In the fourth act of 1HenryIV the Earl of Worcester expresses concern that Northumberland's absence from the battle at Shrewsbury will raise suspicions about the legitimacy of their rebellion against the king:
It will be thought
63 By some that know not why he is away
64 That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike
65 Of our proceedings kept the Earl from hence,
66 And think how such an apprehension
67 May turn the tide of fearful faction,
68 And breed a kind of question in our cause.
69 For well you know we of the off'ring side
70 Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement,
71 And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence
72 The eye of reason may pry in upon us.
73 This absence of your father's draws a curtain
74 That shows the ignorant a kind of fear
75 Before not dreamt of. (1H4 4.1.62-75)
The word 'loop' occurs in this passage in a cluster of cognitive words having to do with sight, thought, apprehension, fear, and dreams. The word here clearly means 'loop-hole', and according to the OED it is etymologically and semantically distinct from the more common 'loop' that means "doubling or return into itself of a portion of a string."
This second word seems intended when Othello commands Iago:
364 Make me to see't; or (at the least) so prove it
365 That the probation bear no hinge nor loop
366 To hang a doubt on; or woe upon thy life!
(Oth. 3.3.365-366)
'Loop' near 'hinge' and 'hang' clearly marks the primary meaning of the word in this scene. But Othello's obsession with "ocular proof" (3.3.360) also tinges that meaning with the prying aspects of 'loop' in Worcester's speech. Confirmation is found in the only other Shakespearean occurrence of 'loop' when the mad Lear on the heath speaks of the "loop'd and window'd raggedness" of "poor naked wretches" (KiL 3.4.31, 28).
If we go back to Worcester's speech and "pry" a little further, we may ask why the "eye of reason" is associated with "prying." A look at the English Poetry Database shows that 'eye' and 'reason' occur frequently together in late 16h century poetry. But 'eye of reason' is not a very common collocation. It occurs in A plaine Path to perfect Vertue: Deuised and found out by Mancinus a Latine Poet, and translated into English by G. Turberuile (1568):
A more interesting occurrence is found in a collection of poems by Richard Robinson, whose 1577 translations of Gesta Romanorum Shakespeare certainly used for the Merchant of Venice. In the collection, published in 1578 under the title A dyall of dayly Contemplacion, or deuine exercise of the mind: instructing vs to liue vnto God, and to dye vnto the vvorld, we find the following poem:1265 There is no lesse or baser thing
1266 than is the wretched mynde,
1267 That is a slaue to pelfe, and makes
1268 the eye of Reason blynde.
1 Hell is a place most vyle and venemus,
2 A dongeon darcke for creaturs dampnate:
3 Perpetuall prison for feendes furius,
4 To whom then sinners shalbe associate,
5 VVhue payne shall perseuer early and late,
6 VVith eye of reason now who this dooth vewe,
7 VVould liue in Gods feare, and not be ingrate,
8 But seeke all good meanes this mischeefe to eschewe.
Finally and most spectacularly, the phrase occurs in Spenser's description of how Archimago creates an image that tricks the Red Crosse Knight into believing in Una's infidelity:
23 Eftsoones he tooke that miscreated faire,
24 And that false other Spright, on whom he spred
25 A seeming body of the subtile aire,
26 Like a young Squire, in loues and lusty-hed
27 His wanton dayes that euer loosely led,
28 Without regard of armes and dreaded fight:
29 Those two he tooke, and in a secret bed,
30 Couered with darknesse and misdeeming night,
31 Them both together laid, to ioy in vaine delight.32 Forthwith he runnes with feigned faithfull hast
33 Vnto his guest, who after troublous sights
34 And dreames, gan now to take more sound repast,
35 Whom suddenly he wakes with fearefull frights,
36 As one aghast with feends or damned sprights,
37 And to him cals, Rise rise vnhappy Swaine,
38 That here wex old in sleepe, whiles wicked wights
39 Haue knit themselues in Venus shamefull chaine;
40 Come see, where your false Lady doth her honour staine.
41 All in amaze he suddenly vp start
42 With sword in hand, and with the old man went;
43 Who soone him brought into a secret part,
44 Where that false couple were full closely ment
45 In wanton lust and lewd embracement:
46 Which when he saw, he burnt with gealous fire,
47 The eye of reason was with rage yblent,
48 And would haue slaine them in his furious ire,
49 But hardly was restreined of that aged sire.
(F.Q. 1.2.3-5)
Did Shakespeare remember this striking passage? If he did, does it account for his association of the "eye of reason" with prying? And if so, does the Spenserian scene of "ocular proof" stand behind Othello and account at least in part for its oddly theological coloration?
But if we are tempted by such speculations and recall that Shakespeare's reading of Robertson's Gesta Romanorum left traces in The Merchant of Venice and possibly King Lear, is there a connection between Othello and a poem that contains the phrase 'eye of reason' but begins with the lines:
1 Hell is a place most vyle and venemus,
2 A dongeon darcke for creaturs dampnate: