Page:Works of Heinrich Heine 01.djvu/390

The English engraver to whom we are indebted for the present picture of Desdemona has given to her great eyes a somewhat too strong expres- sion of passion. But I believe that I have already remarked that the contrast between face and char- acter always has its peculiar charm. In any case this face is very fair, and it must specially please the writer of these pages that it recalls that noble and beautiful woman who, thank God ! never found any deep defect in his own face, and who as yet has only seen it in his soul. . " Othello. Her father loved me ; oft invited me ; Still questiou'd me the story of my life, From year to year ; the battles, sieges, fortunes, That I have pass'd. I ran it through, even from my boyish days, To the very moment that he bade me tell it. Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances, Of moving accidents, by flood and field ; Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach ; Of being taken by the insolent foe, And sold to slavery ; of my redemption thence, And portance in my travel's history : Wherein of antres vast, and deserts idle, Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven, 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. These things to hear. Would Desderaona seriously incline : But still the house affairs would draw her thence ; Which ever as she could with haste despatch,