NOTES.

Note I.

I. 1. 16. The punctuation in the text was first given by Steevens (1773). Most editors following Capell, including Steevens in his later editions, have supposed 'for, certes' to be part of Othello's speech. Mr Collier, omitting the comma, gives 'For certes' as the commencement of Othello's words. There is no comma in either Quartos or Folios, and the printing leaves it uncertain where the quotation is meant to begin.

Note II.

I. 1. 20, 21. Theobald marks 'Certes ... officer,' and 'the Florentine's ... wife' with inverted commas, to indicate that they are Iago's report of Othello's speeches, and supposes Iago to be the 'fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife.' 'The Poet means,' he adds, 'Iago had so beautiful a Wife, that she was his Heaven on Earth; that he idoliz'd her; and forgot to think of Happiness in an After-state, as placing all his Views of Bliss in the single Enjoyment of her. In this sense, Beauty, when it can so seduce and ingross a Man's Thoughts, may be said almost to damn him.' Warburton's explanation agrees substantially with that of Theobald.

Note III.

I. 3. 370-374. The reading in the text is that of the second and third Quartos. The first Quarto has:

'Iag. Go to, farewell:—doe you heare Roderigo?
Rod. what say you?
Iag. No more of drowning, doe you heare?
Rod. I am chang'd. Exit Roderigo.
Iag. Goe to, farewell, put money enough in your purse:
 Thus doe I euer make my foole my purse:'

The first Folio, followed substantially by the rest, reads:

'Iago. Go too, farewell. Do you heare, Rodorigo?
Rod. Ile sell all my Land. Exit.
Iago. Thus do I euer make my Foole, my purse:'

Rowe and Pope follow the Folios.

Theobald has:

'Iago. Go to, farewel. Do you hear, Rodorigo?
Rod. What say you?
Iago. No more of drowning, do you hear.
Rod. I am chang'd; I'll go sell all my land. [Exit.

Manet Iago.

Iago. Go to, farewel, put mony enough in your purse—
 Thus, &c.'

Hanmer:

'Iago. Go to, farewel. Do you hear, Rodorigo?
 No more of drowning.
Rod. I'll sell all my land. [Exit.

Scene xi.

Manet Iago.

Iago. Thus,' &c.

Warburton follows Theobald, and so does Johnson, except that he transfers 'Exit Rodorigo' to follow the first line of Iago's speech, and makes Scene XI. begin with the next. Capell reduces the whole to the following:

'Iag. Go to, farewel.
Rod. I'll sell all my land. [Exit.
Iag. Thus,' &c.

Note IV.

III. 3. 116. In the Devonshire copy of the first Quarto there is a marginal stage direction in a 17th century hand opposite this line, 'With admiring action.' Some other stage directions and readings quoted in our foot-notes as 'Anon. MS.' are from the same source. More than one hand seems to have been employed, and there are other notes of a much later date in pencil.

Note V.

III. 3. 153. Johnson attributes the reading 'improbably' to what he calls 'the old Quarto.' We have not found it in any copies.

Note VI.

III. 3. 172. In the Devonshire copy of the first Quarto, which formerly belonged to Steevens, and which was the original of his reprint, the word 'loues' is partially obliterated by being changed with a pen to 'hates', but being still obscure 'hates', is written in the margin opposite in the same hand as the stage direction mentioned in note IV. Capell's copy has distinctly 'loues', and that this was originally the reading of the Devonshire copy is evident from the traces of the letters which still remain. Two lines above, opposite 'make,' a late hand has written in pencil 'muck' (which is Becket's conjecture) in the Devonshire copy. We have no means of ascertaining whether this note was written before or after the publication of Becket's work.

Note VII.

III. 3. 405. Capell prints the words: 'What then? how then? Where's satisfaction?' in italics, to indicate that Iago is repeating what Othello had said.

Note VIII.

IV. 1. 207, 208. The first Folio reads as follows:

'Iago. I warrant something from Venice,
 'Tis Lodouico this, comes from the Duke.
 See, your wife's with him.'

The other Folios have substantially the same reading, except that the second has 'Lodovico, this, comes, &c.,' and the third and fourth 'Lodovico, this comes, &c.'

Hanmer has:

'Iago. I warrant you 'tis something come from Venice.
 Oh! it is Lodovico from the Duke:
 And see, your wife is with him.'

We have given in our text the reading of the Quartos with Theobald's punctuation.

Note IX.

IV. 2. 55, 56. The first Quarto has:

'A fixed figure, for the time of scorne,
 To point his slow vnmouing fingers at—oh, oh,'

The second and third have the same except that they substitute 'finger' for fingers. The first Folio, which is followed substantially by the rest, has:

'The fixed Figure for the time of Scorne,
 To point his slow, and mouing finger at.'

Rowe:

'A fixed Figure for the hand of Scorn
 To point his slow and moving Finger at—.'

He is followed by Pope, Theobald, and Hanmer.

Warburton also follows Rowe, except that he reads 'unmoving' for 'and moving.'

Johnson, Capell and Jennens adopt Warburton's reading.

Capell puts 'O! O!' in a separate line.

Steevens reads with the second and third Quartos, followed by Malone, Rann and the Variorum Editors.

Malone conjectures:

'A fixed figure for the scorn of time
 To point his slow unmoving finger at,—'

Mason proposes 'slowly moving' for 'slow unmoving': a conjecture which has been also made by Mr Collier's MS. corrector and adopted by Mr Collier in his second edition.

Becket conjectures:

'A fixed figure and in scorn, for time
 To point his slow-unmoving finger at.'

Jackson:

'A fix'd figure, for the type of scorn
 To point his low unmoving finger at.'

Mr Knight, in his 'Stratford' Edition, and Mr Staunton adopt Hunter's conjecture:

'The fixed figure of the time, for scorn
 To point his slow and moving finger at,—'

Mr Grant White, in his Shakespeare's Scholar, expressed his approval of this conjecture, changing however, 'and moving' to 'unmoving' in the second line. In his edition he follows, as we do, the second Quarto. 'The time of scorn' (he says) is a phrase like 'the day of sorrow,' 'the hour of joy,' or 'the age of progress.'

Dr Cartwright reads:

'A fixed figure for the time of scorn
 To point his cold unmoving finger at.'

Mr Bailey conjectures:

'A fixed figure for the time, in scorn
 To point his sly and mocking finger at.'

Mr Bullock proposes to read:

'A fixed figure for the rhymer's scorn,
 To point his foul unmoving finger at.'

Note X.

IV. 2. 183. Mr Collier says that the Devonshire copy of F1 has the following: 'I have heard too much: And hell gnaw his bones Performances....' The mistake was discovered and corrected in other copies. This accounts for the 'and' which the corrected copies still retain instead of 'for.'

Note XI.

IV. 3. 46-48. In this passage we have followed Capell's arrangement of the text. The second Quarto has:

'Sing willow, &c. (Lay by these.)
 Willow, willow.
 (Prethee hie thee, he'll come anon.)'

The third Quarto has the same arrangement, but misprints 'fling-willow, &c.'

The first Folio reads:

'Sing Willough, &c. (Lay by these).
 Willough, Willough. (Prythee high thee: he'll come anon).'

The second, third, and fourth Folios have 'Lady by these,' a misprint which was corrected by Rowe in his first, but repeated in his second edition. Pope, Theobald, Hanmer, and Warburton omitted the words altogether.

Note XII.

V. 2. 7. Rowe, in his first edition, printed the line thus:

'Put out the Light, and then put out the Light,'

and, in his second,

'Put out the Light, and then put out the Light,'

in which he was followed by Pope, except that the latter put a semicolon at the end of the line. Theobald, punctuating thus,

'Put out the light, and, then, put out the light;'

supposes that the only light in the room is that which Othello carries in his hand, and which at first he intends to extinguish, but, changing his mind, sets down to go and kiss Desdemona. He observes, 'The Players, in all the Companies wherever I have seen this Tragedy perform'd, commit an Absurdity here, in making Othello put out the candle, which, 'tis evident, never was the Poet's intention.'

Hanmer prints:

'Put out the light: and then—put out thy light.'

Opposite line 13 he adds this stage direction, 'Sets down the Candle, not putting it out.'

Warburton has:

'Put out the light, and then—Put out the light?—'

His punctuation is adopted by Johnson.

Capell reads:

'Put out the light, and then—Put out the light!'

and adds after the next line, as a stage direction, 'Setting down the Taper.'

Mr Goldwin Smith, regarding the line in question as a stage-direction which has crept into the text, suggests to us that the passage ought to be printed as follows:

'Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men.'

[Takes off his sword and then puts out the light.

'If I quench thee, thou flaming minister, &c.'

or thus:

'................................alabaster.'

[Takes off his sword.

'Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men.'

[Puts out the light.

'If I quench thee, thou flaming minister, &c.'

Note XIII.

V. 2. 86. Mr Singer, in his second edition, has here invented a reading of the first Quarto, from a misinterpretation of Steevens's note. He says, 'After this speech of Othello, the elder Quarto adds an invocation from Desdemona, consisting only of "God! God! God!"' Steevens's words, which Mr Singer adopted in his first edition, were 'consisting only of the sacred name thrice repeated.'

Note XIV.

V. 2. 243. Mr Collier in his Notes and Emendations and in the appendix to Coleridge's Lectures gives 'now' as the insertion of his MS. corrector. In the note on this passage in his second edition of Shakespeare, he says: 'Here in this line is omitted in the Folio, 1623, but inserted in the corr. fo. 1632.'

Note XV.

V. 2. 284, 285. The reading given in the text is that of the Quartos, substantially. The first has literatim thus:

'O Desdemona, Desdemona, dead, O, o. o.'

The second and third:

'O Desdemona, Desdemona; dead, O, o, o.'

The first Folio:

'Oh Desdemon! dead Desdemon: dead. Oh, oh!'

The second:

'Oh Desdemon! dead Desdemon: dead. dead. Oh, oh!'

The third:

'Oh Desdemona! dead Desdemona: dead, dead. Oh, oh!'

This is followed substantially by the fourth Folio and Rowe.

Pope reads:

'Oh Desdemona! Desdemona! dead, dead! Oh! Oh!'

This is adopted by Theobald, Hanmer, Warburton and Johnson.

Capell reads:

'O Desdemone! dead, Desdemone? dead? dead?
 O, o, o!'

Steevens (1773) has:

'Oh Desdemona! Desdemona! dead!
 Dead! oh! oh! oh!'

This reading is followed by Steevens himself in his later editions, Malone, Rann, the Variorum editors, Singer and Harness. Mr Knight reads substantially with the first Folio: Mr Collier follows the Quartos.

Mr Dyce reads:

'O Desdemon! dead, Desdemon! dead! O!'

Mr Staunton adopts the reading of the first Folio, putting a comma after the first 'dead.' Mr Grant White follows Mr Dyce.

Note XVI.

V. 2. 350. In his note on this passage Theobald says, 'I have restor'd, Judian, from the Elder Quarto, as the genuine and more eligible reading.' All the Quartos we have seen read 'Indian.' He adds, 'I am satisfied, in his Judian, he is alluding to Herod; who, in a Fit of blind Jealousie, threw away such a Jewel of a Wife as Mariamne was to him.' This interpretation was suggested by Warburton.

'Indian' is read by the Quarto of 1695, Rowe, Pope, Capell, Jennens, Rann, Knight, Collier, Dyce, Singer (ed. 2), Delius, Staunton, Cowden Clarke, Hudson and Grant White.

'Judian' or 'Judean' is read by Theobald, Hanmer, Warburton, Johnson, Steevens, the Variorum editors, Harness and Singer (ed. 1).

CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Transcriber's Notes:

Incorporated p. xix addenda to text.

Retained line wrapping in plays to retain prose line numbering.

Converted linenotes to footnotes with anchors at line ends.

Retained incorrect line numbers, e.g. there are often more than 5 lines (or occasionally less than 5) between increments of 5.

Assigned anchors to linenotes without line references.

Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical errors.

Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.

New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.