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?

Iago. By Janus, I think no.

Oth. The servants ofthe duke, and

my lie

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.

Cas. Ancient, what makes he here?

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'll 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, rugs, 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
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:
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
[Exit. 35 Of law, and course of direct session,

Jago. 'Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land

carrack';

turer.

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.

1i. e. men who have sat upon royal thrones. * Demerits, here has the same meaning as merits. 3 i. e. without taking the cap off. * i. e. free from domestic cares: a thought natural to an advenConsuls seeins 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 cautious; be discreet. 10 Curled, is elegantly and ostentatiously dressed. 11 i. e. to terrify. 12 Theobald proposes, and we think justly, to read, "That weaken notion, instead of motion; i. e. that weaken her apprehensión, Tight 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 reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts."

6

SCÉNE

fr

SCENE III.
A Council-chamber.

Duke and Senators, sitting.

Duke. Write from us; wish him, post, post

Duke. There is no composition in these news, 5 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 :

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.

J

haste: dispatch. [Moor. Sen. Here comes Brabantio, and the valiant 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 Brab. 10 We lack'd your counsel and your help to-night.

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 bíd report here to the state,

By signior Angelo.

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

By no assay of reason; 'tis a pageant,
To keep us in false gaze: 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 3 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'snot for Rhodes.
Offi. Here is more news.

Enter a Messenger.

Bra. So did I yours: Good your grace, pardon

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.

20 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
25 By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks:
For nature so preposterously to err,
Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense,
Sans witchcraft could not-

30

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 6.

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.

40 All. We are very sorry for it.

Oth. Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,

Mes. The Ottomites, reverend and gracious, 45 My very noble and approv'd good masters,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?

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,

Mes. Of thirty sail: and now they do re-stem 50 And little blest with the set phrase of peace; Their backward course, bearing with frank ap

here, as in many other places in Shakspeare, signifies to fight, to combat. 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 Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,

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 notion
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,

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,

Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch

heaven,

10 It 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

Why this should be. I therefore vouch again, 15 Would Desdemona seriously incline:
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

to hear,

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 ear
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;

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:

strange;

Subdue and poison this young maid's affections? 25 And often did beguile her of her tears,

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 Sagittary2,

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.

30

She swore,-In faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing

'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.
40 This only is the witchcraft I have us'd;
Here comes the lady, let her witness it.

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

too.

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. 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, tumorous, 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:
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,

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 flin flinty and steel couch of war My thrice-driven bed of down: I do agnize

I am hitherto your daughter: But here's my 10 A natural and prompt alacrity,

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,

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

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

Duke. If you please,

Be 't at her father's.

20 Bra. I will not have it so.

Oth. Nor I.

Des. Nor I; I would not there reside,
To put my father in impatient thoughts,
By being in his eye. Most gracious duke;

:

To hang clogs on them. I have done, my lord. 25 To my unfolding lend a gracious ear;

Duke. Let me speak like yourself; and lay a

sentence,

Which, as a grise 1, 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 confort which from thence he hears2:
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.

2

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 1o;
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 tree 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 defend1your good souls, that you think
I will your serious and great business scant,
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,

50

Duke. The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes for Cyprus:-Othello, the fortitude of 1 Grize, from degrees. A grise is a step. Meaning, the moral precepts of consolation, which are liberally bestowed on occasion of the sentence. 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. * To slubber, here means to obscure. * A driven bed, is a bed for which the feathers are selected, by driving with a fan, which separates the light from the heavy. i. e. acknowledge, confess, avow. ' i. e. precedency suitable to her rank. * Exhibition is allowance, and here implies revenue. i. e. Let your favour privilege me. 10 i. e. The greatness of his character reconciled me to his form. 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 may indulge the wishes of my wife. To defend, is to forbid; from defendre, Fr, 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 I

12

That

That my disports corrupt and taint my business,
Let housewives make a skillet of my helm,
And all indign and base adversities
Make head against my estimation!

Duke. Be it as you shall privately determine,
Either for her rstay, stay,orgoin orgoing: the affair cries-haste,
And speed must answer it; you must hence to-night.

Des. To-night, my lord?
Duke. This night.

Oth. With all my heart.

shame to be so fond; but it is not in my virtue to amend it.

Iago. Virtue? a fig! 'tis in ourselves, that we are thus, or thus. Our bodies are our gardens; to 5 the which, our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce; set hyssop, and weed up thyme; supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many; either have it sterile with idleness, or manur'd with industry; why, the [again. 10 power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. If the balance of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions: But we have rea15 son, to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts; whereof I take this, that you call-love, to be a sect or scyon.

Duke. At nine i' the morning here we'll meet

Othello, leave some officer behind,

And he shall our commission bring to you;
And such things else of quality and respect,

As doth import you.

Oth. Please your grace, my ancient;
A man he is of honesty, and trust:
To his conveyance I assign my wife,
With what else needful your good grace shall think
To be sent after me.

Duke. Let it be so.

Good night to every one. And, noble signior,
[To Brab.

If virtue no delighted beauty lack,
Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.

Sen. Adieu, brave Moor! use Desdemona well.
Bra. Look to her, Moor; have a quick eye to

Rod. It cannot be.

Iago. It is merely a lust of the blood, and a 20 permission of the will. Come, be a man: Drown thyself? drown cats, and blind puppies. I have profess'd me thy friend, and I confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of perdurable toughness; I could never better stead thee than now. Put

25 money in thy purse: follow thou these wars; defeat thy favour with an usurped beard: I say, put money in thy purse. It cannot be, that Desdemona should long continue her love to the Moor, She has deceiv'd her father, and may thee. father, -put money in thy purse; -nor he his to her: it [Exeunt Duke and Senators. 30 was a violent commencement in her, and thou

see;

Oth. My life upon her faith.-Honest lago,
My Desdemona must I leave to thee:
I pr'ythee, let thy wife attend on her;
And bring them after in the best advantage2.-
Come, Desdemona; I have but an hour
Of love, of worldly matter and direction,
To spend with thee: we must obey the time.
[Exeunt Othello, and Desdemona.

Rod. Iago,

Iago. What say'st thou, noble heart? Rod. What will I do, think'st thou ? Iago. Why, go to bed, and sleep. Rod. I will incontinently drown myself. lago. Well, if thou dost, I shall never love thee af rit. Why, thou silly gentleman !

Rod. It is silliness to live, when to live is a torment: and then have we a prescription to die when death is our physician.

Jugo. O villainous! I have look'd upon the world for four times seven years: and since I could distinguish betwixt a benefit and an injury, I never found man that knew how to love himself. Ere J would say, I would drown myself for the love of a Guinea hen', I would change my humanity with a baboon.

Rod. What should I do? I confess, it is my

shalt see an answerable sequestration ';-put but money in thy purse. -These Moors are changeable in their wills;-fill thy purse with money: the food that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall 35 be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida. She must change for youth: when she is sated with his body, she will find the error of her choice.She must have change, she must: therefore put money in thy purse. If thou wilt needs damn 40 thyself, do it a more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money thou canst: If sanctimony and a frail vow, betwixt an erring Barbarian and a super-subtle Venetian, be not too hard for my wits, and all the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her; 45 therefore make money. A pox of drowning thyself! it is clean out of the way: seek thou rather to be hang'd in compassing thy joy, than to be drown'd and go without her.

Rod. Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend 50 on the issue?

lago. Thou art sure of me;-Go, make money: -I have told thee often, and I re-tell thee again and again, I hate the Moor: My cause is hearted; thine hath no less reason: Let us be conjunctive 55 in our revenge against him: if thou canst cuckold him, thou dost thyself a pleasure, and me a sport.

1 Delighted, for delighting, or delightful. Shakespeare often uses the active and passive participles i. e. fairest opportunity. * A Guinea-hen was anciently the cant term * A sect is what the more modern gardeners call a cutting.

indiscriminately. for a prostitute. To defeat, is to undo, to change. • The poet probably here uses sequestration for sequel.-Sequestration, however, may mean no more than separation. 'The fruit of the locust-tree is a long black pod, which contains the reeds, among which there is a very sweet luscious juice, of much the same consistency as fresh honey.

There