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As when by night and negligence, the fire

Is spied in populous cities.

Rod. What ho! 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's 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,' 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? 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 draughts,'
Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come

To start my quiet.

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Rod. Sir, sir, sir, sir,

Bra.

But thou must needs be sure,

by night and negligence,] Not that the fire was spied by negligence, but the fire, which came by night and negligence.-EDWARDS.

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burst,] i. e. Broken.

distempering draughts,] To be distempered with liquor, was, in Shakspeare's age, the phrase for intoxication.-STEEVENS.

My spirit and my place, have in them power
To make this bitter to thee.

Rod.

Patience, good sir.

Bra. Why tell'st thou me of robbing? this is Venice; My house is not a grange.1

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" neigh to you: you'll have coursers for cousins, and gennets for germans.

Bra. What profane" 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.

Bra. Thou art a villain.

Iago.

You are a senator.

Bra. This thou shalt answer; I know thee, Roderigo. Rod. Sir, I will answer any thing. But, I beseech you, If't be your pleasure, and most wise consent,

(As partly, I find it is,) that your fair daughter,
At this odd-even 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 clasp of a lascivious Moor,-
If this be known to you, and your allowance,

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My house is not a grange.] That is, "you are in a populous city, not in a lone house, where a robbery might easily be committed." Grange is strictly and properly the farm of a monastery, where the religious reposited their corn. Grangia, Lat. from granum. But in Lincolnshire, and in other northern counties, they call every lone house, or farm which stands solitary, a grange.— T. WARTON. nephews-] Nephew, in this instance, has the power of the Latin word nepos, and signifies a grandson, or any lineal descendant however remote.STEEVENS.

--

gennets-] i. e. Spanish horses.-STEEVENS.

profane-] i. e. Using gross and licentious language.-JOHNSON.

* At this odd-even-o'the night,] By this singular expression our poet appears to have meant, that it was just approaching to, or just past, that it was doubtful whether at that moment it stood at the point of midnight, or at some other less equal division of the twenty-four hours; which a few minutes either before or after midnight would be.-MALONE.

— and your allowance,] i. e. Done with your approbation.--MALONE.

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 the sense of all civility,

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I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:
Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,
I say again, hath made a gross revolt;
Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes,
In an extravagant 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.

Strike on the tinder, ho!

Give me a taper :-call up all my people :—

This accident is not unlike my dream:

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,d
Cannot with safety cast 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.

- from the sense of all civility,] That is, in opposition to, or departing from,

the sense of all civility.-MALONE.

extravagant-] For wandering; used in its Latin signification.
check,] i. e. Rebuke.

C

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cast him;] 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,

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.-Are there not charms,
By which the property of youth and maidhood
May be abus'd? Have you not read, Roderigo,
Of some such thing?

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.

SCENE 11.

The same. Another Street.

Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Attendants.

[Exeunt.

Iago. Though in the trade of war I have slain men, Yet do I hold it very stuff o'the conscience,"

! — abused?] i.e. Infatuated, and made subject to illusions and false imaginations.-JOHNSON.

stuff o'the conscience,] This expression to common readers appears harsh. Stuff of the conscience is, substance or essence of the conscience. Stuff is a word of great force in the Tentonick languages. The elements are called in Dutch, hoefd stoffen, or head stuffs.-JOHNSON.

To do no contriv'd murder; I lack iniquity
Sometimes, to do me service: Nine or ten times

I had thought to have yerk'd him here under the ribs.
Oth. "Tis better as it is.

Iago.

Nay, but he prated,

And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
Against your honour,

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 magnifico' is much beloved;
And hath, in his effect, a voice potential
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 signiory,
Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know,
(Which, when I know that boasting is an honour,
I shall promulgate,) I fetch my life and being
From men of royal siege; and my demeritsTM
May speak, unbonneted," to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reach'd: For know, Iago,
But that I love the gentle Desdemona,

I would not my unhoused free condition
Put into circumscription and confine

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

the magnifico-] "The chief men of Venice are by a peculiar name

called magnifici, i. e. magnificoes."-TOLLETT.

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a voice potential

As double as the duke's;] Potential is powerful; double is strong.

men of royal siege ;] Men who have sat upon royal thrones. Siege is used for seat by other authors.-STEEVENS.

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demerits-] The word has the same meaning in our author, and many others of that age, as merits. Mereo and demereo had the same meaning in the Roman language.-STEEVENS.

n May speak, unbonneted,] Mr. Fuseli (and who is better acquainted with the sense and spirit of our author?) explains this contested passage as follows: "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. At Venice the bonnet, as well as the toge, is a badge of aristocratic honours to this day."-STEEVENS.

unhoused-] Free from domestick cares. A thought natural to an adventurer.-JOHNSON.

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