Proclaim him in the streets; incenfe her kinfmen, As it may lofe fome colour. Rod. Here is her father's houfe; I'll call aloud. Iago. Do; with like timorous accent, and dire yell, 4 As when, by night and negligence, the fire Is fpy'd in populous cities. Rod. What ho! Brabantio! fignior Brabantio, ho! Iago. Awake! what, ho! Brabantio! thieves ! thieves! Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags! Thieves thieves! 4 As when, by night and negligence, the fire Is ipy'd in populous cities.] This is not fenfe, také it which way you will. If night and negligence relate to fpied, it is abfurd to fay, the fire was pied by negligence. If night and negligence refer only to the time and occafion, it fhould then be night and through negligence. Otherwife the particle by would be made to fignify time applied to one word, and cause applied to the other. We should read therefore, Is fpred, by which all these faults are avoided. But what is of most weight, the fimilitude, thus emended, agrees best with the fact it is applied to. Had this notice been given to Brabantio before his daughter fan away and married, it might then indeed have been well enough compared to the alarm given of a fire juft Spied, as foon as it was begun. But being given after the parties were bedded, it was more fitly compared to a fire spread by night and negligence, so as not to be extinguished. WARBURTON. The particle is ufed equivocally; the fame liberty is taken by writers more correct. "The wonderful creature! a woman of reafon! "Never grave out of pride, never gay out of feafon.". JOHNSON. Dr. Warburton feems to have forgot that the marriage was not confummated till the parties arrived at Cyprus : Come, my dear love! The purchase made, the fruits are to ensuè; That profit's yet to come 'twixt me and you. STEEVENS By night and negligence means, during the time of night and negligence. MONCK MASON. VOL. X. Nn Brabantio, Brabantio, above, at a window. Bra. What is the reafon of this terrible fummons? Rod. Signior, is all your family within ? Bra. Why? wherefore afk you this? Iago. Sir, you are robb'd; for shame, put on your gown; Your heart is burft you have loft half your foul Even now, very now, an old black ram Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise; '. Awake the fnorting citizens with the bell, Or elfe the devil will make a grandfire of you: Arife, I say. Bra. What, have you loft your wits? Rod. Most revered fignior, do you know my voice? Bra. Not I; What are you ? Rod. My name is-Roderigo. I have charg'd thee, not to haunt about my doors: My daughter is not for thee; and now, in madness, Being full of fupper, and distempering draughts, Upon malicious bravery, doft thou come To ftart my quiet. Rod. Sir, fir, fir, Bra. But thou muft needs be fure, My fpirit, and my place, have in them power Rod. Patience, good fir. 5 Are your doors lock'd?] The first quarto reads, Are all doors lock'd? STEEVENS. ર 6-is burft, i. e. broken. Burft for broke is used in our author's King Henry IV. p. 2: " and then he burst his head for crowding among the marshal's men." See vol. iii. p. 418. STEEVENS. Bra. Bra. What tell'ft thou me of robbing? this is My houfe is not a grange7. Rod. Moft grave Brabantio, In fimple and pure foul I come to you. Iago. Sir, you are one of those, that will not ferve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to do you fervice, 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 1 Grange.] 8 this is Venice; My house is not a grange. That is, "you are in a populous city, not in a lone house, where a robbery might easily be committed." Grange is frictly and properly the farm of a monaftery, where the religious repofited their corn. Grangia Lat. from Granum. But in Lincolnshire, and in other northern counties, they call every lone houfe, or farm which stands folitary, a grange. WARTON So, in T. Heywood's English Traveller, 1633: "Who can blame him to abfent himself from home, "And make his father's house but as a grange, &c. ?” Again, in Daniel's Complaint of Rofamond, 1599 -foon was I train'd from court "To a folitary grange, &c." Again, in Measure for Measure: at the moated grange refides this dejected Mariana.” STEEVENS. 8 your nephews neigh to you:] Nephew, in this inftance, has the power of the Latin word nepos, and fignifies a grandfon, or any lineal defcendant, however remote. So, in Spencer: "And all the fons of thefe five brethren reign'd "Even thrice eleven defcents the crown obtain'd.” Again, in Chapman's verfion of the Odyfley, B. 24. Laertes fuys of Telemachus his grandfon: "to behold my fon "And nephew clofe in fuch contention." Sir W. Dugdale very often employs the word in this fenfe; and without it, it would not be very easy to fhew how Brabantio could have nephews by the marriage of his daughter. Ben Jonfon likewife ufes it with the fame meaning. The alliteration in this paffage caufed Shakspeare to have recourse to it. N n z STEEVENS. courfers courfers for coufins, and gennets for ger mans. Bra. What profane wretch art thou ? 2 Iago. I am one, fir, that comes to tell you, your daughter and the Moor are now making the beaft with two backs. Bra. Thou art a villain. Iago. You are-a fenator. Bra. This thou fhalt anfwer; I know thee, Roderigo. Rod. Sir, I will anfwer any thing. But I beseech you, Ift be your pleasure, and moft wife consent, (As partly, I find it is) that your fair daughter, 9-gennets for germans.] A jennet is a Spanish horse. So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1530: "there ftays within my tent "A winged jennet. STEEVENS. What profane wretch art thou?] That is, what wretch of grofs and licentious language? In that fenfe Shakspeare often ufes the word profane. JOHNSON.. It is foufed by other writers of the fame age: "How far off dwels the houfe furgeon? 66 You are a profane fellow, i'faith." Again, in Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub; By the ily justice, and his clerk profane." STEEVENS. your daughter and the Moor are making the beaft with two backs.] This is an ancient proverbial expreffion in the French language, whence Shakspeare probably borrowed it; for in the Dictionaire des Proverbes Françoifes, par G. D. B. Bruffelles, 1710, 12m0, I find the following article: "Faire la Bête a deux Dos" pour dire faire l'amour. PERCY. In the Dictionaire Comique, par le Roux, 175c, this phrafe is more particularly explained under the article Bete. "Faire la bete a deux dos.- Maniere de parler qui fignifie etre couché avec une femme; faire le deduit.'"Et faifoient tous deux fouvent enfemble la bete a deux dos joyeufement."-Rabelais, liv. i. There was a tranflation of Rabelais published in the time of Shakspeare. MALONE. 3 Ift be, &c.] The lines printed in crotchets are not in the first edition, but in the folio of 1623. JOHNSON. At At this odd even and dull watch o' the night, 4—this odd even-] The even of night is midnight, the time when night is divided into even parts. JOHNSON. Odd is here ambiguoufly used, as it fignifies ftrange, uncouth, or unwonted; and as it is opposed to even. This expreffion, however explained, is very harfh; and the poet might have written-At this odd feven. Steven is an ancient word fignifying time. So, in the old ballad of Robin Hood and Guy of Gifhorne: "We may chance to meet with Robin Hood "Here at fome unfett leven." Again, in the Booke of the mofle victoryous Prynce Guy of Warwick, bi. 1. no date : "Nowe we be mette at unfette fleven, Again, in Chaucer's Knight's Tale, late edit. ver. 1526: "For al day meten men at unfet leven." STEEVENS, Perhaps midnight is ftyled the odd-even time of night, because it is ufually the hour of fleep, which, like death, levels all diftinctions, and reduces all mankind, however, difcriminated, to equality. Much pains have been taken by fome of the editors, efpecially by Dr. Warburton to introduce into the text a parcel of obfolete words which Shakspeare never dreamed of; for the obfcurity of his ftyle does not arife from the frequent ufe of antiquated terms, but from his peculiar manner of applying and combining the words which he found in common ufe in this day; and when he deviates from the received language of the times, it is rather by coining fome harsh and high-founding words of his own, than by looking back for thofe which had fallen into difufe. If there fore it be neceffary to amend this paffage, I fhould chufe to read at this dull feafon," rather than this dull fieven as an expreffion that would more naturally occur either to Shakspeare or to Roderigo. MoNCK MASON. |