Against all rules of nature; and must be driven
To find out practices of cunning hell,

Why this fhould be. I therefore vouch again,
That with fome mixtures powerful o'er the blood,
Or with fome dram, conjur'd to this effect,
He wrought upon her.

Duke. To vouch this, is no proof,

Without more certain and more overt teft,
Than thefe thin habits and poor likelihoods
Of modern feeming do prefer against him.
Sen. But, Othello, fpeak;

Did you by indirect and forced courfes
Subdue and poison this young maid's affections?
Or came it by request, and fuch fair queftion
As foul to foul affordeth?

Oth. I befeech you,

Send for the lady to the Sagittary,

And let her speak of me before her father. lf you do find me foul in her report,

you,

The truft, the office, I do hold of
Not only take away, but let your fentence
Even fall upon my life.

Duke. Fetch Defdemona hither. [Exeunt two or three. Oth. Ancient, conduct them, you best know the place. [Exit Lago.

And till fhe come, as truly as to heav'n
I do confefs the vices of my blood,
So juftly to your grave ears I'll prefent.
How I did thrive in this fair lady's love,
And fhe in mine.

Duke. Say it, Othello.

Oth. Her father lov'd me, oft invited me;
Still queftion'd me the story of my life,

From year to year; the battles, fieges, fortunes,
That I have past.

I ran it through, e'en from my boyish days,
To th' very moment that he bade me tell it.
Wherein I spoke of most disafrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field;

Of hair-breadth 'fcapes in th' imminent deadly breach;
Of being taken by the infolent foe,

And fold to flavery; of my redemption thence,

And with it all my travel's history:

Wherein of antres vaft, and defarts idle *,

Rough quarries, rocks, and hills, whofe heads touch

heav'n,

It was my hent to fpeak. + All these to hear
Would Defdemona feriously incline.

But ftill the houfe-affairs would draw her thence,
Which ever as the could with haste dispatch,
She'd come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my difcourfe: which I obferving,
Took once a pliant hour, and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earneft heart,
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate;
Whereof by parcels fhe had fomething heard,
But not distinctively. I did confent,
And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did fpeak of fome distressful stroke
That my youth fuffer'd. My ftory being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of fighs.

She wore, in faith, 'twas firange, 'twas paffing strange, 'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful

She wish'd fhe had not heard it ;- yet the wifh'd
That heav'n had made her fuch a man:- fhe thank'd
And bade me, if I had a friend that lov'd her, [me,
I fhould but teach him how to tell my ftory,
And that would wooe her. On this hint I spake;
She lov'd me for the dangers I had past;
And I lov'd her, that fhe did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have us'd.
Here comes the lady, let her witnefs it.

SCENE IX.

Enter Defdemona, Iago, and attendants.

Duke. I think this tale would win my daughter too Good Brabantio,

* idle, for barren.

It was my hent to sp ak. Such was the procefs;

And of the Cinibals that each other eat,

The Anthropophagi; and men whofe heads

Do grow beneath their thoulders. All thefe to hear
Would Defdemona, &c.

VOL. VIII.

S

Take

Take up this mangled matter at the beft.
Men do their broken weapons rather ufe,
Than their bare hands.

Bra. I pray you hear her speak.

If the confefs that fhe was half the wooer,
Deftruction on my head, if my bad blame
Light on the man! Come hither, gentle mistress,
Do you perceive in all this noble company,
Where you must owe obedience?

Def. My noble father,

I do perceive here a divided duty.

To you I'm bound for life and education;
My life and education both do learn me

How to respect you.

You're the lord of duty;

I'm hitherto your daughter. But here's my hufbandi
And fo much duty as my mother fhew'd
To you, preferring you before her father;
So much I challenge, that I may profess
Due to the Moor, my Lord.

Bra. God be with you.

I have done

Please it your Grace, on to the state-affairs;
I had rather to adopt a child, than get it.
Come hither, Moor.

I here do give thee that with all my heart,
Which, but thou haft already, with all my heart
I would keep from thee. For your fake, jewel,
I'm glad at foul I have no other child;

For thy efcape would teach me tyranny,

To hang clogs on them. I have done, my Lord.
Duke. Let me fpeak like ourfelf; and lay a fentence,
Which, as a grise, or step, may help thefe lovers
Into your favour-

When remedies are paft, the griefs are ended

By feeing the worst, which late on hopes depended.
To mourn a mischief that is paft and gone,
Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
What cannot be preferv'd when Fortune takes,
Patience her injury a mockery makes.

The robb'd that fimiles, fteals fomething from the thief;
He robs himself, that fpends a bootlefs grief.
Bra. So, let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile,

We lofe it not, fo long as we can fmile.

He

He bears the fentence 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,

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

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

Qth. The tyrant cuflom, moft grave fenators,
Hath made the flinty and fteel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down. I do aguife
A natural and prompt alacrity

I find in hardnefs; and do undertake
This prefent war against the Ottomites,
Moft humbly therefore bending to your ftate,
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'affiit my fimpleness.

Duke. What would you, Defdemona ?

Def. That I did love the Moor to live with him, My downright violence and storm of fortunes

May trumpet to the world. My heart's fubdu'd
Ev'n to the very quality of my Lord.

S 2

I faw

I faw Othello's vifage in his mind,
And to his honours and his valiant parts
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 rights 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; befeech you, let her will Have a free way. I therefore beg it not, To pleafe the palate of my appetite; Nor to comply with heat, the young affects In my defunct and proper fatisfaction *; 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 scant, For fhe is with me- No, when light-wing'd toys Of feather'd Cupid foil with wanton dulnefs My fpeculative and office'd instruments, That my difports corrupt and taint my business; Let housewives make a skillet of my helm, And all indign and bafe adverfities

Make head against my estimation.

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

Duke. This night.

Oth. With all my heart.

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

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. Pleafe your Grace, my Ancient;

(A man he is of honesty and trust),

To his conveyance I affign my wife,

With what else needful your good Grace shall think To be fent after me.

Duke. Let it be fo;

* i. e. with that heat and new affections which the indulgence of my appetite has raifed and created,

Good