Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,
And, though he in a fertile climate dwell,

Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,
Yet throw such changes of vexation on't,
As it may lose some colour.

Rod. Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud.
Iago. Do; with like timorous accent, and dire yell,
As when, by 14 night and negligence, the fire
Is spied in populous cities.

Rod. Whatho! Brabantio! signior Brabantio, ho! Iago. Awake! what ho! Brabantio! thieves! thieves! thieves!

Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags! Thieves! thieves!

BRABANTIO, above, at a Window.

Bra. What is the reason of this terrible summons? What is the matter there?

Rod. Signior, is all your family within?

Iago. Are your doors lock'd?

Bra.

Why? wherefore ask you this?

Iago. 'Zounds, sir, you are robb'd; for shame,

put on your gown:

Your heart is burst 15 , you have lost half your soul;
Even now, very now, an old black ram

Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise;
Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:
Arise, I say.

Bra.

What, have you lost your wits? Rod. Most reverend signior, do you know my

voice?

14 By night and negligence' means 'in the time of night and negligence.' Nothing is more common than this mode of expression: we should not hesitate at the expression, By night and day.'

15 i. e. is broken. See vol. iii. p. 342.

Bra. Not I; What are you?
Rod. My name is-Roderigo.

Bra.

The worse welcome:

I have charg'd thee, not to haunt about my doors:
In honest plainness thou hast heard me say,
My daughter is not for thee; and now, in madness,
Being full of supper, and distempering 16 draughts,
Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come

To start my quiet.

Rod. Sir, sir, sir, sir,

Bra.

But thou must needs be sure,

My spirit, and my place, have in them power

To make this bitter to thee.

Rod.

Patience, good sir.

Bra. What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is

Venice;

My house is not a grange 17.

Rod.

Most grave Brabantio, In simple and pure soul I come to you. Iago. 'Zounds, sir, you are one of those, that will not serve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to do you service, you think we are ruffians: You'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse; you'll have your nephews 18 neigh to you: you'll have coursers for cousins, and gennets for germans 19.

16 That is 'intoxicating draughts.' In Hamlet the king is said to be marvellous distemper'd with wine.' See King Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 2, p. 424.

17 That is, we are in a populous city, mine is not a lone house, where a robbery might easily be committed. Grange is, strictly, the farm of a monastery; grangia, Lat. from granum: but, provincially, any lone house or solitary farm is called a grange. So in Measure for Measure:- At the moated grange resides this dejected Mariana.'

18. Nephews here mean grandchildren. See King Henry VI. Part I. p. 41; and King Richard III. p. 84.

19 i. e. horses for relations. A gennet is a Spanish or Barbary horse.

Bra. What profane 20 wretch art thou?

Iago. I am one, sir, that comes to tell you, your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs 21.

Bra. Thou art a villain.

Iago.

You are a senator.

Bra. This thou shalt answer: I know thee, Ro

derigo.

Rod. Sir, I will answer any thing. But I be-
seech you,

[If't be your pleasure, and most wise consent,
(As partly, I find, it is), that your fair daughter,
At this odd-even 22 and dull watch o'the night,
Transported with no worse nor better guard,
But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,-
To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor,-
If this be known to you, and your allowance 23,
We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;
But if you know not this, my manners tell me,
We have
your wrong rebuke. Do not believe,
That, from 24 the sense of all civility,

I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:
Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,——

20 A profane wretch is an unlucky or a wicked one. See vol. v. p. 384, note 4.

21 Faire la bête à deux dos is a French proverbial expression, which needs no explanation. See the notes to any edition of Rabelais, or Le Roux's Dictionnaire Comique.

22 This odd-even appears to mean the interval between twelve at night and one in the morning. So in Macbeth::

What is the night?

Lady M. Almost at odds with morning, which is which.'

23 i. e. your approbation.

24 That is, in opposition to or departing from the sense of all civility. So in Twelfth Night :

'But this is from my commission.'

And in The Mayor of Queenborough, by Middleton, 1661 :— But this is from my business.'

I say again, hath made a gross revolt;

Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes,
In an extravagant 25 and wheeling stranger,

Of here and every where: Straight satisfy yourself:] If she be in her chamber, or your house,

Let loose on me the justice of the state

For thus deluding you.

Bra.
Give me a taper;-call up all my people:-
This accident is not unlike my dream,

Strike on the tinder, ho!

Belief of it oppresses me already:-
Light, I say! light!

Iago.

[Exit, from above. Farewell; for I must leave you: It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place, To be produc'd (as, if I stay, I shall),

Against the Moor: For, I do know, the state, However this may gall him with some check 26, Cannot with safety cast 27 him; for he's embark'd With such loud reason to the Cyprus' wars

(Which even now stand in act), that, for their souls, Another of his fathom they have not,

To lead their business: in which regard,
Though I do hate him as I do hell pains,
Yet, for necessity of present life,

I must show out a flag and sign of love,
Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely
find him,

Lead to the Sagittary the rais'd search;

And there will I be with him. So, farewell. [Exit.

25 Extravagant is here again used in its Latin sense, for wandering. Thus in Hamlet: The extravagant and erring spirit.' Sir Henry Wooton thus uses it: These two accidents, precisely true, and known to few, I have reported as not altogether extravagant from my purpose.' Parallel, &c. between Buckingham and Essex.-In is here used for on, a common substitution in ancient phraseology. Pope and others, not aware of this, altered it, and read, To an extravagant,' &c.

26

i. e. some rebuke. 27 That is, dismiss him, reject him.

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 28, 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 29, By which the property of youth and maidhood May be abus'd 30? Have you not read, Roderigo, Of some such thing?

Rod.

Yes, sir; I have indeed. Bra. Call up my brother.-0, that you had had

her!

Some one way, some another.-Do you know
Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?

28 Despised time is time of no value: time in which
There's nothing serious in mortality;

The wine of life is drawn, and the mere dregs
Are left this vault to brag of.'

So in Romeo and Juliet:

Of a despised life clos'd in my breast.'

29 Is there not charms,' &c. mean Is there not such a thing as charms? The second folio reads, ́Are there not,' &c.

30 i. e. may be illuded or deceived.