With his free duty, recommends you thus, Duke. "Tis certain then for Cyprus: Marcus Luccicos, Is he not here in town? 1 Sen. He's now in Florence. Duke. Write from us, to him, poft, poft-hafte, difpatch. 1 Sen. Here comes Brabantio, and the valiant Moor. To them, enter Brabantio, Othello, Caffio, Iago, Rodorigo, and Officers. Duke. Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you, Against the general enemy Ottoman. 1 did not fee you; welcome, gentle fignior: [To Brab. We lack'd your counfel, 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 rais'd me from my bed; nor doth the general Take hold on me; For my particular grief Is of fo flood-gate and o'er-bearing nature, That it ingluts and fwallows other forrows, And yet is still itself. Duke. Why? what's the matter? Bra. My daughter! oh, my daughter! Sen. Dead? Bra. To me; She is abus'd, ftoll'n from me, and corrupted (Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense,) Duke. Whoe'er he be, that in this foul proceeding Hath thus beguil'd 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. 7 All. All. We're very forry for❜t. Duke. What in your own part can you fay to this? [To Othel, Bra. Nothing, but this is fo. Oth. Moft potent, grave, and reverend figniors, Hath this extent no more. Rude am I in my speech, And little of this great world can I speak, In fpeaking for myfelf. Yet, by your patience, Of my whole courfe of love; what drugs, what charms, (For fuch proceeding I am charg'd withal,) I won his daughter with. Bra. A maiden, never bold; Cf fpirit fo ftill and quiet, that her motion (13) It is a judgment maim'd and most imperfect That will confefs, perfection fo could err To Against all rules of Nature.] Perfection erring, feems a contradiction in terminis, as the schoolmen call it. Befides, Brabantio does not blazon his daughter out for a thing of abfolute perfection; he only fays, fhe was indued with fuch an extreme innate modefly, that for her to fall in love fo prepofteroufly, no found judgment could allow, but it must be by magical practice upon her. I have ventur'd to imagine that our Author wrote; M 2 That To find out practices of cunning hell, Why this fhould be. I therefore vouch again, Duke. To vouch this, is no proof, Without more certain and more overt teft, Did you by indirect and forced courfes Subdue and poison this young maid's affections? Oth. I beseech you, Send for the lady to the Sagittary, And let her fpeak of me before her father; Duke. Fetch Desdemona hither. [Exeunt two or three. And till fhe come, as truly as to heav'n Duke. Say it, Othello. [Exit Iago. Oth. Her father lov'd me, oft invited me; Still question'd me the ftory of my life, From year to year; the battles, fieges, fortunes, That will confefs, affection fo could err, &c. This is entirely confonant to what Brabantio would fay of her and one of the fenators, immediately after, in his examination of the Moor, thus addreffes himself to him; -But, Othello, fpeak; Did you by indirect and forced courfes Subdue and poison this young maid's affections, &c. I ran it through, e'en from my boyish days, Of hair-breadth 'fcapes in th' imminent deadly breach; And fold to flavery; of my redemption thence, Wherein of antres vaft, and defarts idle, (14) Rough quarriers, rocks, and hills, whofe heads touch heav'n, It was my hint to speak; fuch was the procefs; (15) And (14) Wherein of antres vaft, and defarts idle, &c.] Thus it is in all the old editions: but Mr. Pope has thought fit to change the epithet. Defarts idle in the former editions, (fays he) doubtless, a corruption from wilde-But he muft pardon me, if I do not concur in thinking this fo doubtless. I don't know whether Mr. Pope has obferv'd it, but I know that Shakespeare, especially in his defcriptions, is fond of ufing the more uncommon word, in a poetic latitude. And idle, in feveral other paffages, he employs in thefe acceptations, wild, ufelefs, uncultivated. &c. Crown'd with rank fumitar, and furrow weeds, The murm'ring furge, That on th' unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes, King Lear. Ibid. i.e. useless, worthlefs, nullius pretii: for the pebbles, conftantly wash'd and chaf'd by the furge, can't be call'd idle, i. e. to lie ftill, in a state of reft. The even mead, that erft brought fweetly forth The freckled cowflip, burnet, and green clover, Henry V. i.e. by wildness, occafion'd from its lying uncultivated. And exactly · with the fame liberty, if I am not mistaken, has VIRGIL twice used the word ignavus : Hyems ignava colono. Et nemora evertit multos ignava per annos. And of the canibals that each other eat, The anthropophagi; and men whofe beads, Georg. I. v. 299. Georg. II. v. 208. Do grow beneath their fhoulders.] This paffage Mr. Pope has M 3 thought And of the Canibals that each other eat, grow beneath their fhoulders. All thefe to hear Would De/demona ferioufly incline; But ftill the house-affairs would draw her thence, And thought fit to throw out of the text, as containing incredible matter, I prefume: but why, if he had any equality in his critical judgment, did he not as well caftrate the Tempest of these lines? Who would believe, that there were mountaineers Dewlapt like bulls, whofe throats had hanging at 'em Whole beads flood in their breafts? I have obferv'd feveral times, in the courfe of thefe notes, our Author's particular defence of Sir Walter Raleigh; and both these pas fages feem to me intended complimentally to him. Sir Walter, in his Travels, has given the following account, which I shall subjein as briefly as I may. "Next unto Arvi, there are two rivers, Atoica ❝ and Caora; and on that branch which is call'd Caora, are a nation "of a people whose beads appear not above their shoulders: which, "tho' it may be thought a meer fable, yet, for mine own part, I am "refolv'd it is true; because every child in the provinces of Arromaia "and Canuri affirm the fame. They are call'd Ewaipanomaws ; "they are reported to have their eyes in their fhoulders, and their "mouths in the middle of their breasts. It was not my chance to hear of them, till I was come away; and if I had but spoken one "word of it while I was there, I might have brought one of them "with me, to put the matter out of doubt. Such a nation was written "of by Mandeville, whofe reports were holden for fables for many "years, and yet fince the East Indies were discover'd, we find his "relations true of fuch things as heretofore were held incredible. "Whether it be true, or no, the matter is not great; for mine own "part, I faw them not; but I am refolv'd, that so many people did "not all combine, or forethink to make the report. To the weft of "Caroli are diverse nations of Canibals, and of those Ewaipanomaws "without heads." |