judgment.

but pity him, when at last we find him perplexed in the extreme.

There is always danger, lest wickedness, conjoined with abilities, should steal upon esteem, though it misses of approbation; but the character of lago is so conducted, that he is from the first scene to to the last hated and despised.

Even the inferior characters of this play would be very conspicuous in any other piece, not only for their justness, but their strength. Cassio is brave, benevolent, and honest, ruined only by his want of stubbornness to resist an insidious invitation. Roderigo's suspicious credulity, and impatient submission to the cheats which he sees practised upon him, and which, by persuasion, he suffers to be repeated, exhibit a strong picture of a weak mind, betrayed by unlawful desires, to a false friend; and the virtue of Emilia is such as we often find, worn loosely, but not cast off, easy to commit small crimes, but quickened and alarmed at atrocious villanies.

The scenes from the beginning to the end are busy, varied by happy interchanges, and regularly promoting the progression of the story; and the narrative in the end, though it tells but what is known already, yet is necessary to produce the death of Othello.

Had the scene opened in Cyprus, and the prece. ding incidents been occasionally related, there had been little wanting to a drama of the most exact and scrupulous regularity. JOHNSON.

FINIS.

OF OBSOLETE WORDS, AND OF WORDS VARYING FROM THEIR ORDINARY SIGNIFICATION.

Ames-ace, the lowest chance of the Atone, to reconcile.

Attorneyship, the discretional agency Beard, to defy.

Breathing-courtesy, mcre verbal com- Carriage, import.

Butt-shaft, an arrow to shoot at shafts Censure, to give an opinion.

ters are made.

Chares, task-work

Coach-fellow, one who draws with a Convented, summoned.

Coragio, courage, be of good cheer.

Coigne of vantage, convenient corner. Corinth, a brothel.
Coignes, corners.

Collection, consequence, or corollary. Corporal, corporeal.