Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/411

 9 th S. II. Nov. 19, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

403

nifico is much beloved, that he is a man whose voice will draw on more, perhaps twice as strong in influence as the duke ; and without stopping to recast the sentence, lago says that it is double as potential, or twice as powerful. The lines would then read after this punctuation :

Be assured of this, That the magnifico is much beloved, And hath in his effect a voice potential, As double as the duke's ;

and the crux is resolved into a mere matter of elocution.

I need hardly state that this interpretation is dependent upon the reading, the vocal rendering of the passage, and that there need be no change in the actual punctuation of the lines as they now stand. J. N. P.

St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.


 * OTHELLO,' II. i. 60-65.

Mon. But, good lieutenant, is your general wived ?

Gas. Most fortunately : he hath achieved a maid That paragons description and wild fame ; One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens, And in the essential vesture of creation Does tire the ingener.

I have quoted the whole passage, for the sake of connexion, as given in the Globe edition, but it is only with the last two lines that I deal in the note which follows.

I have the boldness to think that the critics have erred in regarding "tire" as meaning " weary." Before I saw my way to give sense to the two lines, " vesture " in the first com- pelled me to read " tire " in the second as meaning "attire." "Tire" for "attire" occurs frequently in Shakespeare as a noun. In the folio it is spelt indifferently "tire" ('Ant. and Cleop.,'II. v.) and "tyre" ('Two Gent, of Ver.,' IV. iv.). As a verb it does not occur in Shakespeare ; but we find it as a verb in 2 Kings ix. 30, " Jezebel tired her head."

The two lines as given in the first folio read :

And in th' essentiall Vesture of Creation Do's tyre the ingeniuer.

It was there that I found the clue to what I think the right reading and the right sense. "Ingeniuer" I regard as a misprint for "interiour," the folio's spelling of "interior" in ' Coriolanus,' II. i. The two words con- sist of the same number of letters nine and they differ only in three.

Reverting now to the modern spelling, the two lines with the proposed emendation read :

And in the essential vesture of creation Does tire the interior.

While in external beauty and grace Desde-

rnona, in Cassio's opinion, was beyond description, "the interior" her soul was attired in the 'essential vesture of creation, was adorned with ideal excellence.

I anticipate the objection that in reading the passage thus I represent Cassio as making use of very inflated language. My answer must be that Cassio does use very inflated language, both in this speech and the one which immediately follows. From the bom- bast about Desdemona's "interior" attired "in the essential vesture of creation," it is pleasant to turn away and listen to Fer- dinand saying to Miranda :

You, O you,

So perfect and so peerless, are created Of every creature's best !

R. M. SPENCE, D.D.

Manse of Arbuthnott, N.B.

' OTHELLO,' II. iii. 273-6.

You are but now cast in his mood, a punishment more in policy than in malice ; even so as one would beat his offericeless dog to affright an im- perious lion.

In the Furness Variorum comment on "affright" is as follows :

" As Purnell says, this does not suit the compari- son. Staunton suggests appease, which certainly accords better with the sense."

While " appease " can easily be understood in connexion with the wounded Montano, on the other hand Othello could not afford to permit this breach of discipline to pass without punishing the offender, and the "swelling spirits" of "this warlike isle "(II. iii. 57-9), together with Othello's own men-at- arms, may be taken as the " imperious lion " which the sight of severe discipline was intended to "affright." E. M. DEY.

' OTHELLO,' II. iii. 306-7.

Cos. I will ask him for my place again ; he shall tell me I am a drunkard !

On the occasion of the last St. Louis per- formance of 'Othello' by the late Mr. Thomas W. Keene's company, I was sur- prised to note the strange misinterpretation of these lines. On saying, "I will ask him for my place again," Cassio rushed, as by sudden impulse, after the departing Othello, but stopped before leaving the stage, turned, and saia to lago in a despairing tone, " He shall tell me I am a drunkard ! " Comment is unnecessary where the meaning is plainly, " If I were to ask him for my place again," &c. No ray of hope had yet penetrated the gloom of Cassio's despair. E. M. DEY.

St. Louis.