Enter an Officer with a Sailor. Off. A messenger from the galleys. Now; the business? Duke. How say you by this change? 1 Sen. This cannot be, 1 By no assay of reason; 'tis a pageant, The importancy of Cyprus to the Turk ; That, as it more concerns the Turk than Rhodes, 3 That Rhodes is dressed in ;-if we make thought of this, We must not think the Turk is so unskilful, To leave that latest which concerns him first; Neglecting an attempt of ease, and gain, 4 To wake, and wage, a danger profitless.] Duke. Nay, in all confidence, he's not for Rhodes. Off. Here is more news. Enter a Messenger. Mess. The Ottomites, reverend and gracious, Steering with due course towards the isle of Rhodes, Have there injointed them with an after-fleet. 1 Sen. Ay, so I thought.-How many, as you guess? Mess. Of thirty sail; and now do they restem Their backward course, bearing with frank appearance Their purposes toward Cyprus.-Seignior Montano, Your trusty and most valiant servitor, 1 "Bring it to the test, it will be found counterfeit." 2 That he may carry it with less dispute. 3 i. e. in such state of defence. To arm was called to brace on the armor. The seven following lines were added since the first edition in quarto, 1622. 4 To wake is to undertake. To wage law (in the common acceptation) seems to be to follow, to urge, drive on, or prosecute the law or lawsuits. With his free duty recommends you thus, Duke. "Tis certain then for Cyprus.- 1 Sen. He's now in Florence. Duke. Write from us; wish him post-post-haste; despatch. 1 Sen. Here comes Brabantio, and the valiant Moor. Enter BRABANTIO, OTHELLO, IAGO, RODERIGO, ana Officers. Duke. Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you Against the general enemy Ottoman.o I did not see you; welcome, gentle seignior; [TO BRABANTIO. We lacked your counsel and your help to-night. Bra. So did I yours. Good your grace, pardon me; Neither my place, nor aught I heard of business, Hath raised me from my bed; nor doth the general care 3 Take hold on me; for my particular grief Duke. Why, what's the matter? Bra. My daughter! O my daughter! Bra. Dead? Ay, to me; She is abused, stolen from me, and corrupted 1 i. e. "desire him to make all possible haste." The folio reads:"Write from us to him, post, post-haste, dispatch." 2 It was part of the policy of the Venetian state to employ strangers, and even Moors, in their wars. 3 Steevens would read this line thus: "Raised me from bed; nor doth the general care-" omitting Hath and ray, which he considers playhouse interpolations. 4 By the Venetian law the giving love-potions was highly criminal, as appears in the Code "Della Promission del Malefico," cap. xvii. Det Maleficii et Herbarie. Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense,' Duke. Whoe'er he be, that, in this foul proceeding, Hath thus beguiled your daughter of herself, And you of her, the bloody book of law You shall yourself read in the bitter letter, After your own sense; yea, though our proper son Stood in your action. Bra. Humbly I thank your grace. Here is the man, this Moor; whom now, it seems, Your special mandate, for the state affairs, Hath hither brought. Duke and Sen. We are very sorry for it. Duke. What, in your own part, can you say to this? [TO OTHELLO Bra. Nothing, but this is so. Oth. Most potent, grave, and reverend seigniors, Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech, In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience, Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms, What conjuration, and what mighty magic, (For such proceeding I am charged withal,) I won his daughter with. 1 This line is not in the first quarto. 2 "Were the man exposed to your charge or accusation." 3 The main, the whole, unextenuated. 4 The folio reads, "soft phrase of peace." That is, in modern language, their best exertion. 6 The word with, supplied in the second folio, is wanting in the older copies. A maiden never bold; Bra. To fall in love with what she feared to look on! Why this should be. I therefore vouch again He wrought upon her. Duke. Did you by indirect and forced courses I do beseech you, Oth. Duke. Fetch Desdemona hither. Oth. Ancient, conduct them; you best know the place.- [Exeunt IAGO and Attendants. 5 And till she come, as truly as to Heaven 1 Shakspeare, like other writers of his age, frequently uses the personal instead of the neutral pronoun. 2 i. e. weak show of slight appearance. Modern is frequently used for trifling, slight, or trivial, by Shakspeare. 3 The sign of the fictitious creature so called. See Troilus and Cressida, Act v. Sc. 5. 4 This line is wanting in the first quarto. 5 The first quarto reads, as faithful: the next line is omitted in that copy. I do confess the vices of my blood, Duke. Say it, Othello. Oth. Her father loved 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, And portance in my travel's history: Wherein of antres 2 vast, and deserts wild,3 Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven, It was my bint to speak, such was the process; The anthropophagi, and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders. hear, 1 The first quarto reads: These things to "And with it all my travel's history." By "my portance in my travel's history," perhaps, is meant, my carriage or behavior in my travels, as described in my narration of them. Portance is thus used in Coriolanus. 2 i. e. caverns (from antrum, Lat.). 3 The quarto and first folio read, "desarts ille;" the second folio reads, "desarts wilde;" and this reading was adopted by Pope. "Mr. Malone taxes the editor of the second folio with ignorance of Shakspeare's ineaning; and ille is triumphantly reinstated in the text It does not seem to have occurred to the commentators that wild mig. add a feature of some import, even to a desert; whereas idle, i. e. steru, leaves it just as it found it, and is (without a pun) the idlest epithet which could be applied. Mr. Pope, too, had an ear for rhythm; and as his reading has some touch of Shakspeare, which the other has not, and is, besides, better poetry, I should hope that it would one day resume its proper place in the text."-Gifford. Notes on Sejanus. Ben Jonsor's Works. According to the suggestion of Mr. Gifford, the reading of the second folio is here restored. 4 Nothing excited more universal attention than the accounts brough |