SCENE III. The same. A Council Chamber.

The Duke, and Senators, sitting at a Table;
Officers attending.

Duke. There is no composition1 in these news, That gives them credit.

1 Sen.

Indeed, they are disproportion'd;

My letters say, a hundred and seven galleys.
Duke. And mine, a hundred and forty.

2

2 Sen. And mine, two hundred: But though they jump not on a just account, (As in these cases, where the aim 2 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 judgment; I do not so secure me in the error,

But the main article I do approve

In fearful sense.

Sailor. [Within.] What ho! what ho! what ho!

was a word of contempt; and the reason will appear from its etymology: Paganus, villanus vel incultus. Et derivatur a pagus quod est villa. Et quicunque habitat in villa est paganus. Præterea quicunque est extra civitatem Dei, i. e. ecclesiam, dicitur paganus. Anglice, a paynim.'-Ortus Vocabulorum, 1528. I know not whether pagan was ever used to designate a clown or rustic; but paganical and paganalian, in a kindred sense, were familiar to our elder language. Malone thinks that 'Brabantio is meant to allude to the common condition of all blacks, who come from their own country both slaves and pagans; and that he uses the word in contempt of Othello. If he is suffered to escape with impunity, we may expect to see all our offices of state filled up by the pagans and bond-slaves of Africa.'

Composition for consistency. It has been before observed that news was considered of the plural number by our ancestors. 2 Aim is guess, conjecture. The quarto reads, they aim reports.' The meaning appears to be, In these cases where conjecture tells the tale.'-Aim is again used as a substantive in Julius Cæsar :

What you would work me to, I have some aim.' See also vol. i. p. 137.

Enter an Officer, with a Sailor.

Off. A messenger from the galleys.
Duke.

Now? the business?

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

Duke. How say you by this change?
1 Sen.

This cannot be,
By no assay of reason3; 'tis a pageant,
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 question* bear it,
[For that it stands not in such warlike brace3,
But altogether lacks the abilities

That Rhodes is dress'd 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,
To wake, and wage, a danger profitless.]

Duke. Nay, in all confidence, he's not for Rhodes.
Off. Here is more news.

36 Bring it to the test, examine it by reason, it will be found counterfeit.'

That he may carry it with less dispute, with diminished opposition.

5 i. e. in such state of defence. To arm was called to brace on the armour. The seven following lines were added since the first edition in quarto, 1622.

6 To wage is to undertake. To wage law (in the common acceptation) seems to be to follow, to urge, drive on, or prosecute the law or law-suits; as to wage war is præliari, bellare, to drive on the war, to fight in battels as warriors do.'-Blount's Glossography. See King Lear, p. 386, note 25.

Enter a Messenger.

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

1 Sen. Ay, so I thought:-How many, as you guess?

Mess. Of thirty sail and now do they restem Their backward course, bearing with frank appear

ance

Their purposes toward Cyprus.-Signior Montano, Your trusty and most valiant servitor,

With his free duty recommends you thus,

And prays you to believe him 7.

Duke. Tis certain then for Cyprus,

Marcus Lucchesé, is he not in town? 1 Sen. He's now in Florence.

Duke. Write from us; wish him post-post-haste: despatch.

1 Sen. Here comes Brabantio, and the valiant

Moor.

Enter BRABANTIO, OTHELLO, IAGO, RODERIGO, and Officers.

Duke. Valiant Othello, we must straight employ

you

Against the general enemy Ottoman9.

7 He entreats you not to doubt the truth of this intelligence.' 8 i. e. desire him to make all possible haste.' The folio reads:

'Write from us to him, post, post-haste, dispatch.'

9 It was part of the policy of the Venetian state to employ strangers, and even Moors, in their wars. 'By lande they are served of straungers, both for generals, for capitaines, and for all other men of warre, because theyr lawe permitteth not any Venetian to be capitaine over an armie by lande; fearing, I thinke, Cæsar's example.'-Thomas's History of Italye, p. 82. See also Contareni's Republic of Venice, by Lewkenor, 1599; and Howell's Letters, sect, i, let, xxviii.

I did not see you; welcome, gentle signior;

[To BRABANTIO. We lack'd your counsel and your help to-night. Bra. So did I yours: Good your grace, pardon me; Neither my place, nor aught I heard of business, Hath rais'd me from my bed; nor doth the general

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? Bra. My daughter! O, my daughter!

Sen.

Bra.

Dead?

Ay, to me;

She is abus'd, stol'n from me, and corrupted

By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks 11
For nature so preposterously to err,

Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense 12,
Sans witchcraft could not-

:

Duke. Whoe'er he be, that, in this foul proceeding, Hath thus beguil'd your daughter of herself, And you of her, the bloody book of law You shall yourself read in the bitter letter,

10

– juvenumque prodis

Publica cura.'

Steevens would read this line thus:

Hor.

'Rais'd me from bed; nor doth the general careomitting Hath and my, which he considers playhouse interpolations; by which, he says, the metre of this tragedy is too frequently deranged.

11 By the Venetian law the giving love-potions was highly criminal, as appears in the Code Della Promission del Malefico, cap. xvii. Dei Maleficii et Herbarie. Shakspeare may not have known this; but he was well acquainted with the edicts of James I. against

practisers

Of arts inhibited, and out of warrant.' 12 This line is not in the first quarto.

After your own sense; yea, though our proper son

Stood in your action 13.

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.

Duke & Sen.

We are very sorry for it.

Duke. What, in your own part, can you say to

this?

Bra. Nothing, but this is so.

[TO OTHELLO.

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 14 Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech, And little bless'd with the set 15 phrase of peace; For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith, Till now some nine moons wasted, they have us'd Their dearest action 16 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 of myself: Yet, by your gracious patience,

13 Though our own son were the man exposed to your charge or accusation.

'Frons causæ not satis

14 The main, the whole unextenuated. honesta est' is a phrase used by Quintilian. A similar expression is found in Tamburlaine, 1590:

The man that in the forehead of his fortunes
Beares figures of renown and miracle.'

Again in Troilus and Cressida :

'So rich advantage of a promis'd glory

As smiles upon the forehead of this action.'

6

15 The folio reads, soft phrase of peace.'

16Their dearest action; that is, as we should say in modern language, their best exertion. For the force of the word dearest the reader may refer to vol. i. p. 382, note 5.