And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence,

1

And portance 1 in my travels' history:

Wherein of antres 2 vast, and deserts idle,

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

It was my hint to speak, such was the process;
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,

The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads

Do grow beneath their shoulders. These things to hear,

Would Desdemona seriously incline;

But still the house affairs would draw her thence;
Which ever as she could with haste despatch,
She'd 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: 3 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:
She swore,-In faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing
strange;

'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful;

• For attentively, i. e. with attention to all its parta.

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 loved her,

I should but teach him how to tell my story,

And that would woo her. Upon this hint, I spake:
She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd,

And I loved her that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have used:
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
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.

My noble father,

I do perceive here a divided duty:
Το you I am bound for life and education;
My life and education both do learn me

How to respect you: you are the lord of duty;

I am hitherto your daughter: but here's my hus

band;

And so much duty as my mother show'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 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 sen-
tence,

Which, as a grise,1 or step, may help these lovers
Into your favor.

When remedies are past the griefs are ended,

By seeing 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 preserved 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.

Bra. So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile; We lose it not so long as we can smile.

1 Degree.

He bears the sentence well, that nothing bears

But the free comfort which from thence he

hears;

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,

That the bruised 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 sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer voice on you: you must therefore be content to slubber 1 the gloss of your new fortunes with this more stubborn and boisterous expedition.

Oth. The tyrant custom, most grave senators,
Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down. I do agnize2
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 ;

1 Obscure.

2 Acknowlege.

Due reference of place and exhibition;
With such accommodation and besort,
As levels with her breeding.

Duke.

Be 't at her father's.

Bra.

Oth. 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 a gracious ear;
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 3 of my lord.
I saw Othello's visage in his mind;
And to his honors, 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.

Oth. Your voices, lords: 'beseech you, let her

will

'Pecuniary allowance.

2 Attendance.

Quality here means profession, i. e. the life of a soldier.