HYSSOP

IAGO

’Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus.

Our bodies are our gardens,

to the which our wills are gardeners;

so that if we will plant nettles or sow lettuce,

set HYSSOP, and weed up thyme,

supply it with one gender

of herbs or distract it with many,

either to have it sterile

with idleness, or maimed with industry,

why the power and corrigible authority

of this lies in our wills.

—Othello [Act I, sc. 3]