I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
To th' very moment that he bade me tell it:
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field;

Of hair-breadth scapes i' th' imminent deadly breach;
Of being taken by the insolent foe,

And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence,
And portance in my travel's history:

Wherein of antres vast, and deserts 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. This to hear,
Would Desdemona seriously incline:

But still the house affairs would draw her thence;
Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
She'd come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse. Which I observing,
Took once a pliant hour; and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart,
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
But not intentively: I did consent;

And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffer'd. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:

strange;

in faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing

'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,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake;
She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd,
And I lov'd her, that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have us'd:
Here comes the lady; let her witness it.

Enter DESDEMONA, IAGO, and Attendants.
Duke. I think this tale would win my daughter

too.

Good Brabantio,

Take up this mangled matter at the best:
Men do their broken weapons rather use

Than their bare hands.

Bra.
If she confess that she was half the wooer,
Destruction on my head, if my bad blame

I pray you, hear her speak:

Come hither, gentle mistress:

My noble father,

Do you perceive in all this noble company,
Where most you owe obedience?

Desdemona.

I do perceive here a divided duty.

To you, I am bound for life and education :

My life and education, both do learn me

How to respect you; you are the lord of duty;

I am hitherto your daughter: but here's my husband;
And so much duty as my mother shew'd

To you, preferring you before her father,
So much I challenge that I may profess
Due to the Moor, my lord.

Bra.
God b' wi' you! I have done.
Please it your Grace, on to the State affairs:
I had rather to adopt a child, than get it. -
Come hither, Moor:

I here do give thee that with all my heart,

Which, but thou hast already, with all my heart
I would keep from thee. - For your sake, jewel,
I am glad at soul I have no other child,
For thy escape would teach me tyranny,
To hang clogs on them.

I have done, my lord.

Duke. Let me speak like yourself; and lay a sen

tence,

Which, as a grise, or step, may help these lovers
Into your favour.

When remedies are past, the griefs are ended

By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended. To mourn a mischief that is past and gone

Is the next way to draw more mischief on.

What cannot be preserv'd when fortune takes,
Patience her injury a mock'ry makes.

The robb'd, that smiles, steals something from the

thief:

He robs himself, that spends a bootless grief.

Bra. So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile : We lose it not, so long as we can smile.

He bears the sentence well, that nothing bears
But the free comfort which from thence he hears;
But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow,
That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow.
These sentences, to sugar, or to gall,

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.
Beseech you, now 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 with this more stubborn and boist'rous expedition.

Oth. The tyrant custom, most grave Senators,
Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down: I do agnize
A natural and prompt alacrity

I find in hardness; and do undertake
These present wars against the Ottomites.
Most humbly, therefore, bending to your state,
I crave fit disposition for my wife;
Due reference of place, and exhibition,
With such accommodation and besort

As levels with her breeding.

Duke.

Be't at her father's.

Bra.

Oth. Nor I.
Des.

If you please,

I'll not have it so.

Nor I; I would not there reside,

To put my father in impatient thoughts,
By being in his eye. Most gracious Duke,

To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear:

And let me find a charter in your voice
T'assist my simpleness.

Duke. What would you, Desdemona ?

Des. That I [did] love the Moor to live with

him,

My downright violence and storm of fortunes
May trumpet to the world: my heart's subdu'd
Even to the very quality of my lord:

I saw Othello's visage in his mind;
And to his honours and his valiant parts,
Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.
So that, dear lords, if I be left behind,
A moth of peace, and he go to the war,

The rites for which I love him are bereft me,
And I a heavy interim shall support

By his dear absence. Let me go with him.
Oth. Let her have your voices.

Vouch with me, Heaven, I therefore beg it not
To please the palate of my appetite;

Nor to comply with heat the young affects

In my defunct and proper satisfaction;

But to be free and bounteous to her mind:

And Heaven defend your good souls, that you think

I will your serious and great business scant

For she is with me. No, when light-wing'd toys.
Of feather'd Cupid seel with wanton dulness
My speculative and active instruments,

That my disports corrupt and taint my business,
Let housewives make a skillet of my helm,
And all indign and base adversities

Make head against my estimation!

Duke. Be it as you shall privately determine, Either for her stay or going. Th' affair cries haste, And speed must answer it.

1 Sen. You must away to-night.

Duke.

Oth.

This night.

With all my heart.

Duke. At nine i' th' morning here we'll meet

again.

Othello, leave some officer behind,

And he shall our commission bring to you;
With such things else of quality and respect
As doth import you.

Oth.

Please your Grace, my ancient;

A man he is of honesty and trust:

To his conveyance I assign my wife,

With what else needful your good Grace shall think

To be sent after me.