Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

Never believe it;

I am more an antique Roman than a Dane,
Here's yet some liquor left.

Ham.
As thou'rt a man,-
Give me the cup; let go; by heaven I'll have it.-
O God!-Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind
me?

If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity a while,

And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story.

[March afar off, and Shot within. What warlike noise is this? Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,

To the ambassadors of England gives
This warlike volley.

Laer.

O, I die, Horatio;

The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit;
I cannot live to hear the news from England:
But I do prophesy the election lights
On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice;

Dies.

So tell him, with the occurrents,7 more or less,
Which have solicited,-the rest is silence.
Hor. Now cracks a noble heart;-Good-night,
sweet prince;

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
Why does the drum come hither? [March within.
Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors,
and others.

Fort. Where is this sight?
Hor.
What is it you would see?
If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.
Fort. This quarry cries on havoc!-O proud

death!

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

The sight is dismal;

And our affairs from England come too late:
The ears are senseless, that should give us hearing,
To tell him, his commandment is fulfill'd,
That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead:
Where should we have our thanks?

Hor.
Not from his month,
Had it the ability of life to thank you;
He never gave commandment for their death.
But since, so jump2 upon this bloody question.
You from the Polack3 wars, and you from England,
Are here arriv'd; give order, that these bodies
High on a stage be placed to the view;
And let me speak, to the yet unknowing world,
How these things come about: So shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts;
Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters;
Of deaths put on by cunning, and forced cause;
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can I
Truly deliver.

Fort. Let us haste to hear it, And call the noblest to the audience. For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune; I have some rights of memory in this kingdom Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.

Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak, And from his mouth whose voice will draw on

more:

But let this same be presently perform'd,
Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mis
chance,

On plots and errors, happen.
Fort.

Let four captains
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,
To have prov'd most royally: and, for his passage,
The soldier's music, and the rites of war,
Speak loudly for him.-

Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. Take up the bodies:-Such a sight as this

Go, bid the soldiers shoot.

[A Dead March [Exeunt, bearing off the dead Bodies; ger which, a Peal of Ordnance is shot off.

So exactly at the time.

Polish.

[blocks in formation]

SCENE, for the first Act, in Venice; during the rest of the Play, at a Sea-port in Cyprus.

SCENE I-Venice.

ACT I.

A Street.

[blocks in formation]

lago. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city,

In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
On capp'd' to him;-and, by the faith of man,
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place:
But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
Evades them, with a bombast circumstance,2
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;
And, in conclusion, nonsuits

My mediators; for certes, says he,

I have already chose my officer.

And what was he?

Forsooth, a great arithmetician,

One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,

A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;

That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows

More than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric,
Wherein the toged consuls can propose

As masterly as he mere prattle, without practice,
Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election:
And I,-of whom his eyes had seen the proof
At Rhodes, at Cyprus; and on other grounds
Christian and heathen,-must be be-lee'd and calm'd
Sy debitor and creditor, this counter-caster;
He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,

And I, (God bless the mark!) his Moorship's an

[blocks in formation]

We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
For naught but provender; and, when he's old,
cashier'd;

Whip me such honest knaves: Others there are,
Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty,
Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves;
And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
Do well thrive by them, and when they have lined
their coats,

Do themselves homage: these fellows have some soul;

And such a one do I profess myself.
For, sir,

It is as sure as you are Roderigo,

Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:

In following him, I follow but myself;

Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,

But seeming so, for my peculiar end:

For when my outward action doth demonstrate

The native act and figure of my heart

In compliment extern, 'tis not long after

But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.
Rod. What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe,6
If he can carry't thus!

Iago.
Call up her father,
Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight,
Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,
And, though he in a fertile climate dwell,
Plague him with flies; though that his joy be joy
Yet throw such changes of vexation on't,
As it may lose some color.

Rod. Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud. Iago. Do; with like timorous accent, and dire yell, As when, by night and negligence, the fire Is spied in populous cities.

Rod. What ho! Brabantio! signior Brabantio, ho! Iago. Awake! what ho! Brabantio! thieves! thieves! thieves!

Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags! Thieves thieves!

BRABANTIO, above, at a Window.

Bra. What is the reason of this terrible summo! What is the matter there?

Rod. Signior, is all your family within?
Iago. Are your doors lock'd?

Bra.

Why wherefore ask you this? Iago. Zounds, sir, you are robb'd; for shame, put on your gown;

Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;

• Own, possess.

[blocks in formation]

But thou must needs be sure, My spirit, and my place, have in them power To make this bitter to thee.

Patience, good sir.

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

My house is not a grange.7

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 neigh to you; you'll have coursers for cousins, and gennets for germans.

Bru. What profane 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.

[blocks in formation]

seech you,

if't be your pleasure, and most wise consent,
(As partly, I find, it is,) that your fair daughter,
At this odd-even? 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,1
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 the sense of all civility,

I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:
Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,-
I say again, hath made a gross revolt;
Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes,
In an extravagant2 and wheeling stranger,

Of here and everywhere: 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.

Strike on the tinder, ho!
Give me a taper;-call up all my people:-
This accident is not unlike my dream;
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 produced (as, if I stay, I shall)

Against the Moor: For, I do know, the state,-
However this may gall him with some check,-
Cannot with safety cast him; for he's embark'd
With such loud reason to the Cyprus' wars,
(Which even now stand in act,) that, for their

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

me

How didst thou know 'twas she?-0, thou deceiv'st 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?-0 treason of the blood!—

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

Rod.

Yes, sir; I have indeed. Bra. Call up my brother.-O, that you had had her!

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

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! On, good Roderigo:-I'll deserve your pains. And raise some special officers of night.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Another Street. Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Attendants. Iago. Though in the trade of war I have slain

men,

Yet do I hold it very stuff o' the conscience,
Sometimes, to do me service: Nine or ten times
To do no contriv'd murder; I lack iniquity
I had thought to have yerk'd him here under the

ribs.

Oth. 'Tis better as it is. Iago. Nay, but he prated, And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms Against your honor,

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 magnifico is much belov'd;
And hath, in his effect, a voice potential
As double as the duke's; he will divorce yon;
Or put upon you what restraint and grievance
The law (with all his might, to enforce it on)
Will give him cable.

Oth.

Let him do his spite: My services, which I have done the signiory, Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know (Which when I know that boasting is an honor,

shall promulgate,) I fetch my life and being From men of royal siege and my demerits May speak, unbonneted, to as proud a fortune As this that I have reach'd: For know, lago, But that I love the gentle Desdemona, I would not my unhoused free condition Put into circumscription and confine For the sea's worth. But, look! what lights com yonder?

Enter CASSIO, at a distance, and certain Officer with Torches.

Iago. These are the raised father, and his friends You were best go in.

Oth. Not I: I must be found: My parts, my title, and my perfect soul, Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they! lago. By Janus, I think no.

Oth. The servants of the duke, and my lieuterat The goodness of the night upon you, iliends! What is the news?

Cas.

The duke does greet you, getcra. And he requires your haste-post-haste appearance, Even on the instant.

Oth
What is the matter, think you!
Cas. Something from Cyprus, as I may divine,
It is a business of some heat: the galleys

Old age. Brabantio. Magnifico is his title as senator.
Seat or throne.

• Demerits bas the same meaning in Shakspeare as merita

[blocks in formation]

Ingo. Marry, to-Come, captain, will you go?

0th. Have with you. Cus. Here comes another troop to seek for you. Enter BRABANTIO, RODERIGO, and Officers of night, with Torches and Weapons.

Ingo. It is Brabantio:-general, be advis'd; He comes to bad intent.

Hola! stand there!

0th.
Ro. Signior, it is the Moor.
Bra.

Down with him, thief! [They draw on both sides. Ingo. You, Roderigo! come sir, I am for you. Oth. Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.—

Good signior, you shall more command with years, Than with your weapons.

Bra. O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my daughter!

Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her:
For I'll refer me to all things of sense,
If she in chains of magic were not bound,
Whether a maid-so tender, fair, and happy;
So opposite to marriage, that she shunn'd'
The wealthy curled darlings of our nation,
Would ever have, to incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou: to fear, not to delight.
Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense,
That thou hast practis'd on her with foul charms:
Abused her delicate youth with drugs, or minerals,
That waken motion-I'll have it disputed on;
Tis probable, and palpable to thinking.
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee,
For an abuser of the world, a practiser
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant:-
Lay hold upon him; if he do resist,
Subdue him at his peril.

Oh.

Hold your hands, Both you of my inclining, and the rest:

Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it Without a prompter.- Where will you that I go To answer this your charge?

Bra.

To prison: till fit time Of law, and course of direct session,

[blocks in formation]

How may the duke be therewith satisfied;
Whose messengers are here about my side,
Upon some present business of the state,
To bring me to him?
Off.
'Tis true, most worthy signior,
The duke's in council; and your noble self,
I am sure, is sent for.
Bra.
How! the duke in council
In this time of the night!-Bring him away;
Mine's not an idle cause: the duke himself,
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.

SCENE III-A Council Chamber. The DUKE and Senators, siffing at a Table; Officers attending.

Duke. There is no composition in these news, That gives them credit. 1 Sen. Indeed, they are disproportion'd; My letters say, a hundred and seven galleys. A rich vessel. • Consistency.

Duke. And mine, a hundred and forty. 2 Sen. And mine, two hundred. But though they jump not on a just account, (As in these cases, where the ain 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!
Enter an Officer, with a Sailor.
Off. A messenger from the galleys.
Duke.
Now the business!
Sailor. The Turkish preparation makes for

Rhodes:

[blocks in formation]

By no assay of reason; '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 tacile question bear it,
For that it stands not in such warlike brace,2
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 wage3 a danger profitless.
Duke. Nay, in all confidence, he's not for Rhodes
Off. Here is more news.

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. The Ottomites, reveiend 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 re-stem 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.

Duke."Tis certain then for Cyprus.-
Marcus Lucchese, 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 Ottoman.

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

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

After your own sense; yea, though our proper son
Stood in your action.5
Bra
Humbly I thank your grace.
Here is the man, this Moor; whom now, it seems,
Your special mandate, for the state affairs,

Hath bither brought.
Duke & Sen.
We are very sorry for it.
Duke. What, in your own part, can you say to
this?
[TO OTHELLO.

Bra. Nothing but this is so.

Oth. Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
My very noble and approv'd 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 in my
speech,

And little bless'd with the set phrase of peace;
For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,
Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used
Their dearest actions 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,

I will a round unvarnish'd 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,)
won his daughter with.
Bra.
A maiden never bold;
Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion
Blush'd at herself; 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?
It is a judgment maim'd, and most imperfect,
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,
Or with some dram conjur'd to this effect,
He wrought upon her.

Duke.
To vouch this is no proof;
Without more certain and more overt test,7
Than these thin habits, and poor likelihoods
Of modern seeming, do prefer against him.
1 Sen. But Othello, speak:-

Did you by indirect and forced courses
Subdue and poison this young maid's affections?
Or came it by request, or such fair question
As soul to soul affordeth?
Oth.

I do beseech you,
Send for the lady to the Sagittary,9
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
Even fall upon my lifer

Duke.
Fetch Desdemona hither.
Oth. Ancient, conduct them; you best know the
place.-[Exeunt IAGO and Attendants.
And, till she come, as truly as to heaven
I do confess the vices of my blood,
So justly to your grave years I'll present
How I did thrive in this fair lady's love,
And she is mine.

Duke. Say it, Othello.

Oth. Her father lov'd me, oft invited me;
Still question'd me the story of my life,
From year to year; the battles, sieges, fortunes,
That I have pass'd.

I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
To the very moment that he bade me tell it.
Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents, by flood and field;

Or hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach;

Of being taken by the insolent foe,

And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence,
And portance in my travel's history:
Wherein of antres2 vast, and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch
heaven,

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

It was my hint to speak, such was the process;
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. These things to
hear,

Would Desdemona seriously incline:

But still the house affairs would draw her thence;
Which ever as she could with haste despatch,
She'd 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 she had something heard,
But not intentively 3 I did consent;
And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did speak of some distressful stroke,
That my youth suffer'd. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
She swore,-In faith, '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 me;

And bade me, if I had a friend that lov'd her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her. Upon this hint, I spake;
She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd;
And I lov'd her, that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have used:
Here comes the lady, let her witness it.

Enter DESDEMONA, IAGO, and Attendants. Duke. I think, this tale would win my daughter

too.

[blocks in formation]

band:

And so much duty as my mother show'd
To you, preferring you before her father,
So much I challenge that I may profess
Due to the Moor, my lord.

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

sentence,

Which, as a grise, or step, may help these lovers
Into your favor.

When remedies are past, the griefs are ended,
By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended.
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone,
Is the next way to draw new mischier on.
What cannot be preserv'd when fortune takes,
Patience her injury a mockery makes.
The robb'd, that smiles, steals something from the
thief;

He robs himself, that spends a bootless grief.
Bra. So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile.
We lose it not, so long as we can smile.
He bears the sentence well, that nothing bears
But the free comfort which from thence he hears
But he bears 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:

• Intention and attention were once synonymoss.
Grise, from degrees.

[ocr errors][ocr errors]
« VorigeDoorgaan »