In honest plainness thou hast heard me say,

My daughter is not for thee; and now, in madness, Being full of supper, and distempering draughts, Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come

To start my quiet.

Rod. Sir, sir, sir, sir,—————

Bra.

My spirit, and my place, have in them power

But thou must needs be sure,

Patience, good sir.

To make this bitter to thee.

Rod.

Bra. What tell'st thou me of robbing? This is

Venice;

My house is not a grange.1

Rod.

Most grave Brabantio, In simple and pure soul I come to you.

Iago. 'Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will not serve God if the devil bid you. Because we come to do you service, you think we are ruffians. You'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse; you'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have coursers for cousins, and genets for germans.3

Bra. What profane wretch art thou?

Jago. I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.

Bra. Thou art a villain.

Iago.

You are a senator.

know thee, Ro

Bra. This thou shalt answer. I

derigo.

Rod. Sir, I will answer any thing. But I beseech

you,

[If't be your pleasure, and most wise consent,
(As partly, I find, it is,) that your fair daughter
At this odd-even and dull watch o' the night,
Transported-with no worse nor better guard,

1 Grange is, strictly, the farm of a monastery; but, provincially, any lone house or solitary farm is called a grange.

2 Nephews here mean grandchildren.

3 i. e. horses for relations. A genet is a Spanish or Barbary horse. 4 This odd-even appears to mean the interval between twelve at night and one in the morning.

But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier-
To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor,-
If this be known to you, and your allowance,'
We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;
But if you know not this, my manners tell me,
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe,
That, from the sense of all civility,

I thus would play and trifle with your reverence. Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,— I say again, hath made a gross revolt;

Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes,

3

In an extravagant and wheeling stranger,

Of here and every where. Straight satisfy yourself;] If she be in her chamber, or your house,

Let loose on me the justice of the state

For thus deluding you.

Bra.

Strike on the tinder, ho!

Give me a taper ;-call up all my people.

This accident is not unlike my dream;

Belief of it oppresses me already.

Light, I say! light!

[Exit, from above.

Iago.
Farewell; for I must leave you.
It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place,
To be produced (as, if I stay, I shall)

Against the Moor. For, I do know, the state-
However this may gall him with some check-
Cannot with safety cast him! for he's embarked
With such loud reason to the Cyprus' wars,
(Which even now stand in act,) that, for their souls,
Another of his fathom they have not,

To lead their business; in which regard,
Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains,
Yet, for necessity of present life,

I must show out a flag and sign of love,

1 i. e. done with your approbation.

2 That is, in opposition to or departing from the sense of all civility. 3 Extravagant is here again used in its Latin sense, for wandering. In

is here used for on; a common substitution in ancient phraseology. 4 i. e. some rebuke.

5 That is, dismiss him.

him,

Which is, indeed, but sign. That

Lead to the Sagittary the raised search;

That you

shall surely find

And there will I be with him. So, farewell.

[Exit.

Enter, below, BRABANTIO, and Servants with torches.

Bra. It is too true an evil; gone she is ; And what's to come of my despised time,' Is nought but bitterness.-Now, Roderigo, Where didst thou see her ?-O, unhappy girl!— With the Moor, say'st thou ?-Who would be a father?

How didst thou know 'twas she? O, thou deceiv'st me Past thought!-What said she to you?-Get more

tapers;

Raise all my kindred.-Are they married, think you? Rod. Truly, I think they are.

Bra. O Heaven!-How got she out!-O treason of the blood!

2

Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds
By what you see them act.-Is there not charms,
By which the property of youth and maidhood
May be abused? Have you not read, Roderigo,
Of some such thing?

Rod.

Yes, sir; I have, indeed. Bra. Call up my brother.-O that you had had her!Some one way, some another.-Do you know Where we may apprehend her and the Moor? Rod. I think I can discover him; if

you please To get good guard, and go along with me.

Bra. 'Pray you, lead on. At every house I'll call;

I may command at most.-Get weapons, ho!

And raise some special officers of night.

On, good Roderigo;-I'll deserve your pains. [Exeunt.

1 Despised time is time of no value. So in Romeo and Juliet:

expire the term

Of a despised life closed in my breast."

2 The second folio reads, "Are there not," &c.

3 i. e. may be illuded or deceived

SCENE II. The same.

Another Street.

Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Attendants.

Iago. Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
Yet do I hold it very stuff' o' the conscience,
To do no contrived murder; I lack iniquity
Sometimes, to do me service. Nine or ten times.
I had thought to have yerked him here under the ribs.
Oth. 'Tis better as it is.

Iago.
Nay, but he prated,
And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
Against your honor,

That, with the little godliness I have,

4

I did full hard forbear him. But, I pray, sir,
Are you fast married? for, be sure of this,-
That the magnifico is much beloved ;
And hath, in his effect, a voice potential
As double as the duke's. He will divorce you;
Or put upon you what restraint and grievance
The law (with all his might, to enforce it on)
Will give him cable.

2

Oth. Let him do his spite; My services, which I have done the seigniory, Shall out-tongue his complaints. "Tis yet to know, (Which, when I know that boasting is an honor, I shall promulgate,) I fetch my life and being From men of royal siege; and my demerits 6

5

1 Stuff of the conscience is substance or essence of the conscience. Shakspeare uses the word in the same sense, and in a manner yet more harsh, in Macbeth :--

"Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff.”

2 "Of whom is this said?-Of Roderigo, or Brabantio?”

3 The chief men of Venice are, by a peculiar name, called magnifici,

i. e. magnificoes.

4 i. e. as powerful: as double means as strong, as forcible, as double in effect, as that of the doge.

5 "Men who have sat upon royal thrones.”

6 Demerits has the same meaning in Shakspeare as merits.

May speak, unbonneted,' to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reached. For know, lago,
But that I love the gentle Desdemona,

I would not my unhoused, free condition
Put into circumscription and confine
For the sea's worth.

yonder?

But, look! what lights come

Enter CASSIO, at a distance, and certain Officers with

torches.

Jago. These are the raised father, and his friends. You were best go in.

Oth.

Not I; I must be found;

My parts, my title, and my perfect soul,

Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?

Iago. By Janus, I think no.

Oth. The servants of the duke, and my lieutenant. The goodness of the night upon you, friends!

What is the news?

Cas.

And he requires your haste, post-haste appearance,

Even on the instant.

Oth.

The duke does greet you, general;

What is the matter, think you?

Cas. Something from Cyprus, as I may divine;

It is a business of some heat. The galleys
Have sent a dozen sequent messengers
This very night at one another's heels;

And many of the consuls, raised, and met,

Are at the duke's already. You have been hotly called for;

When, being not at your lodging to be found,

1 "I am his equal or superior in rank; and were it not so, such are my merits, that, unbonneted, without the addition of patrician or senatorial dignity, they may speak to as proud a fortune," &c.

2 i. e. unsettled, free from domestic cares.

3 Pliny, the naturalist, has a chapter on the riches of the sea. The expression seems to have been proverbial.

+ These words were ordinarily written on the covers of letters or packets requiring the most prompt and speedy conveyance; often reduplicated thus:-" Haste, haste, haste, post-haste!"

5 See note 4, p. 400.