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 my unfolding lend a gracious ear;1
And let me find a charter in your voice,2
To assist my simpleness.

2

Duke. What would you, Desdemona ?

Des. That I did love the Moor to live with him,
My downright violence and storm of fortunes 3
May trumpet to the world; my heart's subdued
Even to the very quality1 of
* of my lord.

I saw Othello's visage in his mind;
And to his honors, and his valiant parts,
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

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,

1 Thus in the quarto 1622. The folio, to avoid the repetition of the

same epithet, reads:

To my unfolding lend a prosperous ear.”

2 That is, "let your favor privilege me."

3 By her "downright violence and storm of fortunes" Desdemona means, the bold and decisive measures she had taken in giving herself to the Moor. The old quarto reads scorn of fortune.

4 Quality here, as in other passages of Shakspeare, means profession. The quarto reads, " My heart's subducd even to the utmost pleasure of my lord."

you think

In me defunct) and proper satisfaction;"
But to be free and bounteous to her mind.
And Heaven defend your good souls, that
I will your serious and great business scant,
For 2 she is with me. No, when light-winged toys
Of feathered Cupid seel with wanton dulness
My speculative and active instruments,3
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!

4

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 to-night. Des. To-night, my lord?

Duke.

Oth.

This night.

With all my heart.

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

1 Steevens reads, at the suggestion of sir T. Hanmer:

"Nor to comply with heat, the young affects,

In my distinct and proper satisfaction."

Malone reads disjunct instead of distinct. In the Bondman of Massinger we have a passage evidently copied from this speech of Othello

Your colors, lady, and though youthful heats,
That look no further than your outward form,
Are long since buried in me, while I live,

I am a constant lover of your mind,” &c.

Mr. Gifford observes, that, " as this shows how Shakspeare's contemporaries understood the lines, it should, I think, with us be decisive of their meaning." Affects occur incessantly in the sense of passions, affections ; young affects are therefore perfectly synonymous with youthful heats. Mr. Gifford suggests that Shakspeare may have given affect in the singular to correspond with heat. Dr. Johnson's explanation is:-" 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 mysel but merely that I may indulge the wishes of my wife."

2 i. e. because.

3 Thus the folio; except that, instead of active instruments, it has officed instrument. The quarto reads "And feathered Cupid foils," &c. Speculative instruments, in Shakspeare's language, are the eyes; and active instruments, the hands and feet. To seel is to close up. The meaning of the passage appears to be, "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."

4 The quarto reads reputation.

Othello, leave some officer behind,

And he shall our commission bring to you;
With 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.

Good night to every one.-And, noble seignior,

If virtue no delighted1 beauty lack,

[To BRABANTIO.

Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.

1 Sen. Adieu, brave Moor! use Desdemona well. Bra. Look to her, Moor; have a quick eye to see; She has deceived her father, and may thee.

[Exeunt Duke, Senators, Officers, &c. Oth. My life upon her faith.-Honest Iago, My Desdemona must I leave to thee.

I pr'ythee, let thy wife attend on her;
And bring them after in the best advantage.2
Come, Desdemona; I have but an hour
Of love, of worldly matters and direction,
To spend with thee; we must obey the time.

Rod. Iago

[Exeunt OTHELLO and DESDEMona.

Iago. What say'st thou, noble heart?
Rod. What will I do, thinkest thou?

Iago. Why, go to bed, and sleep.

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.

Iago. O, villanous! I have looked upon the world

1 Delighted for delighting.
2 i. e. fairest opportunity.

for four times seven years!' and since I could distinguish between a benefit and an injury, 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 change my humanity with a baboon.

2

Rod. What should I do? I confess it is my shame. to be so fond; but it is not in virtue to amend it.

Iago. 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 hyssop, and weed up thyme; supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many; either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry; why, the 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 reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts; whereof I take this, that you call-love, to be a sect, or scion.

Rod. It cannot be.

4

3

Jago. 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 thy purse; follow these wars; defeat thy favor with an usurped beard ; 5 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 an

1 In the novel, on which Othello is founded, Iago is described as a young, handsome man.

2 A Guinea-hen was a cant term for a woman of easy virtue.

3 The folio reads "if the brain;” probably a mistake for beam.

4 A sect is what the gardeners call a cutting. The modern editors read

a set.

5 Defeat was used for disfigurement or alteration of features; from the French défaire. Favor means that combination of features which gives the face its distinguishing character.