These are weighty words--of grave and solemn import--and the time has come when Desdemona the Daughter is to be Desdemona the Wife. She tells simply and sedately--affectionately and gratefully--the great primal Truth of this our human and social life. Hitherto her Father has been to her the Lord of Duty--the Lord of Duty henceforth is to be her Husband. Othello, up to that night, had been but her Lover; and up to that night--for the hidden wooing was nothing to be ashamed of or repented--there had been to her no "divided Duty"--to her Father's happiness had been devoted her whole filial heart. But had she been a married woman for weeks or months before, how insincere--how hypocritical had that appeal been felt by herself to be, as it issued from her lips! The Duty had, in that case, been "divided" before--and in a way not pleasant for us to think of--to her Father violated or extinct. TALBOYS. I engage, Seward, over and above what our Master has made manifest, to show that though this Theory of yours would remove some difficulties attending the time in Cyprus, it would leave others just where they are--and create many more. NORTH. Grant that Othello and Desdemona must be married for two months before he murders her--that our hearts and imaginations require it. The resemblance to the ordinary course of human affairs asks it. We cannot bear that he shall extinguish her and himself--both having sipped only, and not quaffed from the cup of hymeneal felicity. Your soul is outraged by so harsh and malignant a procedure of the Three Sisters. Besides, in proper poetical equilibration, he should have enjoyed to the full, with soul and with body, the happiness which his soul annihilates. And men do not kill their wives the first week. It would be too exceptional a case. Extended time is required for the probability--the steps of change in the heart of Othello require it--the construction and accumulation of proofs require it--the wheel of events usually rolls with something of leisure and measure. So is it in the real World--so must it seem to be on the Stage--else no verisimilitude--no "veluti in speculum." "Two mouths shall elapse between marriage and murder," says Shakspeare--going to write. They must pass at Venice, or they must pass at Cyprus. Place Shakspeare in this position, and which will he choose? If at Venice, a main requiring condition is not satisfied. For in the fits and snatches of the clandestine marriage, Othello has never possessed with full embrace, and heart overflowing, the happiness which he destroys. If an earthquake is to ruin a palace, it must be built up to the battlements and pinnacles; furnished, occupied, made the seat of Pleasure, Pomp, and Power; and then shaken into heaps--or you have but half a story. Only at Cyprus Othello _possesses_ Desdemona. There where he is Lord of his Office, Lord over the Allegiance of soldier and civilian--of a whole population--Lord of the Island, which, sea-surrounded, is as a