SC. I.]

Which is, indeed, but sign. That you
him,

OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF VENICE.

405

shall surely find

Lead to the Sagittary the raised search;
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!-

Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds
By what you see them act.-Is there not charms,2
By which the property of youth and maidhood
May be abused? Have you not read, Roderigo,
Of some such thing?

3

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.

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

3 i. e. may be illuded or deceived

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

66

expire the term

Of a despised life closed in my breast."

Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Attendants.

Iago. Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
Yet do I hold it very stuff1 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,2
And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
Against your honor,

That, with the little godliness I have,
I did full hard forbear him. But, I pray, sir,
Are you fast married? for, be sure of this,--
That the magnifico3 is much beloved;
And hath, in his effect, a voice potential 4
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.

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; 5 and my demerits

6

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.

Another Street.

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.

[ACT I

SC II]

OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF VENICE.

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

2

I would not my unhoused, free condition

Put into circumscription and confine

For the sea's worth. But, look! what lights come
yonder?

3

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.

The duke does greet you, general;
And he requires your haste, post-haste appearance,
Even on the instant.

Oth.

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

5

for ;
When, being not at your lodging to be found,

407

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. pression seems to have been proverbial.

The ex

4 These words were ordinarily written on the covers of letters or
packets requiring the most prompt and speedy conveyance; often re-
duplicated thus:" Haste, haste, haste, post-haste!”
5 See note 4, p. 400.

108

OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF VENICE.

The senate hath sent about three several quests,1
To search you out.
Oth.
I will but spend a word here in the house,
And go with you.

'Tis well I am found by you.

Cas.

Ancient, what makes he here?

Iago. 'Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land
2
carrack ;

If it prove lawful prize, he's made forever.
Cas. I do not understand.

He's married.

Iago.

Cas.

[ACT 1

[Exit

To who?

Re-enter OTHELLO.

Iago. Marry, to-come, captain, will you go?
Oth.
Have with you.
Cas. Here comes another troop to seek for you.

Enter BRABANTIO, RODERIGO, and Officers of night,
with torches and weapons.

Oth.

Rod. Seignior, it is the Moor.
Bra.

Hola! stand there!

Iago. It is Brabantio.-General, be advised; 3
He comes to bad intent.

Down with him, thief!
[They draw on both sides.
Iago. You, Roderigo! come, sir, I am for you.
Oth. Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will
rust them.-

Good seignior, you shall more command with years,
Than with your weapons.

Bra. O thou foul thief, where hast thou stowed my
daughter?

Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her;

1 Quests are here put for messengers; properly it signified searchers.
2 A carrack, or carrick, was a ship of great burden, a Spanish galleon;
so named from carico, a lading, or freight.

3 i. e. be cautious, be discreet.

SC. II.]

OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF VENICE.

1

3

For I'll refer me to all things of sense,
If she in chains of magic were not bound,
Whether a maid-so tender, fair, and happy;
So opposite to marriage, that she shunned
The wealthy, curled darlings of our nation-
Would ever have, to incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou; to fear, not to delight.*
[Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense,
That thou hast practised on her with foul charms;
Abused her delicate youth with drugs, or minerals,
That waken motion. -I'll have it disputed on;
'Tis probable, and palpable to thinking.
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee,]
For an abuser of the world, a practiser
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant.
Lay hold upon him; if he do resist,
Subdue him at his peril.

4

Oth.
Hold your hands,
Both you of my inclining, and the rest.
Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it
Without a prompter.Where will you that I go,
To answer this your charge?

Oth.

What if I do obey?
How may the duke be therewith satisfied
Whose messengers are here about my side,
Upon some present business of the state,
To bring me to him?

Off

Bra.
To prison; till fit time
Of law, and course of direct session,
Call thee to answer.

66

1 It was the fashion of the Poet's time for lusty gallants to wear a curled bush of frizzled hair." See Hall's Satires, ed. 1824, book iii. sat. 5.

2 "Of such a thing as thou; a thing to fear (i. e. terrify), not to delight."

3 The lines in crotchets are not in the first edition, 4to. 1622.

4 The old copy reads, "That weaken motion." The emendation is Hanmer's. Motion is elsewhere used by our Poet precisely in the sense required here. To waken is to incite, to stir up.

52

VOL. VII.

'Tis true, most worthy seignior,

409