Subdue and poison this young maid's affections? Oth. I do beseech you, Send for the lady to the sagittary,' And let her speak of me before her father: 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, Duke. Say it, Othello. Oth. Her father lov'd me; oft invited me; I ran it through, even from my boyish days, Of hair-breadth scapes i'the imminent deadly breach; 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 hear, Would Desdemona seriously incline: These things to But still the house affairs would draw her thence; 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, 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. 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, 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, my husband; Bra. I here do give thee that with all my heart, Duke. Let me speak like yourself3; and lay a sentence, When remedies are past, the griefs are ended, Is the next way to draw new mischief on. The robb'd, that smiles, steals something from the thief; 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 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, I find in hardness; and do undertake 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, 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. |