She'd come again, and with a greedy ear She swore,-In faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange ; The wish'd, she had not heard it; yet she wish'd That heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me ; 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 : Enter DESDEMONA, IAGO, and Attendants. Duke. I think, this tale would win my daughter too.~~Good Brabantio, Take пр this mangled matter at the best : Men do their broken weapons rather use, Bra. I pray you, hear her speak ; If she confess, that she was half the wooer, Light on the man!-Come hither, gentle mistress ; Des. My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty: Το 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, I am hitherto your daughter: But here's my husband And so much duty as my mother show'd To you, preferring you before her father, Bra. God be with you!-I have done :---- I here do give thee that with all my heart, To hang clogs on them.-I have done, my lord. Duke. Let me speak like yourself; and lay a sentence Which, as a grise, 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. Is the next way to draw new mischief on. The robb'd, that smiles, steals something from the thie 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 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 on you [5] i. e. Let me speak as yourself would speak, were you not too much heated with passion. Sir J. REYNOLDS. [6] Grize from degree. A grize is a step. So in Timon, "---for every grize of fortune STEEVENS. [7] But the moral precepts of consolation, which are liberally bestowed on occasion of the sentence. JOHNSON. 18] 4 heart pierced through the ear, is a heart which (to use our poet's words elsewhere) has granted a penetrable entrance to the language of consolation. MALONE See Illustrations, Vol. X. 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 Duke. If you please, Be't at her father's. Bra. I'll not have it so. Des. Nor I; I would not there reside, Duke. What would you, Desdemona ? Des. That I did love the Moor to live with him, .6 I saw Othello's visage in his mind ;6 [9] To slubber is to obscure. STEEVENS. [1] A driven bed, is a bed for which the feathers are selected, by driving with a fan, which separates the light from the heavy. JOHNSON. [2] Agnize, acknowledge, confess, avow. STEEVENS. [3] Exhibition is allowance. The word is at present used only at the universities. 41 Breach of common rules and obligations. JOHNSON. 5 Quality here means profession. MALONE. 6] It must raise no wonder, that I loved a man of an appearance so little engaging I saw his face only in his mind; the greatness of his character reconciled me his form. JOHNSON. 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, And heaven defend your good souls," that you think Make head against my estimation! Duke. Be it as you shall privately determine, Either for her stay, or going: the affair cries-haste, Duke. This night. Oth. With all my heart. Duke. At nine i' the morning here we'll meet again. -Othello, leave some officer behind, And he shall our commission bring to you; 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 Good-night to every one.-And, noble signior, [To Bra If virtue no delighted beauty lack," 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 deceiv'd her father, and may thee. [Exeunt Duke, Senators, Officers, &c. [7] To defend is to forbid. From defendre, Fr. STEEVENS. [8] Delighted is used by Shakespeare in the sense of delighting or delightful. See Cymbeline, act v. "Whom best I love, I cross, to make my gift, TYRWHITT. 1 Oth. My life upon her faith.-Honest lago, Rod. Iago. [Exe. OTHELLO and DESDEMONA. Iago. 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. Lago. O villanous! I have looked upon the world 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. Rod. What should I do? I confess it is my shame to be so fond; but it is not in virtue to amend it. fago. 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 steril 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. 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, [9] A guinea-hen was anciently the cant term for a prostitute. STEEVENS |