Cas. My hopes do shape him for the governor. 2 Gent. They do discharge their shot of courtesy;

Our friends, at least.

Cas.

I

[Guns heard.

pray you, sir, go forth, And give us truth who 'tis that is arrived.

2 Gent. I shall.

[Exit.

Mon. But, good lieutenant, is your general wived? Cas. Most fortunately. He hath achieved a maid That paragons description, and wild fame;

One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens,

And in the essential vesture of creation,

Does bear all excellency.'-How now? who has put in ?

Re-enter second Gentleman.

2 Gent. 'Tis one lago, ancient to the general. Cas. He has had most favorable and happy speed. Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds, The guttered rocks, and congregated sands,

2

Traitors ensteeped to clog the guiltless keel,
As having sense of beauty, do omit

3

Their mortal natures, letting go safely by

The divine Desdem na.

Mon.

What is she?

Cas. She that I spake of, our great captain's captain,

Left in the conduct of the bold Iago;

Whose footing here anticipates our thoughts,

A se'nnight's speed.-Great Jove, Othello guard,
And swell his sail with thine own powerful breath ;
That he may bless this bay with his tall ship,

1 This is the reading of the quartos: the folio has :—

"And in the essential vesture of creation

Do's tyre the Ingeniuer."

If the reading of the folio be adopted, the meaning would be this:-She is one who excels all description; and, in real beauty, or outward form, goes beyond the power of the inventive pencil of the artist.

2 "Traitors ensteeped" are merely traitors concealed under the water. 3 Deadly, destructive.

Make love's quick pants in Desdemona's arms,
Give renewed fire to our extincted spirits,
And bring all Cyprus comfort!-O, behold,

Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, IAGO, RODERIGO, and
Attendants.

The riches of the ship is come on shore!1
Ye men of Cyprus, let her have your knees.—
Hail to thee, lady! and the grace of Heaven,
Before, behind thee, and on every hand,

Enwheel thee round!

Des. I thank you, valiant Cassio. What tidings can you tell me of my lord? Cas. He is not yet arrived; nor know I aught But that he's well, and will be shortly here.

Des. O, but I fear ;-How lost you company? Cas. The great contention of the sea and skies Parted our fellowship. But, hark! a sail.

[Cry within, A sail, a sail! then guns heard. 2 Gent. They give their greeting to the citadel; This likewise is a friend.

Cas.

See for the news.2

[Exit Gentleman.

[TO EMILIA.

Good ancient, you are welccus? ;-welcome, mis

tress.

Let it not gall your patience, good Iago,
That I extend my manners; 'tis my breeding

That gives me this bold show of courtesy.

[Kissing her. Iago. Sir, would she give you so much of her lips As of her tongue she oft bestows on me,

You'd have enough.

Des.

Alas, she has no speech.

Iago. In faith, too much;

I find it still, when I have list to sleep.

Marry, before your ladyship, I grant,

1 Shakspeare uses riches as a singular, in his eighty-seventh sonnet.

2 The first quarto reads, "So speaks this voice.'

She puts her tongue a little in her heart,

And chides with thinking.

Emil.

You have little cause to say so. Iago. Come on, come on; you are pictures out of

doors,

Bells in your parlors, wild-cats in your kitchens,
Saints in your injuries,' devils being offended,
Players in your housewifery, and housewives in your
beds.

Des. O, fie upon thee, slanderer!

Iago. Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk;

You rise to play, and go to bed to work.
Emil. You shall not write my praise.

Iago.

No, let me not.

Des. What wouldst thou write of me, if thou shouldst praise me?

Iago. O gentle lady, do not put me to❜t;

For I am nothing, if not critical.2

Des. Come on, assay;-there's one gone to the harbor?

Iago. Ay, madam.

Des. I am not merry; but I do beguile
The thing I am, by seeming otherwise.-
Come, how wouldst thou praise me?

Iago. I am about it; but, indeed, my invention
Comes from my pate, as birdlime does from frize,
It plucks it out brains and all. But my muse labors,
And thus she is delivered :-

If she be fair and wise,-fairness, and wit,

The one's for use, the other useth it.

Des. Well praised! How if she be black and witty?
Iago. If she be black, and thereto have a wit,

She'll find a white that shall her blackness fit.3

Des. Worse and worse.

Emil. How, if fair and foolish?

Iago. She never yet was foolish that was fair,

For even her folly helped her to an heir.

1 That is, When you have a mind to do injuries, you put on an air of

sanctity.

2 i. e. censorious.

3 The quarto reads hit.

X Des. These are old, fond paradoxes, to make fools laugh i' the alehouse. What miserable praise hast thou for her that's foul and foolish?

Iago. There's none so foul, and foolish thereunto, But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do.

Des. O heavy ignorance!-thou praisest the worst best. But what praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving woman indeed! one, that, in the authority of her merit, did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself? 1

Iago. She that was ever fair, and never proud;
Had tongue at will, and yet was never loud;
Never lacked gold, and yet went never gay;
Fled from her wish, and yet said,—Now I may ;
She that, being angered, her revenge being nigh,
Bade her wrong stay, and her displeasure fly;
She, that in wisdom never was so frail,

2

To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail;
She that could think, and ne'er disclose her mind,
See suitors following, and not look behind;
She was a wight,-if ever such wight were,-
Des. To do what?

Iago. To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer.3 Des. O, most lame and impotent conclusion!-Do not learn of him, Emilia, though he be thy husband.— How say you, Cassio? is he not a most profane and liberal counsellor?

Cas. He speaks home, madam; you may relish him more in the soldier, than in the scholar.

Iago. [Aside.] He takes her by the palm. Ay, well said, whisper; with as little a web as this, will [ ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. Ay, smile upon her, I will gyve thee in thine own courtship. You

do;

5

1 The sense is this-one that was so conscious of her own merit, and of the authority her character had with every one, that she durst call upon malice itself to vouch for her. To put on is to provoke, to incite.

2 That is, to exchange a delicacy for coarser fare. See Queen Elizabeth's Household Book for the forty-third year of her reign:-"Item, the master cookes have to fee all the salmons' tailes," &c. p. 296.

3 i. e. "to suckle children and keep the accounts of the household." 4 Liberal is licentious.

5 To gyve is to fetter, to shackle. The first quarto reads, "I will catch

say true; 'tis so, indeed. If such tricks as these strip you out of your lieutenantry, it had been better you had not kissed your three fingers so oft, which now again you are most apt to play the sir in. Very good; well kissed! an excellent courtesy ! 'tis so, indeed. Yet again your fingers to your lips? 'would they were clyster-pipes for your sake! [Trumpet.] The Moor

I know his trumpet.

Cas. 'Tis truly so.

Des. Let's meet him, and receive him.
Cas. Lo, where he comes!

Enter OTHELLO, and Attendants.

Oth. O my fair warrior!

Des.

My dear Othello!

Oth. It gives me wonder, great as my content,
To see you here before me. O my soul's joy!
If after every tempest come such calms,

May the winds blow till they have wakened death!
And let the laboring bark climb hills of seas,
Olympus-high; and duck again as low

As hell's from heaven! If it were now to die,
'Twere now to be most happy; for, I fear,
My soul hath her content so absolute,

That not another comfort like to this

Succeeds in unknown fate.

Des.

The Heavens forbid

But that our loves and comforts should increase,
Even as our days do grow!

Oth.

Amen to that, sweet powers!

I cannot speak enough of this content;
It stops me here; it is too much of joy.
And this, and this, the greatest discords be,

That e'er our hearts shall make!

Iago.

[Kissing her.

O, you are well tuned now!

you in your own courtsies." Courtship is the same as courtesy, i. e. complimentary or courtly behavior. To play the sir, is to show good breeding and gallantry.