But in this, as in the others, not only is the Indian "generally described," but the act. No specific deed is referred to; there is a mere allusion to a characteristic of the Indian. Not so in Othello's speech. In that, a particular person and a particular act must be alluded to, because Othello likens himself not to the Indian who throws a pearl away, but to "the base Júdean" who "threw a pearl away richer than all his tribe." The reference is to some particular story, specific and unmistakable; and as the American Indians, who alone had tribes, had no pearls, and as the story of the base Judean, Herod, who says of Mariamne, in the old play,

"I had but one inestimable jewel

Yet I in suddaine choler cast it downe
And dasht it all to pieces,"

-as this story had marked affinities with Othello's position, and was well known to Shakespeare's public, can there be a shadow of a doubt that it was the story referred to, and that we should not disturb the reading of the authentic folio ?

And soberly did mount an Arine-gaunt Steede,

Who neigh'd so hye, that what I would haue spoken

Was beastly dumbe by him."

Thus the text of the original folio, with an evident error in "armegaunt." This has been changed to termagaunt, -the most common reading-arm-girt, arrogant, and war-gaunt. Of all these, arm-girt, proposed by Hanmer, seems to me the most suitable word, by far. But is it not possible that the compositor made a transposition of the first two letters, and adding the very easy mistake of g for 7, printed "armegaunt" for rampaunt? This sorts well with what Alexis says of the high neighing of the horse.

ACT II. SCENE 2.

"Eno. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes,
And made their bends adornings: at the helm
A seeming mermaid steers; the silken tackle
Swells with the touches of those flower-soft hands,
That yarely frame the office."

There is undeniable obscurity in,

"tended her the eyes,

And made their bends adornings;"

and no attempt to dissipate it has been successful, to my apprehension. To interpret "tended her i' the eyes" 'waited upon her in her sight,' is to attribute a deplorably feeble use of language to Shakespeare in one of his finest descriptive passages; and to suppose, with Johnson and Steevens, that it means 'discovered her will by her eyes,' is not much better. Monck Mason would read,

"So many mermaids, tended her i' the guise,"

-of mermaids, of course; and would construe "their bends " to mean the curves of their tails, which they managed so gracefully as to make them ornamental! Mr. Mason was not jesting; and neither am I, in dissenting from this caudal commentary, which, however, I commend to the notice of Mr. Barnum's puff inditer, on occasion of the next arrival from the Fejee Islands.

Warburton would read,

"And make their bends adorings."

But were Cleopatra's attendants under any necessity to bend at all, except in obeisance to her, that they should "make their bends adorings?"

These two lines are doubtless corrupted, and hopelessly. As to the remainder of the passage, Mr. Collier asks, "Why or how, was the silken tackle to 'swell with the touches of flower-soft hands ?"" and adds that "we ought undoubtedly, with the old corrector [of his folio of 1632], to amend the text to,

"Smell with the touches of those flower-soft hands.""

Such a typographical error would be easily made, if it be necessary to suppose any error at all. But, if Mr. Collier must be literal, does he not know that cordage will swell with handling? And besides, though it may be a very pretty compliment to suppose that the tackle would "smell" (sweetly, of course) with the touches of the hands of Cleopatra's ladies, the word will thrust upon me the profoundly true observation, Mulier rectè olet ubi nihil olet, which I shall never forget having found in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, under the head of Artificial Allurements of Love; but what author furnished it, I cannot say; which, by the way, is the confession that many a better scholar must make with regard to the larger number of the quotations in that wise, quaint, most learned, and fantastic book.

Thou mine of bounty, how woulds't thou have paid

My better service, when my turpitude

Thou dost so crown with gold! This blows my heart."

No notice is taken by the editors of Jackson's emendation, "This bows my heart;" but can there be a question as to its necessity?

SCENE 8.

"Ant. We have beat him to his camp: Run one before

And let the queen know of our guests."

Antony brought no guests. Mr. Collier's folio is plainly

correct in reading,

"And let the queen know of our gests" [i. e. exploits].

Thus the original text, in which "suites" is an evident and a very easy misprint for smites, which was suggested by Mr. Barron Field, and to which it is changed in Mr. Collier's folio. It had been altered to shoots, which appears in most editions; but this violent change from the original text must yield to a word which is not only far better, but which requires the alteration of but a single letter in the text of the authentic folio.