Rod. I think I can discover him, if you please To get good guard, and go along with me.

I

Bra. 'Pray you, lead on.

28

At every house I'll

call; may command at most. Get weapons, ho! And raise some special officers of night.

On, good Roderigo; -I'll deserve your pains.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. The Same.

Another Street.

Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Attendants.

Iago. Though in the trade of war I have slain men, Yet do I hold it very stuff o'the conscience,' To do no contriv'd murder: I lack iniquity Sometimes, to do me service.

I had thought to have yerk'd

ribs.

Oth. "Tis better as it is.

Iago.

Nine or ten times

him here under the

Nay, but he prated,

And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
Against your honour,2

That, with the little godliness I have,

I did full hard forbear him. But, I pray, sir,3
Are you fast married? for, be sure of this,
That the magnifico is much belov'd;
And hath, in his effect, a voice potential

28 That is, "I may command at most of the houses." folio reads "officers of might;" probably a misprint.

- The

H.

1 That is, as we should say, a point of conscience, or matter of conscience.

H.

2 Of course Iago is speaking of Roderigo, and pretending to relate what he has done and said against Othello.

H.

3 Thus the quartos: the folio reads, "I pray you, sir." And in the next line the folio has, Be assur'd instead of, For be sure. -The chief men of Venice are called magnifici, or magnificoes.

H.

As double as the Duke's: he will divorce you; Or put upon you what restraint, or grievance, The law (with all his might to enforce it on) Will give him cable.

Let him do his spite:

Oth. My services, which I have done the signiory, Shall out-tongue his complaints. "Tis yet to know, (Which, when I know that boasting is an honour, I shall promulgate,) I fetch my life and being From men of royal siege; and my demerits May speak, unbonneted, to as proud a fortune As this that I have reach'd: For know, Iago, But that I love the gentle Desdemona, I would not my unhoused' free condition Put into circumscription and confine For the sea's worth.

yond'?

But, look! what lights come

Iago. These are the raised father and his friends: You were best go in.

Oth.

Not I: I must be found;

My parts, my title, and my perfect soul,

Shall manifest me rightly.

Is it they?

Iago. By Janus, I think no.

4 That is, as mighty, as powerful; as double means as strong, as forcible.

5 That is, men who have sat on kingly thrones. Siege was often thus used for seat. The quartos read, "men of royal height."

H.

6 Demerit is the same in Shakespeare as merit. Mereo and demereo had the same meaning in the Roman language. Mr. Fuseli explains this passage as follows: "I am his equal or superior in rank; and were it not so, such are my merits, that unbonneted, without the addition of patrician or senatorial dignity, they may speak to as proud a fortune," &c. At Venice the bonnet, as well as the toge, is a badge of aristocratic honours to this day.

7 That is, unsettled, free from domestic cares.

8 Pliny, the naturalist, has a chapter on the riches of the sea. The expression seems to have been proverbial.

Enter CASSIO, and certain Officers with Torches. Oth. The servants of the Duke, and my lieu

tenant.

The goodness of the night upon you, friends!
What is the news?

Cas.

The Duke does greet you, general;

And he requires your haste, post-haste appearance, Even on the instant.

Oth.

What is the matter, think you?

Cas. Something from Cyprus, as I may divine.
It is a business of some heat the galleys
Have sent a dozen sequent messengers
This very night at one another's heels;
And many of the consuls," rais'd, and met,
Are at the Duke's already. You have been hotly
call'd for;

When, being not at your lodging to be found,
The senate hath sent about three several quests,

To search you out.

Oth.

"Tis well I am found by you.

I will but spend a word here in the house,

And go with you.

Cas.

[Exit.

Ancient, what makes he here?

Iago. 'Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land

10 carack:

If it prove lawful prize, he's made for ever.

Cas. I do not understand.

Iago.

Cas.

He's married.

To whom?

9 Consuls means the same here as the "toged consuls," or men of the gown, mentioned in note 6 of the preceding scene; that is, the senators.

H.

10 A carack, or carrick, was a ship of great burthen, a Spanish galleon; so named from carico, a lading, or freight.

Re-enter OTHELLO.

Iago. Marry, to-Come, captain, will you go?
Oth.
Have with you.

Cas. Here comes another troop to seek for you.

Enter BRABANTIO, RODERIGO, and Officers, with Torches and Weapons.

Iago. It is Brabantio. - General, be advis'd: He comes to bad intent.

Iago. You, Roderigo! come, sir, I am for you. Oth. Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.".

Good signior, you shall more command with years, Than with your weapons.

Bra. O, thou foul thief! where hast thou stow'd my daughter?

Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her:
For I'll refer me to all things of sense,
If she in chains of magic were not bound,

11 If we mistake not, there is a sort of playful, good-humoured irony expressed in the very rhythm of this line. Throughout this scene, Othello appears at all points "the noble nature, whose solid virtue the shot of accident, nor dart of chance, could neither graze, nor pierce:" his calmness and intrepidity of soul, his heroic modesty, his manly frankness and considerative firmness of disposition are all displayed at great advantage, marking his character as one made up of the most solid and gentle qualities. Though he has nowise wronged Brabantio, he knows that he seems to have done so his feelings therefore take the old man's part, and he respects his age and sorrow too much to resent his violence; hears his charges with a kind of reverential defiance, and answers them as knowing them false, yet sensible of their reasonableness, and honouring him the more for making them.

H.

12

13

Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy;
So opposite to marriage, that she shunn'd
The wealthy curled darlings of our nation;
Would ever have, t'incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou; to fear, not to delight.
Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense,
That thou hast practis'd on her with foul charms;
Abus'd her delicate youth with drugs or minerals,
That waken motion.1 -I'll have't disputed on;
"Tis probable, and palpable to thinking.
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee,
For an abuser of the world, a practiser
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant.
Lay hold upon him; if he do resist,
Subdue him at his peril.

Oth.

Both you of

Hold your hands,

my inclining, and the rest:

Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it Without a prompter. Where will you that I go To answer this your charge?

Bra.

To prison; till fit time

12 So both the quartos: the folio has dearling instead of darlings. Perhaps it should be dearlings. — In Shakespeare's time it was the fashion for lusty gallants to wear "a curled bush of frizzled hair." In Lear, Edgar, when he was "proud in heart and mind," curled his hair. The Poet has other allusions to the custom among people of rank and fashion.

H.

13 This and the next five lines are not in the quarto of 1622.

H. The emenda

14 The old copies read, "That weaken motion." tion is Hanmer's. Motion is elsewhere used by our Poet precisely in the sense required here. So in Measure for Measure : "One who never feels the wanton stings and motions of the sense.' And in a subsequent scene of this play: "But we have reason, to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts." To waken is to incite, to stir up. We have in the present play, "waken'd wrath."