Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“To mourn a mischief that is past and gone is the next way to draw new mischief on.”
- Source
- Othello
- Date
- c. 1603
- Local voice
- Fictional character · Duke of Venice
Meaning of “To mourn a mischief that is past and…”
Grief over what cannot be changed can become a second injury when it prevents attention to what can still be done.
Where does it come from?
Othello, Act I, Scene III, reviewed against the scan-backed 1910 First Folio facsimile on Wikisource. The Duke's 'To mourne a Mischeefe that is past and gon' sentence is part of the same attempt to redirect Brabantio after Desdemona's marriage; this collection preserves modernized spelling and punctuation rather than Folio orthography.
Why the local voice matters
The Duke addresses Brabantio in Othello, Act 1, Scene 3.
