With his free duty, recommends you thus,
And prays you to believe him,

Duke. 'Tis certain then for Cyprus: Marcus

Is he not here in town? (31)

1 Sen. He's now in Florence.

[Luccicos,

[dispatch.

Duke. Write from us to him, post, post haste,

1 Sen. Here comes Brabantio, and the valiant

Moor.

To them, enter BRABANTIO, OTHELLO, CASSIO, IAGO, RODORIGO, and Officers.

Duke. Valiant Othello, we must straight employ Against the general enemy Ottoman.

[you, I did not see you; welcome, gentle signior (32)

[To Bra. We lacked your counsel, and your help to-night. Bra. So did I yours; good your grace, pardon

me;

Neither my place, nor aught I heard of business,
Hath raised me from my bed; nor doth the general
Take hold on me; for my particular grief
Is of so flood-gate and o'erbearing nature,
That it ingluts and swallows other sorrows,
And yet is still itself.

(31) Marcus Luccicos, his name may be derived from lux light, as of the moon.

(32) In respect of the situation of the duke, as above designated, Brabantio would in fact stand behind Othello, and thus be unseen by him.

Duke. Why, what's the matter?

Bra. My daughter! oh, my daughter!

Sen. Dead?

Bra. To me;

She is abused, stolen from me, and corrupted

By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks; For nature so preposterously to err,

(Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense,) Sans witchcraft could not

[ing

Duke. Whoe'er he be that in this foul proceed

Hath thus beguiled your daughter of herself,

And

you of her, the bloody book of law

You shall yourself read in the bitter letter,

After your own sense: yea, though our proper son Stood in your action.

Bra. Humbly I thank your grace.

Here is the man, this Moor, whom now, it seems, Your special mandate, for the state-affairs,

Hath hither brought.

All. We're very sorry for't.

Duke. What in your own part can you say to

this?

Bra. Nothing, but this is so.

[To Othel.

Oth. Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors, My very noble and approved good masters ; That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter, It is most true; true, I have married her;

The very

head and front of my offending

Hath this extent; no more.
Rude am I in speech,
And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace;
For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,
'Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used
Their dearest action in the tented field;

And little of this great world can I speak,
More than pertains to feats of broils and battle;
And therefore little shall I grace my cause

In speaking for myself. Yet, by your patience,
I will a round unvarnished tale deliver, [charms,
Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what
What conjuration, and what mighty magic,
(For such proceeding I am charged withal,)
I won his daughter with.

Bra. A maiden, never bold;

Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion
Blushed at itself; and she, in spite of nature,
Of years, of country, credit, every thing,

To fall in love with what she feared to look on-
It is a judgment maimed, and most imperfect, (13)
That will confess, affection so could err

Against all rules of nature; and must be driven
To find out practices of cunning hell,

Why this should be. I therefore vouch again,
That with some mixtures powerful o'er the blood,
Or with some dram, conjured to this effect,
He wrought upon her.

Duke. To vouch this is no proof,

Without more certain and more overt test,
Than these thin habits and poor likelihoods
Of modern seeming do prefer against him.
1 Sen. But, Othello, speak;

Did you by indirect and forced courses
Subdue and poison this young maid's affections?
Or came it by request and such fair question
As soul to soul affordeth?

Send for the lady to the Sagittary,

And let her speak of me before her father;
If you do find me foul in her report,

The trust, the office I do hold of

you,

Not only take away, but let your sentence

Even fall upon my life.

Duke. Fetch Desdemona hither.

[Exeunt two or three.

Oth. Ancient, conduct them, you best know the

place,

[Exit Iago. And till she come, as truly as to Heaven

I do confess the vices of my blood,

So justly to your grave ears I'll present
How I did thrive in this fair lady's love,
And she in mine.

Duke. Say it, Othello.

Oth. Her father loved me, oft invited me ; Still questioned me the story of my life,

From year to year; the battles, sieges, fortunes,

That I have past.

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

Of hair-breadth 'scapes in th' imminent deadly
Of being taken by the insolent foe, [breach;
And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence,
And portance in my travel's history:

Wherein of antres vast, and desarts idle,

Rough quarriers, rocks, and hills, whose heads touch heaven,

It was my hint to speak; such was the process;
And of the Canibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi; and men whose heads (23)
Do grow beneath their shoulders. All these 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,

(33) Men whose heads, &c. This is a mere circumlocution to express the Antipodes, whose heads (as in respect of us situate on the opposite side of the globe,) do in truth grow beneath their shoulders.