Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher Part 25

Act iii. sc. 2. Paulina's speech:-

"That thou betray'dst Polixenes, 'twas nothing; That did but show thee, of a _fool_, inconstant, And d.a.m.nable ingrateful."

Theobald reads "soul."

I think the original word is Shakespeare's. 1. My ear feels it to be Shakespearian; 2. The involved grammar is Shakespearian-"show thee, being a fool naturally, to have improved thy folly by inconstancy;" 3. The alteration is most flat, and un-Shakespearian. As to the grossness of the abuse-she calls him "gross and foolish" a few lines below.

Act iv. sc. 3. Speech of Autolycus:-

"For the life to come, I sleep out the thought of it."

Fine as this is, and delicately characteristic of one who had lived and been reared in the best society, and had been precipitated from it by dice and drabbing; yet still it strikes against my feelings as a note out of tune, and as not coalescing with that pastoral tint which gives such a charm to this act. It is too Macbeth-like in the "snapper up of unconsidered trifles."

_Ib._ sc. 4. Perdita's speech:-

"From Dis's waggon! daffodils."

An epithet is wanted here, not merely or chiefly for the metre, but for the balance, for the aesthetic logic. Perhaps "golden" was the word which would set off the "violets dim."

_Ib._-

... "Pale primroses That die unmarried."

Milton's-

"And the rathe primrose that forsaken dies."

_Ib._ Perdita's speech:-

"Even here undone: I was not much afraid; for once or twice I was about to speak, and tell him plainly, The self-same sun, that s.h.i.+nes upon his court, Hides not his visage from our cottage, but Looks on alike. Will't please you, Sir, be gone!

(_To Florizel._) I told you, what would come of this. Beseech you, Of your own state take care: this dream of mine, Being now awake, I'll queen it no inch farther, But milk my ewes, and weep."

O how more than exquisite is this whole speech! And that profound nature of n.o.ble pride and grief venting themselves in a momentary peevishness of resentment toward Florizel:-

... "Will't please you, Sir, be gone!"

_Ib._ Speech of Autolycus:-

"Let me have no lying; it becomes none but tradesmen, and they often give us soldiers the lie; but we pay them for it with stamped coin, not stabbing steel;-therefore they do not _give_ us the lie."

As we _pay_ them, they, therefore, do not _give_ it us.

"Oth.e.l.lo."

Act i. sc. 1.-

Admirable is the preparation, so truly and peculiarly Shakespearian, in the introduction of Roderigo, as the dupe on whom Iago shall first exercise his art, and in so doing display his own character. Roderigo, without any fixed principle, but not without the moral notions and sympathies with honour, which his rank and connections had hung upon him, is already well fitted and predisposed for the purpose; for very want of character and strength of pa.s.sion, like wind loudest in an empty house, const.i.tute his character. The first three lines happily state the nature and foundation of the friends.h.i.+p between him and Iago,-the purse,-as also the contrast of Roderigo's intemperance of mind with Iago's coolness,-the coolness of a preconceiving experimenter. The mere language of protestation,-

"If ever I did dream of such a matter, abhor me,"-

which, falling in with the a.s.sociative link, determines Roderigo's continuation of complaint,-

"Thou told'st me, thou didst hold him in thy hate,"-

elicits at length a true feeling of Iago's mind, the dread of contempt habitual to those who encourage in themselves, and have their keenest pleasure in, the expression of contempt for others. Observe Iago's high self-opinion, and the moral, that a wicked man will employ real feelings, as well as a.s.sume those most alien from his own, as instruments of his purposes:-

"And, by the faith of man, I know my price, I am worth no worse a place."

I think Tyrwhitt's reading of "life" for "wife"-

"A fellow almost d.a.m.n'd in a fair _wife_"-

the true one, as fitting to Iago's contempt for whatever did not display power, and that intellectual power. In what follows, let the reader feel how by and through the gla.s.s of two pa.s.sions, disappointed vanity and envy, the very vices of which he is complaining, are made to act upon him as if they were so many excellences, and the more appropriately, because cunning is always admired and wished for by minds conscious of inward weakness;-but they act only by half, like music on an inattentive auditor, swelling the thoughts which prevent him from listening to it.

_Ib._-

"_Rod._ What a full fortune does the _thick-lips_ owe, If he can carry 't thus."

Roderigo turns off to Oth.e.l.lo; and here comes one, if not the only, seeming justification of our blackamoor or negro Oth.e.l.lo. Even if we supposed this an uninterrupted tradition of the theatre, and that Shakespeare himself, from want of scenes, and the experience that nothing could be made too marked for the senses of his audience, had practically sanctioned it,-would this prove aught concerning his own intention as a poet for all ages? Can we imagine him so utterly ignorant as to make a barbarous negro plead royal birth,-at a time, too, when negroes were not known except as slaves? As for Iago's language to Brabantio, it implies merely that Oth.e.l.lo was a Moor,-that is, black. Though I think the rivalry of Roderigo sufficient to account for his wilful confusion of Moor and Negro,-yet, even if compelled to give this up, I should think it only adapted for the acting of the day, and should complain of an enormity built on a single word, in direct contradiction to Iago's "Barbary horse."

Besides, if we could in good earnest believe Shakespeare ignorant of the distinction, still why should we adopt one disagreeable possibility instead of a ten times greater and more pleasing probability? It is a common error to mistake the epithets applied by the _dramatis personae_ to each other, as truly descriptive of what the audience ought to see or know. No doubt Desdemona saw Oth.e.l.lo's visage in his mind; yet, as we are const.i.tuted, and most surely as an English audience was disposed in the beginning of the seventeenth century, it would be something monstrous to conceive this beautiful Venetian girl falling in love with a veritable negro. It would argue a disproportionateness, a want of balance, in Desdemona, which Shakespeare does not appear to have in the least contemplated.

_Ib._ Brabantio's speech:-

"This accident is not unlike my dream."

The old careful senator, being caught careless, transfers his caution to his dreaming power at least.

_Ib._ Iago's speech:-

... "For their souls, Another of his fathom they have not, To lead their business."

The forced praise of Oth.e.l.lo, followed by the bitter hatred of him in this speech! And observe how Brabantio's dream prepares for his recurrence to the notion of philtres, and how both prepare for carrying on the plot of the arraignment of Oth.e.l.lo on this ground.

_Ib._ sc. 2.-

"_Oth._ 'Tis better as it is."

How well these few words impress at the outset the truth of Oth.e.l.lo's own character of himself at the end-"that he was not easily wrought!" His self-government contradistinguishes him throughout from Leontes.

_Ib._ Oth.e.l.lo's speech:-

... "And my demerits May speak, _unbonneted_."