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In me defunct) and proper satisfaction; 1
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 2 she is with me. No, when light-winged toys
Of feathered Cupid seel with wanton dulness
My speculative and active instruments,3

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; you must hence to-night. Des. To-night, my lord?

Duke.

Oth.

This night.

With all my heart.

Duke. At nine i' the morning here we'll meet again.

1 Steevens reads, at the suggestion of sir T. Hanmer:"Nor to comply with heat, the young affects,

In my distinct and proper satisfaction."

Malone reads disjunct instead of distinct. In the Bondman of Massinger we have a passage evidently copied from this speech of Othello:

66

Let me wear

Your colors, lady, and though youthful heats,
That look no further than your outward form,
Are long since buried in me, while I live,

I am a constant lover of your mind," &c.

Mr. Gifford observes, that," as this shows how Shakspeare's contemporaries understood the lines, it should, I think, with us be decisive of their meaning." Affects occur incessantly in the sense of passions, affections; young affects are therefore perfectly synonymous with youthful heats. Mr. Gifford suggests that Shakspeare may have given affect in the singular to correspond with heat. Dr. Johnson's explanation is:-" I ask it not (says Othello) to please appetite or satisfy loose desires, the passions 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."

2 i. e. because.

3 Thus the folio; except that, instead of active instruments, it has officed instrument. The quarto reads "And feathered Cupid foils," &c. Speculative instruments, in Shakspeare's language, are the eyes; and active instruments, the hands and feet. To seel is to close up. The meaning of the passage appears to be, "When the pleasures and idle toys of love make me unfit either for seeing the duties of my office, or for the ready performance of them."

4 The quarto reads reputation.

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.

Oth.

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.

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Good night to every one.—And, noble seignior,

If virtue no delighted' beauty lack,

[TO BRABANTIO.

Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.

1 Sen. Adieu, brave Moor! use Desdemona well. Bra. Look to her, Moor; have a quick eye to see; She has deceived her father, and may thee.

[Exeunt Duke, Senators, Officers, &c. Oth. 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.2 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.

Rod. Iago

Iago. What say'st thou, noble heart?
Rod. What will I do, thinkest thou?

Iago. Why, go to bed, and sleep.

Rod. I will incontinently drown myself.

Iago. Well, if thou dost, I shall never love thee after it. Why, thou silly gentleman!

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

Iago. O, villanous! I have looked upon the world

1 Delighted for delighting.
2 i. e. fairest opportunity.

for four times seven years!' and since I could distinguish between a benefit and an injury, I never found a man that knew how to love himself. Ere I would say I would drown myself for the love of a Guinea-hen,2 I would change my humanity with a baboon.

Rod. What should I do? I confess it is my shame to be so fond; but it is not in 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 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 and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. If the balance of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions. But we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts; whereof I take this, that you call-love, to be a sect, or scion.

Rod. It cannot be.

4

3

Iago. It is merely a lust of the blood, and a permission of the will. Come, be a man; drown thyself! drown cats, and blind puppies. I have professed me thy friend, and I confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of perdurable toughness; I could never better stead thee than now. Put money in thy purse; in thy purse; follow these wars; defeat thy favor with an usurped beard ; I say, put money in thy purse. It cannot be, that Desdemona should long continue her love to the Moor, -put money in thy purse ;-nor he his to her. It was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an an

5

1 In the novel, on which Othello is founded, Iago is described as a young, handsome man.

2 A Guinea-hen was a cant term for a woman of easy virtue.
3 The folio reads "if the brain;" probably a mistake for beam.

4 A sect is what the gardeners call a cutting. The modern editors read

a set.

5 Defeat was used for disfigurement or alteration of features; from the French défaire. Favor means that combination of features which gives the face its distinguishing character.

swerable sequestration ;'-put but money in thy purse. -These Moors are changeable in their wills:-fill thy purse with money; the food that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida. She must change for youth; when she is sated with his body, she will find the error of her choice. She must have change, she must; therefore put money in thy purse.-If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money thou canst. If sanctimony and a frail vow, betwixt an erring barbarian and a supersubtle Venetian, be not too hard for my wits, and all the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her; therefore make money. A pox of drowning thyself! it is clean out of the way; seek thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy, than to be drowned and go without her.

3

Rod. Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on the issue?

4

Iago. Thou art sure of me.-Go, make money; -I have told thee often, and I retell thee again and again, I hate the Moor. My cause is hearted; thine hath no less reason. Let us be conjunctive in our revenge against him; if thou canst cuckold him, thou dost thyself a pleasure, and me a sport. There are many events in the womb of time, which will be delivered. Traverse; 5 go; provide thy money. will have more of this to-morrow.-Adieu. Rod. Where shall we meet i' the morning? Iago. At my lodging.

Rod. I'll be with thee betimes.

We

Jago. Go to; farewell. Do you hear, Roderigo?

Rod. What say you?

Iago. No more of drowning; do you hear?

Rod. I am changed. I'll sell all my land.

1 Sequestration is defined to be “a putting apart, a separation of a thing

from the possession of those that contend for it."

2 The quarto reads "as acerb as coloquintida."

3 Erring is the same as erraticus in Latin.

4 This adjective occurs again in Act iii. :-"hearted throne."

5 i. e. march.

Iago. Go to; farewell; put money enough in your [Exit RODERIGO. Thus do I ever make my fool my purse;

purse.

For I mine own gained knowledge should profane,
If I would time expend with such a snipe,
But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor;
And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets
He has done my office. I know not if 't be true;
But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will do, as if for surety.' He holds me well;
The better shall my purpose work on him.
Cassio's a proper man. Let me see now;
To get his place, and to plume 2 up my will;
A double knavery,-How? how?-Let me see.-
After some time, to abuse Othello's ear,

That he is too familiar with his wife.-
He hath a person; and a smooth dispose

To be suspected; framed to make women false.
The Moor is of a free and open nature,
That thinks men honest, that but seem to be so;
And will as tenderly be led by the nose,

As asses are.

I have't;-it is engendered.-Hell and night

Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light.

[Exit.

ACT II.

SCENE I. A Seaport town in Cyprus. A
Platform.

Enter MONTANO and Two Gentlemen.

Mon. What from the cape can you discern at sea? 1 Gent. Nothing at all. It is a high-wrought flood

1 That is, I will act as if I were certain of the fact. well," is, he entertains a good opinion of me.

2 The first quarto reads "to make up."

"He holds me

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