seech you,

5

If 't be your pleasure, and most wise consent,
(As partly, I find, it is) that your fair daughter,
At this odd even and dull watch o' the night,
Transported-with no worse nor better guard,
But with a knave of common hire, a gondalier,-10
To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor:-
If this be known to you, and your allowance,
We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;|
But, if you know not this, my manners tell me,
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe,
That, from the sense of all civility,

I

I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:
Your daughter,--if you have not given her leave,--
say again, hath made a gross revolt;
Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes,
To an extravagant and wheeling stranger, [self:
Of here and every where: Straight satisfy your-
If she be in her chamber, or your house,
Let loose on me the justice of the state
For thus deluding you.

Bra. Strike on the tinder, ho!

Give me a taper;-call up all my people :-
This accident is not unlike my dream,
Belief of it oppresses me already :-
Light, I say! light!

Iago. Farewell; for I must leave you:

It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place,
To be produc'd (as, if I stay, I shall)
Against the Moor: For, I do know, the state,-
However this may gall him with some check,-
Cannot with safety cast him; for he 's embark'd
With such loud reason to the Cyprus' war,
(Which even now stands in act) that, for their souls,
Another of his fathom they have not,
To lead their business: in which regard,
Though I do hate him as I do hell pains,
Yet, for necessity of present life,

I must shew out a flag and sign of love,
Which is indeed but sign. That you
find him,

shall surely

Lead to the Sagittary the rais'd search;
And there will I be with him. So, farewell.

4

15

20

How didst thou know 'twas she?-O, thou deceiv'st me

Past thought!-What said she to you?—Get more * tapers;

Raise all my kindred.-Are they marry'd, think

you?

Rod. Truly, I think, they are.

Bra. O heaven!-how got she out?—O treason
of the blood!-
[minds
Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters'
By what you see them act.-Are there not charms,
By which the property of youth and maidhood
May be abus'd'? Have you not read, Roderigo,
Of some such thing?

Rod. Yes, sir; I have, indeed.

Bra. Call up my brother.-O,'would you had
had her!-

Some one way, some another.-Do you know
Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?
Rod. I think, I can discover him; if you please
To get good guard, and go along with me.

Bra. Pray you lead on. At every house I'll
call;

I may command at most:-Get weapons, ho! 25 And raise some special officers of might.On, good Roderigo; I'll deserve your pains.

30

35

SCENE II.
Another Street.

[Exeunt.

Enter Othello, Iago, and Attendants.
Iago. Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
Yet do I hold it very stuff" o' the conscience
To do no contriv'd murder; I lack iniquity
Sometimes to do me service: Nine or ten times
I had thought to have jerk'd him here under the

ribs.

Oth. 'Tis better as it is.

Iago. Nay, but he prated,

40 And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms Against your honour,

That, with the little godliness I have,

I did full hard forbear him. But, I pray you, sir, Are you fast marry'd for, be sure of this,45 That the magnifico' is much belov'd;

And hath, in his effect, a voice potential

As double as the duke's: he will divorce you;
Or put upon you what restraint and grievance
The law (with all his might to enforce it on)
50 Will give him cable.

Oth. Let him do his spite:

My services, which I have done the signiory, Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know, (Which, when I know that boasting is an honour, |55|I shall promulgate,) I fetch my life and being

2 Ex

1 Dr. Johnson observes, that the even of night is midnight, the time when night is divided into even parts. Mr. Steevens thinks that odd is here ambiguously used, as it signifies strange, uncouth, or unwonted; and as it is opposed to even; but acknowledges that the expression is very harsh. travagant is here used in the signification of wandering. That is, dismiss him; reject him. Despised time, is time of no value. i. e. by which the faculties of a young virgin may be infatuated, and made subject to illusions and to false imaginations. Stuff of the conscience, is substance, or essence, of the conscience. 'The chief men of Venice are, by a peculiar name, called Magnifici, i. e. magnificoes. & Double has here its natural sense.-The president of every deliberative assembly has a double voice. For example: the lord mayor in the court of aldermen has a double voice. 3 X 3 From

6

From men of royal siege1; and my demerits'
May speak, unbonneted, to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reach'd: For know, Iago,
But that I love the gentle Desdemona,
I would not my unhoused free condition
Put into circumscription and confine

For the sea's worth. But, look! what lights come
yonder?

Enter Cassio, with others.

Iago. These are the raised father, and his friends; You were best go in.

Oth. Not I: I must be found;

My parts, my title, and my perfect soul,
Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?
Jago. By Janus, I think no.

Oth. The servants of the duke, and my lieutenant.
The goodness of the night upon you, friends!
What is the news?

Cas. The duke does greet you, general;
And he requires your haste, post-haste appearance,
Even on the instant.

Oth. What is the matter, think you?

Cas. Something from Cyprus, as I may divine;
It is a business of some heat: the galleys
Have sent a dozen sequent messengers
This very night at one another's heels;
And many of the consuls', rais'd, and met,

Are at the duke's already: You have been hotly
call'd for;

When, being not at your lodging to be found,
The senate hath sent about three several quests",
To search you out.

Oth. 'Tis well I am found by you.

I will but spend a word here in the house,
And go with you.

5

Bra. Down with him, thief!

[They draw on both sides. Iago. You, Roderigo! come, sir, I am for you. Oth. Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.

Good signior, you shall more command with years,
Than with your weapons,

Bra. O thou foul thief! where hast thou stow'd
my daughter?

10 Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her:
For I 'H refer me to all things of sense,

If she in chains of magic were not bound,
Whether a maid-so tender, fair, and happy,
So opposite to marriage, that she shunn'd

15 The wealthy curled 10 darlings of our nation,—
Would ever have, to incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou; to fear", not to delight.
Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense,
20 That thou hast practis'd on her with foul charms;
Abus'd her delicate youth with drugs, or minerals,
That weaken motion 12:—I'll have it disputed on;
'Tis probable, and palpable to thinking.
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee,
25 For an abuser of the world, a practiser

12

Of arts inhibited and out of warrant;—
Lay hold upon him; if he do resist,
Subdue him at his peril.

Oth. Hold your hands,

30 Both you of my inclining, and the rest:

[Exit.

35

Cas. Ancient, what makes he here?
Jago. 'Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land-
carrack';

If it prove lawful prize, he's made for ever.
Cas. I do not understand.

Iago. He's married.

Cas. To who?

1i. e. men who have sat upon royal thrones.

turer.

8

Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it
Without a prompter.-Where will you that I go
To answer this your charge?

Bra. To prison; 'till fit time

Of law, and course of direct session,
Call thee to answer.

Oth. What if I do obey?

How may the duke be therewith satisfied;
Whose messengers are here about my side,
40 Upon some present business of the state, ̈ ́
To bring me to him?

45

Offi. "Tis true, most worthy signior,
The duke's in council; and your noble self,
I am sure, is sent for.

Bra. How! the duke in council!

In this time of the night!-Bring him away; Mine's not an idle cause: the duke himself, Or any of my brothers of the state, Cannot but feel this wrong, as 'twere their own: 50 For if such actions may have passage free, Bond-slaves, and pagans, shall our statesmen be, [Exeunt,

2 Demerits, here has the same meaning as merits. i. e. without taking the cap off * i. e. free from domestic cares: a thought natural to an advenConsuls seems to have been commonly used for counsellors; as before in this play. • Quests are searches. "A carrack is a ship of great bulk, and commonly of great value; perhaps what we now call a galleon. This expression denotes readiness. i. e. be cautions; be discreet, 10 Curled, is elegantly and ostentatiously dressed. "i. e. to terrify. 12 Theobald proposes, and we think justly, to read," That weaken notion, instead of motion; i. e. that weaken her apprehension, right conception and idea of things, understanding, judgement, &c."-Hanmer would read, perhaps with equal probability, "That waken motion:" and it is to be observed, that motion, in a subsequent scene of this play, is used in the very sense in which Hanmer would employ it: "But we have rea son to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts."

SCENE

A Council-chamber.

SCENE III.

Duke and Senators, sitting.

Duke. There is no composition' in these news, That gives them credit.

1 Sen. Indeed, they are disproportion'd; My letters say, a hundred-and-seven galleys. Duke. And mine, a hundred-and-forty. 2 Sen. And mine, two hundred:

Against the general enemy Ottoman.—

I did not see you;welcome,gentle signior;[ToBrab. 10 We lack'd your counsel and your help to-night. Bra. So did I yours: Good your grace, pardon

But though they jump not on a just account,
(As in these cases where they aim 2 reports,
'Tis oft with difference) yet do they all confirm
A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus.
Duke. Nay, it is possible enough to judgement; 15
I do not so secure me in the error,
But the main article I do approve
In fearful sense.

Sailor [within.] What ho! what ho! what ho!
Enter an Officer, with a Sailor.

Offi. A messenger from the galleys.
Duke. Now? the business?

Sail. The Turkish preparation makes for Rhodes;
So was I bid report here to the state,

By signior Angelo.

Duke. How say you by this change? 1 Sen. This cannot be,

gaze:

By no assay of reason; 'tis a pageant,
To keep us in false When we consider
The importancy of Cyprus to the Turk;
And let ourselves again but understand,
That, as it more concerns the Turk than Rhodes,
So may he with more facile question 'bear it,
For that it stands not in such warlike brace*,
But altogether lacks the abilities

That Rhodes is dressed in :—if we make thought|

of this,

We must not think the Turk is so unskilful,
To leave that latest, which concerns him first;
Neglecting an attempt of ease, and gain,
To wake, and wage », a danger profitless.
Duke.Nay,in all confidence, he's not for Rhodes.
Ofi. Here is more news.

Enter a Messenger.

Mes. The Ottomites, reverend and gracious, Steeringwith due course toward the isle of Rhodes, Have there injointed them with an after-fleet. 1 Sen. Ay, so I thought:-How many, as you guess?

Mes. Of thirty sail: and now they do re-stem Their backward course, bearing with frank ap

Composition, for consistency, concordancy.

endeapour.

20

me;

Neither my place, nor aught I heard of business,
Hath rais'd me from my bed; nor doth the ge-
neral care

Take hold on me; for my particular grief
Is of so flood-gate and o'er-bearing nature,
That it engluts and swallows other sorrows,
And yet is still itself.

Duke. Why, what's the matter?
Bra. My daughter! O, my daughter!
Sen. Dead?

30

Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense,
Sans witchcraft could not-

Duke. Whoe'er he be, that, in this foul pro

ceeding,

Hath thus beguil'd your daughter of herself,
And you of her, the bloody book of law
You shall yourself read in the bitter letter,
After your own sense; yea, though our proper son
35 Stood in your action".

1401

45

Bra. Humbly I thank your grace.

Here is the man, this Moor; whom now, it seems,
Your special mandate, for the state affairs,
Hath hither brought.

All. We are very sorry for it.

Duke. What, in your own part, can you say to

this?

Bra. Nothing, but this is so.

[To Othello.

Oth. Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
My very noble and approv'd good masters,-
That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter,
It is most true; true, I have married her;
The very head and front of my offending
Hath this extent,no more. Rude am I in my speech,
50 And little blest with the set phrase of peace;
For since these arms of mine had seven years pith,
Till now, some nine moons wasted, they have
Their dearest' action in the tented field; [us'd
And little of this great world can I speak,
55 More than pertains to feats of broil and battle;
And therefore little shall I grace my cause,
In speaking for myself: Yet, by your gracious
patience,

I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver

2 To aim is to conjecture.

i. e. State of defence. To urm was called to brace on the armour.

here, as in many other places in Shakspeare, signifies to fight, to combat.

7

i. e. more easy

› Towagé ire. were the man

exposed to your charge or accusation. That is, dear for which much is paid, whether money or labours. Dear action, is action performed at great expence, either of ease or safety.

Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms,

What conjuration, and what mighty magic, (For such proceeding I am charg'd withal) I won his daughter with.

Bra. A maiden never bold;

Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion
Blush'd at herself; And she,-in spite of nature,
Of years, of country, credit, every thing,-
To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on?
It is a judgement maim'd, and most imperfect,
That will confess-perfection so could err
Against all rules of nature; and must be driven
To find out practices of cunning hell,
Why this should be. I therefore vouch again,
That with some mixtures powerful o'er the blood,
Or with some dram conjur'd to this effect,
He wrought upon her.

Duke. To vouch this, is no proof;
Without more certain and more overt test',
Than these thin habits, and poor likelihoods
Of modern seeming, do prefer against him.
1 Sen. But, Othello, speak ;-
Did you by indirect and forced courses
Subdue and poison this young maid's affections?
Or came it by request, and such fair question
As soul to soul affordeth?

Oth. I do beseech you,

Send for the lady to the Sagittary 2,

And let her speak of me before her father:
If you do find me foul in her report,
The trust, the office, I do hold of you,
Not only take away, but let your sentence
Even fall upon my life.

Duke. Fetch Desdemona hither.

[Exeunt Two or Three.
Oth. Ancient, conduct them; you best know
the place.-
[Exit lago.

And, 'till she come, as truly as to heaven
I do confess the vices of my blood,
So justly to your grave ears I'll present
How did I thrive in this fair lady's love,
And she in mine.

Duke. Say it, Othello.

Oth. Her father lov'd me; oft invited me;
Still question'd me the story of my life,
From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
That I have pass'd:

I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
To the very moment that he bade me tell it.

1i. e. open proofs, external evidence.

Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents, by flood and field;
Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly
Of being taken by the insolent foe, [breach;

5 And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence,.
And portance in my travel's history:
Wherein, of antres vast, and desarts idle 4,
Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch
heaven,

10It was my hint to speak, such was the procesa;
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. These things
to hear,

15 Would Desdemona seriously incline:

But still the house affairs would draw her thence;
Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
She'd come again, and with a greedy car
Devour up my discourse: Which I observing,
20 Took once a pliant hour; and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart,
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
But not intentively': I did consent;

25 And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffer'd. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
She swore,-In faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing
strange;

30

'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful:

She wish'd, she had not heard it; yet she wish'd
That heaven had made her such a man: she
thank'd me;

35 And bade me, if I had a friend that lov'd her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her. Upon this hint, I spake:
She lov'd me for the dangers I had past;
And I lov'd her, that she did pity them.
40This only is the witchcraft I have us'd;
Here comes the lady, let her witness it.

Enter Desdemona, Iago, and Attendants. Duke..I think, this tale would win my daughter too.

45 Good Brabantio,

Take up this mangled matter at the best:
Men do their broken weapons rather use,
Than their bare hands.

Bra. I pray you, hear her speak;

50 If she confess, that she was half the wooer,

2 This means the sign of the fictitious creature so called, i, e. an animal compounded of man and horse, and armed with a bow and quiver. 3 i. e, caves, dens. Dr. Warburton remarks, that "Discourses of this nature made the subject of the politest conversations, when voyages into, and discoveries of, the new world were all in vogue. So when the Bastard Faulconbridge, in King John, describes the behaviour of upstart greatness, he makes one of the essential circumstances of it to be this kind of table-talk. The fashion then running altogether in this way, it is no wonder a young lady of quality should be struck with the history of an adventurer." Dr. Johnson adds, that "Whoever ridicules this account of the progress of love, shews his ignorance, not only of history, but of nature and manners. It is no wonder that, in any age, or in any nation, a lady, recluse, timorous, and delicate, should desire to hear of events and scenes which she could never see, and should admire the man who had endured dangers, and performed actions, which, however great, were yet magnified by her timidity." * i. e. wild, useless, uncultivated. 'Dr. Johnson says, "Of these men there is an account in the interpolated travels of Mandeville, a book of that time." • Intention and attention were once synonymous.

Destruction

Destruction on my head, if my bad blame
Light on the man!-Come hither, gentle mistress;
Do you perceive in all this noble company,
Where most you owe obedience?

Des. My noble father,

I do perceive here a divided duty:
Το you I am bound for life, and education;
My life, and education, both do learn me

How to respect you; you are the lord of duty,
I am hitherto your daughter: But here's my
husband;

And so much duty as my mother shew'd
To you, preferring you before her father,
So much I challenge that I may profess
Due to the Moor, my lord.

Bra. God be with you!I have done :-
Please it your grace, on to the state affairs;
I had rather to adopt a child, than get it.-
Come hither, Moor:

I here do give thee that with all my heart,
Which, but thou hast already, with all my heart
I would keep from thee.-For your sake, jewel,
I am glad at soul I have no other child;
For thy escape would teach me tyranny,
To hang clogs on them.-I have done, my lord.
Duke. Let me speak like yourself; and lay
sentence,

a

Which, as a grise', or step, may help these lovers
Into your favour.

When remedies are past, the griefs are ended,
By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended.
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone,
Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
What cannot be preserv'd when fortune takes,
Patience her injury a mockery makes.
The robb'd, that smiles, steals something from
the thief;

He robs himself, that spends a bootless grief.

the place is best known to you: And though we have there a substitute of most allow'd sufficiency, yet opinion, a sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safe voice on you: you must therefore be 5 content to slubber the gloss of your new fortunes, with this more stubborn and boisterous expedition.

Oth. The tyrant custom, most grave senators,
Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down: I do agnize⚫
10A natural and prompt alacrity,

I find in hardness; and do undertake
This present war against the Ottonrites.
Most humbly therefore bending to your state,
I crave fit disposition for my wife;

15 Due reverence of place, and exhibition;
With such accommodation, and besort,
As levels with her breeding.

1201

Bra. So let the Turk, of Cyprus us beguile;
We lose it not, so long as we can smile.
He bears the sentence well, that nothing bears
But the free comfort which from thence he hears':
But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow,
That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow.
These sentences, to sugar, or to gall,
Being strong on both sides, are equivocal:
But words are words: I never yet did hear, [ear'.
That the bruis'd heart was pierced through the
I humbly beseech you, proceed to the affairs of

state.

25

Duke. If you please,

Be 't at her father's.

Bra. I will not have it so.

Des. Nor I; I would not there reside,
To put my father in impatient thoughts,
By being in his eye. Most gracious duke;
To my unfolding lend a gracious ear;
And let me find a charter in your voice',
To assist my simpleness.

Duke. What would you, Desdemona?

Des. That I did love the Moor to live with him,
30 My down-right violence and storm of fortunes
May trumpet to the world; my heart's subdu'd
Even to the very quality of my lord:

I saw Othello's visage in his mind 10;
And to his honours, and his valiant parts,
35 Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.
So that, dear lords, if I be left behind,
A moth of peace, and he go to the war,
The rites, for which I love him, are bereft me,
And I a heavy interim shall support

40 By his dear absence: Let me go with him.

Oth. Your voices, lords :-I do beseech you, let Her will have a free way.

Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not, To please the palate of my appetite; 45 Nor to comply with heat, (the young affects, In me defunct) and proper satisfaction; But to be free and bounteous to her mind ": And heaven defend your good souls,that you think I will your serious and great business scant, 50 For she is with me; No, when light-wing'd toys Of feather'd Cupid seel with wanton dullness My speculative and active instruments 13, 1 Grize, from degrees. A grise is a step. 2 Meaning, the moral precepts of consolation, which are liberally bestowed on occasion of the sentence. 3 Dr. Johnson observes, that the consequence of a bruise is sometimes matter collected; and this can no way be cured without piercing, or letting it out. 4 To slubber, here means to obscure. A driven bed, is a bed for which the feathers

Duke. The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes for Cyprus:-Othello, the fortitude of

9

10

6

13

are selected, by driving with a fan, which separates the light from the heavy. i. e. acknowledge, confess, avow. Vi. e. precedency suitable to her rank. & Exhibition is allowance, and here implies revenue. i. e. Let your favour privilege me. 1o i. e. The greatness of his character reconciled me to his form. 11 Affects, stands in this passage, not for love, but for passions; for that, by which any thing is affected.—I ask it not, says Othello, to please appetite, or satisfy loose desires, the passions of youth which I have now outlived, or for any particular gratification of myself, but merely that I may indulge the wishes of my wife. 12 To defend, is to forbid; from defendre, Fr. 13 All these words mean no more than this: When the pleasures and idle toys of love make me unfit either for seeing the duties of my office, or for the ready performance of them.

That