It was my hint to fpeak; fuch was the process;
And of the Canibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi; and men whofe heads

Do grow beneath their fhoulders. All these to hear
Would Desdemona feriously incline;

But ftill the houfe-affairs would draw her thence,.
Which ever as she could with hafte 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 pray'r of earnest heart,
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate;
Whereof by parcels fhe had fomething heard,
But not diftinctively: I did confent,
And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did speak of fome distressful stroke
That my youth fuffer'd. My ftory being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of fighs:
Shefwore, "In faith, 'twas ftrange, 'twas paffing strange,
"Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful".

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

Enter Defdemona, 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 the confefs that he was half the wooer,
Destruction on my head, if my bad blame

Light on the man! Come hither, gentle miftrefs,
Do you perceive in all this noble company,
Where you most 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 husband;
And fo much duty as my mother shew'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 escape would teach me tyranny,

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

When remedies are paft, the griefs are ended

By feeing the worft, which late on hopes depended.
To mourn a mifchief that is past 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 fmiles, 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 smile;
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.
J 5

Thefe

Thefe fentences to fugar, or to gall,

Being ftrong on both fides, are eqivocal.

But words are words; I never yet did hear, (10)
'That the bruis'd heart was pieced 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 fubftitute of moft 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.

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

(10) But Words are Words; I never yet did bear,

That the bruis'd Heart was pierced thre' the Ear.] One fu perfluous Letter has for thefe hundred Years quite fubverted the Senfe of this Paffage; and none of the Editors have ever attended to the Reafoning of the Context, by which they might have difcovered the Error. The Duke has by fage Sentences been exhorting Brabantio to Patience, and to forget the Grief of his Daughter's Atollen Marriage, to which Bratantio is made very pertinently to reply, to this effect: "My Lord, I apprehend very well the Wisdom. "of your Advice ; but tho' you would comfort me, Words are but Words; and the Heart, already bruis'd, was never pierc'd; or wounded, thro' the Ear." Well! If we want Arguments for a Senator, let him be educated at the Feet of our fagacious Editors. It is obvious, I believe, to my better Readers, that the Text must be restored, as Mr. Warburton acutely obferved to me.

That the bruis'd Heart was pieced thro' the Ear.

1.

3. e. That the Wounds of Sorrow were ever cur'd, or a Man made heart whole merely by Words of Confolation. 1 ought to take notice, this very Emendation was likewife communicated to me by an ingenious, unknown, Correfpondent, who subscribes himself only L. H.

I find in hardness; 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' affift my fimplenefs.

Duke. What would you, Desdemona?

Def. That I did love the Moor to live with him,
My down-right violence and storm of fortunes
May trumpet to the world. My heart's fubdu'd
Ev'n to the very quality of my
Lord;
I faw Othello's visage 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 rites, for which I love him, are bereft me:

And I a heavy interim fhall support,

By his dear absence.

Let me go with him.

Oth. Your voices, Lords; 'befeech you, let her will Have a free way. I therefore beg it not, (11)

(II)

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 Satisfaction;

To

But to be free and bounteous to ber Mind.] As this has been all along hitherto printed and flopped, it feems to me a Period of as ftubborn Nonfenfe, as the Editors have obtruded upon poor Shake Speare throughout his whole Works. What a preposterous Creature is this Othello made, to fall in Love with, and marry, a fine young

Lady,

To please the palate of my appetite;
Nor to comply with heat, the young affects,
In my diftinet 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 bufinefs fcant,
For fhe is with me.. No, when light-wing'd toys
Of feather'd Cupid foil with wanton dulnefs
My fpeculative and offic'd inftruments,

That my difports corrupt and taint my business;
Let housewives make a skillet of my helm,
And all indign and base adversities
Make head against my eftimation.

Duke. Be it as you fhall privately determine,
Or for her ftay or going; th' affair cries hafte;
And fpeed muft anfwer.

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.

Lady, when Appetite and Heat, and proper Satisfaction are dead and defun&t in him! (For, defunct fignifies nothing elfe, that I know of, either primitively or metaphorically :) But if we may take Othello's own Word in the Affair, when he fpeaks for himself, he was not reduced to this fatal, unperforming State.

on, for I am declin'd

Into the Vale of Years; yet That's not much.

Again, Why fhould our Poet fay, (for fo he fays, as the Paffage has been pointed;) that the young affect Heat? Youth, certainly, bas it, and has no Occafion or Pretence of affecting it, whatever. fuperanuated Lovers may have. And, again, after defunct, would he add fo abfurd a collateral Epithet as proper? But, I think, I may venture to affirm, that affects was not defigned here as a Verb, and that defunct was not defigned here at all. I have, by a flight Change, zefcued the Poet's Text from Abfurdity; and this I take to be the Tenour of what he would fay; "I do not beg her Company with me, merely to pleafe myself; nor to indulge the Heat and Affies i. e. Affections of a new-married Man, in my own diftinct and. proper Satisfaction; but to comply with her in her Request, and Defire of accompanying me." Affects, for Affections, our Author in feveral other Paffages ufes..

Othello