Dr. Warburton retains _gnat_, which is found in the early
quarto. Theobald would introduce _knot_, a small bird of that name. I
have followed the text of the folio, and third and fourth quartos.
A _quat_ in the midland counties is a _pimple_, which by rubbing is made
to smart, or is _rubbed to sense_. Roderigo is called a _quat_ by the
same mode of speech, as a low fellow is now termed in lay language a
_scab. To rub to the sense_, is _to rub to the quick_.
V.i.37 (496,2) No passage?] No passengers? No body going by?
V.i.42 (499,4) a heary night] A _thick cloudy_ night, in which an ambush
may be commodiously laid.
V.ii.1 (499,4) It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul;--/Let me not
name it] The abruptness of this soliloquy makes it obscure. The meaning,
I think, is this: "I am here (says Othello in his mind) overwhelmed with
horror. What is the reason of this perturbation? Is it want of
resolution to do justice? Is it the dread of shedding blood? No; it is
not the action that shocks me, but _it is the cause, it is the cause, my
soul; let me not name it to you, ye chaste stars; it is the cause_."
V.ii.20 (500,7)
I must weep,
But they are cruel tears: this sorrel's heavenly;
It strikes, where it doth love.--She wakes--]
This tenderness, with which I lament the punishment which justice
compels me to inflict, is a holy passion.
I wish these two lines could be honestly ejected.
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