The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
Page 414
The duke’s in council, and your noble self
I am sure is sent for.
BRABANTIO How? the duke in council?
In this time of the night? Bring him away:
Mine’s not an idle cause, the duke himself,
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Or any of my brothers of the state,
Cannot but feel this wrong as ’twere their own.
For if such actions may have passage free
Bond-slaves and pagans shall our statesmen be.
Exeunt.
1.3 Enter DUKE and Senators, set at a table, with lights and attendants.
DUKE There is no composition in these news
That gives them credit.
1 SENATOR Indeed, they are disproportioned.
My letters say a hundred and seven galleys.
DUKE And mine a hundred forty.
2 SENATOR And mine two hundred.
But though they jump not on a just account –
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As in these cases, where the aim reports,
’Tis oft with difference – yet do they all confirm
A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus.
DUKE Nay, it is possible enough to judgement:
I do not so secure me in the error
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But the main article I do approve
In fearful sense.
SAILOR [within] What ho, what ho, what ho!
Enter Sailor.
OFFICER A messenger from the galleys.
DUKE Now? what’s the business?
SAILOR The Turkish preparation makes for Rhodes,
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So was I bid report here to the state
By Signior Angelo.
DUKE How say you by this change?
1 SENATOR This cannot be,
By no assay of reason: ’tis a pageant
To keep us in false gaze. When we consider
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Th’importancy of Cyprus to the Turk,
And let ourselves again but understand
That as it more concerns the Turk than Rhodes
So may he with more facile question bear it,
For that it stands not in such warlike brace
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But altogether lacks th’abilities
That Rhodes is dressed in. If we make thought of this
We must not think the Turk is so unskilful
To leave that latest which concerns him first,
Neglecting an attempt of ease and gain
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To wake and wage a danger profitless.
DUKE Nay, in all confidence, he’s not for Rhodes.
OFFICER Here is more news.
Enter a Messenger.
MESSENGER The Ottomites, reverend and gracious,
Steering with due course toward the isle of Rhodes,
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Have there injointed with an after fleet –
1 SENATOR Ay, so I thought; how many, as you guess?
MESSENGER Of thirty sail; and now they do re-stem
Their backward course, bearing with frank appearance
Their purposes toward Cyprus. Signior Montano,
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Your trusty and most valiant servitor,
With his free duty recommends you thus
And prays you to relieve him.
DUKE ’Tis certain then for Cyprus.
Marcus Luccicos, is not he in town?
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1 SENATOR He’s now in Florence.
DUKE Write from us to him; post-post-haste, dispatch.
1 SENATOR
Here comes Brabantio and the valiant Moor.
EnterBRABANTIO, OTHELLO, CASSIO, IAGO, RODERIGO and officers.
DUKE Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you
Against the general enemy Ottoman.
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[to Brabantio] I did not see you: welcome, gentle signior,
We lacked your counsel and your help tonight.
BRABANTIO
So did I yours. Good your grace, pardon me,
Neither my place nor aught I heard of business
Hath raised me from my bed, nor doth the general care
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Take hold on me, for my particular grief
Is of so flood-gate and o’erbearing nature
That it engluts and swallows other sorrows
And it is still itself.
DUKE Why? What’s the matter?
BRABANTIO
My daughter, O my daughter!
1 SENATOR Dead?
BRABANTIO Ay, to me:
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She is abused, stolen from me and corrupted
By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks,
For nature so preposterously to err
Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense,
Sans witchcraft could not.
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DUKE Whoe’er he be, that in this foul proceeding
Hath thus beguiled your daughter of herself,
And you of her, the bloody book of law
You shall yourself read, in the bitter letter,
After your own sense, yea, though our proper son
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Stood in your action.
BRABANTIO Humbly I thank your grace.
Here is the man, this Moor, whom now it seems
Your special mandate for the state affairs
Hath hither brought.
ALL We are very sorry for’t.
DUKE [to Othello]
What in your own part can you say to this?
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BRABANTIO Nothing, but this is so.
OTHELLO Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
My very noble and approved good masters:
That I have ta’en away this old man’s daughter
It is most true; true, I have married her.
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The very head and front of my offending
Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech
And little blest with the soft phrase of peace,
For since these arms of mine had seven years’ pith
Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used
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Their dearest action in the tented field,
And little of this great world can I speak
More than pertains to feats of broil and battle,
And therefore little shall I grace my cause
In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,
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I will a round unvarnished tale deliver
Of my whole course of love, what drugs, what charms,
What conjuration and what mighty magic –
For such proceeding I am charged withal –
I won his daughter.
BRABANTIO A maiden never bold,
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Of spirit so still and quiet that her motion
Blushed at herself; and she, in spite of nature,
Of years, of country, credit, everything,
To fall in love with what she feared to look on?
It is a judgement maimed and most imperfect
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That will confess perfection so could err
Against all rules of nature, and must be driven
To find out practices of cunning hell
Why this should be. I therefore vouch again
That with some mixtures powerful o’er the blood
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Or with some dram conjured to this effect
He wrought upon her.
DUKE To vouch this is no proof,
Without more certain and more overt test
Than these thin habits and poor likelihoods
Of modern seeming do prefer against him.
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1 SENATOR But, Othello, speak:
Did you by indirect and forced courses
Subdue and poison this young maid’s affections?
Or came it by request and such fair question
As soul to soul affordeth?
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Send for the lady to the Sagittary,
And let her speak of me before her father.
If you do find me foul in her report
The trust, the office I do hold of you
Not only take away, but let your sentence
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Even fall upon my life.
DUKE Fetch Desdemona hither.
OTHELLO
Ancient, conduct them, you best know the place.
And till she come, as truly as to heaven
Exeunt Iago and two or three.
I do confess the vices of my blood
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So justly to your grave ears I’ll present
How I did thrive in this fair lady’s love
And she in mine.
DUKE Say it, Othello.
OTHELLO Her father loved me, oft invited me,
Still questioned me the story of my life
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From year to year – the battles, sieges, fortunes
That I have passed.
I ran it through, even from my boyish days
To th’ very moment that he bade me tell it,
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
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Of moving accidents by flood and field,
Of hair-breadth scapes i’th’ imminent deadly breach,
Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence
And portance in my travailous history;
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Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven
It was my hint to speak – such was my process –
And of the cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
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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’d come again, and with a greedy ear
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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
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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 suffered. My story being done
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs,
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She swore in faith ’twas strange, ’twas passing strange,
’Twas pitiful, ’twas wondrous pitiful;
She wished she had not heard it, yet she wished
That heaven had made her such a man. She thanked me
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
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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 passed
And I loved her that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have used:
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EnterDESDEMONA, IAGO, attendants.
Here comes the lady, let her witness it.
DUKE 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.
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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,
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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:
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And so much duty as my mother showed
To you, preferring you before her father,
So much I challenge that I may profess
Due to the Moor my lord.
BRABANTIO God be with you, I have done.
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Please it your grace, on to the state affairs;
I had rather to adopt a child than get it.
Come hither, Moor: