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! BRABANTIO, above, at a Window. Bra. What is the reason of this terrible summons? What's 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; Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise; Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you: Bra. What, have you lost your wits? Rod. Most reverend signior, do you know my voice? 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, Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come To start my quiet. Rod. Sir, sir, sir, sir, Bra. १ But thou must needs be sure, by night and negligence,] Not that the fire was spied by negligence, but the fire, which came by night and negligence.-EDWARDS. burst,] i. e. Broken. distempering draughts,] To be distempered with liquor, was, in ShakMy spirit and my place, have in them power speare's age, the phrase for intoxication.-STEEVENS. To make this bitter to thee. Rod. Patience, good sir. Bra. Why tell'st thou me of robbing? this is Venice; My house is not a grange.t Rod. Most grave Brabantio, In simple, and pure soul I come to you. lago. '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. Bra. What profane wretch art thou ? lago. I am one, sir, that comes to tell you, your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs. Bra. Thou art a villain. Iago. You are a senator. Bra. This thou shalt answer; I know thee, Roderigo. 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, If this be known to you, and your allowance, this is Venice; My house is not a grange.] That is, "you are in a populous city, not in a lone house, where a robbery might easily be committed." Grange is strictly and properly the farm of a monastery, where the religious reposited their corn. Grangia, Lat. from granum. But in Lincolnshire, and in other northern counties, they call every lone house, or farm which stands solitary, a grange.T. WARTON. "-nephews-] Nephew, in this instance, has the power of the Latin word nepos, and signifies a grandson, or any lineal descendant however remote.STEEVENS. gennets-] i. e. Spanish horses. STEEVENS. profane-] i. e. Using gross and licentious language.-JOUNSON. At this odd-even-o'the night,] By this singular expression our poet appears to have meant, that it was just approaching to, or just past, that it was doubtful whether at that moment it stood at the point of midnight, or at some other less equal division of the twenty-four hours; which a few minutes either before or after midnight would be.-MALONE. and your allowance,] i. e. Done with your approbation.---MALONE, We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs; I thus would play and trifle with your reverence: 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! Iago. [Exit, from above. 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,- 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. b [Exit. from the sense of all civility,] That is, in opposition to, or departing from, the sense of all civility. - MALONE. extravagant-] For wandering; used in its Latin signification. d check,] i.e. Rebuke. cast him;] 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, 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 Rod. Yes, sir; I have indeed. Bra. Call up my brother. -O, that you had had her! 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. (Exeunt. SCENE 11. The same. Another Street. Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Attendants. lago. Though in the trade of war I have slain men, Yet do I hold it very stuff o'the conscience, 1-abused?] i. e. Infatuated, and made subject to illusions and false imaginations. JOHNSON. -stuff o'the conscience,] This expression to common readers appears harsh. Stuff of the conscience is, substance or essence of the conscience. Stuff is a word of great force in the Tentonick languages. The elements are called in Dutch, hoefd stoffen, or head stuffs.-JOHNSON. 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 That, with the little godliness I have, Oth. For the sea's worth. But, look! what lights come yonder? i the magnifico-] "The chief men of Venice are by a peculiar name called magnifici, i. e. magnificoes."-TOLLETT. k 1 a voice potential As double as the duke's;] Potential is powerful; double is strong. men of royal siege;] Men who have sat upon royal thrones. Siege is used for seat by other authors.-STEEVENS. m - demerits-] The word has the same meaning in our author, and many others of that age, as merits. Mereo and demereo had the same meaning in the Roman language. STEEVENS. n May speak, unbonneted,] Mr. Fuseli (and who is better acquainted with the sense and spirit of our author?) explains this contested passage as follows: "I am his equal or superior in rank; and were it not so, such are my merits, that, unbonneted, without the addition of patrician or senatorial dignity, they may speak to as proud a fortune, &c. At Venice the bonnet, as well as the toge, is a badge of aristocratic honours to this day."-STEEVENS. •unhoused-] Free from domestick cares. A thought natural to an ad venturer.-JOHNSON. |