Roderigo

“ Implore of God, who would hear thee, to pardon.
Jul. Hope it I may—pronounce it—O Roderigo!
Ask it of him who can; I too will ask,
And, in my own transgressions, pray for thine.
Rod. One name I dare not—
Jul. Go—abstain from that,
I do conjure thee: raise not in my soul
Again the tempest that has wrecked my fame;
Thou shalt not breathe in the same clime with her.
Far o’er the unebbing sea thou shalt adore
The eastern star, and—may thy end be peace.
FOURTH ACT.—SECOND SCENE. Roderigo goes: Hernando enters. ”

“ IAGO.
I grant indeed it hath not appeared, and your suspicion is not without wit and judgement. But, Roderigo, if thou hast that in thee indeed, which I have greater reason to believe now than ever,—I mean purpose, courage, and valour,—this night show it. If thou the next night following enjoy not Desdemona, take me from this world with treachery and devise engines for my life. ”

“ Matteo, of course, felt much alarmed at his ticklish situation; nevertheless, summoning up his whole stock of courage, he desired the lady might be called in, and with all humility, in a whisper, entreated Roderigo to take pity on him, reminding him of what he had formerly done by him: to which Roderigo answered, “treacherous villain, hast thou the boldness to appear before me? dost thou forget I made thee the rich man thou art? I will now show thee and the world how I can bestow gifts, and bereave mortals of them at my pleasure, and before thou quittest this place, I’ll have thee gibbeted.” ”

“ Roderigo? No—yes, sure. O heaven! Roderigo.
GRATIANO. What, of Venice?
IAGO. Even he, sir. Did you know him?
GRATIANO. Know him! ay.
IAGO. Signior Gratiano? I cry you gentle pardon;
These bloody accidents must excuse my manners,
That so neglected you.
GRATIANO. I am glad to see you.
IAGO. How do you, Cassio? O, a chair, a chair!
GRATIANO. Roderigo!
IAGO. He, he, 'tis he. [A chair brought in.] O, that's well
said:
the chair.
Some good man bear him carefully from hence;
I'll fetch the general's surgeon. [To Bianca.] ”

“ Roderigo! When these mutualities so marshal the way, hard at
hand
comes the master and main exercise, the incorporate
conclusion.
Pish! But, sir, be you ruled by me. I have brought you from
Venice. Watch you tonight; for the command, I'll lay't upon
you.
Cassio knows you not. I'll not be far from you. Do you find
some
occasion to anger Cassio, either by speaking too loud, or
tainting his discipline, or from what other course you
please,
which the time shall more favorably minister.
RODERIGO. Well.
IAGO. Sir, he is rash and very sudden in choler, and haply may
strike at you. ”

“ Roderigo was a very handsome man, about thirty, and being in a very few days known to possess immense riches, and it appearing that he was liberal and humane, many noble citizens who had plenty of daughters, and a scarcity of money, made offers to him; out of the number, Roderigo selected a most beautiful young lady called Onesta, daughter of Amerigo Donati, who had three other daughters almost marriageable, and three sons grown to man’s estate. Although he was of a noble family, and greatly esteemed in Florence, yet, in consequence of a style of living suited to his rank, he was very poor. ”

“ The king carried the ambassador to see the church Mecana Selasse, the church of the Trinity, which was then repairing, where many of the kings had been buried while the Royal family resided in Shoa. All the churches in Abyssinia are thatched. Some of Roderigo's own retinue, who bore him ill-will, had put it into the king's head how elegant this church would be if covered with lead, a thing he certainly could have no idea of. He asked Don Roderigo, whether the king of Portugal could not send him as much sheet-lead as would serve to cover that church? ”

“ IAGO. Will you hear me, Roderigo?
RODERIGO. Faith, I have heard too much, for your words and
performances are no kin together.
IAGO. You charge me most unjustly.
RODERIGO. With nought but truth. I have wasted myself out of my
means. The jewels you have had from me to deliver to
Desdemona
would half have corrupted a votarist. You have told me she
hath
received them and returned me expectations and comforts of
sudden
respect and acquaintance; but I find none.
IAGO. Well, go to, very well.
RODERIGO. Very well! go to! I cannot go to, man; nor 'tis not
very
well. ”

“ You wander in your speech. What is’t you need?
Ber. My breakfast! oh, I’m dying for a feed.
Rod. I would I were a bird, and then I might your favour win;
Alas, I can but offer you some scrapings from my violin.
Berlinda bursts into a passionate flood of tears, and Roderigo
plays pathetically “Home, sweet home.” By-and-by the sound
of voices and the tramp of feet are heard in the distance.
Ber. O! Roderigo, we’re pursued! they’re armed! what shall we do?
Rod. When they’ve mustered, we shall both get peppered, we are in a stew.
Is’t meet that we should wait, or shall we fly? ”

“ All this being considered, and man being admittedly a creature of his environment, can we still pretend to horror at this Roderigo and at the fact that being the man he was—prelate though he might be—handsome, brilliant, courted, in the full vigour of youth, and a voluptuary by nature, he should have succumbed to the temptations by which he was surrounded? ”

“ No sooner was his departure heard of, than the creditors were roused up to action, and applying to the magistrate, they flew with the police, and even the populace, after him. Roderigo was scarcely one mile off, when he heard the outcry behind him. Conceiving the road was but an indifferent protection, he thought that striking across the fields would be a far safer way; but in so doing he found so many ditches in his road, the which are frequent in that part, that he alighted, left his horse, and ran on foot through fields covered with vines and reeds, with which that country abounds. ”

“ Every thing was ordered by his majesty which Matteo desired; on the Sunday morning the king, barons, clergy, and populace being assembled, the mass was celebrated, and the lady brought up to the platform by two bishops, and several noblemen. Roderigo, when he beheld such a multitude collected together, was almost confounded: “what the devil does this dastardly scoundrel mean to do,” said he to himself; “does he think to frighten me by all this show and bustle; does he not know that I am used to the pomp and splendour of heaven, and the fire and furies of hell? ”

“ No sooner did this affair transpire than his creditors assembled, and supposing it must be all over with him, though their bills had not yet become due, they resolved to keep a strict watch over him in fear that he might abscond. Roderigo, on his part, thinking that there was no other remedy, and feeling how deeply he was bound by the Stygian law, determined at all hazards to make his escape. So taking horse one morning early, as he luckily lived near the Prato gate, in that direction he went off. ”

“ Let her be the fairest Rose, and the sweetest,
Yet I know this fair Rose must have her prickles:
I grant ye Roderigo is an out-Law.
An easie composition calls him in again,
He is a valiant man, and he is a rich man,
And loves the fool: a little rough by custom:
She'l like him ten times better. She'l doat upon him,
If ere they come to grapling, run mad for him ”

“ Hagar, the witch, chanted an awful incantation over her kettleful of simmering toads, with weird effect. Roderigo rent his chains asunder manfully, and Hugo died in agonies of remorse and arsenic, with a wild, "Ha! Ha!"
"It's the best we've had yet," said Meg, as the dead villain sat up and rubbed his elbows. ”

“ Numbers of the noblest families were about to vie with each other in the splendour of their parties, and the Lady Onesta, being resolved not to be outshone by her acquaintance, insisted that Roderigo should exceed them all in the richness of their feasts. ”

“ Roderigo's suspicious credulity, and impatient submission to the cheats which he sees practised upon him, and which, by persuasion, he suffers to be repeated, exhibit a strong picture of a weak mind betrayed by unlawful desires to a false friend ”

“ Or were they in the version represented by Q1, and only omitted in printing, whether accidentally or because they were also omitted in the theatre? Or were some of them after-thoughts, and others in the original version?
I will take them in order. (a) can hardly be an after-thought. Up to that point Roderigo had hardly said anything, for Iago had always interposed; and it is very unlikely that Roderigo would now deliver but four lines, and speak at once of ‘she’ instead of ‘your daughter.’ Probably this ‘omission’ represents a ‘cut’ in stage performance. ”

“ And yet he hath given me satisfying reasons. ’Tis but a man gone. Forth, my sword; he dies.
[Goes to his stand.]
IAGO. I have rubb’d this young quat almost to the sense, And he grows angry. Now, whether he kill Cassio, Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other, Every way makes my gain. Live Roderigo, He calls me to a restitution large Of gold and jewels that I bobb’d from him, As gifts to Desdemona. It must not be. If Cassio do remain, He hath a daily beauty in his life That makes me ugly. And besides, the Moor May unfold me to him; there stand I in much peril. No, he must die. ”

“ Don Roderick remained for some time lost in thought after the departure of the men; he then dismissed all his court excepting the venerable Urbino, at that time Archbishop of Toledo. The long white beard of this prelate bespoke his advanced age, and his overhanging eyebrows showed him a man full of wary counsel.
“Father,” said the king, “I have an earnest desire to penetrate the mystery of this tower.” The worthy prelate shook his hoary head. “Beware, my son,” said he; “there are secrets hidden from man for his good. ”

“ So stern was Black Earl Roderick
Upon his wedding-day,
To none he spake a single word
Who met him on his way.
And of those that passed him as he went there were none who dared to bid him Godspeed, and only one whispered at all; she was Mora of the Knowledge, who was picking herbs in a lonely place and saw him ride.
‘There goeth the hunter,’ said she; ‘'tis a white doe that thou wouldst kill. High hanging to thee, my lord, upon a windy day!’
And of all the flying things he met in his going, one only dared to put pain upon him, and she was a honey-bee who stabbed his cheek with her sword. ”

“ A wan, craven look comes over his face as he raises his eyes beseechingly to the superb young monarch who has taken his place—so miserable an object, that whatever have been his crimes it seems impossible he can now inspire anything but pity. But Don Roderich thinks otherwise; he contemplates the wretched figure before him with a stern glance. Then, turning to the assembled chiefs and addressing himself more especially to Julian, standing as sword-bearer at the right of the throne, he speaks in a hard, resonant voice:
“In this man you behold the butcher of my father. ”

“ Roderic drew back his sword, but the old warrior made no appeal for mercy.
A Spaniard may appear cruel according to Anglo-Saxon ways of looking at things, but no race of men has shown more splendid courage in battle or upon the terrible unknown seas of the fifteenth century.
Roderic turning hung his East Indian blade once more upon the wall, doubtless to the sore amazement of the soldier. ”

“ The old lays and ballads make Roderich, in the magnificence of his youth, a rival of the Cid Campeador himself. Even his mortal enemies, the Moors, glorify him in their songs sung to the cither under the orange groves of Granada.
But already the “cloud no bigger than a man’s hand” is rising on the horizon, by-and-by to obscure and darken the sun of his success.{37}
A crown acquired by violence sits uneasily on the usurper’s head. Like Witica, Don Roderich was tormented with suspicions of conspiracies and treachery among his powerful nobles. ”

“ They are but the prelude of that scene that shall shortly feast my eyes. Perceivest thou not the earth to tremble beneath thy feet? Hearest thou not the walls of thy hated mansion cracking to their ruin? Confusion is at hand. Chaos is come again. Go on then, Roderic. Complete thy heroic purpose.” The spectre vanished, and all was uninterrupted silence.
The whole mind of Roderic was transformed from what it was. For the impotence of lust, and the cruelty of inexorable triumph, he felt the terrors of annihilation, and all the cold, damp tremblings of despair. ”

“ Roderick knew mankind too well not to appear to adopt, in some measure, even the prejudices of those he associated with; and knowing the partiality of the Spaniards for dress and appearance, his own was magnificent. A tight vest and pantaloons of black satin displayed the elegance of his figure to the best advantage, whilst a short cloak of the same material, hung from his shoulders in graceful negligence, and his head was covered with a large Spanish hat of black velvet, having a magnificent plume of ostrich feathers, secured by a diamond aigrette in front. ”

“ A week before the nuptials, the old man took his son aside.
"Roderick, I have something for your private ear."
"I attend."
"It is painful for a father to declare his unworthiness to his own offspring; but it must be. A bitter remorse has for many years soured my existence. My wealth is considerable; but it is a burden to me, because it originated in—blood!"
Roderick answered not.
"You must have heard that this tower once belonged to another?" ”