1 Sen. He's now in Florence. Duke. Write from us; wish him post-post-haste: des patch. 1 Sen. Here comes Brabantio, and the valiant Moor. Enter BRABANTIO, OTHELLO, IAGO, RODERIGO, and Officers. Duke. Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you Against the general enemy Ottoman." -I did not see you; welcome, gentle signior; [To BRA. We lack'd your counsel and your help to night. Bra. So did I yours: Good your grace, pardon me ; Is of so flood-gate and o'erbearing nature, Duke. Why, what's the matter? Bra. My daughter! O, my daughter! Bra. Ay, to me; She is abus'd, stol'n from me, and corrupted By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks :9 For nature so preposterously to err, Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense, Sans witchcraft could not Duke. Whoe'er he be, that, in this foul proceeding, 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 Bra. Humbly I thank your grace. Here is the man, this Moor; whom now, it seems, wars. [8] It was usual for the Venetians to employ strangers, and even Moors, in their REED.It is part of the policy of the Venetian state never to entrust the command of an army to a native. MALONE. [9] Rymer has ridiculed this circumstance as unbecoming, both for its weakness and superstition, the gravity of the accuser, and the dignity of the tribunał: but his criticism only exposes his own ignorance. The circumstance was not only exactly in character, but urged with the greatest address, as the thing chiefly to be insisted on. For by the Venetian law, the giving love potions was very criminal, as Shakespeare without question well understood. And therefore in the preweding scene, Brabantio calls them 66 --arts inhibited and out of warrant." WARBURTON. Though I believe Shakespeare knew no more of this Venetian law than I do, yet he was well acquainted with the edicts of that sapient prince king James the first, "against practisers of arts inhibited and out of warrant." STEEVENS. Your special mandate, for the state affairs, Duke & Sen. We are very sorry for it. Duke. What, in your own part, can you say to this? [TO OTHELLO. Bra. Nothing, but this is so. Oth. Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors, More than pertains to feats of broil and battle; In speaking for myself: Yet, by your gracious patience, 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 Duke. To vouch this, is no proof; 1 Sen. But, Othello, speak ; [1] Weak show of slight appearances. JOHNSON.------So modern is generally used by Shakespeare. MALONE. Did you by indirect and forced courses Subdue and poison this young maid's affections? Oth. I beseech you, Send for the lady to the Sagittary, And let her speak of me before her father: The trust, the office, I do hold of you, Not only take away, but let your sentence Duke. Fetch Desdemona hither. Oth. Ancient, conduct them; you best know the place. [Exe. IAGO and Attendants. And, till she come, as truly as to heaven I do confess the vices of my blood, Duke. Say it, Othello. Oth. Her father lov'd me; oft invited me; From year to year; the battles, sieges, fortunes, I ran it through, even from my boyish days, Of moving accidents, by flood, and field; Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach ; Of being taken by the insolent foe, And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence, And portance in my travel's history: Wherein of antres vast, and desarts idle,3 Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven, It was my hint to speak, such was the process; And of the Cannibals that each other eat, The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders. These things to hear, Would Desdemona seriously incline: But still the house affairs would draw her thence; Which ever as she could with haste despatch, Antres, French, caves and dens. See Illustrations, Vol. X. This word is used in another passage in this act, "---either to have it steri with idleness, or manured with industry.' MALONE [4] See Illustrations, Vol. X She'd come again, and with a greedy ear She gave me for my pains a world of sighs; She swore,-In faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange; '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 ; 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 : And I lov'd her, that she did pity them. Here comes the lady, let her witness it. Enter DESDEMONA, IAGO, and Attendants. Duke. I think, this tale would win my daughter too.Good Brabantio, Take up this mangled matter at the best : Bra. I pray you, hear her speak; If she confess, that she was half the wooer, Light on the man!-Come hither, gentle mistress; Des. My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty : To you, I am bound for life, and education ; Bra. God be with you !—I have done :- I here do give thee that with all my heart, To hang clogs on them. I have done, my lord. Duke. Let me speak like yourself; and lay a sentence, 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. Is the next way to draw new mischief on. The robb'd, that smiles, steals something from the thief, 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 Being strong on both sides, are equivocal : That the bruis'd heart was pierced through the ear." Duke. The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes for Cyprus -Othello, the fortitude of the place is best known to you: And though we have there a substitute of most allowed sufficiency, yet opinion, a sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer voice on you 15 i. e. Let me speak as yourself would speak, were you not too much heated with passion. Sir J. REYNOLDS. [6] Grize from degree. A grize is a step. So in Timon, "---for every grize of fortune STEEVENS. [7] But the moral precepts of consolation, which are liberally bestowed on occasion of the sentence. JOHNSON. [8] A heart pierced through the ear, is a heart which (to use our poet's words elsewhere) has granted a penetrable entrance to the language of consolation. MALONES See Illustrations, Vol. X. |