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Bra. So, let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile,
We lofe it not, fo long as we can fimile;
He bears the sentence well, that nothing bears
But the free comfort which from thence he hears;
But he bears both the fentence, and the forrow,
That, to pay grief, muft of poor patience borrow.
Thefe fentences to fugar, or to gall,

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Being strong on both fides, are equivocal.
But words are words; I never yet did hear, (16)
That the bruis'd heart was pieced through the ear.-
Befeech you, now to the affairs o'th' State.

Duke. The Turk with a moft mighty preparation makes for Cyprus: Othello, the fortitude of the place is beft known to you. And though we have there a substitute of moft allowed fufficiency; yet opinion, a fovereign mistress of effects, throws a more fafe voice on you; you muft therefore be content to flubber the glofs of your new fortunes, with this more stubborn and boisterous expedition.

Oth. The tyrant cuftom, moft grave fenators,
Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down. I do agnize
A natural and prompt alacrity,

(16) But Words are Words; I never yet did hear,

That the bruis'd Heart was pierced thro' the Ear.] One fuperfluous Letter has for these hundred Years quite fubverted the Sense of this Paffage; and none of the Editors have ever attended to the Reasoning of the Context, by which they might have discover'd the Error. The Duke has by fage Sentences been exhorting Prabantio to Patience, and to forget the Grief of his Daughter's ftoln Marriage; to which Brabantio is made very pertinently to reply, to this Effect: "My Lord, I appre"hend very well the Wisdom of your Advice; but tho you would com"fort me, Words are but Words; and the Heart, already bruis'd, was "never pierc'd, or wounded, thro the Ear.". Well! If we want Arguments for a Senator, let him be educated at the Feet of our fagacious Editors. It is obvious, I believe, to my better Readers, that the Text must be restor'd, as Mr. Warburton acutely observ'd to me.

That the bruis'd Heart was pieced tho the Ear.

That the Wounds of Sorrow were ever cur'd, or a Man made heart-whole meerly by Words of Confolation. I ought to take Notice, this very Emendation was likewife communicated to me by an ingenious, unknown, Correfpondent, who fnbfcribes himself only L. H.

I find it hardness; and do undertake

This prefent war against the Ottomites.

Moft humbly therefore bending to your State,
I crave fit difpofition for my wife,
Due reference of place and exhibition,
With fuch accommodation and befort
As levels with her breeding.

Duke. Why, at her father's.
Bra. I will not have it fo.
Oth. Nor I.

Def. Nor would I there refide,
To put my father in impatient thoughts
By being in his eye. Moft gracious Duke,
To my unfolding lend your gracious ear,
And let me find a charter in your voice
T'affift my fimplenefs.

Duke. What would you, Desdemona?

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Def. That I did love the Moor to live with him,
My down-right violence and storm of fortunes
May trumpet to the world. My heart's fubdu'd
Ev'n to the very quality of my lord;

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I faw Othello's vifage in his mind,
And to his honours and his valiant
Did I my foul and fortunes confecrate.
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 fhall fupport,

By his dear abfence. Let me go with him.

Oth. Your voices, lords; beseech you, let her will Have a free way. I therefore beg it not, (17)

(17)

I therefore beg it not

To please the Palate of my Appetite,
Nor to comply with Heat the young affects,

In my defunct and proper Satisfaction;

Το

But to be free and bounteous to her Mind.] As this has been all along hitherto printed and stop'd, it seems to me a Period of as ftubborn Nonfenfe, as the Editors have obtruded upon poor Shakespeare throughout his whole Works. What a prepofterous Creature is this Othello made, to fall in Love with, and marry, a fine young Lady, when Appetite and Heat,

and

To please the palate of my appetite;

Nor to comply with heat, the young Affects, inf In my diftinct and proper Satisfaction;

But to be free and bounteous to her mind.

And heav'n defend your good fouls, that you think,

I will your ferious and great business fcant,
For fhe is with me.-No, when light-wing'd toys
Of feather'd Cupid foil with wanton dulness
My fpeculative and offic'd inftruments,
That my difports corrupt and taint my business;
Let housewives make a fkillet of my helm,
And all indign and bafe adverfities
Make head against my eftimation.

Duke. Be it as you fhall privately determine,
Or for her ftay or going; th' affair cries hafte;
And speed must answer. You must hence to night,
Def. To night, my lord?

· Duke. This night.

Oth. With all my heart.

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

and proper Satisfaction are dead and defunct in him! (For, defunct fignifies nothing elfe, that I know of, either primitively or metaphorically :) But if we may take Othello's own Word in the Affair, when he speaks for himself, he was not reduc'd to this fatal unperforming State.

or, for I am declin'd

Into the Vale of Years; yet That's not much.

Again, Why fhould our Poet fay, (for fo he fays, as the Paffage has been pointed ;) that the young affect Heat? Youth, certainly, has it, and has no Occafion or Pretence of affecting it, whatever fuperannuated Lovers may have. And, again, after defunct, would he add fo abfurd a collateral Epithet as proper? But, I think, I may venture to affirm, that affects was not defign'd here as a Verb; and that defunct was not defign'd here at all. I have, by a flight Change, refcued the Poet's Text from Abfurdi ty; and this I take to be the Tenour of what he would fay; "I do not "beg her Compary with me, merely to please myself; nor to indulge "the Heat and Affects (i. e. Affections) of a new married Man, in my "own diftinct and proper Satisfaction; but to comply with her in her "Request, and Defire, of accompanying me." Affects, for Affections, our Author in several other Paffages ufes.

For ev'ry Man with his Affects is born.
Astvere to banish their Affects with him!
Th' Affects of Sorrow for his valiant Sens.
&c. &c.

Love's Labour Loft.

"

Richard II. Titus Andronicus.

Othello,

Othello, leave fome officer behind,

And he fhall our commiffion bring to you;
And fuch things elfe of quality and respect
As doth import you.

Oth. Please your Grace, my Antient;
(A man he is of honefty and truft,)
To his conveyance I affign my wife,

With what else needful your good Grace fhall think

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Good night to every one.

And, noble Signior,

If virtue no delighted beauty lack,

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

Sen. Adieu, brave Moor, ufe Desdemona well.

Bra. Look to her, Moor, if thou haft eyes to fee, She has deceiv'd her father, and may thee.

[Exit Duke, with Senators.
Honest Iago,

Oth. My life upon her faith.
My Desdemona muft I leave to thee;
I pr'ythee, let thy wife attend on her;
And bring her after in the best advantage..
Come, Defdemona, I have but an hour
Of love, of worldly matter and direction
To speak with thee. We mutt obey the time.

Rod. Jage

Manent Rodorigo and Iago.

Iago. What fayeft thou, noble heart?
Rod. What will I do, thinkeft thou?
Jago. Why, go to bed and fleep.

Rod. I will incontinently drown myself.

W

[Exeunt.

Jago. Well, if thou doft, I fhall never love thee after. Why, thou filly gentleman!

Rod. It is fillinefs to live, when to live is a torment; and then have we a prefcription to dye, when death is our phyfician.

Iago. O'villainous! I have look'd upon the world for four times feven years, and fince I could diftinguish be twixt a benefit and an injury, I never found man that knew how to love himself. Ere I would fay, I would

drown

drown my felf for the love of a Guinney-hen, I would change my humanity with a baboon.

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Rod. What fhould I do? I confefs, it is my fhame to be fo fond, but it is not in my virtue to amend it.

Iago. Virtue? a fig: 'tis in our felves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardiners. So that if we will plant nettles, or fow lettuce; fet hyffop, and weed up thyme; fupply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many; either have it fteril with idleness, or manured with industry ; why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our will. (18) If the beam of our lives had not one fcale of reafon to poife another of fenfuality, the blood and bafenefs of our natures would conduct us to moft prepofterous conclufions. But we have reafon, to cool our raging motions, our carnal ftings, our unbitted lufts; whereof I take this, that you call love, to be a fect, or fyen.

(18) If the Balance of our Lives had not one Scale of Reason to poise another of Senfuality.] i. e. If the Scale of our Lives had not one Scale, &c. which must certainly be wrong, Some of the old Quarto's have it thus, but the two elder Folio's read,

If the Braine of our Lives had not one Scale, &c.

This is corrupt; and I make no doubt but Shakespeare wrote, as I have reform'd the Text,

If the Beame of our Lives, &c.

And my Reason is this; that he generally distinguishes betwixt the Beam
and Balance, ufing the latter to fignify the Scales; and the former, the
Steel-bar to which they are hung, and which poifes them. I'll fubjoin a
few Inftances of his Ufage of both Terms.

In your Lord's Scale is nothing but himself,
And fome few Vanities that make him light,
But in the Balance of great Bolingbroke, &c.
I have in equal Balance justly weigh'd, &c.
Weigh'd between Loathness and Obedience, at
Which end the Beam fhould borv.

We, poizing us in her defective Scale,
Shall weigh thee to the Beam.

We, poize the Caufe in Juftice' equal Scale,
Whofe Beam ftands fure.

thy Madness fhall be paid with Weight,
Till our Scale turn the Beam.

Richard II. 2 Henry IV.

Tempeft

All's well, &c.

2 Henry VI.

Hamlet.

In like manner, the French always ufe les Balances to fignify the Scales;

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le Fleau, the Beam of the Balance.

Rod.

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