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Even the inferiour characters of this play would be very conspicuous in any other piece, not only for their justness, but their strength. Cassio is brave, benevolent and honest, ruined only by his want of stubbornness to resist an insidious invitation. Roderigo’s suspicious credulity, and impatient submission to the cheats which he sees practised upon him, and which, by persuasion, he suffers to be repeated, exhibit a strong picture of a weak mind betrayed by unlawful desires to a false friend; and the virtue of Aemilia is such as we often find, worn loosely, but not cast off, easy to commit small crimes, but quickened and alarmed at atrocious villanies.

The scenes, from the beginning to the end, are busy, varied by happy interchanges, and regularly promoting the progression of the story; and the narrative, in the end, though it tells but what is known already, yet is necessary to produce the death of Othello.

Had the scene opened in Cyprus, and the preceding incidents been occasionally related, there had been little wanting to a drama of the most exact and scrupulous regularity.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Mr. Heath, who wrote a Revisal of Shakespeare’s text, published in 8vo. circa 1760.

[2] This is not a blunder of Shakespeare’s, but a mistake of Johnson’s, who considers the passage alluded to in a more literal sense than the author intended it. Sir Proteus, it is true, had seen Silvia for a few moments; but though he could form from thence some idea of her person, he was still unacquainted with her temper, manners, and the qualities of her mind. He, therefore, considers himself as having seen her picture only. The thought is just and elegantly expressed. So in the Scornful Lady, the elder Loveless says to her, “I was mad once when I loved pictures. For what are shape and colours else but pictures?”–Mason in Malone’s Shak. iv. 137.–Ed.

[3] In the Three Ladies of London, 1584, is the character of an Italian merchant, very strongly marked by foreign pronunciation. Dr. Dodypoll, in the Comedy which bears his name, is, like Caius, a French physician. This piece appeared, at least, a year before The Merry Wives of Windsor. The hero of it speaks such another jargon as the antagonist of Sir Hugh, and, like him, is cheated of his mistress. In several other pieces, more ancient than the earliest of Shakespeare’s, provincial characters are introduced–Steevens.

In the old play of Henry V. French soldiers are introduced speaking broken English.–Boswell.

[4] See, however, Dr. Drake’s Essays on Rambler etc. ii. 392.–Ed.

[5] Johnson’s concluding observation on this play, is not conceived with his usual judgment. There is no analogy or resemblance whatever between the fairies of Spenser, and those of Shakespeare. The fairies of Spenser, as appears from his description of them in the second book of the Faerie Queene, Canto 10. were a race of mortals created by Prometheus, of the human size, shape, and affections, and subject to death. But those of Shakespeare, and of common tradition, as Johnson calls them, were a diminutive race of sportful beings, endowed with immortality and supernatural power, totally different from those of Spenser.–M. MASON.

[6] The first novel of the fourth day. An epitome of the novels, from which the story of this play is supposed to be taken, is appended to it in Malone’s edition, v. 154.

[7] This opinion of the character of Bertram is examined at considerable length in the New Monthly Magazine, iv. 481.–Ed.

[8] The notion that Shakespeare revised this play, though it has long prevailed, appears to me extremely doubtful; or to speak more plainly, I do not believe it. MALONE. See too the Essay on the Chronological order of Shakespeare’s plays, Malone’s edition, ii.

[9] For a full discussion of this point, see the Dissertation on the three parts of King Henry VI. tending to show that those plays were not written originally by Shakespeare. The dissertation was written by Malone, and pronounced by Porson to be one of the most convincing pieces of criticism he had ever met with. Malone’s Shakespeare, xviii. 557.

[10] See this opinion controverted. Malone’s Shakespeare, xviii. 550. –Ed.

[11] This paragraph, apparently so unconnected with the preceding, refers to some critical dissertations on the character of Vice. They may be found in Malone’s Shakespeare, xix. 244. See likewise Pursuits of Literature, Dialogue the First.–Ed.

[12] Chetwood says, that during one season it was exhibited 75 times. See his History of the Stage, p. 68.–Ed.

[13] Dr. Johnson told Mrs. Siddons that he admired her most in this character.–Mrs. Piozzi.

[14] This statement is not quite accurate concerning the seven spurious plays, which the printer of the folio in 1664 improperly admitted into his volume. The name of Shakespeare appears only in the title-pages of four of them: Pericles, Sir John Oldcastle, the London Prodigal, and the Yorkshire Tragedy. Malone’s Shak. xxi. 382.

[15] The first seven books of Chapman’s Homer were published in the year 1596, and again in 1598. The whole twenty-four of the Iliad appeared in 1611.–STEEVENS.

[16] Dr. Johnson should rather have said that the managers of the theatres-royal have decided, and that the public has been obliged to acquiesce in their decision. The altered play has the upper gallery on its side; the original drama was patronized by Addison: Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed victa Catomi. LUCAN. Malone’s Shak. x. 290.

[17] See, however, Mr. Boswell’s long and erudite note in his Shakespeare, vii. 536. “Il me semble,” says Madame De Stael, “cu’en lisant cette tragedie, on distingue parfaitement dans Hamlet l’egarement reel a travers l’egarement affecte.”–Mme. De Stael de la Litterature, c. xiii. See also Schlegel in his Dramatic literature, ii.–Ed.