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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 26!

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 waken'd death! And let the labouring 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 27; for, I fear, My soul hath her content so absolute,

26 This phrase was introduced by our copiers of the French sonnetteers. Ronsard frequently calls his mistresses guerrieres; and Southern, his imitator, is not less prodigal of the same appellation. Thus in his fifth sonnet :—

And my fair warrior, my light shines in thy fair eyes.'

And in his sixth sonnet he uses it twice:

'I am not, my cruel warrier, the Thebain,' &c.

I came not, my warrier, of the blood Lidain.'

Had not I met with the word thus fantastically applied, I should have concluded that Othello called his wife a warrior because she embarked with him on a warlike expedition, and not in consequence of Ovid's observation :

• Militat omnis amans, et habet sua castra Cupido.' Desdemona in Act iii. says:- Unhandsome warrior as I am.'Steevens.

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27 So Cherea in The Eunuch of Terence, Act iii. Sc. 5:

Proh Jupiter!

Nunc tempus profecto est, cum perpeti me possum interfici, Ne vita aliquâ hoc gaudium contaminet ægritudine.'

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 28,

That e'er our hearts shall make!

[Kissing her.

O, you are well tun'd now!

Iago. But I'll set down the pegs that make this musick, As honest as I am.

Oth.

[Aside.

Come, let's to the castle.News, friends; our wars are done, the Turks are

drown'd.

How do our old acquaintance of this isle?—
Honey, you shall be well desir'd 29 in Cyprus,

I have found great love amongst them. O my sweet,
I prattle out of fashion 30, and I dote

In mine own comforts.-I pr'ythee, good Iago,
Go to the bay, and disembark my coffers:
Bring thou the master 31 to the citadel;

28 Thus in Marlowe's Lust's Dominion:—

'I pri'thee chide, if I have done amiss,

But let my punishment be this and this. [Kissing the Moor.' Marlowe's play was written before that of Shakspeare, who might possibly have acted in it.

29 i.e. much solicited by invitation. So in The Letters of the Paston Family, vol. i. p. 299 :— At the which weddyng I was with myn hostes, and also desyryd by ye jentylman hymselfe.'

30 Out of method, without any settled order of discourse.

31 The master is a distinct person from the pilot of a vessel, and has the principal care and command of the vessel under the captain, where there is a captain; and in chief where there is none. Dr. Johnson confounded the master with the pilot, and the poet himself seems to have done so. See the first line of Scene 2, Act iii.

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He is a good one, and his worthiness

Does challenge much respect.-Come, Desdemona, Once more well met at Cyprus.

[Exeunt OTHELLO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants.

Iago. Do thou meet me presently at the harbour. Come hither. If thou be'st valiant as (they say) base men, being in love, have then a nobility in their natures more than is native to them,-list me. The lieutenant to-night watches on the court of guard 32:—First, I must tell thee this-Desdemona is directly in love with him.

Rod. With him! why, 'tis not possible.

Iago. Lay thy finger-thus 33, and let thy soul be instructed. Mark me with what violence she first loved the Moor, but for bragging, and telling her fantastical lies: And will she love him still for prating? let not thy discreet heart think it. Her eye must be fed; and what delight shall she have to look on the devil? When the blood is made dull with the act of sport, there should be,-again to inflame it, and to give satiety a fresh appetite,loveliness in favour; sympathy in years, manners, and beauties; all which the Moor is defective in: Now, for want of these required conveniences, her delicate tenderness will find itself abused, begin to heave the gorge, disrelish and abhor the Moor; very nature will instruct her in it, and compel her to some second choice. Now, sir, this granted (as it is a most pregnant and unforced position), who stands so eminently in the degree of this fortune, as Cassio does? a knave very voluble, no further conscionable, than in putting on the mere form of civil

32 That is the place where the guard musters.

33 On thy mouth to stop it, while thou art listening to a wiser

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and humane seeming, for the better compassing of his salt and most hidden loose affection? why, none; why, none: A slippery and subtle knave; a finder out of occasions; that has an eye can stamp and counterfeit advantages, though true advantage never present itself: A devilish knave! besides, the knave is handsome, young; and hath all those requisites in him, that folly and green minds 34 look after: A pestilent complete knave; and the woman hath found him already.

Rod. I cannot believe that in her; she is full of most blessed condition 35

Iago. Blessed fig's end! the wine she drinks is made of grapes: if she had been blessed, she would never have loved the Moor; Blessed pudding! Didst thou not see her paddle with the palm of his hand? didst not mark that?

Rod. Yes, that I did; but that was but courtesy. Iago. Lechery, by his hand; an index 36, and obscure prologue to the history of lust and foul thoughts. They met so near with their lips, that their breaths embraced together. Villanous thoughts, Roderigo! when these mutualities so marshal the way, hard at hand comes the master and main exercise, the incorporate conclusion: Pish!—But, be ruled by me: I have brought you from Venice. Watch you to-night; for the command, I'll lay't upon you: Cassio knows you not;-I'll not be far from you :' Do you find some occasion to anger Cassio, either by speaking too loud, or tainting 37 his discipline; or from what other course

sir,

you

34 Minds unripe, minds not yet fully formed.

35 Qualities, disposition of mind.

36 It has already been observed that indexes were formerly prefixed to books. See vol. vii. p. 348.

37 Throwing a slur upon his discipline. So in Troilus and Cressida, Act i. Sc. 3:

In taint of our best man.'

you please, which the time shall more favourably minister.

Rod. Well.

Iago. Sir, he is rash, and very sudden 38 in choler; and, haply, with his truncheon may strike at you: Provoke him, that he may for, even out of that, will I cause these of Cyprus to mutiny; whose qualification 39 shall come into no true taste again, but by the displanting of Cassio. So shall you have a shorter journey to your desires, by the means I shall then have to prefer 40 them; and the impediment most profitably removed, without the which there were no expectation of our prosperity.

Rod. I will do this, if I can bring it to any opportunity.

Iago. I warrant thee. Meet me by and by at the citadel: I must fetch his necessaries ashore. Farewell.

Rod. Adieu.

[Exit.
Iago. That Cassio loves her, I do well believe it;
That she loves him, 'tis apt, and of great credit:
The Moor-howbeit that I endure him not,-
Is of a constant, loving, noble nature;

And, I dare think, he'll prove to Desdemona
A most dear husband. Now I do love her too;
Not out of absolute lust (though, peradventure,
I stand accountant for as great a sin),
But partly led to diet my revenge,
For that I do suspect the lusty Moor

38 Sudden is precipitately violent. So Malcolm, describing Macbeth:

'I grant him bloody-
Sudden, malicious.'

39 Johnson has erroneously explained this. Qualification, in our old writers, signifies appeasement, pacification, asswagement of anger. Το appease and qualifie one that is angry; tranquillum facere ex irato.'-Baret.

40 To advance them.

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