With his free duty, recommends you thus, Duke. 'Tis certain then for Cyprus: Marcus Luccicos, Is he not here in town? 1 Sen. He's now in Florence. Duke. Write from us, to him, poft, post-haste, dispatch. 1 Sen. Here comes Brabantio, and the valiant Moor. To them, enter Brabantio, Othello, Caffio, Iago, Rodorigo, and Officers. Duke. Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you, Against the general enemy Ottoman. I did not fee you; welcome, gentle fignior: [To Braban. 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 bufinefs, Hath rais'd me from my bed; nor doth the general Take hold on me; For my particular grief Is of fo flood-gate and o'er-bearing nature, That it ingluts and fwallows other forrows, And yet is ftill itself. Duke. Why? what's the matter ? Bra. My daughter! oh, my daughter! Bra. To me; She is abus'd, ftoll'n from me, and corrupted By fpells and medicines, bought of mountebanks; (Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense,) Duke. Who-e'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, After your own fense: yea, though our proper Son Bra. Humbly I thank your grace. Here is the man, this Moor, whom now, it seems, All. All. We're very forry for❜t. Duke. What in your own part can you fay to this? [To Othel. Bra. Nothing, but this is fo. Oth. Moft potent, grave, and reverend figniors, Hath this extent; no more. Rude am I in my speech, peace; More than pertains to feats of broils and battle; Of my whole courfe of love; what drugs, what charms, Bra. A maiden, never bold; Of spirit fo ftill and quiet, that her motion (13) It is a judgment maim'd and most imperfect That will confefs, perfection fo could err Το Against all rules of Nature. Perfection erring, seems a contradiction in terminis, as the fchoolmen call it. Besides, Brabantio does not blazon his daughter out for a thing of abfolute perfection; he only fays, she was indued with fuch an extreme innate modefty, that for her to fall in love fo prepofteroufly, no found judgment could allow, but it must be by magical practice upon her. I have ventur'd to imagine that our Author wrote; M 2 That To find out practices of cunning hell, Duke. To vouch this, is no proof, Without more certain and more overt teft, Did you by indirect and forced courfes Oth. I beseech you, Send for the lady to the Sagittary, And let her speak of me before her father; you The Truft, the Office, I do hold of you, Not only take away, but let your Sentence Duke. Fetch Desdemona hither. [Exeunt two or three. And till she come, as truly as to heav'n Duke. Say it, Othello. Oth. Her father lov'd me, oft invited me; Still queftion'd me the ftory of my life, [Exit Iago. From year to year; the battles, fieges, fortunes, That I have past. That will confefs, affection fo could err, &c. This is entirely confonant to what Brabantio would fay of her; and one of the fenators, immediately after, in his examination of the Moor, thus addrefles himself to him; Did you by indirect and forced courfes -But, Othello, fpeak; Subdue and poyfon this young maid's affections, &c. I ran it through, e'en from my boyish days, Of hair-breadth 'fcapes in th' imminent deadly breach; And fold to flavery; of my redemption thence, Wherein of antres vaft, and defarts idle, (14) It was my hint to speak; fuch was the process; (15) And (14) Wherein of antres raft and defirts idle, &c.] Thus it is in all the old editions: but Mr. Pope has thought fit to change the epithet. Defarts idle; in the former editions; (fays he) doubtless, a corruption from wilde.-But he muft pardon me, if I do not concur in thinking this fo doubtless. I don't know whether Mr. Pope has obferv'd it, but I know that Shakespeare, especially in his descriptions, is fond of using the more uncommon word, in a poetick latitude. And idk, in feveral other paffages, he employs in these acceptations, wild, ufelefs, uncultivated, &c. Crown'd with rank fumitar, and furrow weeds, In our fuftaining corn. King Lear. i. e. wild and useless. -The murm'ring furge, That on th' unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes, Cannot be heard fo high. Ibid. i.e. ufelefs, worthless, nullius pretii: for pebbles, conftantly wash'd and chaf'd by the surge, can't be call'd idle, i. e. to lie ftill, in a state of reft, The even mead, that erft brought sweetly forth Henry V. i.e. by wildness, occafion'd from its lying uncultivated. And exactly with the fame liberty, if I am not mistaken, has VIRGIL twice used the word ignavus : (15) -Hyems ignava colono. Et nemora evertit multos ignava per annos. And of the canibals that each other eat, Georg. I. v. 299. Georg. II. v. 208. Do grow beneath their fhoulders.] This paffage Mr. Pope has M 3 thought And of the Caniba's that each other eat, Do grow beneath their fhoulders. All these to hear Eut ftill the house-affairs would draw her thence, And thought fit to throw out of the text, as containing incredible matter, I prefume: but why, if he had any equality in his critical judgment, did he not as well caftrate the Tempeft of these lines? Who would believe, that there were mountaineers Dewlapt like bulls, whofe throats had hanging at 'em Whole beads flood in their breafts? I have obferv'd feveral times, in the courfe of these notes, our Author's particular defence of Sir Walter Raleigh; and both thefe paffages feem to me intended complimentally to him. Sir Walter, in his Travels, has given the following account, which I fhall fubjoin as briefly as I may. "Next unto Arvi, there are two rivers, Atoica "and Caora; and on that branch which is call'd Caora, are a nation "of a people whofe beads appear not above their boulders: which, "tho' it may be thought a meer fable, yet, for mine own part, I am "refolv'd it is true; because every child in the provinces of Arromaia "and Canuri affirm the fame. They are call'd Ervaipanomarus ; "they are reported to have their eyes in their fhoulders, and their "mouths in the middle of their breafts. It was not my chance to "hear of them, till I was come away; and if I had but spoken one "word of it while I was there, I might have brought one of them "with me, to put the matter out of doubt. Such a nation was written "of by Mandeville, whofe reports were holden for fables for many 68 years and yet fince the Eaft-Indies were difcover'd, we find his "relations true of fuch things as heretofore were held incredible. "Whether it be true, or no, the matter is not great; for mine own part, I faw them not; but I am refolv'd, that fo many people did not "all combine, or forethink to make the report. To the west of Caroli "are diverfe nations of canibals, and of thofe Ewaipanomaws with. "out heads." |