Enter a Messenger.

Mes. The Ottomites, reverend and gracious, Steering with due course toward the isle of Rhodes, Have there injointed them with an after fleet.

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1 Sen. Ay, so I thought :-How many, as you

guess?

Mes. Of thirty sail: and now they do re-stem

Their backward course, bearing with frank appear

ance

Their purposes toward Cyprus. Signior Montano, Your trusty and most valiant servitor,

Duke. Write from us; wish him, post, post-haste:

dispatch.

1 Sen. Here comes Brabantio, and the valiant

Moor.

Enter BRABANT10, OTHELLO, IAGO, RODERIGO,

and Officers.

Duke. Valiant Othello, we must straight employ

you

Against the general enemy Ottoman.

I did not see you; welcome gentle signior;

[To BRAB.

Bra.

We lack'd 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 rais'd me from my bed; nor doth the general

care

Take hold on me; for my particular grief
Is of so flood-gate and o'er-bearing nature,
That it engluts and swallows other sorrows,
And yet is still itself.

Duke. Why, what's the matter?
Bra. My daughter! O, my daughter!

Sen. Dead?

Bra. Ay, to me;

She is abus'd, stol'n from me, and corrupted
By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks:

For nature so preposterously to err,

Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense,

Sans witchcraft could not

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381

Duke. Whoe'er he be, that, in this foul proceeding,

Hath thus beguil'd 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.

390

Here is the man, this Moor; whom now, it seems,

Your special mandate, for the state affairs,

Hath hither brought.

All. We are very sorry for it.

Duke. What, in your own part, can you say to this?

[To OTHELLO.

Bra.

Bra. Nothing, but this is so.

Oth. Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors, My very noble and approv'd good masters, That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter, It is most true; true, I have married her; The very head and front of my offending Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech, And little bless'd with the set phrase of peace ;

400

For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith, 'Till now, some nine moons wasted, they have us'd Their dearest action in the tented field;

And little of this great world can I speak,
More than pertains to feats of broil and battle;
And therefore little shall I grace my cause,

In speaking for myself: Yet, by your gracious pa

tience,

I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver

410

Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what

charms,

What conjuration, and what mighty magic (For such proceeding I am charg'd withal), I won his daughter with.

Bra. A maiden never bold;

1

Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion
Blush'd at herself; And she, in spite of nature,
Of years, of country, credit, every thing,
To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on? 420
It is a judgment maim'd, and most imperfect,
That will confess-perfection so could err
Against all rules of nature; and must be driven

To

To find out practices of cunning hell,
Why this should be. I therefore vouch again,
That with some mixtures powerful o'er the blood,

Or with some dram conjur'd to this effect,

He wrought upon her.

Duke. To vouch this, is no proof;

* Without more certain and more overt test,
Than these thin habits, and poor likelihoods,
Of modern seeming, do prefer against him.
1 Sen. But, Othello, speak ;-
Did you, by indirect and forced courses,
Subdue and poison this young maid's affections?
Or came it by request, and such fair question
As soul to soul affordeth?

Oth. I do beseech you,

430

Send for the lady to the Sagittary,

And let her speak of me before her father:

440

If you do find me foul in her report,

The trust, the office, I do hold of you,

Not only take away, but let your sentence

Even fall upon my life.

Duke. Fetch Desdemona hither.

[Exeunt Two or Three.

Oth Ancient, conduct them; you best know the place :[Exit IAGO. 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 did I thrive in this fair lady's love, And she in mine.

450

Duke.

Duke. Say it, Othello.

Oth. Her father lov'd me; oft invited me;

Still question'd me the story of my life,

From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,

That I have pass'd :

I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
To the very moment that he bade me tell it.

Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents, by flood, and field;
Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach;

460

Of being taken by the insolent foe,

And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence,

And portance in my travel'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 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 dispatch,
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,

C

47

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