" he that basely "Whistled his honour off to the wind, &c." STEEVENS. 363. Chamberers] i. e. men of intrigue. So, in the Countess of Pembroke's Antonius, 1590: "Fal'n from a souldier to a chamberer.” STEEVENS. The sense of chamberers may be ascertained from Rom. xiii. 13, where un KOITAIE is rendered, in the common version, "not in CHAMBERING." HENLEY. 374. -forked plague-] In allusion to a barbed or forked arrow, which, once infixed, cannot be exJOHNSON. Or rather, the forked plague is the cuckold's horns. tracted. PERCY. Dr. Johnson's may be right. I meet with the same thought in Middleton's comedy of A Mad World my Masters, 1608: "While the broad arrow, with the forked head, "Misses his brows but narrowly." And, in King Lear, -though the fork invade "The region of my heart." Mr. Malone supports the explanation of Dr. Percy, by the following passage in Machin's Dumb Knight, 1633: "Women, why were you made for man's afflic tion? "You devils, shap'd like angels, through whose deeds "Our forked shames are made most visible." Again, from Tarlton's Newes out of Purgatorie: "-dub the old Squire Knight of the forked order." STEEVENS. 379. Desdemona comes:] Thus the quartos. The folio reads: Look where she comes. STEEVENS. 379. -the generous islanders] Are the islanders of rank, distinction. So, in Measure for Measure: "The generous and gravest citizens "Have hent the gates." Generous has here the power of generosus, Lat. This explanation, however, may be too particular. STEEVENS. 387. Your napkin, &c.] That is, handkerchief. See As You Like It, act iv. line 328. STEEVENS. 396. -I'll have the work ta'en out.] That is, copied. Her first thoughts are, to have a copy made of it for her husband, and restore the original to Desdemona. But the sudden coming in of Iago, in a surly humour, makes her alter her resolution, to please him. The same phrase afterwards' occurs between Cassio and Bianca. BLACKSTONE. 399. I nothing, but to please his fantasy.] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads: I nothing know but for his fantasy. STEEVENS. 413. to the advantage, &c.] I being opportunely here, took it up. JOHNSON. 422. Be not you known on't] The folio reads-- Be not acknowne on't. STEEVENS. Thus, in The Life of Ariosto, subjoined to Sir John Harrington's translation of Orlando, p. 418, edit. 1607: "Some "Some say, he was married to her privilie, but durst not be acknowne of it." 432. PORSON. -I did say so :- -] As this passage is supposed to be obscure, I shall attempt an explanation of it. Iago first ruminates on the qualities of the passion which he is labouring to excite; and then proceeds to comment on its effects. Jealousy (says he) with the smallest operation on the blood, flames out with all the violence of sulphur, &c. -I did say so; Look where he comes! i. e. I knew that the least touch of such a passion would not permit the Moor to enjoy a moment of repose:-I have just said that jealousy is a restless commotion of the mind; and look where Othello approaches, to confirm the propriety and justice of my observation. STEEVENS. 433. -nor mandragora,] The mandragoras or mandrake, has a soporifick quality, and the ancients used it when they wanted an opiate of the most powerful kind. Thus, in Antony and Cleopatra: "Give me to drink mandragora." STEEVENS. 435. Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep, Which thou hadst yesterday.] The old quarto reads, Which thou owedst yesterday. And this is right, and of much greater force than the common reading: not to sleep, being finely called defrauding defrauding the day of a debt of nature. WARBURTON. To owe is, in our author, oftener to possess, than to be indebted, and such was its meaning here; but as that sense was growing less usual, it was changed unnecessarily by the editors to hadst; to the same meaning more intelligibly expressed. JOHNSON. To owe is used by the common people in Norfolk and Suffolk, almost universally in Shakspere's sense. 443. What sense had I, &c.] A similar passage to this and what follows it, is found in an unpublished tragi-comedy by Thomas Middleton, called THE WITCH. "I feele no ease, the burthen's not yet off "So long as the abuse sticks in my knowledge. "Oh, 'tis a paine of hell to know one's shame! "Had it byn hid and don, it had ben don happy, "For he that's ignorant lives long and merry.' Again: "Had'st thou byn secret, then had I byn happy, "And had a hope (like man) of joies to come. "Now here I stand a stayne to my creation, "And, which is heavier than all torments to me, "The understanding of this base adultery, &c.' This is uttered by a jealous husband who supposes himself to have just destroyed his wife. Again, lago says: Dangerous conceits, &c. -with a little act upon the blood Burn like the mines of sulphur. Thus Thus Sebastian, in Middleton's play : "When a suspect doth catch once, it burnes maynely." A scene between Francisca and her brother Antonio, when she first excites his jealousy, has likewise several circumstances in common with the dialogue which passes between lago and Othello on the same subject. This piece contains also a passage very strongly resembling another in Hamlet, who says:—“ I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a hand-saw."-Thus, Almachildes: "There is some difference betwixt my joviall condition and the lunary state of madnes. I am not quight out of my witts: I know a bawd from an aqua-vitæ shop, a strumpet from wild fire, and a beadle from brimstone." For a further account of this MS. play, see a note on Mr. Malone's Attempt to ascertain the order in which the pieces of Shakspere were written :—Article, Macbeth. STEEVENS. 445. I slept the next night well, was free and merry ;]' Thus the quartos. The folio reads: I slept the next night well, fed well; was free and merry. 454 Farewel the plumed troop, and the big wars——— Farewel the neighing steed, &c.] In a very ancient drama entitled Common Conditions, printed about 1576, Sedmond, who has lost his sister in a wood, thus expresses his grief: "But |