Like to the Pontick sea,
Whose icy current and compulsive course
Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
To the Propontick, and the Hellespont;
Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,
Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love,
Till that a capable and wide revenge
Swallow them up.—Now, by yon marble heaven,
In the due reverence of a sacred vow
I here engage my words.[1]
What have we here to aid the memory? Many things, after the passage is understood. We should be aware that the ancient historians stated that the Pontick (or Black) Sea ever flowed out into the Propontick (or Marmora) Sea, but that it never flowed back again to the Pontick. Here, then, is the means of easily memorizing the passage. The idea is of something ever going in the same
- ↑ Othello, Act III, Scene III.
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