Iago.
Rodorigo.
Never tell me. I take it much unkindly,
That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse,
As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.
Iago.
But you'll not hear me.
If ever I did dream of such a matter, abhor me.
Rod.
Thou toldst me, thou didst hold him in thy hate.
Iag.
Despise me,
If I do not. Three Great ones of the city,
In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
-- 320 --
Off-capp'd to him; and, by the faith of man,
I know my price, I'm worth no worse a Place.
But he, as loving his own pride and purpose;
Evades them with a bombast circumstance,
Horribly stuft with epithets of war,
And, in conclusion,
Non-suits my mediators. “Certes, says he,
“I have already chose my officer.”
And what was he?
Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
One Michael Cassio, 2 notea Florentine,
A fellow almost damn'd 3 note
in a fair wife;
-- 321 --
That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows
More than a spinster; but the bookish theorick,
4 note
Wherein the toged consuls can propose
As masterly as he. Meer prattle, without practice,
Is all his soldiership. He had th' election;
And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof
At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds
Christian and heathen, 5 note
must be belee'd and calm'd
By Debitor and Creditor. This Counter-caster
He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,
And I, Sir, (bless the mark!) his Moor-ship's Ancient.
Rod.
By heav'n, I rather would have been his hangman.
Iago.
But there's no remedy; 'tis the curse of service;
Preferment goes 6 noteby letter and affection,
7 note
And not by old gradation, where each second
-- 322 --
Stood heir to th' first. Now, Sir, be judge yourself,
8 noteIf I in any just term am affin'd
To love the Moor.
Rod.
I would not follow him then.
Iago.
O Sir, content you;
I follow him to serve my turn upon him.
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
For nought but provender; and when he's old, cashier'd;
Whip me such 9 notehonest knaves. Others there are,
Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty,
Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves;
And, throwing but shows of service on their Lords,
Well thrive by them; and when they've lin'd their coats,
Do themselves homage. These folks have some soul,
And such a one do I profess myself.
It is as sure as you are Rodorigo,
Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago.
In following him, I follow but myself,
Heav'n is my judge!—Not I, for love and duty,
But, seeming so, for my peculiar end.
-- 323 --
For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
1 noteIn compliment extern, 'tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve,
For daws to peck at. I'm not what I am.
Rod.
What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe,
If he can carry't thus?
Iago.
Call up her father,
Rouse him. Make after him, poison his delight,
Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen;
And though he in a fertile climate dwell,
Plague him with flies; though that his joy be joy,
Yet throw such changes of vexation on't,
As it may lose some colour.
Rod.
Here is her father's house, I'll call aloud.
Iago.
Do, with like timorous accent, and dire yell,
2 note
As when, by night and negligence, the fire
Is spied in populous cities.
-- 324 --
Rod.
What, ho! Brabantio! Signior Brabantio! ho.
Iago.
Awake! what, ho! Brabantio! ho! Thieves! thieves!
Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags.
Thieves! thieves!
SCENE II.
Brabantio appears above, at a Window.
Bra.
What is the reason of this terrible summons?
What is the matter there?
Rod.
Signior, is all your family within?
Iago.
Are all doors lock'd?
Bra.
Why? Wherefore ask you this?
Iago.
Sir, you are robb'd. For shame, put on your Gown.
Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;
Ev'n now, ev'n very now, an old black ram
Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise,
Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
Or else the Devil will make a grandsire of you.
Arise, I say.
Bra.
What, have you lost your wits?
Rod.
Most reverend signior, do you know my voice?
Bra.
Not I. What are you?
Rod.
My name is Rodorigo.
Bra.
The worser welcome.
I've charg'd thee not to haunt about my doors.
In honest plainness thou hast heard me say,
My daughter's not for thee; and now in madness,
Being full of supper and distemp'ring draughts,
Upon malicious bravery dost thou come
To start my quiet.
Rod.
Sir, Sir, Sir—
Bra.
But thou must needs be sure,
My spirit and my place have in their power
-- 325 --
To make this bitter to thee.
Rod.
Patience, good Sir.
Bra.
What tell'st thou me of robbing? This is Venice,
My house is not a grange.
Rod.
Most grave Brabantio,
In simple and pure soul, I come to you.
Iago.
Sir, you are one of those that will not serve
God, if the Devil bid you. Because we come to do
you service, you think we are ruffians. You'll have
your daughter cover'd with a Barbary horse, you'll
have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have coursers
for cousins, and gennets for germanes.
Bra.
† noteWhat profane wretch art thou?
Iago.
I am one Sir, that comes to tell you, your
daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with
two backs.6Q0276
Bra.
Thou art a villain.
Iago.
You are a senator.
Bra.
This thou shalt answer. I know thee, Rodorigo.
Rod.
Sir, I will answer any thing. But I beseech you,
* noteIf't be your pleasure and most wise consent,
As partly, I find, it is, that your fair daughter,
At 3 notethis odd even and dull watch o'th' night,
Transported with no worse nor better guard,
But with a knave of hire, a Gondelier,
To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor:
If this be known to you, and your allowance,
We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs.
-- 326 --
But if you know not this, my manners tell me,
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe,
That from the sense of all civility
I thus would play, and trifle with your reverence.
Your daughter, if you have not giv'n her leave,
I say again, hath made a gross revolt;
Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes
To an extravagant and wheeling stranger,
Of here and every where. Straight satisfy yourself.
If she be in her chamber, or your house,
Let loose on me the justice of the State
For thus deluding you.
Bra.
Strike on the tinder, ho!
Give me a taper. Call up all my people.
This accident is not unlike my Dream,
Belief of it oppresses me already.
Light! I say, light!
Iago.
Farewell; for I must leave you.
It seems not meet, nor wholsome to my place,
To be produc'd, as, if I stay, I shall,
Against the Moor. For I do know, the State,
However this may gall him with 4 notesome check,
Cannot with safety 5 notecast him. For he's embark'd
With such loud reason to the Cyprus' wars,
Which ev'n now stand in act, that, for their souls,
Another of his fadom they have none,
To lead their business. In which regard,
Tho' I do hate him as I do hell's pains,
Yet, for necessity of present life,
I must shew out a flag and sign of love:
Which is, indeed, but sign. That you may surely find him,
Lead to the Sagittary the rais'd search;
And there will I be with him. So, farewel.
[Exit.
-- 327 --
SCENE III.
Enter Brabantio, and servants with torches.
Bra.
It is too true an evil. Gone she is;
6 note
And what's to come of my despised time,
Is nought but bitterness. Now, Rodorigo,
Where didst thou see her?—Oh unhappy girl!—
With the Moor, saidst thou?—Who would be a father?—
How didst thou know 'twas she? Oh, thou deceiv'st me
Past thought.—What said she to you?—Get more tapers,
Raise all my kindred.—Are they married, think you?
Rod.
Truly, I think, they are.
Bra.
Oh heaven! how gat she out?
Oh treason of my blood!
Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds
By what you see them act. Are there not charms,
7 note
By which the property of youth and maidhood
May be abus'd? Have you not read, Rodorigo,
Of some such thing?
Rod.
Yes, Sir, I have, indeed.
-- 328 --
Bra.
Call up my brother.—Oh, 'would you had had her.
—Some one way, some another—Do you know
Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?
Rod.
I think, I can discover him, if you please
To get good guard, and go along with me.
Bra.
Pray you, lead on. At ev'ry house I'll call,
I may command at most. Get weapons, hoa!
And raise some special officers of might.
On, good Rodorigo, I'll deserve your pains.
[Exeunt.
SCENE IV.
Changes to another Street, before the Sagittary.
Enter Othello, Iago, and attendants with Torches.
Iago.
Tho' in the trade of war I have slain men,
Yet do I hold it very 8 notestuff o' th' conscience
To do no contriv'd murder. I lack iniquity
Sometimes to do me service.—Nine or ten times
I thought to've jerk'd him here under the ribs.
Oth.
It's better as it is.
Iago.
Nay, but he prated,
And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
Against your honour;
That, with the little godliness I have,
I did full hard forbear him. But I pray, Sir,
Are you fast married? for, be sure of this,
-- 329 --
That the Magnifico is much belov'd,
And hath in his effect a voice potential
9 note
As double as the Duke's: he will divorce you,
Or put upon you what restraint or grievance
The law, with all his might t'enforce it on,
Will give him cable.
Oth.
Let him do his spight:
My services, which I have done the Signory,
-- 330 --
Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know,
Which, when I know that Boasting is an honour,
I shall promulgate, I fetch my Life and Being
From 1 note
men of royal siege; and my demerits
May 2 note
speak, and bonnetted, to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reach'd. For know, Iago,
But that I love the gentle Desdemona,
I would not my 3 noteunhoused free condition
Put into circumscription and confine,
4 noteFor the sea's worth. But look, what light comes yonder?
SCENE V.
Enter Cassio, with torches.
Iago.
Those are the raised father, and his friends:
You were best go in.
Oth.
Not I: I must be found.
-- 331 --
My parts, my title and my perfect Soul
Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?
Iago.
5 noteBy Janus, I think, no.
Oth.
The Servants of the Duke, and my lieutenant.
—The goodness of the night upon you, friends!
What is the news?
Cas.
The Duke does greet you, General,
And he requires your haste, post-haste, appearance,
Ev'n on the instant.
Oth.
What is the matter, think you?
Cas.
Something from Cyprus, as I may divine;
It is a business of some heat. The Gallies
Have sent a dozen sequent messengers
This very night, at one anothers heels:
6 note
And many of the Council, rais'd and met,
Are at the Duke's already. You have been hotly call'd for,
When, being not at your lodging to be found,
7 note
The senate hath sent out three several quests,
To search you out.
Oth.
'Tis well I am found by you.
I will but spend a word here in the house,
And go with you.
[Exit Othello.
Cas.
Ancient, what makes he here?
-- 332 --
Iago.
'Faith, he to-night hath boarded 8 notea land-carrack;
If it prove lawful prize, he's made for ever.
Cas.
I do not understand.
Iago.
He's married.
Cas.
To whom?
Iago.
Marry, to—Come, Captain, will you go?
Enter Othello.
Oth.
Have with you.
Cas.
Here comes another troop to seek for you.
SCENE VI.
Enter Brabantio, Rodorigo, with officers and torches.
Iago.
It is Brabantio: General, 9 notebe advis'd;
He comes to bad intent.
Oth.
Holla! stand there.
Rod.
Signior, it is the Moor.
Bra.
Down with him, thief!
[They draw on both sides.
Iago.
You, Rodorigo! come, Sir, I am for you—
Oth.
Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust 'em.
Good Signior, you shall more command with years,
Than with your weapons.
Bra.
O thou foul thief! where hast thou stow'd my daughter?
Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her;
For I'll refer me to all things of sense,
-- 333 --
If she in chains of magick were not bound,
Whether a maid, so tender, fair, and happy,
So opposite to marriage, that she shunn'd
1 note
The wealthy curled darlings of our nation,
Would ever have, t' incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou; to fear, not to delight?
2 noteJudge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense,
That thou hast practis'd on her with foul charms,
3 note
Abus'd her delicate youth with drugs or minerals,
That weaken Notion.—I'll hav't disputed on;
'Tis probable, and palpable to thinking.
-- 334 --
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee
For an abuser of the world, a practicer
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant.
—Lay hold upon him; if he do resist,
Subdue him at his peril.
Oth.
Hold your hands,
Both you of my inclining, and the rest.
Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it
Without a prompter. Where will you I go
To answer this your charge?
Bra.
To prison, 'till fit time
Of law, and course of direct Session
Call thee to answer.
Oth.
What if I do obey?
How may the Duke be therewith satisfied,
Whose messengers are here about my side,
Upon some present business of the State,
To bring me to him?
Offi.
True, most worthy signior,
The Duke's in Council; and your noble self,
I'm sure, is sent for.
Bra.
How! the Duke in Council?
In this time of the night? Bring him away;
Mine's not an idle cause. The Duke himself,
Or any of my Brothers of the State,
Cannot but feel this wrong, as 'twere their own;
For if such actions may have passage free,
4 noteBond-slaves, and Pagans, shall our Statesmen be.
[Exeunt.
-- 335 --
SCENE VII.
Changes to the Senate House.
Duke and Senators, set at a table with lights, and attendants.
Duke.
5 noteThere is no composition in these news,
That gives them credit.
1 Sen.
Indeed, they're disproportion'd;
My letters say, a hundred and seven Gallies.
Duke.
And mine a hundred and forty.
2 Sen.
And mine, two hundred;
But though they jump not on a just account,
6 note
As in these cases where they aim reports,
'Tis oft with diff'rence; yet do they all confirm
A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus.
Duke.
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.
Sailors within.]
What hoa! what hoa! what hoa!
-- 336 --
Enter Sailors.
Offi.
A messenger from the Gallies.
Duke.
Now?—What's the business?
Sail.
The Turkish preparation makes for Rhodes.
So was I bid report here to the State.
Duke.
How say you by this change?
1 Sen.
This cannot be,
7 noteBy no assay of reason. 'Tis a pageant,
To keep us in false gaze; when we consider
Th' 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 8 notefacile question bear it;
9 noteFor that it stands not in such 1 notewarlike brace,
But altogether lacks th' 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.
Nay, in all confidence, he's not for Rhodes.
Offi.
Here is more news.
Enter a Messenger.
Mes.
The Ottomites, reverend and gracious,
Steering with due course toward the Isle of Rhodes,
Have there injointed them with an after-fleet—
1 Sen.
Ay, so I thought; how many, as you guess?
-- 337 --
Mes.
Of thirty sail; and now they do re-stem
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,
2 note
And prays you to believe him.
Duke.
'Tis certain then for Cyprus. Marcus Luccicos,
Is he not here in town?
1 Sen.
He's now in Florence.
Duke.
Write from us, to him, post, post-haste. Despatch.
1 Sen.
Here comes Brabantio, and the valiant Moor.
SCENE VIII.
To them, enter Brabantio, Othello, Cassio, Iago, Rodorigo, and Officers.
Duke.
Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you,
Against the general enemy Ottoman.
I did not see you; welcome, gentle signior,
[To Brab.
We lack'd your counsel, and your help to night.
Bra.
So did I yours. Good your Grace, pardon me;
Neither my place, nor aught I heard of business,
Hath rais'd me from my bed; nor doth the 3 notegeneral care
Take hold on me, for my particular grief
-- 338 --
Is of so flood-gate and o'er-bearing nature,
That it ingluts and swallows other sorrows,
And yet is still itself.
Duke.
Why, what's the matter?
Bra.
My daughter! oh, my daughter!—
Sen.
Dead?—
Bra.
To me;
She is abus'd, stoll'n from me, and corrupted
4 note
By spells and medicines, bought of mountebanks;
For nature so preposterously to err,
Being not deficient, blind, nor lame of sense,
Sans witchcraft could not—
Duke.
Who-e'er he be, that in this foul proceeding
Hath thus beguil'd 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
5 noteStood in your action.
Bra.
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.
-- 339 --
All.
We're very sorry for't.
Duke.
What in your own part can you say to this?
[To Othello.
Bra.
Nothing, but this is so.
Oth.
Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
My very noble and approv'd good masters;
That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter,
It is most true; true, I have married her;
6 noteThe very head and front of my offending
Hath this extent; no more. Rude am I in speech,
7 note
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 us'd
8 noteTheir dearest action in the tented field;
And little of this great world can I speak,
More than pertains to feats of broils 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 magick,
For such proceeding I am charg'd withal,
I won his daughter with.
-- 340 --
Bra.
A maiden, never bold;
Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion
Blush'd at itself; and she, in spight 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, 9 note
Perfection so could err
Against all rules of nature; and must be driven
To find out practices of cunning hell,
Why this should be. I therefore vouch again,
That with some mixtures powerful o'er the blood,
Or with some dram, conjur'd to this effect,
He wrought upon her.
Duke.
To vouch this is no proof,
Without more certain and more 1 noteovert test,
Than these 2 note
thin habits and poor likelyhoods
Of modern Seeming do prefer against him.
1 Sen.
But, Othello, speak;
Did you by indirect and forced courses
Subdue and poison this young maid's affections?
-- 341 --
Or came it by request, and such fair question
As soul to soul affordeth?
Oth.
I 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.
Fetch Desdemona hither.
[Exeunt two or three.
Oth.
Ancient, conduct them, you best know the place.
[Exit Iago.
And till she come, as truly as to heav'n
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.
Say it, Othello.
Oth.
Her father lov'd me, oft invited me;
Still question'd me the story of my life,
From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
That I have past.
I ran it through, e'en from my boyish days,
To th' 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 in th' imminent deadly breach;
Of being taken by the insolent foe,
And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence,
3 note
And portance in my travel's history:
-- 342 --
4 note
Wherein of 5 note
antres vast, and desarts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks, and hills, whose heads touch heav'n,
6 note
It was my hint to speak; such was the process;
-- 343 --
And of the Canibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi; and 7 note
men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. All these to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline;
But still the house-affairs would draw her thence,
Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
She'd 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 pray'r 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 8 notea 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 heav'n had made her such a man.—She thank'd me,
And bade me, if I had a friend that lov'd her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
-- 344 --
And that would woo her. On this hint I spake,
She lov'd me for the dangers I had past,
And I lov'd her, that she did pity them:
This only is the witchcraft I have us'd.
Here comes the lady, let her witness it.
SCENE IX.
Enter Desdemona, Iago, and Attendants.
Duke.
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.
Bra.
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 you most owe obedience?
Des.
My noble father,
I do perceive here a divided duty;
To you I'm bound for life and education,
My life and education both do learn me
How to respect you. You're the Lord of duty;
I'm hitherto your daughter. But here's my husband;
And so much duty as my mother shew'd
To you, preferring you before her father;
So much I challenge, that I may profess
Due to the Moor, my Lord.
Bra.
God be with 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:
-- 345 --
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'm 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.
9 note
Let me speak like yourself; and lay a sentence,
Which, as a grise, or step, may help these lovers
“Into your favour”—* note
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 preserv'd 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.
Bra.
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
1 noteBut 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.
-- 346 --
2 note
But words are words; I never yet did hear,
That the bruis'd heart was pieced through the ear.
Beseech you, now to the affairs o' th' State.
Duke.
The Turk with a 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 safe voice on you;
you must therefore be content to slubber the gloss of
your new fortunes, with this more stubborn and boisterous
expedition.
Oth.
The tyrant custom, most grave senators,
Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
My 3 notethrice-driven bed of down. I do agnize
A natural and prompt alacrity
I find in hardness; and do undertake
This present war against the Ottomites.
Most humbly therefore bending to your State,
4 note
I crave fit disposition for my wife,
Due reference of place, and exhibition,
-- 347 --
With such accommodation and besort
As levels with her breeding.
Duke.
Why, at her father's.
Bra.
I will not have it so.
Oth.
Nor I.
Des.
Nor would I 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 5 notea charter in your voice
T'assist my simpleness.
Duke.
What would you, Desdemona?
Des.
That I did love the Moor to live with him,
6 note
My down-right violence and storm of fortunes
May trumpet to the world. My heart's subdu'd
Ev'n to the very quality of my Lord;
7 noteI saw Othello's visage in his mind,
And to his honours 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.
-- 348 --
Oth.
Your voices, Lords. 'Beseech you, let her will
Have a free way. I therefore beg it not,
To please the palate of my appetite;
8 note
Nor to comply with heat, the young Affects,
In my defunct and proper Satisfaction;
-- 349 --
But to be free and bounteous to her mind.
And heav'n 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 foil with wanton dulness
My speculative and active 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.
Be it as you shall privately determine,
Or for her stay or going; th' affair cries haste;
And speed must answer it. You must hence to-night.
Des.
To-night, my Lord?
Duke.
This night.
Oth.
With all my heart.
Duke.
At nine i'th' morning here we'll meet again.
Othello, leave some officer behind,
And he shall our commission bring to you,
And such things else of quality and respect
As doth import you.
Oth.
Please your Grace, my Ancient;
A man he is of honesty and trust,
To his conveyance I assign my wife,
With what else needful your good grace shall think
To be sent after me.
-- 350 --
Duke.
Let it be so;
Good-night to every one. And, noble Signior,
9 note
If virtue no delighted beauty lack,
Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.
Sen.
Adieu, brave Moor. Use Desdemona well.
Bra.
Look to her, Moor, have a quick eye to see.
She has deceiv'd her father, and may thee.
[Exit Duke, with Senators.
Oth.
My life upon her faith. Honest Iago,
My Desdemona must I leave to thee;
I pr'ythee, let thy wife attend on her;
And bring her after in the 1 notebest advantage.
Come, Desdemona, I have but an hour
Of love, of worldly matter and direction
To speak with thee. We must obey the time.
[Exeunt.
SCENE X.
Manent Rodorigo and Iago.
Rod.
Iago—
Iago.
What sayest thou noble heart?
Rod.
What will I do, thinkest thou?
Iago.
Why, go to bed, and sleep.
Rod.
I will incontinently drown myself.
Iago.
Well, if thou dost, I shall never love thee after.
Why, thou silly gentleman!
Rod.
It is silliness to live, when to live is a torment;
and then have we a prescription to die, when death is
our physician.
-- 351 --
Iago.
O villainous! I have look'd 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 2 notea Guinea-hen, I
would change my humanity with a baboon.
Rod.
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 lettice; set hyssop, and weed up
thyme; supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract
it with many; either have it steril with idleness, or
manured with industry; why, the power and corrigible
authority of this lies in our will. If the ballance 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 Set or scien.
Rod.
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 profest
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 mony in thy purse;
follow thou these wars; 3 note
defeat thy favour with an
-- 352 --
usurped beard. I say, put mony in thy purse. It cannot
be, that Desdemona should long continue her love
to the Moor—Put mony in thy purse—nor he his to
her. 4 noteIt was a violent commencement in her, and thou
shalt see an answerable sequestration.—Put but mony
in thy purse.—These Moors are changeable in their
wills.—Fill thy purse with mony. The food, that to
him now is 5 noteas luscious as lohocks, shall shortly be as
bitter as a coloquintida. When she is sated with his
body, she will find the errors of her choice.—She
must have change, she must: therefore put mony in
thy purse.—If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do
it a more delicate way than drowning. Make all the
mony thou canst. If sanctimony and a frail vow,
6 note
betwixt an erring Barbarian and a super-subtle Venetian,
be not too hard for my wits, and all the tribe of
hell, thou shalt enjoy her; therefore make mony. A
pox of drowning thyself! it is clean out of the way.
Seek thou rather to be hang'd in compassing thy joy,
than to be drown'd and go without her.
Rod.
Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend
on the issue?
Iago.
Thou art sure of me.—Go, make mony.—
-- 353 --
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, and me a sport. There are
many events in the womb of time, which will be delivered.
Traverse, go. Provide thy mony. We will
have more of this to-morrow. Adieu.
Rod.
Where shall we meet i'th' morning?
Iago.
At my lodging.
Rod.
I'll be with thee betimes.
Iago.
Go to, farewel. Do you hear, Rodorigo?
Rod.
What say you?
Iago.
No more of drowning, do you hear.
Rod.
I am chang'd. I'll go sell all my land.
Iago.
“Go to, farewel, put mony enough in your purse”—
[Exit Rodorigo.
SCENE XI.
Manet Iago.
Iago.
Thus do I ever make my fool my purse;
For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane,
If I should 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,
A double knavery—How? how?—Let's see—
After some time t' abuse Othello's ear,
-- 354 --
That he is too familiar with his wife—
He hath a person, and a smooth dispose,
To be suspected; fram'd 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 th' 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.
Samuel Johnson [1765], The plays of William Shakespeare, in eight volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of Various Commentators; To which are added notes by Sam. Johnson (Printed for J. and R. Tonson [and] C. Corbet [etc.], London) [word count] [S11001].
