SCENE III. Enter Brabantio, and fervants with torches. Bra. It is too true an evil. Gone she is; With the Moor, faidft thou? - Who would be a fa ther? How didft thou know 'twas fhe? Oh, thou deceiv'st me Paft, thought. What faid he to you?-Get more tapers, Raise all my kindred.-Are they married, think you? Rod. Truly, I think, they are. Bra. Oh heaven! how gat fhe out? Oh treason of my blood! Fathers, from hence truft not your daughters' minds 7 Of fome fuch thing? Rod. Yes, Sir, I have, indeed. Bra. Call up my brother.-Oh, 'would you had had her. -Some one way, fome another-Do you know Rod. I think, I can discover him, if you please On, good Rodorigo, I'll deferve your pains. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. Changes to another STREET, before the Sagittary. Enter Othello, Iago, and attendants with Torches. Iago. T HO' in the trade of war I have flain men, Yet do I hold it very ftuff o' th' confcience To do no contriv'd murder. I lack iniquity I thought to've jerk'd him here under the ribs. Jago. Nay, but he prated, And spoke fuch fcurvy and provoking terms That, with the little godlinefs I have, I did full hard forbear him. But I pray, Sir, 8 Auf of the confcience] This expreffion to common readers appears harsh. Stuff of the confcience is, fubftance, or effence, of the confcience. Stuff is a word of great force in the Ter tonick languages. The elements are called in Dutch, boefd ftoffen, or bead fluffs. That That the Magnifico is much belov'd, As double as the Duke's: he will divorce you, Oth. Let him do his fpight: My fervices, which I have done the Signory, 9 As double as the Duke's:-] Rymer feems to have had his eye on this paffage, amongst others, where he talks fo much of the impropriety and barbarity in the ftyle of this play. But it is an elegant Grecifm. As double fignifies as large, as extenfive; for thus the Greeks ufe dimas. Diofc. 1. 2. c. 213. And in the fame manner and conftruction, the Latins fometimes ufed duplex. And the old French writers fay, La plus double. Dr. Bentley has been as fevere on Milion for as elegant a Grecifm, Yet Virgin of Proferpina from Jove. lib. 9. ver. 396. 'Tis an imitation of the Пapo baráme of Theccritus for an unmarried virgin. WARB. This note has been much cenfured by Mr. Upton, who denies, that the quotation is in Diofcorides, and difputes, not without reason, the interpretation of The ocritus. All this learning, if it had even been what it endeavours to be thought, is, in this place, fuperfluous. There is no ground of fuppofing, that our author copied or knew the Greek phrafe; nor does it follow, that, because a word has two fenfes in one language, the word which in another anfwers to one fenfe, fhould anfwer to both. Manus, in Latin, fignifies both a hand and troop of foldiers, but we cannot fay, that the captain marched at the head of his hand; or, that he laid his troop upon his fwerd. It is not always in books that the meaning is to be fought of this writer, who was much more acquainted with naked reafon and with living manners. Double has here its natural fenfe. The prefident of every deliberative affembly has a double voice. In our courts, the chief juftice and one of the inferiour judges, prevail over the other two, because the chief justice has a double voice. Brabantio had, in his effect, tho' not by law yet by weight and influence, a voice not actual and formal, but potential and operative, as double, that is, a voice that when a question was fufpended, would turn the balance as effectually as the Duke's. Potential is ufed in the fenfe of science; a cauftick is called potential fire. Shall Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know, my demerits May 2 speak, and bonnetted, to as proud a fortune I would not my 3 unhoufed free condition Put into circumfcription and confine, 4 For the fea's worth. But look, what light comes yonder? SCENE V. Enter Caffio, with torches. Iago. Those are the raised father, and his friends: You were best go in. Oth. Not I: I must be found. My parts, my title and my perfect Soul Oth. The Servants of the Duke, and my lieutenant. -The goodness of the night upon you, friends! What is the news? Caf. The Duke does greet you, General, And he requires your hafte, post-haste, appearance, Ev'n on the inftant. Oth. What is the matter, think you? Caf. Something from Cyprus, as I may divine; This very night, at one anothers heels: 6 And many of the Council, rais'd and met, Are at the Duke's already. call'd for, You have been hotly When, being not at your lodging to be found, 7 The fenate hath fent out three feveral quefts, To search you out. Oth. 'Tis well I am found by you. I will but spend a word here in the house, And go with you. Caf. Ancient, what makes he here? 5 By Janus, I think, no.] There is great propriety in making the double lago fwear by Janus, who has two faces. The addrefs of it likewife is as remarkable, for as the people coming up appeared at different distances to have different shapes, he might fwear by Janus, without fufpicion of any other emblematical meaning. WARBURTON. 6 And many of the Confuls rais'd and met, Are at the Duke's already-] Thus all the editions concur in [Exit Othello. |