OTH. O mifery! Befides; is it true as a general pofition, that jealousy (as jealoufy) Sports or plays with the object of love (allowing this not very delicate interpretation of the words, the meat it feeds on, to be the true one)? The pofition certainly is not true. It is Love, not Jealousy, that fports with the object of its paffion; nor can thofe circumstances which create fufpicion, and which are the meat it feeds on, with any propriety be called the food of LOVE, when the poet has clearly pointed them out as the food or caufe of JEALOUSY; giving it not only being, but nutriment. "There is no beaft," it is urged, "that can literally be faid to make its own food." It is indeed acknowledged, that jealoufy is a monfter which often creates the fufpicions on which it feeds, but is it, we are asked, "the monster? (i. e. a well-known and conSpicuous animal;) and whence has it green eyes? Yellow is the colour which Shakspeare appropriates to jealousy.” To this I anfwer, that yellow is not the only colour which Shakfpeare appropriates to jealoufy, for we have in The Merchant of Venice: fhuddering fear, and green-ey'd jealousy.” and I fuppofe, it will not be contended that he was there thinking of any of the tiger kind. If our poet had written only-" It is the green-ey'd monster; beware of it;" the other objection would hold good, and fome particular monster, xxx' sżoxw, must have been meant; but the words, "It is the green-ey'd monfter, which doth, &c. in my apprehenfion have precifely the fame meaning, as if the poet had written, "it is that green-ey'd monfter, which," &c. or, "it is a greeney'd monfter." He is the man in the world whom I would leaft wifh to meet, is the common phrafeology of the prefent day. When Othello fays to lago in a former paffage," By heaven, he echoes me, as if there were fome monster in his thought,” does any one imagine that any animal whatever was meant ? The paffage in a fubfequent scene, to which Mr. Steevens has alluded, ftrongly fupports the emendation which has been made: -jealoufy will not be anfwer'd fo; " They are not ever jealous for the cause, But jealous, for they are jealous; 'tis a monster, It is, ftrictly speaking, as falfe that any monfter can be begat, or born, on itself, as it is, that any moniter (whatever may be the colour of its eyes, whether green or yellow) can make its own food; but, poetically, both are equally true of that monster, JEALOUSY. Mr. Steevens feems to have been aware of this, and therefore has added the word literally: "No monster can be literally said to make its own food." LAGO. Poor, and content, is rich, and rich enough;* But riches, finelefs," is as poor as winter,* To him that ever fears he shall be poor:Good heaven, the fouls of all my tribe defend From jealousy! It fhould always be remembered, that Shakspeare's allufions fcarcely ever answer precisely on both fides; nor had he any care upon this fubject. Though he has introduced the word monster,when he talk'd of its making its own food, and being begot by itself, he was still thinking of jealoufy only, careless whether there was any animal in the world that would correfpond with his description. That by the words, the meat it feeds on, is meant, not Desdemona herfelf, as has been maintained, but pabulum zelotypiæ, may be likewife inferred from a preceding pailage in which a kindred imagery is found: "That policy may either laft fo long, "Or feed upon fuch nice and waterish diet," &c. And this obvious interpretation is ftill more ftrongly confirmed by Daniel's Rojamond, 1592, a poem which Shakspeare had diligently read, and has more than once imitated in Romeo and Juliet: "O Jealoufy, "Feeding upon fufpe&t that doth renew thee, "Happy were lovers, if they never knew thee." In this and the few other places in which I have ventured to depart from the ancient copies, I have thought it my duty to ftate in the fulleft and cleareft manner the grounds on which the emendation ftands: which in fome cafes I have found not eafily accomplished, without running into greater prolixity than would otherwife be juftifiable. MALONE. 1-firingly loves!] Thus the quarto; the folio-foundly loves. STEEVENS. 8 Poor, and content, is rich, and rich enough;] So, in Doraftus and Fawnia, (the novel on which The Winter's Tale is formed,) 1592: "We are rich, in that we are poor with content." MALONE. The fame fentiment, which is fufficiently common, is amplified by Dryden in his Indian Emperor: "We to ourselves with all our wishes grant; "For nothing coveting, we nothing want." STEEVENS. 9 But riches, finelefs,] Unbounded, endlefs, unnumbered treafures. JOHNSON. 2 —as poor as winter,] Finely expreffed: winter producing no fruits. WARBURTON. ΟΤΗ. Why? why is this? Think'ft thou, I'd make a life of jealoufy, With fresh fufpicions? No: to be once in doubt, To fuch exfufflicate and blown furmises,3 Matching thy inference. 'Tis not to make me jealous, To fay-my wife is fair, feeds well, loves com pany, Is free of fpeech, fings, plays, and dances well; Where virtue is, these are more virtuous : + 3 To fuch exfufflicate and blown furmifes,] [Sir Thomas Hanmer -exfuffolate.] This odd and far-fetched word was made yet more uncouth in all the editions before Sir Thomas Hanmer's, by being printed—exfufflicate. The allufion is to a bubble. Do not think, fays the Moor, that I fhall change the noble defigns that now employ my thoughts, to fufpicions which, like bubbles blown into a wide extent, have only an empty fhow without folidity; or that, in confequence of fuch empty fears, I will clofe with thy inference against the virtue of my wife. JOHNSON. Whether our poet had any authority for the word exfufflicate, which I think is used in the fenfe of fwollen, and appears to have been formed from fufflatus, I am unable to afcertain: but I have not thought it fafe to fubftitute for it another word equally unauthorifed. Suffolare in Italian fignifies to whistle. How then can Dr. Johnfon's interpretation of exfuffolate be fupported? The introducer of this word explains it, by "whispered, buzz'd in the ears." MALONE. 4 blown furmifes, Matching thy inference.] That is,-fuch as you have mentioned in defcribing the torments of jealoufy. The part of Iago's fpeech particularly alluded to, is that where he says: "But, O, what damned minutes tells he o'er, "Who dotes, yet doubts; fufpects, yet ftrongly loves!" M. MASON. 5 Where virtue is, these are more virtuous:] An action in itself indifferent, grows virtuous by its end and application. JOHNSON. Nor from mine own weak merits will I draw IAGO. I am glad of this; for now I fhall have To show the love and duty that I bear you In Venice they do let heaven fee the pranks I know not why the modern editors, in oppofition to the first quarto and folio, read most instead of more. A paffage in All's well that ends well, is perhaps the best comment on the fentiment of Othello: "I have thofe good hopes of her, education promifes: his difpofition fhe inherits; which makes fair gifts fairer." Gratior e pulchro veniens et corpore virtus. Moft is the reading of the fecond folio. RITSON. STEEVENS. Out of felf-bounty, be abus'd;] Self-bounty for inherent gene- rofity. 7 our country difpofition In Venice-] Here lago feems to be a Venetian. JOHNSON. There is nothing in any other part of the play, properly underftood, to imply otherwife. HENLEY. Various other paffages, as well as the prefent, prove him to have been a Venetian, nor is there any ground for doubting the poet's intention on this head. See p. 505, n. 5. MALONE. Is--not to leave undone, but keep unknown.s ОTH. Doft thou fay fo? LAGO. She did deceive her father, marrying you; And, when she feem'd to fhake, and fear your looks, She lov'd them moft. Отн. IAGO. And fo fhe did. Why, go to, then; She that, fo young, could give out fuch a feeming, To feel her father's eyes up, close as oak,' Is-not to leave undone, but keep unknown.] The folio perhaps more clearly reads: Is not to leav't undone, but keep'ɩ unknown. STEEVENS. The folio, by an evident error of the prefs, reads-kept un known. MALONE. 6 And, when she feem'd-] This and the following argument of Iago ought to be deeply impressed on every reader. Deceit and falfehood, whatever conveniences they may for a time promise or produce, are, in the fum of life, obftacles to happiness. Thofe, who profit by the cheat, diftruft the deceiver, and the act, by which kindness is fought, puts an end to confidence. The fame objection may be made with a lower degree of ftrength against the imprudent generofity of difproportionate marriages. When the first heat of paffion is over, it is eafily fucceeded by fufpicion, that the fame violence of inclination, which caufed one irregularity, may ftimulate to another; and those who have fhewn, that their paffions are too powerful for their prudence, will, with very flight appearances against them, be cenfured, as not very likely to restrain them by their virtue. JOHNSON. 1 To feel her father's eyes up, clofe as oak,] The oak is (I believe) the moft clofe-grained wood of general ufe in England.` Clafe as oak, means, clofe as the grain of oak. To feel is an expreffion from falconry. So, in Ben Jonson's Catiline: 66 would have kept "Both eyes and beak feel'd up, for fix fefterces." STEEVENS. To feel a hawk is to few up his eye-lids. See Vol. XII. p. 667, 2.7. |