Off. 'Tis true, most worthy signior, Bra. How! the duke in council! Duke. There is no composition in these That gives them credit. [news, 1 Sen. Indeed, they are disproportion'd; My letters say, a hundred and seven gallies. 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 the aim reports, 'Tis oft with difference,) yet do they all confirm A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus. Duke. Nay, it is possible enough to judg ment; I do not so secure me in the error, But the main article I do approve, In fearful sense. 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 BRABANTIO We lack'd your counsel and your help to-night. Take hold on me; for my particular grief 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, stolen from me, and corrupted Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense, Duke. Whoe'er he be, that in this foul proceeding, Hath thus beguil'd your daughter of herself, Sailor. [Within.] What ho! what ho! what You shall yourself read in the bitter letter, ho! Enter an OFFICER, with a SAILOR. Off. A messenger from the gallies. Sailor. The Turkish preparation makes for So was I bid report here to the state, Duke. How say you by this change? 1 Sen. This cannot be, By no assay of reason; 'tis pageant, To keep us in false gaze: When we consider of this, We must not think the Turk is so unskilful, After your own sense; yea, though our proper niors, My very noble and approv'd good masters, And little bless'd with the set phrase of peace; For since these arms of mine had seven years' Till now some nine moons wasted, they have Duke. Nay, in all confidence, he's not for And little of this great world can I speak, Rhodes. guess? pearance Mess. Of thirty sail and now do they restem Their backward course, bearing with frank ap[tano, Their purposes toward Cyprus.-Signior MonYour trusty and most valiant servitor, With his free duty recommends you thus, And prays you to believe him. Duke. 'Tis certain then for Cyprus.Marcus Lucchesé, is he not in town? 1 Sen. He's now in Florence. Duke. Write from us; wish him post-posthaste despatch. 1 Sen. Here comes Brabantio, with the valiant Moor. • I. e. Our offices of state will be filled by the pagans and bond-slaves of Africa. + Concordancy. State of defence Less opposition. More than pertains to feats of broil and battle; I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver 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 na. ture, Of years, of country, credit, every thing.- Or with some dram conjur❜d to this effect, Duke. To vouch this, is no proof; • Without. 1 Best exertion. 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 Subdue and poison this young maid's tions? Good Brabantio, Take up this mangled matter at the best : Bra. I pray you, bear her speak; affec-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; 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 Sagittary, And let her speak of me before her father: If you do find me foul in her report, Duke. Fetch Desdemona hither. Oth. Ancient, conduct them; you best know the place. [Exeunt IAGO and Attendants. And, till she coine, 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; I ran it through, even from my boyish days, It was my hint to speak, such was the process Would Desdemona seriously incline: [thence; means To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart, "Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful; That heaven had made her such a man; thank'd me; Do you perceive in all this noble company, Des. My noble father, I do perceive bere a divided duty: To you, I am bound for life and education; 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, 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, He robs himself, that spends a bootless grief. I humbly beseech you, proceed to the affairs of pass-state. she she And bade me if I had a friend that lov'd ber, ter too. 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 en 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 With such accommodation and besort, Duke. If you please, Be't at her father's. Bra. I'll not have it so. Oth. Nor I. Des. Nor I; I would not there reside, Duke. What would you, Desdemona ? Des. That I did love the Moor to live with My downright violence and storm of fortunes dued Jago. What say'st thou, noble heart? Rod. I will incontinently * drown myself. Iago. Well, if thou dost, I shall never love thee after it. 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. Jago. O villainous! I have looked upon the world for four times seven years; and since I could distinguish between a benefit and an insub-jury, I never found a man that knew how to love himself. Ere I would say, I would drown myself for the love of a Guinea-hen, I would chauge my humanity with a baboon. Rod. What should I do? I confess it is my shame to be so fond; but it is not in virtue to amend it. Even to the very quality of my lord: her will Have a free way. me, Vouch with me, heaven; I therefore beg it not Jago. Virtue? a fig! 'tis in ourselves, that we are thus, or thus. Our bodies are our gardens; to the which our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce; set one gender of herbs, or distract it with many; I will your serious and great business scant, toys Of feather'd Cupid seel § with wanton dulness Duke. Be it as you shall privately determine, Either for her stay or going: the affair cries, haste, And speed must answer it: you must hence Des. To-night, my lord? Oth. With all my heart. Rod. It cannot be. Duke. At nine i'the morning here we'll meet in thy purse.-These Moors are changeable in Iago. It is merely a lust of the blood, and a permission of the will. Come, be a man; Drown thyself? drown cats and blind puppies. I have professed 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 money in thiy purse; follow 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,-put money in thy purse ;-nor he his to her: it was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration;-put bat money their wills ; till thy purse with money : the food that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be to bim 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 thon wilt needs damn thyself, do it a more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money thou caust: If sanctimony and a frail vow, betwixt an erring ¶ barbarian and a supersubtle Venetian, be not too hard for my wits, and all the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her; therefore make money. A pox of drowning thyself! it is clean out of the way: seek thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy, than to be drowned and go without her. Rod. Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, If I depend 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 in our revenge against him: if thou canst cuckold him, thou dost thy • Immediately. Quality means profession; i. e. the life of a soldier. Unbridled t Forbid. Blind. cutting. putting on a beard. + The cant term for a prostitute. A sect is what the gardeners call a 1. e. Alter your effeminate visage, by Wandering. self a pleasure, and me a sport. There are many Rod. I'll be with thee betimes. rigo? Rod. What say you! Do you hear, Rode lago. No more of drowning, do you hear. If I would time expend with such a snipe, A see: me After some time, to abuse Othello's ear, I have't;-it is engender'd :-Hell and night ACT II. SCENE 1.-A Sea-port Town in CYPRUS.- Enter MONTANO and Two GENTLEMEN. sea ? 1 Gent. Nothing at all : it is a high-wrought flood; I cannot, 'twixt the heaven and the main, Mon. Methinks, the wind hath spoke aloud at land : A fuller blast ne'er shook our battlements : What ribs of oak, when mountains melt on them, this? 2 Gent. A segregation t of the Turkish fleet : strous main, Seems to cast water on the burning bear $ On th' enchafed flood. Mon. If that the Turkish fleet Mon. How! is this true? 3 Gent. The ship is here put in, A Veronesé; Michael Cassio, Lieutenant to the warlike Moor, Othello, Is come on shore: the Moor himself's at sea, And is in full commission here for Cyprus. Mon. I am glad on't; 'tis a worthy governor. 3 Gent. But this same Cassio, though he speak of comfort, Touching the Turkish loss, yet he looks sadly, With foul and violent tempest. 3 Gent. Come, let's do so ; Mon. But, good lieutenant, is your general wiv'd? Cas. Most unfortunately: he hath achiev'd a That paragons description and wild fame: Re-enter second GENTLEMAN. 2 Gent. 'Tis one Iago, ancient to the general. Gas. He has had most favourable and happy speed: Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling The gutter'd rocks, and congregated sands,- Be not inshelter'd and embay'd, they are The divine Desdemona. Give renew'd fire to our extincted spirits, The riches of the ship is come on shore! Des. I thank you, valiant Cassio. Des. O but I fear;-How lost you company? Cas. The great contention of the sea and skies Parted our fellowship. But, hark! a sail. [Cry within, A sail, a sail! Then Guns heard. 2 Gent. They give their greeting to the citadel: This likewise is a friend. [Exit GENTLEMAN. welcome ;-Welcome, [TO EMILIA. Cas. See for the news. Good ancient, you are inistress:Let it not gall your patience, good lago, That I extend my manners: 'tis my breeding That gives me this bold show of courtesy. [Kissing her. Iago. Sir, would she give you so much of her lips, As of her tongue she oft bestows on me, Des. Alas! she has no speech. Iago. In faith, too much; I find it still, when I have list to sleep: Emil. You have little cause to say so. Bells in your parlours, wild cats in your kit chens, Saints in your injuries, devils being offended, Players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds. Des. Ó fie upon thee, slanderer! Iago. Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk; Des. What wouldst thou write of me, if thou shouldst praise ine? lago. O gentle lady, do not put me to't: For I am nothing, if not critical. + Iago. There's none so foul, and foolish there. unto, (do. But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones Des. O heavy ignorance !--thou praisest the worst best. But what praise couldst thou pestow on a deserving woman indeed! one, that, in the authority of her merit, did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself? Iago. She that was ever fair, and never proud; Had tongue at will, and yet was never loud; Bade her wrong stay, and her displeasure fly; To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail; She that could think, and ne'er disclose her mind, See suitors following, and not look behind; Iago. To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer. Des. O most lame and impotent conclusion -Do not learn of him, Emilia, though he be thy husband.-How say you, Cassio? is he not a most profane and liberal counsellor ? Cas. He speaks home, madam; you may relish him more in the soldier, than in the scholar. Iago. [Aside.] He takes her by the palin : Ay, well said, whisper: with as little a web as this, will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. Ay, smile upon her, do; I will gyve thee in thine own courtship. You say true; 'tis so indeed : if such tricks as these strip you out of your lieutenantry, it had been better you had not kissed your three fingers so oft, which now again you are most apt to play the Sir in. Very good; well kissed! an excellent courtesy ! 'tis so, indeed. Yet again your fingers to your lips? would they were clyster-pipes for your sake ?―[Trumpet.] The Moor, I know his trumpet. Cas. 'Tis truly so. Des. Let's meet him, and receive him. Enter OTHELLO, and Attendants. Oth. O my fair warrior! Des. My dear Othello! Oth. It gives me wonder great as my content, To see you here before me. O my soul's joy! If after every tempest come such calms, Des. Come on, assay :-There's one gone to May the winds blow till they have waken'd the harbour. Iago. Ay, madam. Des. I am not merry; but I do beguile The thing I am, by seeming otherwise.Come, how wouldst thou praise me? lago. I am about it; but, indeed, my inven tion [frize, Comes from my pate, as birdlime does from It plucks out brains and all: But my muse labours, And thus she is deliver❜d. If she be fair and wise,-fairness and wit,- Des. Well prais'd! How if she be black and witty? Iago. If she be black, and thereto have a wit, She'll find a white that shall her blackness fit. Des. Worse and worse. Emil. How, if fair and foolish ? lago. She never yet was foolish that was fair; For even her folly help'd her to an heir. Des. These are old fond paradoxes, to make fools laugh i'the alebouse. What miserable praise hast thou for her that's foul and foolish? death! And let the labouring bark climb hills of seas, Des. The heavens forbid, But that our loves and comforts should increase, Even as our days do grow! Oth. Amen to that, sweet powers!— I cannot speak enough of this content, That e'er our hearts shall make ! Oth. Come, let's to the castle.News, friends: our wars are done, the Turks are drown'd. |