The very head and front of my offending
Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my
speech,

And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace:
For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,
Till now some nine moons wasted, they have us'd
Their dearest action in the tented field;
And little of this great world can I speak,
More than pertains to feats of broils and battle;
And therefore little shall I grace my cause

In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious.

patience,

I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver

Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what

charms,

What conjuration, and what mighty magic,-
For such proceeding I am charg'd withal,-
I won his daughter.

BRA.
A maiden never bold;
Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion
Blush'd at herself: and she,-in spite of nature,
Of years, of country, credit, every thing,-
To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on!
It is a judgment maim'd* and most imperfect,
That will confess perfection so could err
Against all rules of nature; and must be driven
To find out practices of cunning hell,

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

(*) First folio, main'd.

DUKE.
Fetch Desdemona hither.
Отн. Ancient, conduct them; you best know
the place.—

[Exeunt IAGO and Attendants. And, till she come, as truly as to heaven

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.

Отн. 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 spake 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,
And portance in my travel's § history:
Wherein of antres vast, and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks and || hills whose heads ¶
touch heaven,

the **

The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders. (4) This to heard

с

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 intentively:* 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, 't was strange, 't was passing
strange;

'T was pitiful, 't was 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;
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.

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:

(*) First folio, instinctively.

one preceding.

(†) First folio, kisses.

b The trust, the office, I do hold of you,—] This line is not found in the earlier quarto.

c Do grow beneath-] The folio reads, "Grew beneath," &c.

d This to hear-] In the folio, "These things to hear," &c.

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 yourself;" and lay a
sentence,

a Which, but thou hast already, with all my heart-] A line wanting in the earlier quarto.

VOL. III.

657

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;
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,
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 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.

Отн. The tyrant custom, most grave senators, Hath made the flinty and steel couch† of war My thrice-driven bed of down: I do agnize A natural and prompt alacrity

b

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

As levels with her breeding.

my heart's subdu'd

Even to the very quality of my lord :]

"Quality here means profession. I am so much enamoured of

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

DUKE. What would you, Desdemona ?
DES. 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 subdu'd
Even to the very quality of my lord:

I saw Othello's visage in his mind;
And to his honours 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.
Отн. Let her have your voice.g
Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not,
To please the palate of my appetite;
Nor to comply with heat (the young affects
In me‡ defunct) and proper satisfaction;
But to be free and bounteous to her mind:
And heaven defend your good souls, that you think
I will your serious and great business scant
Fors she is with me: no, when light-wing'd toys
Of feather'd Cupid seel with wanton dulness
My speculative and offic'd instruments,
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!

h

Othello, that I am even willing to endure all the inconveniences incident to a military life, and to attend him to the wars.' MALONE.

fdear absence.] See note (6), p. 398.

g Let her have your voice.] The folio lection; that of the quarto 1662 is,

"Your voices lords: beseech you let her will
Have a free way."

h My speculative and offic'd instruments,-] By "speculative and offic'd instruments " he probably means, the organs of sight and action.

i You must away to-night.] In the quartos, "You must hence to-night," which words are given to the Duke, and the dialogue proceeds as follows,

"Des. To-night my lord? Du. This night. Oth. With all my heart."

To his conveyance I assign my wife,
With what else needful your good grace shall think
To be sent after me.

Let it be so.—

DUKE. Good night to every one.—And, noble signior, [TO BRABANTIO. 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, if thou hast eyes to see; b

She has deceiv'd her father, and may thee.

[Exeunt DUKE, Senators, Officers, &c. Отн. 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.Come, Desdemona, I have but an hour Of love, of worldly matter, and direction, To spend with thee: we must obey the time. [Exeunt OTHELLO and DESDEMONA. ROD. Iago,IAGO. What say'st thou, noble heart? ROD. What will I do, think'st thou ? IAGO. Why, go to bed, and sleep. ROD. I will incontinently drown myself. IAGO. If thou dost, I shall never love thee after. Why, thou silly gentleman!

ROD. It is silliness to live when to live is torment; and then have we a prescription to die, when death is our physician.

IAGO. O, villanous! I have looked upon the world for four times seven years; and since I could distinguish betwixt a benefit and an injury, I never found 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 my 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,

(*) First folio, braine.

ano delighted beauty lack,-] "Delighted" is here used for delighting; the passive participle for the active.

bif thou hast eyes to see;] The 1622 quarto reads, we think preferably," have a quick eye to see," &c.

cdefeat thy favour with an usurped beard;] Change, or disfigure thy countenance by putting on a spurious beard.

659

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.

с

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, 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 thou the wars; defeat thy favour with an usurped beard; I say, put money in thy purse. It cannot be that Desdemona should long continue her love to the Moor,d -put money in thy purse,-nor he his to her: it was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration ;-put but money in thy purse. These Moors are changeable in their wills;-fill thy purse with money: the food that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida.(5) She must change for youth when she is sated with his body, she I will find the error of her choice: she must have change, she must: therefore put money in thy purse. If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money thou canst: if sanctimony and a frail vow, betwixt an erring barbarian and a* super-subtle Venetian, be not too hard for my wits and all the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her; therefore make money. A pox of drowning thyself! it is clean out of the way: seek thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy, than to be drowned and go without her.

ROD. Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on the issue?

IAGO. Thou art sure of me ;-go, make money: -I have told thee often, and I re-tell thee again and again, I hate the Moor: my cause is hearted, thine hath no less reason; let us be conjunctive in our revenge against him. If thou canst cuckold him, thou dost thyself a pleasure, me a sport. There are many events in the womb of time, which I will be delivered. Traverse! go; provide thy money. Adieu.

We will have more of this to-morrow.

ROD. Where shall we meet i' the morning?
IAGO. At my lodging.

ROD. I'll be with thee betimes.

IAGO. Go to; farewell. Do you hear, Roderigo?

(*) First folio omits, a.

d It cannot be that Desdemona should long continue her love to the Moor,-] In the folio, "It cannot be long that Desdemona should continue," &c.

e she must have change, she must;] These words are not in the folio.

UU 2