Duke of Venice. Two other Senators. Gratiano, Brother to Brabantio. Lodovico, Kinsman to Brabantio. Cassio, his Lieutenant; Roderigo, a Venetian Gentleman. Montano, Othello's Predecessor in the Government of Cyprus.1 Clown, Servant to Othello. Herald. Desdemona, Daughter to Brabantio, and Wife to Othello. Emilia, Wife to Iago. Bianca, a Courtezan, Mistress to Cassio, Officers, Gentlemen, Messengers, Musicians, Sailors, Attendants, &c. SCENE, for the first Act, in Venice; during the rest of the Play, at a Sea-Port in Cyprus. 1 Though the rank which Montano held in Cyprus cannot be exactly ascertained, yet from many circumstances, we are sure he had not the powers with which Othello was subsequently invested. Perhaps we do not receive any one of the Persona Dramatis to Shakspeare's plays, as it was originally drawn up by himself. These appendages are wanting to all the quartos, and are very rarely given in the folio. At the end of this play, however, the following enumeration of persons occurs: "The names of the actors.-Othello, the Moore.-Brabantio, Father to Desdemona.-Cassio, an Honourable Lieutenant.-Iago, a Villaine.-Rodorigo, a gull'd Gentleman.-Duke of Venice. -Senators-Montano, Governour of Cyprus.-Gentlemen of Cyprus.-Lodovico, and Gratiano, two noble Venetians.Saylors-Clowne.-Desdemona, Wife to Othello.-Emilia, Wife to Iago.-Bianca, a Curtezan." STEEVENS. OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF VENICE. ACT I. SCENE I. Venice. A Street. Enter RODERIGO and IAGO. ROD. Tush, never tell me," I take it much un kindly, That thou, Iago,-who hast had my purse, As if the strings were thine,-should'st know of this. IAGO. 'Sblood, but you will not hear me:3If ever I did dream of such a matter, Abhor me. ROD. Thou told'st me, thou didst hold him in thy hate. IAGO. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city, In personal suit to make me his lieutenant, 2 Tush, never tell me,] Thus the quarto, 1622. The folio omits the interjection-Tush. STEEVENS. 3'Sblood, but you will not &c.] Thus the quarto: the folio suppresses this oath. STEEVENS. Oft capp'd to him ;-and, by the faith of man, 6 My mediators; for, certes, says he, I have already chose my officer. Forsooth, a great arithmetician,? * Oft capp'd to him;] Thus the quarto. The folio reads, Off-capp'd to him, STEEVENS. In support of the folio, Antony and Cleopatra may be quoted: "I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes.' This reading I once thought to be the true one. But a more intimate knowledge of the quarto copies has convinced me that they ought not without very strong reason to be departed from. MALONE. To сар is to salute by taking off the cap. It is still an academick phrase. M. MASON. 5 -a bombast circumstance,] Circumstance signifies circumlocution. So, in Greene's Tu Quoque: "You put us to a needless labour, sir, "To run and wind about for circumstance, "When the plain word, I thank you, would have serv'd." Again, in Massinger's Picture: or "And therefore, without circumstance, to the point, Again, in Knolles's History of the Turks, p. 576: "wherefore I will not use many words to persuade you to continue in your fidelity and loyalty; neither long circumstance to encourage you to play the men." REED. certes,] i. e. certainly, in truth. Obsolete. So, Spenser, in The Fairy Queen, Book IV. c. ix: "Certes, her losse ought me to sorrow most." 7 Forsooth, a great arithmetician,] So, in Romeo and Juliet, one that fights by the book of arithmetick." STEEVENS. Mercutio says: Iago, however, means to represent Cassio, not as a person One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,8 " whose arithmetick was "6 MALONE. a Florentine,] It appears from many passages of this play (rightly understood) that Cassio was a Florentine, and Iago a Venetian. HANMER. 9 A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;] Sir Thomas Hanmer supposed that the text must be corrupt, because it appears from a following part of the play that Cassio was an unmarried man. Mr. Steevens has clearly explained the words in a subsequent note: I have therefore no doubt that the text is right; and have not thought it necessary to insert Mr. Tyrwhitt's note, in which he proposed to read" a fellow almost damn'd in a fair life." Shakspeare, he conceived, might allude to the judgment denounced in the gospel against those of whom all men speak well. MALONE. Mr. Tyrwhitt's conjecture is ingenious, but cannot be rights for the malicious Iago would never have given Cassio the highest commendation that words can convey, at the very time that he wishes to depreciate him to Roderigo; though afterwards, in speaking to himself, [Act V. sc. i.] he gives him his just character. M. MASON. That Cassio was married is not sufficiently implied in the .words, a fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife, since they mean, according to Iago's licentious manner of expressing himself, no more than a man very near being married. This seems to have been the case in respect of Cassio.-Act IV. sc. i, Iago speaking to him of Bianca, says,-Why, the cry goes, that you shall marry her. Cassio acknowledges that such a report had been raised, and adds, This is the monkey's own giving out: she is persuaded I will marry her, out of her own love and self flattery, not out of my promise. Iago then, having heard this report before, very naturally circulates it in his present conversation with Roderigo. If Shakspeare, however, designed Bianca for a courtezan of Cyprus, (where Cassio had not yet been, and had therefore never seen her,) Iago cannot be supposed to allude to the report concerning his marriage with her, and consequently this part of my argument must fall to the ground. Had Shakspeare, consistently with Iago's character, meant to That never set a squadron in the field, make him say that Cassio was actually damn'd in being married to a handsome woman, he would have made him say it outright, and not have interposed the palliative almost. Whereas what he says at present amounts to no more than that (however near his marriage) he is not yet completely damned, because he is not absolutely married. The succeeding parts of Iago's conversation sufficiently evince, that the poet thought no mode of conception or expression too brutal for the character. STEEVENS. There is no ground whatsoever for supposing that Shakspeare designed Bianca for a courtezan of Cyprus. Cassio, who was a Florentine, and Othello's lieutenant, sailed from Venice in a ship belonging to Verona, at the same time with the Moor; and what difficulty is there in supposing that Bianca, who, Cassio himself informs us, "haunted him every where," took her sage in the same vessel with him; or followed him afterwards? Othello, we may suppose, with some of the Venetian troops, `sailed in another vessel; and Desdemona and Iago embarked in a third. Iago, after he has been at Cyprus but one day, speaks of Bianca, (Act IV. sc. i.) as one whom he had long known: he must therefore (if the poet be there correct) have known her at Venice: "Now will I question Cassio of Bianca, "A huswife, that, by selling her desires, "Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature, Ingenious as Mr. Tyrwhitt's conjecture may appear, it but ill accords with the context. Iago is enumerating the disqualifications of Cassio for his new appointment; but surely his being well spoken of by all men could not be one of them. It is evident from what follows that a report had prevailed at Venice of Cassio's being soon to be married" to the most fair Bianca." Now as she was in Shakspeare's language "a customer," it was with a view to such a connection that Iago called the new Lieutenant a fellow almost damned. It may be gathered from various circumstances that an intercourse between Cassio and Bianca had existed before they left Venice; for Bianca is not only well known to lago at Cyprus, but she upbraids Cassio (Act III. sc. iv.) with having been absent a week from her, when he had not been two days on the island. Hence, and from what Cassio himself re |