ACT I
Sc. III

And portance1 in my travels' history:
Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,

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Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch
Heaven,

It was my hint to speak-such was my process;
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline:

But still the house-affairs would draw her thence;
Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
She'ld come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse: which I observing,
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:

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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

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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.

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:

1 behaviour, carriage.

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Men do their broken weapons rather use

Than their bare hands.

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 obedience?

DES.

I do perceive here a divided duty:

My noble Father,

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To you
My life and education both do learn me

I am bound for life and education;

How to respect you; you are the Lord of duty,

I am hitherto your daughter: but here's my husband;
And so 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.
Please it your Grace, on to the State-affairs:

God be wi' you! I have done.

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 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,
Which, as a grise or step, may help these lovers

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Into your favour.

When remedies are past, the griefs are ended

By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended.1

To mourn a mischief that is past and gone

Is the next way to draw new mischief on.

What cannot be preserv'd when Fortune takes,

Patience her injury a mockery makes.

The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief;

He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.

1 the griefs which depended on hopes, i.e. the anguish of suspense. IX : C

17

ACT I
Sc. III

ACT I
Sc. III

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;1
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

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That the bruis'd heart was pierced through the

ear.

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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 allow'd 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.

Oтн. 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

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.

DUKE.

Be 't at her father's.

BRA.

OTн. Nor I.

DES.

If you please,

I'll not have it so.

Nor I; I would not there reside,
To put my father in impatient thoughts
By being in his eye. Most gracious Duke,
To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear;

1 i.e. Othello easily bears the sentence which gives Desdemona to him.

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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 subdued
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.
OTн. Let her have your voices.

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 my defunct1 and proper satisfaction,

But to be free and bounteous to her mind.

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And Heaven defend your good souls, that you

think

I will your serious and great business scant

For she is with me: no, when light-wing'd toys
Of feather'd Cupid seel2 with wanton dullness
My speculative and offic'd instrument,

ACT I
Sc. III

270

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!

DUKE. Be it as you shall privately determine,

Either for her stay or going: the affair cries haste,

And speed must answer it.

FIRST SEN. You must away to-night.

Отн.

With all my heart.

DUKE. At nine i' the morning here we'll meet again.
Othello, leave some officer behind,

And he shall our commission bring to you;

1 used in the Latin sense of fulfilled-‘in the fulfilment of my private satisfaction.'
i.e. my mind and body-myself.
19

2 blind.

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ACT I
Sc. III

With such things else of quality and respect

As doth import you.

Отн.

So please your Grace, my Ancient;

A man he is of honesty and trust:

To his conveyance I assign my wife,

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

Good night to every one. [to BRABANTIO.] And, noble
Signior,

If virtue no delighted' beauty lack,

Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.

FIRST SEN. Adieu, brave Moor; use Desdemona well.

BRA. Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:

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

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[Exeunt DUKE, Senators, Officers, etc.

OTH. 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 matters and direction,

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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

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then have we a prescription to die when Death is our physician. IAGO. O villainous! I have look'd 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.

1 rich in delights. Cf. 'talented.'