Not to go hang my head.
This is perhaps the only insertion made in the latter editions which has improved the play. The rest seem to have been added for the sake of amplification, or of ornament. When the imagination had subsided, and the mind was no longer agitated by the horror of the action, it became at leisure to look round for specious additians. This addition is natural. Desdemona can at first hardly forbear to sing the song; she endeavours to change her train of thoughts, but her imagination at last prevails, and she sings it.
IV.iii.41 (491,4)
Des. "The poor soul sat singing by a sycamore-tree,
"Sing all a green willow]
This song, in two parts, is printed in a late collection of old ballads; the lines preserved here differ somewhat from the copy discovered by the ingenious collector.
IV.iii.55 (491,5)
Des. "I call'd my love false love; but what said
"he then?
"Sing willow, &c.]