trying to believe that Cassio would at any rate _like_ to be an
adulterer, so that it is not so very abominable to say that he _is_ one.
And the idea 'I suspect him with Emilia' is a second and stronger
attempt of the same kind. The idea probably was born and died in one
moment. It is a curious example of Iago's secret subjection to morality.

NOTE R.

REMINISCENCES OF _OTHELLO_ IN _KING LEAR_.

The following is a list, made without any special search, and doubtless
incomplete, of words and phrases in _King Lear_ which recall words and
phrases in _Othello_, and many of which occur only in these two plays:

'waterish,' I. i. 261, appears only here and in _O._
III. iii. 15.

'fortune's alms,' I. i. 281, appears only here and in
_O._ III. iv. 122.

'decline' seems to be used of the advance of age only in
I. ii. 78 and _O._ III. iii. 265.

'slack' in 'if when they chanced to slack you,' II.
iv. 248, has no exact parallel in Shakespeare, but recalls
'they slack their duties,' _O._ IV. iii. 88.

'allowance' (=authorisation), I. iv. 228, is used
thus only in _K.L._, _O._ I. i. 128, and two places
in _Hamlet_ and _Hen. VIII._

'besort,' vb., I. iv. 272, does not occur elsewhere,
but 'besort,' sb., occurs in _O._ I. iii. 239 and
nowhere else.

Edmund's 'Look, sir, I bleed,' II. i. 43, sounds like
an echo of Iago's 'I bleed, sir, but not killed,' _O._
V. ii. 288.

'potential,' II. i. 78, appears only here, in _O._
I. ii. 13, and in the _Lover's Complaint_ (which, I
think, is certainly not an early poem).

'poise' in 'occasions of some poise,' II. i. 122, is
exactly like 'poise' in 'full of poise and difficult weight,'
_O._ III. iii. 82, and not exactly like 'poise' in
the three other places where it occurs.

'conjunct,' used only in II. ii. 125 (Q), V.
i. 12, recalls 'conjunctive,' used only in _H_. IV.
vii. 14, _O._ I. iii. 374 (F).

'grime,' vb., used only in II. iii. 9, recalls
'begrime,' used only in _O._ III. iii. 387 and
_Lucrece_.

'unbonneted,' III. i. 14, appears only here and in
_O._ I. ii. 23.

'delicate,' III. iv. 12, IV. iii. 15,
IV. vi. 188, is not a rare word with Shakespeare; he
uses it about thirty times in his plays. But it is worth
notice that it occurs six times in _O._

'commit,' used in