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 ;
Neither my place, nor aught I heard of business,
Hath rais'd me from my bed; nor doth the general care
Take hold on me; for my particular grief

Is of so flood-gate and o'erbearing nature,
That it engluts and swallows other sorrows,
And it is still itself.

Duke. Why, what's the matter?

Bra. My daughter! O, my daughter!
Sen. Dead?

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
Stood in your action.

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,
Hath hither brought.

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,
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,
And little bless'd with the set phrase of peace;
For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,
Till now some nine moons wasted, they have us'd
Their dearest action in the tented field;
And little of this great world can I speak,

More than pertains to feats of broil and battle;
And therefore little shall grace my cause,

In speaking for myself: Yet, by your gracious patience,
I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver

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 judgment 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 ;

[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?
Or came it by request, and such fair question
As soul to soul affordeth ?

Oth. I beseech you,

Send for the lady to the Sagittary,

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.

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,
So justly to your grave ears I'll present
How I did 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.
Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances,

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
Devour up my discourse: Which I observing,
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 parcel she had something heard,
But not intentively: I did consent;
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; '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 :
She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd;

And I lov'd her, that she did pity them.
This 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.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;

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

To 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 show'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 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.
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.

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,

That the bruis'd heart was pierced through the ear."
I humbly beseech you, proceed to the affairs of state.

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
"Is smooth'd by that below."

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.