OTHELLO'S APOLOGY FOR HIS MARRIAGE. 1. Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors, 2. Rude am I in speech, More than pertains to feats of broil and battle; 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 proceedings I'm charged withal,) I won his daughter with. 3. Her father lov'd me; oft invited me ; Still questioned me the story of my life, 4. From year to year; the battles, sieges, fortunes, I ran it through, even from my boyish days, Of hair-breadth 'scapes in the imminent deadly breach; And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence, These things to hear, Would Desdemona seriously incline: But still the house affairs would draw her thence; 5. 6. She'd come again, and with a greedy ear Whereof by parcels she had something heard, I did consent; And often did beguile her of her tears, When I did speak of some distressful stroke, She swore,-In faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange; "Twas pitiful, 'twas wonderous pitiful: She wish'd she had not heard it; yet she wish'd She thank'd me; And bade me if I had a friend that lov'd her I should teach him how to tell my story And that would woo her. On this hint, I spake ; And I lov❜d her, that she did pity them. This only is the witchcraft I have us'd.-Shakspeare. The reader is referred to my observations relating to Othello in the chapter on emphatic pause. The apology is one of Shakspeare's best efforts. Othello was charged by Brobantio, Desdemona's father, with having "enchanted her," with "drugs," as a practiser of arts inhibited and out of warrant. 19 Upon that charge, he was apprehended and brought before the duke and senators. The duke inquired of Othello what, on his part, he could say to the charge; and the apology above given, was his answer. It should be read or recited in a pleasant and yet animated manner. That part of it in which he narrates the scenes through which he passed, requires rather a hurried rate of utterance. Where he says: "Little of this great world can I boast," it is better to make a gentle gesture with the right arm, than to extend both. CATO'S SOLILOQUY ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 1. It must be so.-Plato, thou reasonest well! Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, "T is heaven itself that points out an hereafter: 2. Eternity!-thou pleasing, dreadful thought! Through what new scenes and changes must we pass? Through all her works, he must delight in virtue; But when! or where! This world was made for Cæsar. 3. Thus I am doubly arm'd. My death and life, The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds.-Addison. Marcus Portius Cato, a distinguished Roman philosopher, general, and patriot, was born 94 years before Christ. After the battle of Pharsalia, he fled to Utica, in Africa; and, retiring to his apartment, read Plato on the Immortality of the Soul, twice over, and then, rather than to fall into the hands of Julius Caesar, by whom he was pursued, stabbed himself with his sword, and died at the age of 48. He thought, moreover, that the toils of life would be succeeded by a happy immortality. He ought not, however, to have committed suicide. Socrates was accustomed to say, "That God has put us in this life, as in a post which we cannot quit without his leave." If an individual knew that death would be more agreeable than life, or that somebody else would take his life, unless he did it himself, even then suicide would not be justifiable. Cato certainly found nothing in Plato's writings in favor of it. He only found the glorious doctrine of the immortality of the soul maintained, by arguments which carried conviction of its truth to his mind. The "Soliloquy" is from the excellent Addison's Tragedy of Cato." It should be given deliberately; the countenance and voice should indicate that the mind is employed in solemn contemplation. IMAGINARY MEETING OF SATAN, SIN, AND DEATH. 1. Meanwhile the adversary of God and man, He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left; 2. As when far off at sea, a fleet descried, 3. 4. Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring Ply stemming nightly toward the pole: so seem'd At last appear Hell bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof, And thrice three-fold the gates; three folds were brass, Three iron, three of adamatine rock Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire, Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat, On either side, a formidable shape: The one seem'd woman to the waist, and fair 5. 6. With mortal sting; about her middle round, Far less abhor'd than these, The other shape, And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head, 7. Satan was now at hand, and from his seat 8. "Whence and what art thou, execrable shape! Who first broke peace in heaven, and faith, till then Unbroken; and in proud rebellious arms |