OTHELLO

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

(PAGINA 2)

OTHELLO



ACT I





SCENE III A council-chamber.



[The DUKE and Senators sitting at a table; Officers

attending]

DUKE OF VENICE There is no composition in these news

That gives them credit.

First Senator Indeed, they are disproportion'd;

My letters say a hundred and seven galleys.

DUKE OF VENICE And mine, a hundred and forty.

Second Senator And mine, two hundred:

But though they jump not on a just account,--

As in these cases, where the aim reports,

'Tis oft with difference--yet do they all confirm

A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus.

DUKE OF VENICE Nay, it is possible enough to judgment:

I do not so secure me in the error,

But the main article I do approve

In fearful sense.

Sailor [Within] What, ho! what, ho! what, ho!

First Officer A messenger from the galleys.

[Enter a Sailor]

DUKE OF VENICE Now, what's the business?

Sailor The Turkish preparation makes for Rhodes;

So was I bid report here to the state

By Signior Angelo.

DUKE OF VENICE How say you by this change?

First Senator This cannot be,

By no assay of reason: 'tis a pageant,

To keep us in false gaze. When we consider

The importancy of Cyprus to the Turk,

And let ourselves again but understand,

That as it more concerns the Turk than Rhodes,

So may he with more facile question bear it,

For that it stands not in such warlike brace,

But altogether lacks the abilities

That Rhodes is dress'd in: if we make thought of this,

We must not think the Turk is so unskilful

To leave that latest which concerns him first,

Neglecting an attempt of ease and gain,

To wake and wage a danger profitless.

DUKE OF VENICE Nay, in all confidence, he's not for Rhodes.

First Officer Here is more news.

[Enter a Messenger]

Messenger The Ottomites, reverend and gracious,

Steering with due course towards the isle of Rhodes,

Have there injointed them with an after fleet.

First Senator Ay, so I thought. How many, as you guess?

Messenger Of thirty sail: and now they do restem

Their backward course, bearing with frank appearance

Their purposes toward Cyprus. Signior Montano,

Your trusty and most valiant servitor,

With his free duty recommends you thus,

And prays you to believe him.

DUKE OF VENICE 'Tis certain, then, for Cyprus.

Marcus Luccicos, is not he in town?

First Senator He's now in Florence.

DUKE OF VENICE Write from us to him; post-post-haste dispatch.

First Senator Here comes Brabantio and the valiant Moor.

[Enter BRABANTIO, OTHELLO, IAGO, RODERIGO, and Officers]

DUKE OF VENICE Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you

Against the general enemy Ottoman.

[To BRABANTIO]

I did not see you; welcome, gentle signior;

We lack'd your counsel and your help tonight.

BRABANTIO So did I yours. Good your grace, pardon me;

Neither my place nor aught I heard of business

Hath raised me from my bed, nor doth the general care

Take hold on me, for my particular grief

Is of so flood-gate and o'erbearing nature

That it engluts and swallows other sorrows

And it is still itself.

DUKE OF VENICE Why, what's the matter?

BRABANTIO My daughter! O, my daughter!



DUKE OF VENICE | Dead?

Senator |



BRABANTIO Ay, to me;

She is abused, stol'n from me, and corrupted

By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks;

For nature so preposterously to err,

Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense,

Sans witchcraft could not.

DUKE OF VENICE Whoe'er he be that in this foul proceeding

Hath thus beguiled your daughter of herself

And you of her, the bloody book of law

You shall yourself read in the bitter letter

After your own sense, yea, though our proper son

Stood in your action.

BRABANTIO Humbly I thank your grace.

Here is the man, this Moor, whom now, it seems,

Your special mandate for the state-affairs

Hath hither brought.



DUKE OF VENICE |

| We are very sorry for't.

Senator |



DUKE OF VENICE [To OTHELLO] What, in your own part, can you say to this?

BRABANTIO Nothing, but this is so.

OTHELLO Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,

My very noble and approved good masters,

That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter,

It is most true; true, I have married her:

The very head and front of my offending

Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech,

And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace:

For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,

Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used

Their dearest action in the tented field,

And little of this great world can I speak,

More than pertains to feats of broil and battle,

And therefore little shall I grace my cause

In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,

I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver

Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms,

What conjuration and what mighty magic,

For such proceeding I am charged withal,

I won his daughter.

BRABANTIO A maiden never bold;

Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion

Blush'd at herself; and she, in spite of nature,

Of years, of country, credit, every thing,

To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on!

It is a judgment maim'd and most imperfect

That will confess perfection so could err

Against all rules of nature, and must be driven

To find out practises of cunning hell,

Why this should be. I therefore vouch again

That with some mixtures powerful o'er the blood,

Or with some dram conjured to this effect,

He wrought upon her.

DUKE OF VENICE To vouch this, is no proof,

Without more wider and more overt test

Than these thin habits and poor likelihoods

Of modern seeming do prefer against him.

First Senator But, Othello, speak:

Did you by indirect and forced courses

Subdue and poison this young maid's affections?

Or came it by request and such fair question

As soul to soul affordeth?

OTHELLO I do beseech you,

Send for the lady to the Sagittary,

And let her speak of me before her father:

If you do find me foul in her report,

The trust, the office I do hold of you,

Not only take away, but let your sentence

Even fall upon my life.

DUKE OF VENICE Fetch Desdemona hither.

OTHELLO Ancient, conduct them: you best know the place.

[Exeunt IAGO and Attendants]

And, till she come, as truly as to heaven

I do confess the vices of my blood,

So justly to your grave ears I'll present

How I did thrive in this fair lady's love,

And she in mine.

DUKE OF VENICE Say it, Othello.

OTHELLO Her father loved me; oft invited me;

Still question'd me the story of my life,

From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,

That I have passed.

I ran it through, even from my boyish days,

To the very moment that he bade me tell it;

Wherein I spake 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 travels' 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. This to hear

Would Desdemona seriously incline:

But still the house-affairs would draw her thence:

Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,

She'ld come again, and with a greedy ear

Devour up my discourse: which I observing,

Took once a pliant hour, and found good means

To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart

That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,

Whereof by parcels she had something heard,

But not intentively: I did consent,

And often did beguile her of her tears,

When I did speak of some distressful stroke

That my youth suffer'd. My story being done,

She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:

She swore, in faith, twas strange, 'twas passing strange,

'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful:

She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd

That heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me,

And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,

I should but teach him how to tell my story.

And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:

She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd,

And I loved her that she did pity them.

This only is the witchcraft I have used:

Here comes the lady; let her witness it.

[Enter DESDEMONA, IAGO, and Attendants]

DUKE OF VENICE I think this tale would win my daughter too.

Good Brabantio,

Take up this mangled matter at the best:

Men do their broken weapons rather use

Than their bare hands.

BRABANTIO I pray you, hear her speak:

If she confess that she was half the wooer,

Destruction on my head, if my bad blame

Light on the man! Come hither, gentle mistress:

Do you perceive in all this noble company

Where most you owe obedience?

DESDEMONA My noble father,

I do perceive here a divided duty:

To you I am bound for life and education;

My life and education both do learn me

How to respect you; you are the lord of duty;

I am hitherto your daughter: but here's my husband,

And so much duty as my mother show'd

To you, preferring you before her father,

So much I challenge that I may profess

Due to the Moor my lord.

BRABANTIO God be wi' you! I have done.

Please it your grace, on to the state-affairs:

I had rather to adopt a child than get it.

Come hither, Moor:

I here do give thee that with all my heart

Which, but thou hast already, with all my heart

I would keep from thee. For your sake, jewel,

I am glad at soul I have no other child:

For thy escape would teach me tyranny,

To hang clogs on them. I have done, my lord.

DUKE OF VENICE Let me speak like yourself, and lay a sentence,

Which, as a grise or step, may help these lovers

Into your favour.

When remedies are past, the griefs are ended

By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended.

To mourn a mischief that is past and gone

Is the next way to draw new mischief on.

What cannot be preserved when fortune takes

Patience her injury a mockery makes.

The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief;

He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.

BRABANTIO So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile;

We lose it not, so long as we can smile.

He bears the sentence well that nothing bears

But the free comfort which from thence he hears,

But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow

That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow.

These sentences, to sugar, or to gall,

Being strong on both sides, are equivocal:

But words are words; I never yet did hear

That the bruised heart was pierced through the ear.

I humbly beseech you, proceed to the affairs of state.

DUKE OF VENICE The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes for

Cyprus. Othello, the fortitude of the place is best

known to you; and though we have there a substitute

of most allowed sufficiency, yet opinion, a

sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer

voice on you: you must therefore be content to

slubber the gloss of your new fortunes with this

more stubborn and boisterous expedition.

OTHELLO The tyrant custom, most grave senators,

Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war

My thrice-driven bed of down: I do agnise

A natural and prompt alacrity

I find in hardness, and do undertake

These present wars against the Ottomites.

Most humbly therefore bending to your state,

I crave fit disposition for my wife.

Due reference of place and exhibition,

With such accommodation and besort

As levels with her breeding.

DUKE OF VENICE If you please,

Be't at her father's.

BRABANTIO I'll not have it so.

OTHELLO Nor I.

DESDEMONA Nor I; I would not there reside,

To put my father in impatient thoughts

By being in his eye. Most gracious duke,

To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear;

And let me find a charter in your voice,

To assist my simpleness.

DUKE OF VENICE What would You, Desdemona?

DESDEMONA That I did love the Moor to live with him,

My downright violence and storm of fortunes

May trumpet to the world: my heart's subdued

Even to the very quality of my lord:

I saw Othello's visage in his mind,

And to his honour and his valiant parts

Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.

So that, dear lords, if I be left behind,

A moth of peace, and he go to the war,

The rites for which I love him are bereft me,

And I a heavy interim shall support

By his dear absence. Let me go with him.

OTHELLO Let her have your voices.

Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not,

To please the palate of my appetite,

Nor to comply with heat--the young affects

In me defunct--and proper satisfaction.

But to be free and bounteous to her mind:

And heaven defend your good souls, that you think

I will your serious and great business scant

For she is with me: no, when light-wing'd toys

Of feather'd Cupid seal with wanton dullness

My speculative and officed instruments,

That my disports corrupt and taint my business,

Let housewives make a skillet of my helm,

And all indign and base adversities

Make head against my estimation!

DUKE OF VENICE Be it as you shall privately determine,

Either for her stay or going: the affair cries haste,

And speed must answer it.

First Senator You must away to-night.

OTHELLO With all my heart.

DUKE OF VENICE At nine i' the morning here we'll meet again.

Othello, leave some officer behind,

And he shall our commission bring to you;

With such things else of quality and respect

As doth import you.

OTHELLO So please your grace, my ancient;

A man he is of honest and trust:

To his conveyance I assign my wife,

With what else needful your good grace shall think

To be sent after me.

DUKE OF VENICE Let it be so.

Good night to every one.

[To BRABANTIO]

And, noble signior,

If virtue no delighted beauty lack,

Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.

First Senator Adieu, brave Moor, use Desdemona well.

BRABANTIO Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:

She has deceived her father, and may thee.

[Exeunt DUKE OF VENICE, Senators, Officers, &c]

OTHELLO My life upon her faith! Honest Iago,

My Desdemona must I leave to thee:

I prithee, let thy wife attend on her:

And bring them after in the best advantage.

Come, Desdemona: I have but an hour

Of love, of worldly matters and direction,

To spend with thee: we must obey the time.

[Exeunt OTHELLO and DESDEMONA]

RODERIGO Iago,--

IAGO What say'st thou, noble heart?

RODERIGO What will I do, thinkest thou?

IAGO Why, go to bed, and sleep.

RODERIGO I will incontinently drown myself.

IAGO If thou dost, I shall never love thee after. Why,

thou silly gentleman!

RODERIGO It is silliness to live when to live is torment; and

then have we a prescription to die when death is our physician.

IAGO O villainous! I have looked upon the world for four

times seven years; and since I could distinguish

betwixt a benefit and an injury, I never found man

that knew how to love himself. Ere I would say, I

would drown myself for the love of a guinea-hen, I

would change my humanity with a baboon.

RODERIGO What should I do? I confess it is my shame to be so

fond; but it is not in my virtue to amend it.

IAGO Virtue! a fig! '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 manured with industry, why, the

power and corrigible authority of this lies in our

wills. If the balance of our lives had not one

scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the

blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us

to most preposterous conclusions: but we have

reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal

stings, our unbitted lusts, whereof I take this that

you call love to be a sect or scion.

RODERIGO It cannot be.

IAGO It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of

the will. Come, be a man. Drown thyself! drown

cats and blind puppies. I have professed me thy

friend and I confess me knit to thy deserving with

cables of perdurable toughness; I could never

better stead thee than now. Put money in thy

purse; follow thou the wars; defeat thy favour with

an usurped beard; I say, put money in thy purse. It

cannot be that Desdemona should long continue her

love to the Moor,-- put money in thy purse,--nor he

his to her: it was a violent commencement, and thou

shalt see an answerable sequestration:--put but

money in thy purse. These Moors are changeable in

their wills: fill thy purse with money:--the food

that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be

to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida. She must

change for youth: when she is sated with his body,

she will find the error of her choice: she must

have change, she must: therefore put money in thy

purse. If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a

more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money

thou canst: if sanctimony and a frail vow betwixt

an erring barbarian and a supersubtle Venetian not

too hard for my wits and all the tribe of hell, thou

shalt enjoy her; therefore make money. A pox of

drowning thyself! it is clean out of the way: seek

thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy than

to be drowned and go without her.

RODERIGO Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on

the issue?

IAGO Thou art sure of me:--go, make money:--I have told

thee often, and I re-tell thee again and again, I

hate the Moor: my cause is hearted; thine hath no

less reason. Let us be conjunctive in our revenge

against him: if thou canst cuckold him, thou dost

thyself a pleasure, me a sport. There are many

events in the womb of time which will be delivered.

Traverse! go, provide thy money. We will have more

of this to-morrow. Adieu.

RODERIGO Where shall we meet i' the morning?

IAGO At my lodging.

RODERIGO I'll be with thee betimes.

IAGO Go to; farewell. Do you hear, Roderigo?

RODERIGO What say you?

IAGO No more of drowning, do you hear?

RODERIGO I am changed: I'll go sell all my land.

[Exit]

IAGO Thus do I ever make my fool my purse:

For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane,

If I would time expend with such a snipe.

But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor:

And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets

He has done my office: I know not if't be true;

But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,

Will do as if for surety. He holds me well;

The better shall my purpose work on him.

Cassio's a proper man: let me see now:

To get his place and to plume up my will

In double knavery--How, how? Let's see:--

After some time, to abuse Othello's ear

That he is too familiar with his wife.

He hath a person and a smooth dispose

To be suspected, framed to make women false.

The Moor is of a free and open nature,

That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,

And will as tenderly be led by the nose

As asses are.

I have't. It is engender'd. Hell and night

Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light.

[Exit]







OTHELLO



ACT II





SCENE I A Sea-port in Cyprus. An open place near the quay.



[Enter MONTANO and two Gentlemen]

MONTANO What from the cape can you discern at sea?

First Gentleman Nothing at all: it is a highwrought flood;

I cannot, 'twixt the heaven and the main,

Descry a sail.

MONTANO Methinks the wind hath spoke aloud at land;

A fuller blast ne'er shook our battlements:

If it hath ruffian'd so upon the sea,

What ribs of oak, when mountains melt on them,

Can hold the mortise? What shall we hear of this?

Second Gentleman A segregation of the Turkish fleet:

For do but stand upon the foaming shore,

The chidden billow seems to pelt the clouds;

The wind-shaked surge, with high and monstrous mane,

seems to cast water on the burning bear,

And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole:

I never did like molestation view

On the enchafed flood.

MONTANO If that the Turkish fleet

Be not enshelter'd and embay'd, they are drown'd:

It is impossible they bear it out.

[Enter a third Gentleman]

Third Gentleman News, lads! our wars are done.

The desperate tempest hath so bang'd the Turks,

That their designment halts: a noble ship of Venice

Hath seen a grievous wreck and sufferance

On most part of their fleet.

MONTANO How! is this true?

Third Gentleman The ship is here put in,

A Veronesa; Michael Cassio,

Lieutenant to the warlike Moor Othello,

Is come on shore: the Moor himself at sea,

And is in full commission here for Cyprus.

MONTANO I am glad on't; 'tis a worthy governor.

Third Gentleman But this same Cassio, though he speak of comfort

Touching the Turkish loss, yet he looks sadly,

And prays the Moor be safe; for they were parted

With foul and violent tempest.

MONTANO Pray heavens he be;

For I have served him, and the man commands

Like a full soldier. Let's to the seaside, ho!

As well to see the vessel that's come in

As to throw out our eyes for brave Othello,

Even till we make the main and the aerial blue

An indistinct regard.

Third Gentleman Come, let's do so:

For every minute is expectancy

Of more arrivance.

[Enter CASSIO]

CASSIO Thanks, you the valiant of this warlike isle,

That so approve the Moor! O, let the heavens

Give him defence against the elements,

For I have lost us him on a dangerous sea.

MONTANO Is he well shipp'd?

CASSIO His bark is stoutly timber'd, his pilot

Of very expert and approved allowance;

Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death,

Stand in bold cure.

[A cry within 'A sail, a sail, a sail!']

[Enter a fourth Gentleman]

CASSIO What noise?

Fourth Gentleman The town is empty; on the brow o' the sea

Stand ranks of people, and they cry 'A sail!'

CASSIO My hopes do shape him for the governor.

[Guns heard]

Second Gentlemen They do discharge their shot of courtesy:

Our friends at least.

CASSIO I pray you, sir, go forth,

And give us truth who 'tis that is arrived.

Second Gentleman I shall.

[Exit]

MONTANO But, good lieutenant, is your general wived?

CASSIO Most fortunately: he hath achieved a maid

That paragons description and wild fame;

One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens,

And in the essential vesture of creation

Does tire the ingener.

[Re-enter second Gentleman]

How now! who has put in?

Second Gentleman 'Tis one Iago, ancient to the general.

CASSIO Has had most favourable and happy speed:

Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds,

The gutter'd rocks and congregated sands--

Traitors ensteep'd to clog the guiltless keel,--

As having sense of beauty, do omit

Their mortal natures, letting go safely by

The divine Desdemona.

MONTANO What is she?

CASSIO She that I spake of, our great captain's captain,

Left in the conduct of the bold Iago,

Whose footing here anticipates our thoughts

A se'nnight's speed. Great Jove, Othello guard,

And swell his sail with thine own powerful breath,

That he may bless this bay with his tall ship,

Make love's quick pants in Desdemona's arms,

Give renew'd fire to our extincted spirits

And bring all Cyprus comfort!

[Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, IAGO, RODERIGO, and

Attendants]

O, behold,

The riches of the ship is come on shore!

Ye men of Cyprus, let her have your knees.

Hail to thee, lady! and the grace of heaven,

Before, behind thee, and on every hand,

Enwheel thee round!

DESDEMONA I thank you, valiant Cassio.

What tidings can you tell me of my lord?

CASSIO He is not yet arrived: nor know I aught

But that he's well and will be shortly here.

DESDEMONA O, but I fear--How lost you company?

CASSIO The great contention of the sea and skies

Parted our fellowship--But, hark! a sail.

[Within 'A sail, a sail!' Guns heard]

Second Gentleman They give their greeting to the citadel;

This likewise is a friend.

CASSIO See for the news.

[Exit Gentleman]

Good ancient, you are welcome.

[To EMILIA]

Welcome, mistress.

Let it not gall your patience, good Iago,

That I extend my manners; 'tis my breeding

That gives me this bold show of courtesy.

[Kissing her]

IAGO Sir, would she give you so much of her lips

As of her tongue she oft bestows on me,

You'll have enough.

DESDEMONA Alas, she has no speech.

IAGO In faith, too much;

I find it still, when I have list to sleep:

Marry, before your ladyship, I grant,

She puts her tongue a little in her heart,

And chides with thinking.

EMILIA You have little cause to say so.

IAGO Come on, come on; you are pictures out of doors,

Bells in your parlors, wild-cats in your kitchens,

Saints m your injuries, devils being offended,

Players in your housewifery, and housewives' in your beds.

DESDEMONA O, fie upon thee, slanderer!

IAGO Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk:

You rise to play and go to bed to work.

EMILIA You shall not write my praise.

IAGO No, let me not.

DESDEMONA What wouldst thou write of me, if thou shouldst

praise me?

IAGO O gentle lady, do not put me to't;

For I am nothing, if not critical.

DESDEMONA Come on assay. There's one gone to the harbour?

IAGO Ay, madam.

DESDEMONA I am not merry; but I do beguile

The thing I am, by seeming otherwise.

Come, how wouldst thou praise me?

IAGO I am about it; but indeed my invention

Comes from my pate as birdlime does from frize;

It plucks out brains and all: but my Muse labours,

And thus she is deliver'd.

If she be fair and wise, fairness and wit,

The one's for use, the other useth it.

DESDEMONA Well praised! How if she be black and witty?

IAGO If she be black, and thereto have a wit,

She'll find a white that shall her blackness fit.

DESDEMONA Worse and worse.

EMILIA How if fair and foolish?

IAGO She never yet was foolish that was fair;

For even her folly help'd her to an heir.

DESDEMONA These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i'

the alehouse. What miserable praise hast thou for

her that's foul and foolish?

IAGO There's none so foul and foolish thereunto,

But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do.

DESDEMONA O heavy ignorance! thou praisest the worst best.

But what praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving

woman indeed, one that, in the authority of her

merit, did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself?

IAGO She that was ever fair and never proud,

Had tongue at will and yet was never loud,

Never lack'd gold and yet went never gay,

Fled from her wish and yet said 'Now I may,'

She that being anger'd, her revenge being nigh,

Bade her wrong stay and her displeasure fly,

She that in wisdom never was so frail

To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail;

She that could think and ne'er disclose her mind,

See suitors following and not look behind,

She was a wight, if ever such wight were,--

DESDEMONA To do what?

IAGO To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.

DESDEMONA O most lame and impotent conclusion! Do not learn

of him, Emilia, though he be thy husband. How say

you, Cassio? is he not a most profane and liberal

counsellor?

CASSIO He speaks home, madam: You may relish him more in

the soldier than in the scholar.

IAGO [Aside] He takes her by the palm: ay, well said,

whisper: with as little a web as this will I

ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. Ay, smile upon

her, do; I will gyve thee in thine own courtship.

You say true; 'tis so, indeed: if such tricks as

these strip you out of your lieutenantry, it had

been better you had not kissed your three fingers so

oft, which now again you are most apt to play the

sir in. Very good; well kissed! an excellent

courtesy! 'tis so, indeed. Yet again your fingers

to your lips? would they were clyster-pipes for your sake!

[Trumpet within]

The Moor! I know his trumpet.

CASSIO 'Tis truly so.

DESDEMONA Let's meet him and receive him.

CASSIO Lo, where he comes!

[Enter OTHELLO and Attendants]

OTHELLO O my fair warrior!

DESDEMONA My dear Othello!

OTHELLO It gives me wonder great as my content

To see you here before me. O my soul's joy!

If after every tempest come such calms,

May the winds blow till they have waken'd death!

And let the labouring bark climb hills of seas

Olympus-high and duck again as low

As hell's from heaven! If it were now to die,

'Twere now to be most happy; for, I fear,

My soul hath her content so absolute

That not another comfort like to this

Succeeds in unknown fate.

DESDEMONA The heavens forbid

But that our loves and comforts should increase,

Even as our days do grow!

OTHELLO Amen to that, sweet powers!

I cannot speak enough of this content;

It stops me here; it is too much of joy:

And this, and this, the greatest discords be

[Kissing her]

That e'er our hearts shall make!

IAGO [Aside] O, you are well tuned now!

But I'll set down the pegs that make this music,

As honest as I am.

OTHELLO Come, let us to the castle.

News, friends; our wars are done, the Turks

are drown'd.

How does my old acquaintance of this isle?

Honey, you shall be well desired in Cyprus;

I have found great love amongst them. O my sweet,

I prattle out of fashion, and I dote

In mine own comforts. I prithee, good Iago,

Go to the bay and disembark my coffers:

Bring thou the master to the citadel;

He is a good one, and his worthiness

Does challenge much respect. Come, Desdemona,

Once more, well met at Cyprus.

[Exeunt OTHELLO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants]

IAGO Do thou meet me presently at the harbour. Come

hither. If thou be'st valiant,-- as, they say, base

men being in love have then a nobility in their

natures more than is native to them--list me. The

lieutenant tonight watches on the court of

guard:--first, I must tell thee this--Desdemona is

directly in love with him.



RODERIGO With him! why, 'tis not possible.

IAGO Lay thy finger thus, and let thy soul be instructed.

Mark me with what violence she first loved the Moor,

but for bragging and telling her fantastical lies:

and will she love him still for prating? let not

thy discreet heart think it. Her eye must be fed;

and what delight shall she have to look on the

devil? When the blood is made dull with the act of

sport, there should be, again to inflame it and to

give satiety a fresh appetite, loveliness in favour,

sympathy in years, manners and beauties; all which

the Moor is defective in: now, for want of these

required conveniences, her delicate tenderness will

find itself abused, begin to heave the gorge,

disrelish and abhor the Moor; very nature will

instruct her in it and compel her to some second

choice. Now, sir, this granted,--as it is a most

pregnant and unforced position--who stands so

eminent in the degree of this fortune as Cassio

does? a knave very voluble; no further

conscionable than in putting on the mere form of

civil and humane seeming, for the better compassing

of his salt and most hidden loose affection? why,

none; why, none: a slipper and subtle knave, a

finder of occasions, that has an eye can stamp and

counterfeit advantages, though true advantage never

present itself; a devilish knave. Besides, the

knave is handsome, young, and hath all those

requisites in him that folly and green minds look

after: a pestilent complete knave; and the woman

hath found him already.

RODERIGO I cannot believe that in her; she's full of

most blessed condition.

IAGO Blessed fig's-end! the wine she drinks is made of

grapes: if she had been blessed, she would never

have loved the Moor. Blessed pudding! Didst thou

not see her paddle with the palm of his hand? didst

not mark that?

RODERIGO Yes, that I did; but that was but courtesy.

IAGO Lechery, by this hand; an index and obscure prologue

to the history of lust and foul thoughts. They met

so near with their lips that their breaths embraced

together. Villanous thoughts, Roderigo! when these

mutualities so marshal the way, hard at hand comes

the master and main exercise, the incorporate

conclusion, Pish! But, sir, be you ruled by me: I

have brought you from Venice. Watch you to-night;

for the command, I'll lay't upon you. Cassio knows

you not. I'll not be far from you: do you find

some occasion to anger Cassio, either by speaking

too loud, or tainting his discipline; or from what

other course you please, which the time shall more

favourably minister.

RODERIGO Well.

IAGO Sir, he is rash and very sudden in choler, and haply

may strike at you: provoke him, that he may; for

even out of that will I cause these of Cyprus to

mutiny; whose qualification shall come into no true

taste again but by the displanting of Cassio. So

shall you have a shorter journey to your desires by

the means I shall then have to prefer them; and the

impediment most profitably removed, without the

which there were no expectation of our prosperity.

RODERIGO I will do this, if I can bring it to any

opportunity.

IAGO I warrant thee. Meet me by and by at the citadel:

I must fetch his necessaries ashore. Farewell.

RODERIGO Adieu.

[Exit]

IAGO That Cassio loves her, I do well believe it;

That she loves him, 'tis apt and of great credit:

The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not,

Is of a constant, loving, noble nature,

And I dare think he'll prove to Desdemona

A most dear husband. Now, I do love her too;

Not out of absolute lust, though peradventure

I stand accountant for as great a sin,

But partly led to diet my revenge,

For that I do suspect the lusty Moor

Hath leap'd into my seat; the thought whereof

Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards;

And nothing can or shall content my soul

Till I am even'd with him, wife for wife,

Or failing so, yet that I put the Moor

At least into a jealousy so strong

That judgment cannot cure. Which thing to do,

If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trash

For his quick hunting, stand the putting on,

I'll have our Michael Cassio on the hip,

Abuse him to the Moor in the rank garb--

For I fear Cassio with my night-cap too--

Make the Moor thank me, love me and reward me.

For making him egregiously an ass

And practising upon his peace and quiet

Even to madness. 'Tis here, but yet confused:

Knavery's plain face is never seen tin used.

[Exit]


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