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Bra. Not I; What are you?
Rod. My name is Roderigo.
Bra.

The worse welcome :

I have charg'd thee, not to haunt about my doors:
In honest plainness thou hast heard me say,
My daughter is not for thee; and now, in madness,
Being full of supper, and distempering 16 draughts,
Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come

To start my quiet.

Rod. Sir, sir, sir, sir,

Bra.

My spirit, and my place, have in them power

But thou must needs be sure,

Patience, good sir.

To make this bitter to thee.

Rod.

Bra. What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is

Venice;

My house is not a grange 17.

Rod.

Most grave Brabantio, In simple and pure soul I come to you. Iago. 'Zounds, sir, you are one of those, that will not serve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to do you service, you think we are ruffians: You'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse; you'll have your nephews 18 neigh to you: you'll have coursers for cousins, and gennets for germans 19.

16 That is 'intoxicating draughts.' In Hamlet the king is said to be marvellous distemper'd with wine.' See King Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 2, p. 424.

17 That is, we are in a populous city, mine is not a lone house, where a robbery might easily be committed. Grange is, strictly, the farm of a monastery; grangia, Lat. from granum: but, provincially, any lone house or solitary farm is called a grange. So in Measure for Measure:-' At the moated grange resides this dejected Mariana.'

18 Nephews here mean grandchildren. See King Henry VI. Part I. p. 41; and King Richard III. p. 84.

19 i. e. horses for relations. A gennet is a Spanish or Barbary horse.

Bra. What profane 20 wretch art thou?

Iago. I am one, sir, that comes to tell you, your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs 21.

Bra. Thou art a villain.

Iago.

You are a senator.

Bra. This thou shalt answer: I know thee, Ro

derigo.

Rod. Sir, I will answer any thing. But I beseech you,

[If't be your pleasure, and most wise consent,
(As partly, I find, it is), that your fair daughter,
At this odd-even 22 and dull watch o'the night,
Transported with no worse nor better guard,
But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,-
To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor,-
If this be known to you, and your allowance 23
We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;
But if you know not this, my manners tell me,
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe,
That, from 24 the sense of all civility,

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I thus would play and trifle with your reverence: Your daughter,-if you have not given her leave,—

20 A profane wretch is an unlucky or a wicked one. p. 384, note 4.

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See vol. v.

21 Faire la bête à deux dos is a French proverbial expression, which needs no explanation. See the notes to any edition of Rabelais, or Le Roux's Dictionnaire Comique.

22 This odd-even appears to mean the interval between twelve at night and one in the morning. So in Macbeth:

What is the night?

Lady M. Almost at odds with morning, which is which.'

23 i. e. your approbation.

24 That is, in opposition to or departing from the sense of all civility. So in Twelfth Night :

But this is from my commission.'

And in The Mayor of Queenborough, by Middleton, 1661 :But this is from my business.'

I say again, hath made a gross revolt;

Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes,
In an extravagant 25 and wheeling stranger,

Of here and every where: Straight satisfy yourself:]
If she be in her chamber, or your house,
Let loose on me the justice of the state
For thus deluding you.

Bra.
Give me a taper;-call up all my people:--
This accident is not unlike my dream,

Strike on the tinder, ho!

Belief of it oppresses me already:

Light, I say! light!

[Exit, from above.

Iago. Farewell; for I must leave you: It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place, To be produc'd (as, if I stay, I shall), Against the Moor: For, I do know, the state,However this may gall him with some check 26,Cannot with safety cast 27 him; for he's embark'd With such loud reason to the Cyprus' wars

(Which even now stand in act), that, for their souls, Another of his fathom they have not,

To lead their business: in which regard,
Though I do hate him as I do hell pains,
Yet, for necessity of present life,

I must show out a flag and sign of love,
Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely
find him,

Lead to the Sagittary the rais'd search;

And there will I be with him. So, farewell. [Exit.

25 Extravagant is here again used in its Latin sense, for wandering. Thus in Hamlet: The extravagant and erring spirit.' Sir Henry Wooton thus uses it: These two accidents, precisely true, and known to few, I have reported as not altogether extravagant from my purpose.' Parallel, &c. between Buckingham and Essex.-In is here used for on, a common substitution in ancient phraseology. Pope and others, not aware of this, altered it, and read, To an extravagant,' &c.

26 i. e. some rebuke. 27 That is, dismiss him, reject him.

Enter below, BRABANTIO, and Servants with Torches.

Bra. It is too true an evil: gone she is: And what's to come of my despised time 28, Is nought but bitterness.-Now, Roderigo, Where didst thou see her?-O, unhappy girl!— With the Moor, say'st thou?-Who would be a father?

How didst thou know 'twas she? O, thou deceiv'st me Past thought!-What said she to you?-Get more tapers;

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

Bra. O heaven!-How got she out!-O treason of the blood!

Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds By what you see them act,-Is there not charms 29, By which the property of youth and maidhood May be abus'd 30? Have you not read, Roderigo, Of some such thing?

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Yes, sir; I have indeed. brother.-0, that you had had

Some one way, some another.-Do you know
Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?

28 Despised time is time of no value: time in which
'There's nothing serious in mortality;

The wine of life is drawn, and the mere dregs
Are left this vault to brag of.'

So in Romeo and Juliet:

expire the term

Of a despised life clos'd in my breast.'

29 Is there not charms,' &c. mean Is there not such a thing as charms? The second folio reads, 'Are there not,' &c.

30 i. e. may be illuded or deceived.

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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; I may command at most;-Get weapons, ho! And raise some special officers of night.— On, good Roderigo;-I'll deserve your pains.

SCENE II. The same.

[Exeunt.

Another Street.

Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Attendants. Iago. Though in the trade of war I have slain men, Yet do I hold it very stuff1 o'the conscience, To do no contriv'd murder; I lack iniquity Sometimes, to do me service: Nine or ten time I had thought to have yerk'd him here under the ribs. Oth. 'Tis better as it is.

Iago.

Nay, but he prated2, And spoke such 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
fast married? for, be sure of this,-
That the magnifico3 is much beloved;

And hath, in his effect, a voice potential1
As double as the duke's; he will divorce you;

1 This expression to common readers appears harsh. Stuff of the conscience is substance or essence of the conscience. Shakspeare uses the word in the same sense, and in a manner yet more harsh in Macbeth :

Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff.'

2 Of whom is this said?-Of Roderigo.'-Steevens. 3 The chief men of Venice are by a peculiar name called magnifici, i. e. magnificoes. See Ben Jonson's Volpone.

i. e. as mighty, as powerful: as double means as strong, as forcible, as double in effect as that of the doge, whose voice of course carried great sway with it, and who is said to have had extraordinary privileges, influencing every court and council of the state.

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