Against all rules of nature; and must be driven
To find out practices of cunning hell,

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

Duke. To vouch this, is no proof,

Without more certain and more overt teft,
Than these thin habits and poor

likelihoods

Of modern feeming do prefer against him.
I Sen. But, Othello, fpeak;

Did you by indirect and forced courfes

Subdue and poison this young maid's affections?
Or came it by requeft, and fuch fair question
As foul to foul affordeth?

Oth. 1 befeech you,

Send for the lady to the Sagittary,

And let her fpeak of me before her father,
If you do find me foul in her report,
The truft, the office, I do hold of you,
Not only take away, but let your sentence,
Even fall upon my life.

Duke Fetch Desdemona hither. [Exeunt two or three. Qth. Ancient, conduct them, you best know the place. [Exit Lago.

And till fhe come, as truly as to heav'n
I do confefs the vices of my blood,
So justly to your grave ears I'll prefent
How I did thrive in this fair lady's love,
And fhe 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, fieges, fortunes,
That I have past.

I ran it through, e'en from my boyish days,
To th' very moment that he bade me tell it.
Wherein I fpoke of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field;

Of hair-breadth 'fcapes in th' imminent deadly breach;
On being taken by the infolent foe,

And fold to flavery; of my redemption thence,.

And with it all my travel's history :

Wherein of antres vaft, and defarts idle *,

Rough quarries, rocks, and hills, whofe heads touch

heav'n,

It was my hent to speak †. All these to hear
Would Defdemona feriously incline.

But ftill the houfe-affairs would draw her thence,
Which ever as she could with haste 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 prayer of earnest heart,
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate;
Whereof by parcels the had fomething heard,
But not distinctively. I did confent,
And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did fpeak of fome diftressful stroke
That my youth fuffer'd. My story being done,
She
gave me for my pains a world of fighs.

She fwore, in faith, 'twas ftrange, 'twas paffing ftrange,
"Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful..
She wifh'd fhe had not heard it ;
That heav'n had made her fuch a man:

--yet the wish'd

-fhe thank'd

And bade me, if I had a friend that lov'd her,
1 fhould but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would wooe her. On this hint I spake;
She lov'd me for the dangers I had past ;
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.

SCENE

IX.

Enter Desdemona, lago, and attendants.

[me,

Duke. I think this tale would win my daughter tooGood Brabantio,

idle, for barren.

It was my hent to fpeak. Such was the process;

And of the Canibals that each other eat,

The Anthropophagi; and men whose heads

Do grow beneath their fhoulders. All thefe to hear
Would Defdemona,

.

Take up this mangled matter at the best.
Men do their broken weapons rather ufe,
Than their bare hands.

Bra. I pray you hear her speak.

If the confefs that fhe 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
muft 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 refpect you. You're the lord of duty;

I'm hitherto your daughter. But here's My husband:

And fo much duty as my mother fhew'

To you, preferring you before her father;
So much I challenge, that I profefs

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 ourself; and lay a fentence, Which, as a grife, or step, may help these lovers Into your favour.

When remedies are paft, the griefs are ended

By feeing 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 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 spends a bootlefs grief.

Bra. So, let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile,

We lose it not, fo long as we can smile.

He bears the fentence well, that nothings 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.
Thefe fentences to fugar, or to gall,

Being frong on both fides, are equivocal.
But words are words; I never yet did hear,
That the bruis'd heart was pieced through the ear.
Befeech you, now to the affairs o' th' ftate.

Duke. The Turk, with a molt mighty preparation, makes for Cyprus, Othello, the fortitude of the place is best known to you. And though we have there a fubftitute of most allowed fufficiency; yet opinion, a fove. reign 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 stubborn and boisterous expedition,

Oth. The tyrant custom, most grave fenators,
Hath made the flinty and fleel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down. I do agnife
A natural and prompt alacrity

I find in hardnefs; 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. Molt gracious Duke,
To my unfolding lend your gracious ear,
And let me find a charter in your voice
T'affift my fimpleness.

Duke. What would you, Desdemona?

Def. That I did love the Moor to live with him,
My downright violence and ftorm of fortunes
May trumpet to the world. My heart's fubdu'd
Ev'n to the very quality of my Lord.

1 faw Othello's vifage 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 1 go to the war,
The rights for which I love him, are bereft me ;
And I a heavy interim fhall fupport

By his dear abfence. Let me go with him.

Oth. Your voices, Lords; befcech you, let her will
Have a free way. I therefore beg it not,
To pleafe the palate of my appetite;
Nor to comply with heat, the young effects
In my defunct and proper fatisfaction *
But to be free and bountecus to her mind.
And heav'n defend your good fouls, that you think,
I will your ferious and great business fcant,
For fhe is with me.No, when light-wing'd toys
Of feather'd Cupid foil with wanton dulness
My fpeculative and offic'd inftruments,

That my difports corrupt and taint my bufinefs;
Let housewives make a skillet of my helm,
And all indign and base adversities

Make head against my estimation.

Duke. Be it as you fhall privately determine, Or for her stay or going; the affair cries haste; And speed 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.

Othello, leave fome officer behind,

And he shall our commiffion bring to you;

And fuch things elfe of quality and refpect

As doth import you.

Oth. Pleafe your Grace, my Ancient;

(A man he is of honefty and truth),

To his conveyance I affign my wife,

With what else needful your good Grace shall think
To be fent after me.

Duke. Let it be so;

• i. e. with that heat and new affections which the indulgence of my appetite has raised and created,