Subdue and poison this young maid's affections?
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,
The trust, the office, I do hold of you,
Not only take away, but let your sentence
Even fall upon my life.

Duke.

Fetch Desdemona hither.

Oth. Ancient, conduct them: you best know the [Exeunt IAGO and Attendants. And, till she come, as truly as to heaven

place.

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;
Still question'd me the story of my life,
From year to year; the battles, sieges, fortunes,
That I have pass'd.

I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
To the very moment that he bade me tell it.
Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field;

Of hair-breadth scapes i'the imminent deadly breach;
Of being taken by the insolent foe,

And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence,

8

And portance in my travel's history:

Wherein of antres vast, and desarts idle,

7

the sagittary,] The sagittary means the sign of the fictitious creature so called, i. e. an animal compounded of man and horse, and armed with a bow and quiver.

8 And portance] And behaviour.

Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch

heaven,

It was my hint to speak, such was the
process;
And of the cannibals that each other eat,
The anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.1

hear,

Would Desdemona seriously incline:

These things to

But still the house affairs would draw her thence;
Which ever as she could with haste despatch,
She'd come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse: Which I observing,
Took once a pliant hour; and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart,
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
But not intentively2: I did consent;
And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did speak of some distressful stroke,
That my youth suffer'd. My story being done,

She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:

She swore, In faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing

strange;

'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful:

She 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 :
She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd;

1 -men whose heads

Do grow beneath their shoulders,] Of these men there is an account in the interpolated travels of Mandeville, a book of that time. Raleigh also has given an account of men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders, in his Description of Guiana, published in 1596, a book that without doubt Shakspeare had read.

2 But not intentively] i. e. with attention to all its parts.

And I lov❜d her, that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have us'd;

Here comes the lady, let her witness it.

Enter DESDEMONA, IAGO, and Attendants.

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

Take up this mangled matter at the best:

Men do their broken weapons rather use,
Than their bare hands.

Bra.

I pray you, hear her speak; 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; Do you perceive in all this noble company,

Where most you owe obeidence?

Des.

My noble father,
I do perceive here a divided duty:
To 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
And so much duty as my mother show'd
To you, preferring you before her father,
So much I challenge that I may profess
Due to the Moor, my lord.

my

husband;

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 hast already, with all my heart
I would keep from thee. For your sake, jewel,
I am glad at soul I have no other child;
For thy escape would teach me tyranny,
To hang clogs on them. I have done, my lord.

Duke. Let me speak like yourself3; 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.
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone,

Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
What cannot be preserv'd when fortune takes,
Patience her injury a mockery makes.

The robb'd, that smiles, steals something from the thief;
He robs himself, that spends a bootless grief.

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

But the free comfort which from thence he hears: 5
But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow,
That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow.
These sentences, to sugar, or to gall,

6

Being strong on both sides, are equivocal: But words are words; I never yet did hear, That the bruis'd heart was pierced through the ear. I humbly beseech you, proceed to the affairs of state. 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

3 Let me speak like yourself;] i. e. let me speak as yourself would speak, were you not too much heated with passion.

4

as a grise,] Grize from degrees. A grize is a step.

5 But the free comfort which from thence he hears:] But the moral precepts of consolation, which are liberally bestowed on occasion of the sentence. JOHNSON.

6 But words are words; I never yet did hear,

That the bruis'd heart was pierced through the ear.] These moral precepts, says Brabantio, may perhaps be founded in wisdom, but they are of no avail. Words after all are but words; and I never yet heard that consolatory speeches could reach and penetrate the afflicted heart, through the medium of the ear.

sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer voice on 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,
Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down: I do agnize 9
A natural and prompt alacrity,

I find in hardness; and do undertake
These present wars against the Ottomites.
Most humbly therefore bending to your state,
I crave fit dispositon for my wife;
Due reference of place, and exhibition;
With such accommodation, and besort,
As levels with her breeding.

Duke.

Be't at her father's.

Bra.

Oth. Nor I.

Des.

1

If you please,

I'll not have it so.

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;
And let me find a charter in your voice, 2
To assist my simpleness.

Duke. What would

7—

you, Desdemona?

to slubber the gloss of your new fortunes —] To slubber, on this occasion, is to obscure.

8 thrice-driven bed of down:] A driven bed, is a bed for which the feathers are selected, by driving with a fan, which separates the light from the heavy.

9 I do agnize] i. e. acknowledge, confess, avow.

1 I crave fit disposition for my wife;

Due reference of place, and exhibition; &c.] I desire, that proper disposition be made for my wife, that she may have precedency and revenue, accommodation and company, suitable to her rank. Exhi bition is allowance.

2

a charter in your voice,] Let your favour privilege me.