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What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,
That thou so many princes at a shot

So bloodily hast struck?

First Amb.

The sight is dismal;

And our affairs from England come too late :

The ears are senseless that should give us hearing, 380 To tell him his commandment is fulfill'd,

That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead:

Where should we have our thanks?

Hor.

Not from his mouth,

Had it the ability of life to thank you :

He never gave commandment for their death.
But since, so jump upon this bloody question,
You from the Polack wars, and you from England,
Are here arrived, 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 came about: so shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,

Of accidental judgements, 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 mischance,

On plots and errors, happen.

386. so jump upon, so immediately following.

390

400

Let four captains

Fort.
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,

To have proved most royally: and, for his passage,
The soldiers' music and the rites of war

Speak loudly for him.

Take up the bodies: such a sight as this

Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
Go, bid the soldiers shoot.

[A dead march. Exeunt, bearing off the
dead bodies; after which a peal of ord-
nance is shot off.

408. put on, put to the

test.

409. for his passage, solemnise his passing away.

410

to

OTHELLO,

THE MOOR OF VENICE

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

DUKE OF VENICE.

BRABANTIO, a senator.

Other Senators.

GRATIANO, brother to Brabantio.

LODOVICO, kinsman to Brabantio.

OTHELLO, a noble Moor in the service of the Venetian state. CASSIO, his lieutenant.

IAGO, his ancient.

RODERIGO, a Venetian gentleman.

MONTANO, Othello's predecessor in the government of Cyprus. Clown, servant to Othello.

DESDEMONA, daughter to Brabantio and wife to Othello.
EMILIA, wife to lago.

BIANCA, mistress to Cassio.

Sailor, Messenger, Herald, Officers, Gentlemen, Musicians,

and Attendants.

SCENE: Venice; a Sea-port in Cyprus.

INTRODUCTION

THE earliest edition of Othello was a Quarto, pub- Early Liter lished in 1622, with the following title-page :

THE Tragoedy of Othello | The Moore of Venice. As it hath beene diverse times acted at the | Globe, and at the Black-Friers, by his Maiesties Seruants. | Written by William Shakespeare. | LONDON, | Printed by N. O. for Thomas Walkley, and are to be sold at his shop, at the Eagle and Child, in Brittans Bursse | 1622. |

To this the publisher prefixed a brief commendatory preface of some interest in the history of Shakespeare's fame :

'THE STATIONER TO THE READER.

'To set forth a booke without an Epistle, were like to the old English proverbe, A blew coat without a badge, and the Author being dead I thought good to take that piece of work upon mee: To commend it I will not, for that which is good I hope euery man will commend, without entreaty: and I am the bolder, because the Authors name is sufficient to vent his worke. Thus leauing euery one to the liberty of iudgement: I haue ventered to print this Play, and leaue it to the generall censure. Yours, THOMAS Walkley.'

This Quarto was apparently printed from an old

ary History

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