Othello | Page 8

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.--
I
humbly beseech you, proceed 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 boisterous expedition.

OTHELLO.
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.
If you please,
Be't at her father's.
BRABANTIO.
I'll not have it so.
OTHELLO.
Nor I.
DESDEMONA.
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 a gracious ear;
And let me find a charter in your
voice
To assist my simpleness.
DUKE.
What would you, Desdemona?
DESDEMONA.
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 honors 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.
OTHELLO.
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 me 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 dullness
My speculative and offic'd
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: the affair cries haste,
And speed must answer it.
FIRST SENATOR.
You must away to-night.
OTHELLO.
With all my heart.
DUKE.
At nine i' the 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.
OTHELLO.
So 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.
DUKE.
Let it be so.--
Good night to everyone.--[To Brabantio.]
And, noble signior, If virtue no delighted beauty lack,
Your
son-in-law is far more fair than black.
FIRST SENATOR.
Adieu, brave Moor; use Desdemona well.
BRABANTIO.
Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:
She has
deceiv'd her father, and may thee.
[Exeunt Duke, Senators, Officers. &c.]
OTHELLO.
My life upon her faith!--Honest Iago,
My Desdemona
must I leave to thee:
I pr'ythee, let thy wife attend on her;
And bring

them after in the best advantage.--
Come, Desdemona, I have but an
hour
Of love, of worldly matters and direction,
To spend with thee:
we must obey the time.
[Exeunt Othello and Desdemona.]
RODERIGO.
Iago,--
IAGO.
What say'st thou, noble heart?
RODERIGO.
What will I do, thinkest thou?
IAGO.
Why, go to bed and sleep.
RODERIGO.
I will incontinently drown myself.
IAGO.
If thou dost, I shall never love thee after. Why, thou silly
gentleman!
RODERIGO.
It is silliness to live when to live is torment; and
then
have we a prescription to die when death is our physician.
IAGO.
O villainous! I have looked upon the world for four times
seven years, and since I could distinguish betwixt a benefit and an
injury, I never found man that knew how to love himself. Ere I would
say I would drown myself for the love of a Guinea-hen, I would change
my humanity with a baboon.
RODERIGO.
What should I do? I confess it is my shame to be so
fond,
but it is not in my virtue to amend it.
IAGO.
Virtue! a fig! 'Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus.
Our
bodies are gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners; so that if we
will plant nettles or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply
it with one gender of herbs or distract it with many, either to have it
sterile with idleness or manured with industry; why, the power