Duke. Did you by indirect and forced courses Oth. I do beseech you, Send for the lady to the Sagittary,3 And let her speak of me before her father : you do find me foul in her report, If 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. [Exeunt lago 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, Duke. Say it, Othello. Oth. Her father lov'd me; oft invited me; I ran it through, even from my boyish days, Of hair-breadth 'scapes i'the imminent deadly breach; Of being taken by the insolent foe, And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence, (1) Open proof. (2) Weak show. (3) The sign of the fictitious creature so called. 2 A VOL. VIII. And portance in my travel's history: Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven, It was my hint to speak, such was the process; 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; '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: (1) My behaviour. (2) Caves and dens. (4) Intention and attention were once synony mous. 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 Bra. I pray you, hear her speak; If she confess, that she was half the wooer, Destruction on my head, if my bad blame 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; How to respect you; you are the lord of duty, And so much duty as my mother show'd Bra. God be with you!-I have done :- I here do give thee that with all my heart, sentence, Which, as a grise,1 or step, may help these lovers (1) Grise from degrees. Into your favour. When remedies are past, the griefs are ended, The robb'd, that smiles, steals something from the thief; He robs himself, that spends a bootless grief. 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: you must therefore be content to slubber? the gloss of your new fortunes with this more stubborn and boisterous expedition. Oth. The tyrant custom, most grave senators, I find in hardness; and do undertake (1) i. e. That the wounds of sorrow were ever cured by the words of consolation. (2) Obscure. (3) Acknowledge. I crave fit disposition for my wife; Duke. Be't at her father's. Bra. Oth. Nor I. Des. If you please, I'll not have it so. 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 My downright violence and storm of fortunes May trumpet to the world; my heart's subdued Even to the very quality of my lord: I saw Othello's visage in his mind; A moth of peace, and he go to the war, By his dear absence: Let me go with him. Oth. Your voices, lords :-'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; Nor to comply with heat, the young affects,2 In my distinct and proper satisfaction; But to be free and bounteous to her mind : And heaven defend3 your good souls, that you think I will your serious and great business scant, (1) Allowance. (3) Forbid. (2) Affections. |