Duke.
There is ^note no composition in these ^note news
That gives them credit.

First Sen.
Indeed ^note they are ^note disproportion'd ^note;
My letters say a hundred and seven ^note galleys.

Duke.
And mine ^note, a ^note hundred and ^note forty. ^note

Sec. Sen.
And mine, two hundred:
But though they jump not on a just account,—
As in these cases, where the ^note aim ^{note note} reports ^note,
'Tis oft with difference,—yet do ^note 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 ^note the error,
But the main article ^note I do approve
In fearful sense.

Sailor. [Within ^note]
What, ho! what, ho! what, ho!

First Off. ^note
A messenger from the galleys ^note. Enter Sailor. ^note

Duke.
Now, what's ^note the business?

Sailor.
The Turkish preparation makes for Rhodes;
So was I bid report here to the state ^note
By Signior Angelo ^note. ^note

Duke.
How say you by this change?

First Sen.
This cannot be,
By no assay of reason: 'tis a pageant ^note
To keep us in false gaze. When we consider
The 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 ^note question bear it,
For that it stands not in such warlike brace,
But ^note altogether lacks the abilities
That Rhodes is dress'd in: if we make thought ^note 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,
To wake and ^note wage a danger profitless. ^note

Duke.
Nay, ^note in all ^note confidence, he's not for Rhodes.

First Off. ^note
Here is more news. Enter a Messenger. ^note

Mess.
The Ottomites, reverend and gracious,
Steering with due course toward the isle of Rhodes,
Have there injointed ^note them ^note with an after fleet.

First Sen. ^note
Ay, so I thought. How many, as you guess?

Mess.
Of thirty ^note sail: and now they do re-stem ^note
Their backward course, bearing with frank appearance
Their purposes toward ^note Cyprus. Signior Montano,
Your trusty and most valiant servitor,
With his ^note free duty recommends you thus ^note, ^note
And prays you to believe ^note him.

Duke.
'Tis certain then for Cyprus.
Marcus Luccicos ^note, is not he ^note in town? ^note

First Sen.
He's now in Florence.

Duke.
Write from us to him; post ^note-post-haste ^note dispatch ^note. ^note

First Sen.
Here comes Brabantio and the valiant ^note Moor. Enter Brabantio, Othello, Iago, Roderigo, ^note and Officers. ^{note note}

Duke.
Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you
Against the general enemy Ottoman. [To Brabantio ^note]
I did not see you; welcome, gentle signior;
We lack'd ^note your counsel and your help to-night.

Bra.
So did I yours. Good your grace, pardon me;

Neither my place nor ^note aught I heard of business
Hath raised me from my bed ^note, nor doth ^note the general care ^note
Take hold on ^note me; for my particular grief ^note
Is of so flood-gate and o'erbearing nature
That it engluts and ^note swallows other sorrows,
And it ^note is still itself.

Duke.
Why, what's the matter?

Bra.
My daughter! O, my daughter!

All. ^note
Dead?

Bra.
Ay, ^note to me;
She is abused, stol'n from me and corrupted
By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks;
For nature so preposterously to ^note err,
Being not deficient ^note, blind, or ^note lame of sense, ^note
Sans ^note witchcraft could not. ^note

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 ^note own sense, yea, ^note though our proper son
Stood in your action.

Bra.
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. ^note
We are very sorry for 't ^note.

Duke. [To Othello ^note]
What in your own part can you say to this?

Bra.
Nothing, but this is so.

Oth.
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:
The very head and front of my offending
Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I ^note in my speech,
And little blest with the soft ^note phrase of peace;
For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,
Till now some ^note nine moons wasted, they have used
Their dearest action in the tented field;
And little of this great world can I speak,
More than pertains to feats of broil ^note and battle;
And therefore little shall I grace my cause
In speaking for ^note myself. Yet, by your gracious ^note patience,
I will ^note a round unvarnish'd ^note tale ^note deliver
Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms, ^{note note}
What conjuration and what mighty magic—
For such proceeding ^note I am ^note charged withal—
I won his daughter. ^note

Bra.
A maiden never bold;
Of spirit so ^note still and quiet that her motion
Blush'd at herself ^note; and she—in spite of nature,
Of years, of country, credit, every thing—

To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on! ^note
It is a judgement maim'd ^note and most imperfect ^note
That will confess perfection ^note so could ^note 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,
Or with some dram conjured to this effect,
He wrought upon ^note her.

Duke. ^note
To vouch ^note this, is no proof,
Without more certain ^note and more ^note overt test ^note
Than these ^note thin habits and poor likelihoods
Of modern seeming ^note do ^note prefer against him.

First Sen. ^note
But, ^note 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?

Oth.
I do ^note beseech you, ^note
Send for the lady to the Sagittary ^note,
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, ^note
Not only take away, but let your sentence ^note
Even fall upon ^note my life.

Duke.
Fetch Desdemona hither.

Oth.
Ancient, conduct them; you best know the place. ^note [Exeunt ^note Iago and Attendants.
And till ^note she come, as truly ^note as to heaven
I do confess the vices of my blood, ^note
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.

Oth.
Her father loved me, oft invited me,
Still question'd ^note me the story ^note of my life
From year to year ^note, the battles ^note, sieges, fortunes ^note,
That I have ^note pass'd. ^note
I ran it through, even from ^note my boyish days
To the very moment that he bade me tell it:
Wherein I spake ^note of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by ^note flood and field,
Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly ^note breach,
Of being taken by the insolent foe,
And sold to slavery, of ^note my redemption thence,
And portance in my ^note travels' ^note history:
Wherein of antres ^note vast and deserts idle ^note,
Rough quarries, rocks, and ^note hills whose heads ^note touch heaven,

It was my hint ^note to speak,—such was the ^note process;
And of the Cannibals that each other ^note eat,
The Anthropophagi ^note, and men whose heads
Do grow ^note beneath their shoulders. ^note This ^note to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline:
But still the house-affairs would draw her thence ^note;
Which ^note 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 ^note she had something heard,
But not ^note intentively ^note: I did consent,
And often did beguile her of her tears
When I did speak of some distressful ^note stroke
That my youth suffer'd ^note. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs ^note:
She swore, in faith ^note, '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 ^note 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 ^note this hint ^note I spake:
She loved me for the dangers I had ^note 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. ^note Enter Desdemona, Iago, and Attendants. ^{note note}

Duke.
I think this tale would win my daughter too.
Good Brabantio,
Take up this mangled matter at the best: ^note
Men do their broken weapons rather use
Than their bare hands.

Bra.
I pray you, hear her speak:
If she confess that she was half the wooer,
Destruction on my head ^note, if my bad blame
Light on the man! Come hither, gentle mistress:
Do you perceive in all this ^note noble company
Where most you ^note owe obedience?

Des.
My noble ^note father,
I do perceive here a divided duty:
To you I am ^note bound for life and education;
My life and education both do learn me
How to respect you; you are ^note the lord of ^note duty,
I am ^note hitherto your daughter: but here's my husband,
And so much duty as my mother show'd ^note
To you, preferring you before her father,
So much ^note I challenge that I may profess
Due to the Moor ^note my lord.

Bra.
God be with you! I have done. ^note
Please it your grace, on to the state-affairs:
I had rather to ^note 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 ^note my heart ^note
I would keep from thee. For your ^note sake, jewel,
I am ^note glad at soul I ^note have no other child;
For thy escape would teach me tyranny,
To hang clogs on them ^note. I have done, my ^note lord.

Duke.
Let me speak ^note like yourself ^note, and lay a sentence ^{note note}
Which, as ^note a grise ^note or step, may help these lovers ^note
Into your favour. ^note
When remedies are past, the griefs are ended ^note
By seeing the worst ^note, which late on hopes depended.
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone
Is the next way to draw new ^note mischief on.
What cannot be preserved when fortune takes,
Patience her injury a mockery ^note makes.
The robb'd that smiles steals something from the ^note thief;
He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.

Bra.
So let ^note the Turk of Cyprus us beguile;
We lose ^note it not so long as we can smile.
He bears the sentence well, that nothing bears
But the free comfort ^note which from thence he hears;
But he bears ^note 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 ^note through the ear ^note. ^note
I humbly beseech you, proceed to ^note the affairs of state ^note.

Duke.

The Turk with a ^note most mighty preparation makes for Cyprus. Othello, the fortitude of the place is best known to you; and though we have there ^note a substitute of most allowed sufficiency, yet opinion, a ^note sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer ^note voice on you: you must therefore be content to slubber the gloss ^note of your new fortunes with this more ^note stubborn and boisterous expedition.

Oth.
The tyrant custom, most grave ^note senators,
Hath made the flinty and steel couch ^note of war
My thrice-driven bed of down: I do agnize
A natural and prompt alacrity ^note
I find in ^note hardness ^note; and do ^note undertake
These present wars ^note against the Ottomites.
Most humbly therefore bending to your state,
I crave fit disposition for my wife,
Due reference ^note of place and exhibition,
With ^note such accommodation ^note and besort
As levels with her breeding.

Duke.
If you please,
Be 't at her father's. ^note

Bra.
I'll ^note not have it so.

Oth.
Nor I.

Des.
Nor I, I would not ^note there reside ^note,
To put my father in impatient thoughts
By being in his eye. Most gracious duke,
To my unfolding lend your prosperous ^note ear,
And let me find a charter ^note in your voice
To assist my simpleness. ^note

Duke.
What would you, Desdemona? ^note

Des.
That I did ^note love the Moor to live with him,
My downright violence and storm of fortunes ^note
May trumpet to the world: my heart's ^note subdued
Even to the very quality ^note of my lord:
I saw Othello's visage in his mind,
And to his honours and his valiant parts
Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.
So that, dear ^note lords, if I be left behind,
A moth of peace, and he go to the war,
The rites ^note for which ^note I love him are bereft me,
And I a heavy interim shall support
By his dear absence. Let me go with him.

Oth.
Let her have your voices. ^note
Vouch with me, heaven, ^note I therefore beg it not,

To please the palate of my appetite;
Nor to comply with heat—the young affects ^note
In me defunct— ^noteand proper satisfaction;
But to be free and bounteous to ^note her mind: ^note
And heaven defend your good souls ^note, that you think
I will your serious and great ^note business scant
For ^note she is with me. No, when light-wing'd toys
Of ^note feather'd Cupid seel ^note with wanton dullness ^note
My speculative and officed ^note instruments ^note,
That my disports corrupt and taint my business,
Let housewives ^note make a skillet ^note of my helm,
And all indign and base adversities
Make head against my estimation ^note!

Duke.
Be it as you shall privately determine,
Either ^note for her ^note stay or going: the affair cries ^note haste,
And speed must answer't; ^note you must hence to-night. ^note

Des.
To-night, my lord? ^note

Duke.
This night. ^note

Oth.
With all my heart. ^note

Duke.
At nine ^note i' the morning here we'll meet again.
Othello, leave some officer behind,
And he shall our commission bring to you;
With ^note such things else of quality and ^note respect
As doth import ^note you.

Oth.
So ^note 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 ^note grace shall think
To be sent after me.

Duke.
Let it be so.
Good night to every one. [To Brab. ^note] And, noble signior,
If virtue no delighted ^note beauty lack,
Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.

First Sen. ^note
Adieu, brave Moor; use Desdemona well.

Bra.
Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes ^note to see:
She has deceived ^note her father, and may thee ^note. [Exeunt ^note Duke, Senators, Officers, &c.

Oth.
My life upon her faith! Honest Iago,
My Desdemona must I leave to thee:
I prithee, let thy wife attend on her;
And bring them ^note after in the ^note best advantage.
Come, Desdemona; I have but an hour

Of love, of worldly ^note matters ^note and direction,
To spend ^note with thee: we must obey the ^note time. [Exeunt ^note Othello and Desdemona. ^note

Rod.

Iago!

Iago.

What say'st thou, noble heart?

Rod.

What will ^note I do, thinkest thou?

Iago.

Why, go to bed and sleep.

Rod.

I will incontinently drown myself.

Iago.

If ^note thou dost, I shall never love thee after. ^note Why, thou silly gentleman! ^note

Rod.

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

Iago.

O villanous! ^note I have ^note looked upon the world for four times seven years; and since I could distinguish betwixt ^note a benefit and an injury, I never found man ^note that knew how to love himself. Ere I would say I would drown myself for the love of a guinea-hen ^note, 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 my virtue to amend it.

Iago.

Virtue! a fig! 'tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are gardens ^note; to the which our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles or sow lettuce, set hyssop ^note and weed up thyme ^note, supply it with one

gender of herbs or distract it with many, either to have ^note it sterile with idleness or manured with industry, why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills ^note. If the balance ^note 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 ^note stings, our ^note unbitted lusts; whereof I take this, that you call love, to be a sect ^note or scion ^note.

Rod.

It cannot be.

Iago.

It is merely a lust of the ^note blood and a permission ^note of the will. Come, be a man: drown thyself! drown cats and blind puppies. I have professed ^note me thy friend, and I confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of perdurable toughness: I could never better stead ^note thee than now. Put money in thy purse; follow thou the ^note wars; defeat ^note thy favour with an usurped beard; I say, put money in thy purse. It cannot be that Desdemona should long ^note continue her love to ^note the Moor—put money in thy purse— ^notenor he his ^note to her: it was a violent commencement ^note, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration ^note; put but ^note 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 ^note, shall be to him shortly ^note as bitter as ^note coloquintida. She must change for youth: ^note when she is sated with his body, she will find the error ^note of her choice: she must have change, she must: ^note 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 ^note barbarian and a ^note supersubtle ^note 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 ^note thyself ^note! it is ^note clean out of the way: seek thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy than to be drowned and go without her.

Rod.

Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on the issue ^note?

Iago.

Thou art sure of me: go, make money: I have told thee often, and I re-tell ^note thee ^note again and again, I hate the Moor: my cause is hearted; thine hath ^note no less reason. Let us be conjunctive ^note in our revenge against him: if thou canst cuckold ^note him, thou dost thyself a pleasure, me ^note a sport. There are many events in the womb of time, which will be delivered. Traverse; go; provide thy money. We 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.

Iago.

Go to; farewell. Do you hear ^note, Roderigo?

Rod.

What say you?

Iago.

No more of drowning, do you hear?

Rod.
I am changed: I'll go sell all my land. [Exit. ^{note note}

Iago.
Thus do I ever make my fool my purse; ^note
For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane,
If I would ^note time expend with such a snipe ^note
But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor;
And it is thought abroad that 'twixt my sheets
He has ^note done my office: I know not if't be true;
But ^note 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 ^note place, and to plume ^note up my will
In ^note double knavery— ^noteHow, how?—Let's ^note see:—
After some time, to abuse Othello's ear ^note
That he is too familiar with his ^note 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 ^note,
That thinks men honest that but seem ^note to be so;
And will as tenderly be led ^note by the nose ^note
As asses are. ^note

I have 't ^note. It is engender'd ^note. Hell and night ^note
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light. [Exit. ^note

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