With fuch accommodation and befort
As levels with her breeding..
Duke. Why, at her father's.
Bra. I will not have it fo.
Oth. Nor I. i

Def. Nor would I there refide,

To put my father in impatient thoughts
By being in his eye. Moft gracious Duke,
To my unfolding lend your profperous ear,
And let me find a charter in your voice
T'affift my fimpleness.

Duke. What would you, Desdemona?

Def. That I did love the Moor to live with him, My down-right violence and ftorm of fortunes May trumpet to the world. My heart's fubdu'd Ev'n to the very quality of my Lord;

7 I faw Othello's vifage in his mind,

And to his honours and his valiant parts
Did I my foul and fortunes confecrate.
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 fhall fupport,
By his dear abfence. Let me go with him.

Oth. Your voices, Lords. 'Befeech you, let her

I therefore beg it not,

To please the palate of my appetite;

8 Nor to comply with heat, the young Affects, In defunct and proper Satisfaction;

But to be free and bounteous to her mind.

And heav'n defend your good fouls, that you think,
I will your serious and great bufinefs fcant,
For fhe is with me. No, when light-wing'd toys
Of feather'd Cupid foil with wanton dulnels
My fpeculative and active instruments,
That my difports corrupt and taint my business,
Let housewives make a skillet of my helm,
And all indign and base adverfities

Make head against my eftimation.

Duke. Be it as you fhall privately determine, Or for her stay or going; th' affair cries hafte; And speed must answer it. You must hence to-night. Def. To-night, my Lord?

Duke. This night.

Oth. With all my heart.

Duke. At nine i' th' morning here we'll meet again. Othello, leave fome officer behind,

And he fhall our commiffion bring to you,

And fuch things elfe of quality and refpect

As doth import you.

Oth. Please your Grace, my Ancient ; A man he is of honesty and trust,

To his conveyance I affign my wife,

With what elfe needful your good grace fhall think
To be fent after me.

not more fatisfactory : what
made the difficulty, will conti-
nue to make it. I read,

-I beg it not,
To please the palate of my ap-
petite,

Nor to comply with heat, (the
young affects
In me defunct) and proper fatif-
faction;
But to be free and bounteous to
her mind.

Affects ftands here, not for love, but for quality, for that by which any thing is affected. I ask it not, fays he, to please appetite, or fatisfy loofe defires, the paffions of youth which I have now outlived, or for any particular gratification of myself, but merely that I may indulge the wishes of my wife.

Duke.

Duke. Let it be fo

Good-night to every one. And, noble Signior, 11
? If virtue no delighted beauty lack, a 270,255 allup
Your fon-in-law is far more fair than black. Con
Sen. Adieu, brave Moor. Ufe Defdemona well. I
Bra. Look to her, Moor, have a quick eye to fee.
She has deceiv'd her father, and may thee

[Exit Duke, with Senators. Oth. My life upon her faith. Honest lago, nei My Desdemona muft I leave to thee;

I pr'ythee, let thy wife attend on her

And bring her after in the best advantage.nel Come, Defdemona, I have but an hour

Of love, of worldly matter and direction t

w

1

To speak with thee. We must obey the time. [Exeunt.

ter.

Rod. Iago

SCENE

X.

Manent Rodorigo and Iago.

Iago. What fayeft thou noble heart?
Rod. What will I do, thinkeft thou?
Iago. Why, go to bed, and fleep.
Rod. I will incontinently drown myself.

Iago. Well, if thou doft, I fhall never love thee afWhy, thou filly gentleman!

Rod. It is fillinefs to live, when to live is a torment; and then have we a prescription to die, when death is our phyfician.

9 If virtue no DELIGHTED beauty lack, This is a fenfelefs epithet. We should read BELIGHTED beauty. i. e. white and fair. WARBURTON.

Hanmer reads, more plausibly, deli bting. I do not know that belighted has any authority. I

fhould rather read,

If virtue no delight or beauty

lack Delight, for delectation, or power of pleafing, as it is frequently ufed. best advantage.] Faireft

I

opportunity.

.

Iago. O villainous! I have look'd upon the world for four times feven years, and fince I could diftinguish betwixt a benefit and an injury, I never found man that knew how to love himfelf. Ere I would fay, I would drown myself for the love of a Guinea-hen, I would change my humanity with a baboon.

2

Rod. What fhould I do? I confefs, it is my fhame to be fo fond, but it is hot in my virtue to amend it. Iago. Virtue? a fig! 'tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners. So that if we will plant nettles, or fow lettice; fet hyffop, and weed up thyme; fupply it with one gender of herbs, or diftract it with many; either have it fteril with idleness, or manured with industry; why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our will. If the balance of our lives had not one fcale of reafon to poise another of fenfuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to moft prepofterous conclufions. . But we have reafon, to cool our raging motions, our carnal ftings, our unbitted lufts; whereof I take this, that you call love, to be a Set or fcien.

Rod. It cannot be.

Iago. It is merely a luft of the blood, and a permiffion of the will. Come, be a man. Drown thyfelf? drown cats and blind puppies. I have profest me thy friend, and I confefs me knit to thy deferving with cables of perdurable toughness. I could never better ftead thee than now. Put mony in thy purse; follow thou thefe wars; 3 defeat thy favour with an

2a Guinea-hen, ] A fhowy bird with fine feathers.

3 DEFEAT thy favour with an ufurped beard;] This is not Englife. We fhould read DISSEAT thy favour. . . turn it out of

7

its feat, change it for another. The word ufurped directs us to this reading. WARB.

It is more English, to defeat, than diffeat. To defeat, is to undo, to change.

ufurped