Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms, What conjuration, and what mighty magick, Bra. Why this should be. I therefore vouch again, Duke. Did you by indirect and forced courses Subdue and poison this young maid's affections? Oth. The trust, the office, I do hold of you, 5 7 - overt test,] Open proofs, external evidence. 6 Of modern seeming,] Weak show of slight appearance. the Sagittary,] The Sagittary means the sign of the fictitious creature so called, i. e. an animal compounded of man and horse, and armed with a bow and quiver. Not only take away, but let your sentence upon my life. Even fall 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, Duke. Say it, Othello. Oth. Her father lov'd me; oft invited me; From year to year; the battles, sieges, fortunes, 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, 8 Wherein of antres9 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, 9 And portance] and behaviour. Do antres-] Caves and dens. men whose heads grow beneath their shoulders,] Of these men there is an account in the interpolated travels of Mandeville, a book of that VOL. X. A A Would Desdemona seriously incline: But still the house affairs would draw her thence; 'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful: She wish'd, she had not heard it; yet she wish'd That heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me; And bade me, if I had a friend that lov'd her, Enter DESDEMONA, IAGO, and Attendants. Duke. I think, this tale would win my daughter too. Good Brabantio, time. Raleigh also has given an account of men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders, in his Description of Guiana, published in 1596, a book that without doubt Shakspeare had read. 1 But not intentively:] i. e. with attention to all its parts. Take up this mangled matter at the best: 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; Do you perceive in all this noble company, Where most you owe obedience? Des. I do perceive here a divided duty: My noble father, To you, I am bound for life, and education; How to respect you; you are the lord of duty, Bra. God be with you!—I have done:- I here do give thee that with all my heart, For thy escape would teach me tyranny, To hang clogs on them.-I have done, my lord. Duke. Let me speak like yourself;3 and lay a sentence, Which, as a grise, or step, may help these lovers Into your favour. 3 Let me speak like yourself;] i. e. let me speak as yourself would speak, were you not too much heated with passion. as a grise,] Grize from degrees. A grize is a step. When remedies are past, the griefs are ended, The robb'd, that smiles, steals something from the thief; He robs himself, that spends a bootless grief. He bears the sentence well, that nothing bears Being strong on both sides, are equivocal: But words are words; I never yet did hear, That the bruis'd heart was pierced through the ear." I humbly beseech you, proceed to the affairs of state. 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 sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer voice on you: you must therefore be content to slubber the gloss of your new fortunes' 5 But the free comfort which from thence he hears:] But the moral precepts of consolation, which are liberally bestowed on occasion of the sentence. JOHNSON. • But words are words; I never yet did hear That the bruis'd heart was pierced through the ear.] These moral precepts, says Brabantio, may perhaps be founded in wisdom, but they are of no avail. Words after all are but words; and I never yet heard that consolatory speeches could reach and penetrate the afflicted heart, through the medium of the ear. 7 -- to slubber the gloss of your new fortunes-] To slubber, on this occasion, is to obscure. |