William Shakespeare - Sämtliche Werke von Shakespeare in einem Band - Zweisprachige Ausgabe (Deutsch-Englisch)

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. This 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; 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 us’d:—

Here comes the lady; let her witness it.

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[Enter Desdemona, Iago, and Attendants.]

DUKE

I think this tale would win my daughter too.—

Good Brabantio,

Take up this mangled matter at the best.

Men do their broken weapons rather use

Than their bare hands.

BRABANTIO

I pray you, hear her speak:

If she confess that she was half the wooer,

Destruction on my head, if my bad blame

Light on the man!—Come hither, gentle mistress:

Do you perceive in all this noble company

Where most you owe obedience?

DESDEMONA

My noble father,

I do perceive here a divided duty:

To you I am bound for life and education;

My life and education both do learn me

How to respect you; you are the lord of duty,—

I am hitherto your daughter: but here’s my husband;

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.

BRABANTIO

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 favour.

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 mischief on.

What cannot be preserved 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.

BRABANTIO

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:

But words are words; I never yet did hear

That the bruis’d heart was piercèd through the ear.—

I humbly beseech you, proceed to the affairs of state.

DUKE

The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes for Cyprus.—Othello, the fortitude of the place is best known to you; and though we have there a substitute of most allowed sufficiency, yet opinion, a sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer voice on you: you must therefore be content to slubber the gloss of your new fortunes with this more stubborn and boisterous expedition.

OTHELLO

The tyrant custom, most grave senators,

Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war

My thrice-driven bed of down: I do agnize

A natural and prompt alacrity

I find in hardness; and do undertake

These present wars against the Ottomites.

Most humbly, therefore, bending to your state,

I crave fit disposition for my wife;

Due reference of place and exhibition;

With such accommodation and besort

As levels with her breeding.

DUKE

If you please,

Be’t at her father’s.

BRABANTIO

I’ll not have it so.

OTHELLO

Nor I.

DESDEMONA

Nor I. I would not there reside,

To put my father in impatient thoughts,

By being in his eye. Most gracious duke,

To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear;

And let me find a charter in your voice

To assist my simpleness.

DUKE

What would you, Desdemona?

DESDEMONA

That I did love the Moor to live with him,

My downright violence and storm of fortunes

May trumpet to the world: my heart’s subdu’d

Even to the very quality of my lord:

I saw Othello’s visage in his mind;

And to his honors and his valiant parts

Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.

So that, dear lords, if I be left behind,

A moth of peace, and he go to the war,

The rites for which I love him are bereft me,

And I a heavy interim shall support

By his dear absence. Let me go with him.

OTHELLO

Let her have your voices.

Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not

To please the palate of my appetite;

Nor to comply with heat,—the young affects

In me defunct,—and proper satisfaction;

But to be free and bounteous to her mind:

And heaven defend your good souls, that you think

I will your serious and great business scant

For she is with me: no, when light-wing’d toys

Of feather’d Cupid seel with wanton dullness

My speculative and offic’d instruments,

That my disports corrupt and taint my business,

Let housewives make a skillet of my helm,

And all indign and base adversities

Make head against my estimation!

DUKE

Be it as you shall privately determine,

Either for her stay or going: the affair cries haste,

And speed must answer it.

FIRST SENATOR

You must away tonight.

OTHELLO

With all my heart.

DUKE

At nine i’ the morning here we’ll meet again.—

Othello, leave some officer behind,

And he shall our commission bring to you;

With such things else of quality and respect

As doth import you.

OTHELLO

So please your grace, my ancient,—

A man he is of honesty and trust,—

To his conveyance I assign my wife,

With what else needful your good grace shall think

To be sent after me.

DUKE

Let it be so.—

Good night to everyone.— [To Brabantio.] And, noble signior,

If virtue no delighted beauty lack,

Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.

FIRST SENATOR

Adieu, brave Moor; use Desdemona well.

BRABANTIO

Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:

She has deceiv’d her father, and may thee.

[Exeunt Duke, Senators, Officers. &c.]