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MOOR OF VENICE

And she did gratify his amorous works
With that recognizance and pledge of love
Which I first gave her: I saw it in his hand;
It was a handkerchief, an antique token
My father gave my mother.tous vo
Famil. O heaven! O heavenly powers!
logo. Come, hold your peace.

Emil. Twill out, 'twill out ;-I hold my peace,
Sir? no;

No, I will speak as liberal as the air;

Let heaven, and men, and devils, let them all,
All, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak.
Jago. Be wise, and get you home.
Emil. I will not.

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Who can control his fate? 'tis not so now.-
• Freely.
+ Steel is hardened by being put red-
het into very cold water.

Oth. I look down towards his feet; +-but
that's a fable:

If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee.
[OTHELLO wounds IAGO.
Lod. Wrench his sword from him.
lago. I bleed, Sir; but not kill'd.
Oth. I am not sorry neither; I'd have thee
live;

Lod. O thou Othello, that wast once so good,
For, in my sense, 'tis happiness to die.
What shall be said to thee?
Fall'n in the practice of a cursed slave,

An honourable murderer, if you will;
For nought I did in hate, but all in honour.
Lod. This wretch hath in part confess'd his

Oth. Ay.
Did you and he consent in Cassio's death?

Cas. Dear general, I never gave you cause.
Oth. I do believe it, and I ask your pardon.
Will you, I pray you demand that demi-devil,
Why he hath thus ensnar'd my soul and body?
Iago. Demand me nothing: What you know,

Lod. What? not to pray?
From this time forth I never will speak word.

Gra. Torments will ope your lips.
Oth. Well, thou dost best.

Lod. Sir, you shall understand what hath
befall'n,

Which, as I think, you know not: Here is a
letter,

Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo,
And here, another: the one of them imports
The death of Cassio to be undertook
By Roderigo.

Cas. Most heathenish, and most gross!
Lod. Now here's another discontented paper,
Found in his pocket too: and this it seems,
Roderigo meant to have sent this damned vil

But that belike, lago in the interim
Came in and satisfied him.

Oth. O the pernicious caitiff!

How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief
That was my wife's ?

Cas. I found it in my chamber :
And he himself confess'd, but even now
That there he dropp'd it, for a special purpose
Which wrought to his desire.

Oth. O fool! fool! fool!

Cas. There is, besides, in Roderigo's letter,• Account.

+ To see if his feet be cloven. By the stratagem,

How he upbraids lago, that he made him,
Brave me on the watch; whereon it came
That I was cast; and even but now he spake,
After long seeming dead,-lago hurt him,
lago set him on.

Lod. You must forsake this room, and
with us;

Your power and your command is taken off,
And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave,-
If there be any cunning cruelty,

go

That can torment him much, and hold him
long,

It shall be his: You shall close prisoner rest,
Till that the nature of your fault be known
To the Venetian state-Come, bring him
away.

Oth. Soft you; a word or two, before you go. I have done the state some service, and they know it;

No more of that:-I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,"
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you
speak

Of one that lov'd not wisely, but too well;
Of one, not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
Perplex'd in the extreme; of one, whose hand,
Like the base Júdean, threw a pearl away,
Richer than all his tribe; of one, whose subdu'd

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|Their medicinal gum: Set you down this:
And say, besides,-that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk
Beat a Venetian, and traduc'd the state,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog,
And smote him-thus.
[Stabs himself.

Lod. O bloody period!
Gra. All, that's spoke, is marr'd.
Oth. I kiss'd thee, ere I kill'd thee;-No way
but this,

[Falling upon DESDEMONA. Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.

[Dies,

Cas. This did I fear, but thought he had no
weapon;

For he was great of heart.
Lod. O Spartan dog,

More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea!
Look on the tragic loading of this bed;

[TO IAGO.
This is thy work; the object poisons sight;-
Let it be hid.-Gratiano, keep the house,
And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor,
For they succeed to you.-To you, lord gover-
nor,

Remains the censure of this hellish villain;
The time, the place, the torture,-O enforce it!
Myself will straight aboard; and, to the state,
This heavy act with heavy heart relate.

• Sentence.

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THE reader will frequently be at a loss to reconcile the order and passages of Othello, as given in the present edition, with their accustomed delivery on the stage; but it is considered a trifling inconvenience, when coun teracted by the pleasure of possessing (as nearly as the most authentic resources can afford them,) the actual language and construction of the drama, as given by Shakspeare. In the authorized copies of the prompters' books, and in many editions reprinted from them, the beauty of the original has been somewhat obscured by green-room critics, of conflicting taste, and obsequious managers, more penny-wise than poetical. The scene with the musicians, which introduces Act II.---that incongruous nuisance, the clown---and that equally trouble come excrescence, Bianca the prostitute ---are however, with real judgment, omitted in the representation; and many of the less important passages, such as occur in the scene before the senate---in the soliloquies of lago--in the dialogues between Montano and a gentleman of Cyprus, on the tempest of the preceding night, and between Desdemona and Emilia, on the temptations to adultery, are very considerably abridged. The order of the scenes is also perpetually varied; each theatrical copartnership retaining its peculiar programme of Richard or Othello, in common with its wardrobe, thunder, side-scenes, and mould-candles.

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LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE.

IN 156 Mr. Arthur Brooke published a poem on "The Tragicall Historie of Romeus and Juliett ;" the materials for which he chiefly obtained from a French translation (by Boisteau) of an Italian novel by Luigi da Porto, a Venetian gentleman, who died in 1529. A prose translation of Boisteau's work was also published 1576, by Paister, in his Palace of Pleasure, vol. II.; and upon the incidents of these two works, especially of the poem, Malone decides that Shakspeare constructed his entertaining tragedy. Dr. Johnson has declared this play to be "one of the most pleasing of Shakspeare's performances:" but it contains some breaches of irregularity--many superfluities, tumid conceits, and bombastic ideas, inexcusable even in a lover; with a continued recurreace of jingling periods and trifling quibbles, which obscure the sense, or disgust the reader. Several of the characters are, however, charmingly designed, and not less happily executed; the catastrophe is intensely affecting; the incidents various and expressive; and as the passion which it delineates is one of universal acceptance in the catalogue of human wishes, the tinder-like character of the lady, and the notable constancy of the gentleman, are forgotten in the dangers and the calamities of both. The numerous rhymes which occur, are probably seedlings from Arthur Brooke's stock plant. "The nurse (says Dr. Johnson) is one of the characters in which Shakspeare delighted: he has, with great subtilty of distinction, drawn her at once loquacious and secret, obsequious and insolent, trusty and dishonest."

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SCENE, during the greater part of the Play, in Verona: once, in the fifth Act, at Mantua.

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Gre. No, for then we should be colliers.
Sam. I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw.

The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nougat could re-

move,

Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to
mend.

Gre. Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of the collar.

Sam. I strike quickly, being moved.
Gre. But thou art not quickly moved to
strike.

Sam. A dog of the house of Montague moves

me.

Gre. To move, is-to stir; and to be valiant, thou run'st away. is-to stand to it: therefore, if thou art mov❜d,

Sam. A dog of that house shall move me to

A phrase formerly in use to signify the bearing in- stand: I will take the wall of any man or maid

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of Montague's.

Gre. That shows thee a weak slave; for the | Down with the Capulets! down with the Mon weakest goes to the wall.

Sam. True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall:therefore I will push Moutague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall.

Gre. The quarrel is between our masters, and us their meu.

Sam. 'Tis all one, I will show myself a tyrant: when I have fought with the men, I will be cruel with the maids; I will cut off their heads.

Gre. The heads of the maids?

Sam. Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads; take it in what sense thou wilt. Gre. They must take it in sense, that feel it.

Sam. Me they shall feel, while I am able to stand and 'tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.

Gre. 'Tis well, thou art not fish: if thou badst, thou hadst been poor John. Draw thy tool; here comes two of the house of the Montagues.

Enter ABRAM and BALTHAZER.

tagues!

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come

And flourishes his blade in spite of me.

Enter MONTAGUE, and LADY MONTAGUE. Mon. Thou villain, Capulet,-Hold me not, let me go.

La. Mon. Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek
a foe.

Enter PRINCE, with Attendants.
Prin. Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,—
Will they not hear?-what ho! you men, you
beasts,-

That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins,

Sam. My naked weapon is out; quarrel, I will On pain of torture, from those bloody hands

back thee.

Gre. How? turn thy back, and run?

Sam. Fear me not.

Gre. No, marry: I fear thee!

Sam. Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin.

Cre. I will frown as I pass by: and let them take it as they list.

Sam. Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they

bear it.

Abr. Do you bite your thumb at us, Sir?
Sam. I do bite my thumb, Sir.

Abr. Do you bite your thumb at us, Sir?
Sem. Is the law on our side, if I say,—ay?
Gre. No.

Throw your mistemper'd weapons to the

ground,

And hear the sentence of your moved prince.-
Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
By thee, old Capulet and Montague,
Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets;
And made Verona's ancient citizens
Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments,
To wield old partizans, in hands as old,
Canker'd with peace to part your canker'd hate :
If ever you disturb our streets again,
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
For this time, all the rest depart away:
You, Capulet, shall go along with me;
And, Montague, come you this afternoon,
To know our further pleasure in this case,
To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.

Sam. No, Sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, once more, on pain of death, all men depart.

Sir; but I bite my thumb, Sir.

Gre. Do you quarrel, Sir?

Abr. Quarrel, Sir? no, Sir.

Sam. If you do, Sir, I am for you; I serve as

good a man as you.

Abr, No better.

Sam. Well, Sir

Enter BENVOLIO, at a Distance.

[Exeunt PRINCE and Attendants; CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, TYBALT, CITIZENS, and Servants.

Mon.

Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?

Speak, nephew, were you by when it began ?
Ben. Here were the servants of your ad-

versary,

Gre. Say-better; here comes one of my And your's, close fighting ere I did approach :

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Till the prince came, who parted either part.
La. Mon. O where is Romeo?-saw you him
to day?

Right glad I am, he was not at his fray.
Ben. Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd
sun,

Ben. I do but keep the peace; put up thy Peer'd through the golden window of the east, sword,

Or manage it to part these men with me.

A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad;
Where, underneath the grove of sycamore,

Tyb. What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate That westward rooteth from the city's side,—

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Scene II.

ROMEO AND JULIET.

But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
Should in the furthest east begin to draw
The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,
Away from light steals home my heavy son,
And private in his chamber pens himself;
Shuts up his windows, locks fair day-light out,
And makes himself an artificial night:
Black and portentous must this humour prove,
Unless good counsel may the cause remove.

Ben. My noble uncle, do you know the cause?
Mon. I neither know it, nor can learn of him.
Bea. Have you importan'd him by any means?
Mon. Both by myself, and many other friends:
But be, his own affections' counsellor,

Is to himself-I will not say, how true,-
Bat to himself so secret and so close,
So far from sounding and discovery,
As is the bad bit with an envious worm,

Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,
Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.

Could we but learn from whence his sorrows
grow,

We would as willingly give cure, as know.
Enter ROMEO, at a distance.

Bea. See, where he comes: So please you,
step aside:

I'll know his grievance, or be much denied.
Mon. I would thou wert so happy by thy stay,
To hear true shrift,-Come, madani, let's away.
[Exeunt MONTAGUE and LADY.

Ben. Good morrow, cousin.
Rom. Is the day so young?
Ben. But new struck nine.

Rom. Ah me! sad hours seem long.
Was that my father that went hence so fast?
Bea. It was:-What sadness lengthens Ro-
meo's hours?

Rom. Not having that, which having, makes
them short.

Ben. In love?
Rom. Out-
Ben. Of love?

Rom. Out of her favour, where I am in love.
Ben. Alas, that love, so gentle in his view,
Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!
Rom. Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still.
Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!
Where shail we dine ?-o me!-What fray
was here?

Yet tell not, for I have heard it all.

[love:

Here's much to do with hate, but more with
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O any thing, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick

health!

Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!-
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh?

Ben. No, coz, I rather weep.

Rom. Good heart, at what?

Ben. At thy good heart's oppression.
Roa. Why, such is love's transgression.-
Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast;
Which thou wilt propagate, to have it press'd
With more of thine: this love, that thou hast
shown,

Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs;
Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in a lover's eyes;
king vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:
What is it else? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.
Farewell, my coz.

[Going.

Ben. Soft, I will go along;
And if you leave me so, you do me wrong.
Bom, Tut, I have lost myself; I am

not

bere ; This is not Romeo, he's some other where. Ben. Tell me in sadness, who she is you love.

la seriousness.

Rom. What, shall I groan, and tell thee?
Ben. Groan? why, no;

But sadly tell me, who.

Rom. Bid a sick man in sadness make his
will:-

Ah word ill urg'd to one that is so ill!-
In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.
Ben. I aim'd so near, when I suppos'd you
lov'd.

Rom. A right good marksman !-And she's
fair I love.

Ben. A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest
bit.

Rom. Well, in that hit, you miss: she'll not
be hit

With Cupid's arrow, she hath Dian's wit;
And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd,
From love's weak childish bow she lives un-
harm'd.

She will not stay the siege of loving terms,
Nor bide th' encounter of assailing eyes,
Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold:
O she is rich in beauty; only poor,
That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store.
Ben. Then she hath sworn, that she will still
live chaste?

Rom. She hath, and in that sparing makes
huge waste;

For beauty, starv'd with her severity,
Cuts beauty off from all posterity.
She is too fair, too wise; wisely too fair,
To merit bliss by making me despair:
She hath forsworn to love; and, in that vow,
Do I live dead, that live to tell it now.

Ben. Be rul'd by me, forget to think of her.
Rom. O teach me how I should forget to
think.

Ben. By giving liberty unto thine eyes:
Examine other beauties.

Rom. 'Tis the way

To call her's exquisite, in question more:
These happy masks, that kiss fair ladies' brows,
Being black, put us in mind they hide the

fair;

He, that is strucken blind, cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost :
Show me a mistress that is passing fair,
What doth her beauty serve, but as a note
fair?
Where I may read, who pass'd that passing

Farewell; thou canst not teach me to forget.
Ben. I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in
[Exeunt.
debt.

SCENE II-A Street.

Enter CAPULET, PARIS, and SERVANT.
Cap. And Montague is bound as well as I,
In penalty alike; and 'tis not hard, I think,
For men so old as we to keep the peace.

Par. Of honourable reckoning are you both;
And pity 'tis, you liv'd at odds so long.
But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?
Cap. But saying o'er what I have said be-
fore:

My child is yet a stranger in the world,
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;
Let two more summers wither in their pride,
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.

Par. Younger than she are happy mothers

made.

Cap. And too soon marr'd are those so early
made.

The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she;
She is the hopeful lady of my earth:
But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,
My will to her consent is but a part;
An she agree, within her scope of choice
Lies my consent, and fair according voice.
This night I hold au old accustom'd feast,
Whereto I have invited many a guest,

A complimett to Queen Elizabeth, in whose reign the play was first represented.

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