Send for the lady to the Sagittary, And let her speak of me before her father: The trust, the office, I do hold of you, Not only take away, but let your sentence DUKE. Fetch Desdemona hither. OTH. Ancient, conduct them: you best know the place. [Exeunt IAGO and Attendants. And, till she come, as truly as to heaven I do confess the vices of my blood, So justly to your grave ears I 'll present How I did thrive in this fair lady's love, And she in mine. DUKE. Say it, Othello. Отн. Her father lov'd 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 traveller's history, (Wherein of antres vast, and desarts idle, 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. These things to hear Would Desdemona seriously incline : But still the house affairs would draw her thence; She'd come again, and with a greedy ear That I would all my pilgrimage dilate, And often did beguile her of her tears, When I did speak of some distressful stroke She swore,-In faith, 't was strange, 't was passing strange ; 'T was pitiful, 't was wondrous pitiful: She wish'd she had not heard it; yet she wish'd 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 : 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, 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 ; Where most you owe obedience? DES. My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty : To 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;— 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. I here do give thee that with all my heart, To hang clogs on them.—I have done, my lord. DUKE. Let me speak like yourself; and lay a sentence, The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief; 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 Being strong on both sides, are equivocal: That the bruis'd heart was pierced through the ear. 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 more 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. ОтH. The tyrant custom, most grave senators, Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war I find in hardness; and do undertake DUKE. Why; at her father's. DES. Nor I. I would not there reside, DUKE. What would you, Desdemona ? DES. That I did love the Moor to live with him, I saw Othello's visage in his mind; A moth of peace, and he go to the war, By his dear absence: Let me go with him. Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not, When she is with me: No, when light-wing'd toys That my disports corrupt and taint my business, 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. 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; 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 Good night to every one.-And, noble signior, If virtue no delighted beauty lack, Your son-in-law is far more fair than black. [TO BRABANTIO. 1 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. [Exeunt DUKE, Senators, Officers, &c. Отн. My life upon her faith! ROD. Iago. VOL. VI. [Exeunt OTHELLO and DESDEMONA. EE |