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 villainies.
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.
(LI 2) Appendix. Some apology perhaps is necessary for the inconvenience
of an Appendix, which, however, we can justify by the strongest of all
pleas, the plea of necessity. The Notes which it contains, whether
communicated by correspondents, or collected from published volumes,
were not within our reach when the plays were printed, to which they
relate. Of that which chance has supplied, we could have no previous
knowledge; and he that waited till the river should run dry, did not act
with less reason than the Editor would do, who should suspend his
publication for possibilities of intelligence, or promises of
improvement.
Pages:
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354