OTHELLO.
What if I do obey?
How may the duke be therewith satisfied,
Whose messengers are here about my side,
Upon some present business of the state,
To bring me to him?
OFFICER.
’Tis true, most worthy signior,
The duke’s in council, and your noble self,
I am sure is sent for.
BRABANTIO.
How? The duke in council?
In this time of the night? Bring him away;
Mine’s not an idle cause. The duke himself,
Or any of my brothers of the state,
Cannot but feel this wrong as ’twere their own.
For if such actions may have passage free,
Bond-slaves and pagans shall our statesmen be.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE III. Venice. A council chamber.
The Duke and Senators sitting at a table; Officers attending.
DUKE.
There is no composition in these news
That gives them credit.
FIRST SENATOR.
Indeed, they are disproportion’d;
My letters say a hundred and seven galleys.
DUKE.
And mine a hundred and forty.
SECOND SENATOR
And mine two hundred:
But though they jump not on a just account,
(As in these cases, where the aim reports,
’Tis oft with difference,) yet do they all confirm
A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus.