Exeunt IAGO and Attendants 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 OF VENICE Say it, Othello. OTHELLO Her father loved me; oft invited me;
Still question'd me the story of my life, From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes, That I have passed.
I ran it through, even from my boyish days, To the very moment that he bade me tell it;
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances, Of moving accidents by flood and field Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach, Of being taken by the insolent foe And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence And portance in my travels' history:
Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle, Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven It was my hint to speak,--such was the process;
And of the Cannibals that each other eat, The Anthropophagi and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear Would Desdemona seriously incline:
But still the house-affairs would draw her thence:
Which ever as she could with haste dispatch, She'ld 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 That I would all my pilgrimage dilate, Whereof by parcels she had something heard, But not intentively: I did consent, And often did beguile her of her tears, When I did speak of some distressful stroke That my youth suffer'd. My story being done, She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
She swore, in faith, twas strange, 'twas passing strange, 'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful:
She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd That heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me, And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her, I should but teach him how to tell my story.
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:
She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd, And I loved her that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have used:
Here comes the lady; let her witness it.
Enter DESDEMONA, IAGO, and Attendants DUKE OF VENICE I think this tale would win my daughter too.
Good Brabantio, Take up this mangled matter at the best:
Men do their broken weapons rather use Than their bare hands. BRABANTIO I pray you, hear her speak:
If she confess that she was half the wooer, Destruction on my head, if my bad blame Light on the man! Come hither, gentle mistress:
Do you perceive in all this noble company Where most you owe obedience? DESDEMONA My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty:
To you I am bound for life and education;
My life and education both do learn me How to respect you; you are the lord of duty;
I am hitherto your daughter: but here's my husband, And so much duty as my mother show'd To you, preferring you before her father, So much I challenge that I may profess Due to the Moor my lord. BRABANTIO God be wi' you! I have done.
Please it your grace, on to the state-affairs:
I had rather to adopt a child than get it.
Come hither, Moor:
I here do give thee that with all my heart Which, but thou hast already, with all my heart I would keep from thee. For your sake, jewel, I am glad at soul I have no other child:
For thy escape would teach me tyranny, To hang clogs on them. I have done, my lord. DUKE OF VENICE Let me speak like yourself, and lay a sentence, Which, as a grise or step, may help these lovers Into your favour.
When remedies are past, the griefs are ended By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended.
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
What cannot be preserved when fortune takes Patience her injury a mockery makes.
The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief;
He robs himself that spends a bootless grief. BRABANTIO So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile;
We lose it not, so long as we can smile.
He bears the sentence well that nothing bears But the free comfort which from thence he hears, But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow.
These sentences, to sugar, or to gall, Being strong on both sides, are equivocal:
But words are words; I never yet did hear That the bruised heart was pierced through the ear.
I humbly beseech you, proceed to the affairs of state. DUKE OF VENICE The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes for Cyprus. Othello, the fortitude of the place is best known to you; and though we have there a substitute of most allowed sufficiency, yet opinion, a sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer voice on you: you must therefore be content to slubber the gloss of your new fortunes with this more stubborn and boisterous expedition. OTHELLO The tyrant custom, most grave senators, Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war My thrice-driven bed of down: I do agnise A natural and prompt alacrity I find in hardness, and do undertake These present wars against the Ottomites.
Most humbly therefore bending to your state, I crave fit disposition for my wife.
Due reference of place and exhibition, With such accommodation and besort As levels with her breeding. DUKE OF VENICE If you please, Be't at her father's. BRABANTIO I'll not have it so. OTHELLO Nor I. DESDEMONA Nor I; I would not there reside, To put my father in impatient thoughts By being in his eye. Most gracious duke, To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear;
And let me find a charter in your voice, To assist my simpleness. DUKE OF VENICE What would You, Desdemona? DESDEMONA That I did love the Moor to live with him, My downright violence and storm of fortunes May trumpet to the world: my heart's subdued Even to the very quality of my lord:
I saw Othello's visage in his mind, And to his honour and his valiant parts Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.
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 shall support By his dear absence. Let me go with him. OTHELLO Let her have your voices.
