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Bra. Thou art a villain.

Iago. You are a fenator.

[dorigo.

Bra. This thou shalt anfwer. I know thee, Ro-
Rod. Sir, I will answer any thing. But I beseech
If 't be your pleasure and most wife consent [you,
(As partly, I find, it is) that your fair daughter,
At this odd even and dull watch of the night,
Transported with no worse nor better guard,
But with a knave of hire, a Gondelier,
To the gross clasps of a lascivious 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 sense of all civility

I thus would play, and trifle with your reverence.
Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,
Ifay again, hath made a grofs revolt;
1 ying her duty, beauty, wit and fortunes
To an extravagant and wreeling stranger,
Of here and every where. Straight fatisfy yourself;
If the be in her chamber, or your house,
Let loose on me the justice 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,
Belief of it opprefles me already.

Light, I fay, light!

lago. Farewel; for I must leave you. It seems not meet, nor wholiome to my place, To be produc'd (as, if I stay, I fhali) Against the Moor. For I do know, the State, However this may gall him with fome check, Cannot with fafety cast him. For he's embark'd With fuch loud reason to the Cyprus' wars, VOL. XII.

!

1

Which even now stand in act, that for their fouls,

Another of his fadom they have none,
To lead their business. In which regard,
Though I do hate him as I do hell's pains,
Yet, for neceffity of present life,

I must shew out a flag and fign of love: [find him,
(Which is, indeed, but fign.) That you may furely
Lead to the Sagittary the raised search;
And there will I be with him. So, farewel. [Exit
Enter BRABANTIO, and Servants with lighted
Torches.

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 didst thou see her? Oh unhappy girl!
With the Moor, faidst thou? who would be a father?
How didit thou know 'twas she? oh, she deceives me,
Past thought-What faid the to you? get more

tapers

Raise all my kindred---are they married, think you?
Rod. Truly, I think, they are.

Bra. Oh Heaven! how gat she out!

Oh treason of my blood!

Fathers, fromhence trust not your daughters'minds,
By what you fee them act. Are there not charins,
By which the property of youth and maidhood
May be abused? have you not read, Rodorigo,
Of some such thing?

Rod. Yes, Sir, I have, indeed.
[had her.
Bra. Call up my brother. Oh, 'would you had
Some one way, fome another-Do you know
Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?
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 house I'll call,

J

I may command at most; get weapons, hoa!
And raise fome special officers of might:

On, good Rodorigo, I'll deferve your pains. (Exe.

SCENE changes to another Street before the Sa-
gittary.

Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Attendants, with
Torches.

lago. Tho' in the trade of war I have flain men,
Yet do I hold it very stuff o' th' confcience
To do no contrived murder: I lack iniquity
Sometimes to do me service.-----Nine or ten times
I thought to've jerked him here under the ribs.
Oih. It's better as it is.

Iago. Nay, but he prated,

And fpoke fuch scurvy and provoking terms
Against your honour;

That with the little godliness 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 beloved,
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 spight:

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

* As double as the Duke's] Rymer seems to have had his eye on this passage amongst others, when he talks so much of the impropriety and barbarity in the style of this play. But it is, in truth, a very elegant grecifm. As double, fignifies as large, as extenive. So the Greeks ufed διπλῆς, for, latus, grandis, as well as duplex; and, in the fame manner and conftructions, the Latins sometimes used their duplex.

My Warburton.

My fervices, which I have done the fignory,
Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know,
(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 bonneted, to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reached. For know, Iago,
But that I love the gentle Desdemona,
I would not my unhoused free-condition
Put into circumscription and confine,

[yonder.

For the fea's worth. But look, what lights come

I fetch my life and being

(7)

From men of royal fiege; and my demerits

May Speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune

As this that I have reached.] Thus all the copies read this. passage. But to speak unbonneted, 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, unbonneted he runs,
And bids what will take all.

Othello means to fay, that his birth and services set him upon fuch a rank, that he may speak to a fenator of Venice with his hat on; i. e without shewing any marks of deference, or inequality. I, therefore, am inclined to think Shakespeare

wrote:

May speak, and bonneted, &c.

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

May speak imbonneted, &c.

I proposed the correction of this, passage in my Shake. speare Restored; upon which Mr Pope, in his last edition, has found out another expedient, and would.read;

May speak u bon eting, &c.

i e. as he says, without pulling off the bonnett. But the sense thus is equivocal and obfcure; and uit onneting more naturally fignifies pulling off the bonnet, than the contrary.

Enter CASSIO with Torches.

lago. Those are the raised father, and his friends: You were best go in.

Oth. Not 1; I must be found. My parts, my title, and my perfect foul Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they? lago. By Janus, I think no. Oth. The fervants of the Duke and my Lieute

[nant.

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

Caf. The Duke doth greet you, General;
And he requires your haite, post-hafte appearance,
Even on the inflant.

Oth. What is the matter, think you? Caf. Something from Cyprus, as I may divine; It is a business of fome heat. The gallies Have fent a dozen sequent messengers This very night at one another's heels:

And many of the counsellors raised and met, (8) Are at the Duke's already. You have been hotly

called for,

When, being not at your lodging to be found,
The Senate fent above three several quests,
To fearch you out.

Oth. 'Tis well I am found by you:
I will but fpend a word here in the house,
And go with you.

[Exit Othello.

Caf. Ancient, what makes he here?

(8) And many of the confuls, raifed and met,

Are at the Doke's already] Thus all the editions concur in reading; but there is no fuch character as a confil ap pears in any part of the play. I change it to counfellows; i ce the grandees that conftitute the great council at Venice. The reason I have already given above, in the clofe of the faith note.

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