Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

Ro. Moft grave Brabantio,

In fimple and pure foul, I come to you.

Iago Zounds! Sir, you are one of thofe that will not ferve God, if the Devil bid you. Because we come to do you fervice, you think we are ruffians; you'll have your daughter cover'd with a Barbary horse, you'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have courfers. for coufins, and gennets for germans.

Bra. What prophane wretch art thou ?

Iago. I am one, Sir, that comes to tell you, your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.

Bra. Thou art a villain.

Iago. You are a fenator.

Bra. This thou fhalt answer. I know thee, Rodorigo.
Rod. Sir, I will answer any thing. But I beseech you,
If't be your pleasure and moft wife confent,
(As partly, I find, it is,) that your fair daughter,
At this odd even and dull watch o'th' night
Tranfported with no worse nor better guard,
But with a knave of hire, a Gondelier,
To the grofs clafps of a lafcivious Moor.:
If this be known to you, and your allowance,
We then have done you bold and faucy wrongs..
But if you know not this, my manners tell me,
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe,
That from the fenfe of all civility

I thus would play, and trifle with your reverence.
Your daughter, if you have not giv'n her leave,
I fay again, hath made a grofs revolt;
Tying her duty, beauty, wit and fortunes
To an extravagant and wheeling ftranger,

Of here and every where; ftraight fatisfy yourself.
If the be in her chamber, or your house,

Let loose on me the juftice of the State

For thus deluding you:

Bra. Strike on the tinder, ho!

Give me a taper ;·

-call up all

my people;

This accident is not unlike my dream,.

elief of it oppreffes me already. Light, I fay, light!

Tago. Farewel; for I must leave you.

It seems not meet, nor wholfome to my place,
To be produc'd (as, if I ftay, I fhall)

Against the Moor. For I do know, the State,
However this may gall him with some check,
Cannot with fafety caft him. For he's embark'd
With fuch loud reafon to the Cyprus' wars,
Which ev'n now stand in act, that, for their fouls,
Another of his fadom they have none,
To lead their business. In which regard,
Tho' I do hate him as I do hell's pains,
Yet, for neceffity of prefent life,

I muft fhew out a flag and fign of love:

[him,

(Which is, indeed, but fign.) That you may furely find Lead to the Sagittary the rais'd fearch;

And there will I be with him. So, farewel.

Enter Brabantio, and fervants with torches.

[Exit.'

Bra. It is too true an evil. Gone she is; And what's to come of my despised time, Is nought but bitterness. Now, Rodorigo, Where didft thou fee her? oh unhappy girl! With the Moor, faidst thou? who would be a father? How didft thou know 'twas she? oh, fhe deceives me Paft thought-What faid the to you? get more tapersRaife all my kindred-are they married, think you? Rod. Truly, I think, they are.

Bra. Oh heaven! how gat fhe out?
Oh treason of my blood!

Fathers, from hence truft not your daughters' minds
By what you fee them act. Are there not charms,
By which the property of youth and maidhood
May be abus'd? have you not read, Rodorigo,
Cf fome fuch thing?

Rod. Yes, Sir, I have, indeed.

Era. Call up my brother: oh, 'would you had had her;

Some one way, fome another Do you know

Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?

[ocr errors]

Rod

Rod. I think, I can discover him, if you please To get good guard, and go along with me.

Bra. Pray you, lead on. At every houfe I'll call, I may command at moft; get weapons, hoa! And raise some special officers of might : On, good Rodorig, I'll deferve your pains.

[Exeunt.

SCENE, changes to another STREET, before the Sagittary.

Enter Othello, Iago, and Attendants with Torches.

'HO' in the trade of war I have flain men,

TH

lago. Yet do I hold it very ftuff o'th' confcience

To do no contriv'd murder: I lack iniquity
Sometimes to do me fervice.

Nine or ten times

I thought to've jerk'd him here under the ribs.
Oth. It's better as it is.

Iago. Nay, but he prated,

And fpoke fuch fcurvy and provoking terms
Against your honour;

That, with the little godlinefs I have,

I did full hard forbear him. But I pray, Sir,
Are you faft married? for, be fure of this,
That the magnifico is much belov'd,

And hath in his effect a voice potential (6)
As double as the Duke's: he will divorce you,
Or put upon you what restraint or grievance
The law (with all his might t'enforce it on)
Will give him cable.

Oth. Let him do his fpight:

My fervices, which I have done the fignory,
Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know,

(6) And bath in his effect a voice potential,

As double as the Duke's.] Rymer feems to have had his eye on this paffage amongst others, when he talks fo much of the impropriety and barbarity in the ftyle of this play. But it is, in truth, a very elegant Grecifm. As double, fignifies, as large, as extenfive. So the Greeks us'd dinλç, for, latus, grandis, as well as, duplex : and, in the fame manner and conftructions, the Latines fometimes us'd their duplex. Mr. Warburton. (Which,

(Which, when I know that boasting is an honour,
I fhall promulgate) I fetch my life and being (7)
From men of royal fiege; and my demerits
May speak, and bonnetted, to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reach'd. For know, Iago,
But that I love the gentle Desdemon,

I would not my unhoufed free condition
Put into circumfcription and confine,

For the fea's worth. But look! what lights come yonder?

Enter Caffio, with torches.

lago. Thofe are the raised father, and his friends: You were beft go in.

Oth. Not : I must be found.

My parts, my title and my perfect foul Shall manifeft me rightly. Is it they? lago. By Janu:, I think, no.

Oth. The Servants of the Duke, and

[blocks in formation]

From men of royal fiege; and my demerits

May speak unbonnetted to as proud a fortune

my

lieutenant :

As this that I have reach'd.] Thus all the copies read this paffage. But, to speak unbonnetted, is to speak with the cap off, which is directly oppofite to the Poet's meaning. So, in King Lear ; This night, in which the cub-drawn bear would couch,

The lion, and the belly-pinched wolf,

Keep their furr dry, unbonnetted he runs,

And bids what will take all.

Othello means to say, that his birth and services set him upon fuch a rank, that he may fpeak to a fenator of Venice with his hat on; i. e. without fhewing any marks of deference, or inequality. I, therefore, am inclin'd to think, Shakespeare wrote;

May Speak, and bonnetted, &c.

Or, if any like better the change of the negative un, in the corrupted reading, into the epitatic im, we may thus reform it :

May Speak imbonnetted, &c.

I propos'd the correction of this paffage in my SHAKESPEARE Reftor'd; upon which, Mr. Pope, in his last edition, has found out another expedient, and would read,

May Speak unbonnetting, &c.

i. e. as he says, without pulling off the bonnett. But the fenfe thus is equivocal and obfcure: and unbonnetting more naturally fignifies, pulling off the bonnett, than the contrary.

The

The goodness of the night upon you, friends!
What is the news?

C. The Duke doth greet you, general;

And he requires your hafte, post-haste, appearance,
Ev'n on the inftant.

Oth. What is the matter, think you?

Caf. Something from Cyprus, as I may divine;

It is a bufinefs of fome heat. The Gallies
Have fent a dozen fequent meffengers

This very night, at one another's heels:

And many of the couns'lors, rais'd and met, (8)
Are at the Duke's already. You have been hotly call'd for,
When, being not at your lodging to be found,

The Senate fent above three feveral quefts,

To fearch you out.

Ob. Tis well I am found by you:

I will but spend a word here in the house,

And go with you.

Caf. Ancient, what makes he here?

[Exit Othello.

lago.'Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land-carrack;

If it prove lawful prize, he's made for ever.

Caf. I do not understand.

lago. He's married.

Caf. To whom?

lago. Marry, to-Come, Captain, will you go?

Enter Othello.

Oth. Have with you.

Caf. Here comes another troop to seek for you.

Enter Brabantio, Rodorigo, with Officers and torches.
Iago. It is Brabantio: General, be advis'd;

He comes to bad intent.

Oth. Holla! ftand there.

(8) And many of the Confuls, rais'd and met,

Are at the Duke's already.] Thus all the editions concur in reading; but there is no fuch character as a Conful appears in any part of the play. I change it to Counsellors; i. e. the grandees that conftitute the great council at Venice. The reafon I have already given, above, in the close of the 5th note,

Rod..

[ocr errors]
« AnteriorContinua »