[Stabs the king.

King. O, yet defend me, friends, I am but hur.
Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murd'rous, damned
Dane,

Drink off this potion :-Is the union here?
Follow my mother.

Laer. He is justly ferv'd;

[King dies.

It is a poifon temper'd by himfelf.-
Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet:
Mine and my father's death come not upon thee;
Nor thine on me!

[Dies.

Ham. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow

I am dead, Horatio :-Wretched queen, adieu!
You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
That are but mutes or audience to this act,
Had I but time, (as this fell ferjeant, death,
Is ftrict in his arreft) O, I could tell you,-
But let it be:-Horatio, I am dead;
Thou liv'ft; report me and my cause aright
To the unfatisfied.

!

Officers, Gentlemen, Meffengers, Musicians, Sailors, and Attendants.
SCENE, for the first Act, in Venice; during the rest of the Play, in Cyprus.

Enter Roderigo, and lago.

EVER tell me:-I take it much un-
kindly,

Evades them, with a bombaft circumftance,
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;
And, in conclufion,

Non-fuits my mediators; for, certes2, fays be,
I have abeady chofen my officer.

And what was he?

Forfooth, a great arithmetician,
One Michael Caffio, a Florentine,
A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife 3;

That thou, lage, who haft had my purse,
As if the strings were thine,-shouldst know of That never fet a squadron in the field,

this.

Nor the divifion of a battle knows

More than a fpinster; unless the bookish theoric 4,
Wherein the toged confuls 5 can propofe
As matterly as he: mere prattle, without practice,
Is all his foldiership. But he, fir, had the election:
And I, -of whom his eyes had feen the proof,
At Rhodes, at Cyprus; and on other grounds
Chrittian and heathen, must be be-lee'd and calm'd
By debtor and creditor, this counter-cafter °;
He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,

3 On

The story is taken from Cynthio's Novels. 2 i. e, certainly, in truth. Obfolcte. these lines Dr. Johnfon obferves, "This is one of the pailages which must for the prefent be refigned to corruption and obfcurity. I have nothing that I can, with any approach to confidence, propose." Mr. Tyrwhitt ingenioufly proposes to read, "damn'd in a fair life;" and is of opinion, that "Shakspeare alludes to the judgment denounced in the gospel against those of whom all men speak well." He adds, that " the character of Callio is certainly fuch, as would be very likely to draw upon him all the peril of this denunciation, literally understood. Well-bred, eafy, fociable, good-natured; with abilities enough to make him agreeable and useful, but not fufficient to excite the envy of his equals, or to alarm the jealoufy of his fuperiors. It may be observed too, that Shakspeare has thought it proper to make lago, in feveral other paffages, bear his testimony to the amiable qualities of his rival." 4 Theoric, tor theory. s Confuls, for counfeilors. • It was anciently the practice to recko up fums with counters.

And

And I, fir, (bless the mark!) his Moor-ship's Is spy'd in populous cities.

ancient.
[hangman.
Rod. By heaven, I rather would have been his
Iago. But there's no remedy; 'tis the curse of
fervice;

Preferment goes by letter 2, and affection,
Not by the old gradation, where each fecond
Stood heir to the first. Now, fir, be judge yourself,
Whether I in any just term am affin'd
To love the Moor 3.

Rod. I would not follow him then.
Iago. O, fir, content you;

I follow him to ferve my turn upon him:
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
That, doting on his own obfequious bondage,
Wears out his time, much like his matter's afs,
For nought but provender, and, when he's old,

Do themselves homage: these fellows have fome
And fuch a one do 1 profess myself.
For, fir,

It is as fure as you are Foderigo,

Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
In following him, I follow but myself;
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But feeming fo, for my peculiar end:
For when my outward action doth demonftrate
The native act and figure of my heart

In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my fleeve
For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.

Rod. What a full fortunes does the thick lips
If he can carry 't thus!

[owe,

Iago. Call up her father,
Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight,
Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinfmen,
And, though he in a fertile climate dwell,
Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,
Yet throw fuch changes of vexation on 't,
As it may lose some colour.

Rod. Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud.
lugo. Do; with like timorous accent, and dire
yell,
As when, by night and negligence, the fire

ho!

Rod. What ho! Brabantio! fignior Brabantio, [thieves! Iago. Awake! what, ho! Brabantio! thieves! Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags! Thieves! thieves!

Brabantio, above, at a windrw.

Bra. What is the reason of this terrible fummons?
What is the matter there?

Rod. Signior, is all your family within?
lago. Are your doors lock'd ?
Bra. Why? wherefore afk you this?

Iago. Sir, you are robb'd; for shame, put on

your gown;

Your heart is burit, you have loft half your foul;
Even now, very now, an old black ram
Is tupping your white ewe. Arife, arife;
Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
Or else the devil will make a grandfire of you;
Arife, I fay.

Bra. What, have you loft your wits?
Rod. Most reverend signior, do you know my

voice?

Bra. What telift thou me of robbing? this is

My house is not a grange 7.

Rod. Most grave Brabantio,

In fimple and pure foul I come to you.

lago. Sir, you are one of those, that will no ferve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to do you service, you think we are ruffians You'll have your daughter cover'd with a Barbary horfe; you'll have your nephews & neigh to you: you'll have courfers for coufins, and gennets 9 for

germans.

Bra. What profane 10 wretch art thou ? Iago. I am one, fir, that comes to tell you, your daughter and the Moor are now making the beaft with two backs.

It has been observed, that the Scots, when they compare person to perfon, use this exclamation. 2 i. e. by recommendation from powerful friends. 3 The meaning is, Do I ftand within any fuch terms of propinquity or relation to the Moor, as that it is my duty to love him? 4 Knave is here ufed for fervant, but with a mixture of fly contempt. 5 Full fortune may meansa complete piece of good fortune. To owe is in ancient language, to own, to poflefs. 6 i. e. broken. 7 That is, "You are in a populous city, not in a lone houfe, where a robbery might easily be committed." Grange is strictly and properly the farm of a monastery, where the religious repofited their corn. But in Lincolnshire, and in other northern counties, they call every lone house, or farm which slands folitary, a grange. 8 Nephew, in this instance, has the power of the Latin word nepos, and fignifies a grandJon, or any lineal defcendant, however remote. 9 A jennet is a Spanish horfe. what wretch of grofs and licentious language? 11 This is an ancient proverbial expression in the French language, whence Shakspeare probably borrowed it

10 That is,

Bra

C

Bra. Thou art a villain.

[Roderigo.

How did'st thou know 'twas she ?-O, thou de

ceiv'st me

Yago. You are a fenator.
Bra. This thou shalt answer; I know thee, Paft thought! - What faid she to you?-Get more
Rod. Sir, I will anfwer any thing. But I be-

feech you,

If 't be your pleasure, and most wife confent,
(As partly, I find, it is) that your fair daughter,
At this odd even and dull watch o' the night,
Transported-with no worse nor better guard,
But with a knave of common hire, a gondalier,
To the grofs clafps of a lafcivious Moor :-
If this be known to you, and your allowance,
We then have done you bold and faucy wrongs;
But, if you know not this, my manners tell me,
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe,
That from the fenfe of all civility,

I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:
Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,
I fay again, hath made a gross revolt;

Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes,
To an extravagant 2 and wheeling stranger,
Of here and every where: Straight fatisfy yourself:
If the be in her chamber, or your houfe,
Let loofe on me the juftice of the state
For thus deluding you.

Bra. Strike on the tinder, ho!
Give me a taper; -call up all my people:-
This accident is not unlike my dream,
Belief of it oppresses me already :-
Light, I fay! light!

lago. Farewell; for I must leave you :
It seems not meet, nor wholefome to my place,
To be produc'd (as, if I stay, 1 fhall)
Againft the Moor: For, I do know, the state, -
However this may gall him with fome check,-
Cannot with fafety caft 3 him; for he's embark'd
With fuch loud reafon to the Cyprus' war,
(Which even now stands in act) that, for their fouls,
Another of his fathom they have not,
To lead their business: in which regard,
Though I do hate him as I do hell pains,
Yet, for necessity of present life,

= I must shew out a flag and fign of love,

tapers;

Raise all my kindred.-Are they marry'd, think you?

Rod. Truly, I think, they are.

Bra. O heaven!-how got the out? - O treafon
of the blood

Fathers, from hence truft not your daughters' minds
By what you see them act.-Are there not charms,
By which the property of youth and maidhood
May be abus'd 5? Have you not read, Roderigo,
Of fome such thing?

Rod. Yes, fir; I have, indeed.

Bra. Call up my brother.-0, 'would you had

Oth. 'Tis better as it is.

lago. Nay, but he prated,

And fpoke fuch scurvy and provoking terms
Againft your honour,

That, with the little godliness I have,

I did full hard forbear him. But, I pray you, fir,

Which is indeed but fign. That you shall furely Are you faft marry'd? for, be fure of this,

find him,

Lead to the Sagittary the rais'd search;

= And there will I be with him. So, farewell.

[Exit.

That the magnifico 7 is much belov'd;
And hath, in his effect, a voice potential
As double as the duke's: he will divorce you;
Or put upon you what reftraint and grievance
The law (with all his might to enforce it on)
Will give him cable.

Orb. Let him do his fpite:
My fervices, which I have done the signiory,
Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know,

Enter, below, Brabantio, and Servants. Bra. It is too true an evil: gone the is; And what's to come of my defpifed 4 time, ■ Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo, Where didft thou see her? O unhappy girl With the Moor, fay'st thou ? - Who would be aj (Which, when I know that boafting is an honour, I shall promulgate) I fetch my life and being

father?

Dr. Johnson observes, that the even of night is midnight, the time when night is divided into even - parts. Mr. Steevens thinks that odd is here ambiguously used, as it fignifies strange, uncouth, or unwonted; and as it is opposed to even, but acknowledges that the expreffion is very harfh. 2 Extravagant is here used in the fignification of wandering. 3 That is, dismiss him; reject him. 4 Despised time, is time of no value. 5 i. e. by which the faculties of a young virgin may be infatuated, and made subject to illufions and to false imagination. 6 Stuff of the confcience is, substance, or effence, of the confcience. 7 The chief men of Venice are by a peculiar name called Magnifici, i. e. magnificoes. 8 Double has here its natural fenfe. The president of every deliberative aflembly has a double voice. For example: the lord mayor in the court of aldermen has a double voice.

Xxx 3

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