The Tragedy Of Othello, The Moor Of Venice

1 Enter Roderigo and Iago.
2 RODERIGO.
3 Tush, never tell me, I take it much unkindly
4 That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse,
5 As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.
6 IAGO.
7 ’Sblood, but you will not hear me.
8 If ever I did dream of such a matter,
9 Abhor me.
10 RODERIGO.
11 Thou told’st me, thou didst hold him in thy hate.
12 IAGO.
13 Despise me if I do not. Three great ones of the city,
14 In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
15 Off-capp’d to him; and by the faith of man,
16 I know my price, I am worth no worse a place.
17 But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
18 Evades them, with a bombast circumstance,
19 Horribly stuff’d with epithets of war:
20 And in conclusion,
21 Nonsuits my mediators: for “Certes,” says he,
22 “I have already chose my officer.”
23 And what was he?
24 Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
25 One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
26 A fellow almost damn’d in a fair wife,
27 That never set a squadron in the field,
28 Nor the division of a battle knows
29 More than a spinster, unless the bookish theoric,
30 Wherein the toged consuls can propose
31 As masterly as he: mere prattle without practice
32 Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election,
33 And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof
34 At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds,
35 Christian and heathen, must be belee’d and calm’d
36 By debitor and creditor, this counter-caster,
37 He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,
38 And I, God bless the mark, his Moorship’s ancient.
39 RODERIGO.
40 By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman.
41 IAGO.
42 Why, there’s no remedy. ’Tis the curse of service,
43 Preferment goes by letter and affection,
44 And not by old gradation, where each second
45 Stood heir to the first. Now sir, be judge yourself
46 Whether I in any just term am affin’d
47 To love the Moor.
48 RODERIGO.
49 I would not follow him, then.
50 IAGO.
51 O, sir, content you.
52 I follow him to serve my turn upon him:
53 We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
54 Cannot be truly follow’d. You shall mark
55 Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave
56 That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
57 Wears out his time, much like his master’s ass,
58 For nought but provender, and when he’s old, cashier’d.
59 Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are
60 Who, trimm’d in forms, and visages of duty,
61 Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves,
62 And throwing but shows of service on their lords,
63 Do well thrive by them, and when they have lin’d their coats,
64 Do themselves homage. These fellows have some soul,
65 And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,
66 It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
67 Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
68 In following him, I follow but myself.
69 Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
70 But seeming so for my peculiar end.
71 For when my outward action doth demonstrate
72 The native act and figure of my heart
73 In complement extern, ’tis not long after
74 But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
75 For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.
76 RODERIGO.
77 What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe,
78 If he can carry’t thus!
79 IAGO.
80 Call up her father,
81 Rouse him, make after him, poison his delight,
82 Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,
83 And though he in a fertile climate dwell,
84 Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,
85 Yet throw such changes of vexation on’t,
86 As it may lose some color.
87 RODERIGO.
88 Here is her father’s house, I’ll call aloud.
89 IAGO.
90 Do, with like timorous accent and dire yell
91 As when, by night and negligence, the fire
92 Is spied in populous cities.
93 RODERIGO.
94 What ho, Brabantio! Signior Brabantio, ho!
95 IAGO.
96 Awake! what ho, Brabantio! Thieves, thieves!
97 Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags!
98 Thieves, thieves!
99 Brabantio appears above at a window.
100 BRABANTIO.
101 What is the reason of this terrible summons?
102 What is the matter there?
103 RODERIGO.
104 Signior, is all your family within?
105 IAGO.
106 Are your doors locked?
107 BRABANTIO.
108 Why, wherefore ask you this?
109 IAGO.
110 Zounds, sir, you’re robb’d, for shame put on your gown,
111 Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;
112 Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
113 Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise,
114 Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
115 Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:
116 Arise, I say.
117 BRABANTIO.
118 What, have you lost your wits?
119 RODERIGO.
120 Most reverend signior, do you know my voice?
121 BRABANTIO.
122 Not I. What are you?
123 RODERIGO.
124 My name is Roderigo.
125 BRABANTIO.
126 The worser welcome.
127 I have charg’d thee not to haunt about my doors;
128 In honest plainness thou hast heard me say
129 My daughter is not for thee; and now in madness,
130 Being full of supper and distempering draughts,
131 Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come
132 To start my quiet.
133 RODERIGO.
134 Sir, sir, sir,—
135 BRABANTIO.
136 But thou must needs be sure
137 My spirit and my place have in them power
138 To make this bitter to thee.
139 RODERIGO.
140 Patience, good sir.
141 BRABANTIO.
142 What tell’st thou me of robbing?
143 This is Venice. My house is not a grange.
144 RODERIGO.
145 Most grave Brabantio,
146 In simple and pure soul I come to you.
147 IAGO.
148 Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will not serve God if the devil
149 bid you. Because we come to do you service, and you think we are
150 ruffians, you’ll have your daughter cover’d with a Barbary horse;
151 you’ll have your nephews neigh to you; you’ll have coursers for cousins
152 and gennets for germans.
153 BRABANTIO.
154 What profane wretch art thou?
155 IAGO.
156 I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are
157 now making the beast with two backs.
158 BRABANTIO.
159 Thou art a villain.
160 IAGO.
161 You are a senator.
162 BRABANTIO.
163 This thou shalt answer. I know thee, Roderigo.
164 RODERIGO.
165 Sir, I will answer anything. But I beseech you,
166 If ’t be your pleasure, and most wise consent,
167 (As partly I find it is) that your fair daughter,
168 At this odd-even and dull watch o’ the night,
169 Transported with no worse nor better guard,
170 But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,
171 To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor:
172 If this be known to you, and your allowance,
173 We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs.
174 But if you know not this, my manners tell me,
175 We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe
176 That from the sense of all civility,
177 I thus would play and trifle with your reverence.
178 Your daughter (if you have not given her leave)
179 I say again, hath made a gross revolt,
180 Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes
181 In an extravagant and wheeling stranger
182 Of here and everywhere. Straight satisfy yourself:
183 If she be in her chamber or your house,
184 Let loose on me the justice of the state
185 For thus deluding you.
186 BRABANTIO.
187 Strike on the tinder, ho!
188 Give me a taper! Call up all my people!
189 This accident is not unlike my dream,
190 Belief of it oppresses me already.
191 Light, I say, light!
192 [_Exit from above._]
193 IAGO.
194 Farewell; for I must leave you:
195 It seems not meet nor wholesome to my place
196 To be produc’d, as if I stay I shall,
197 Against the Moor. For I do know the state,
198 However this may gall him with some check,
199 Cannot with safety cast him, for he’s embark’d
200 With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars,
201 Which even now stand in act, that, for their souls,
202 Another of his fathom they have none
203 To lead their business. In which regard,
204 Though I do hate him as I do hell pains,
205 Yet, for necessity of present life,
206 I must show out a flag and sign of love,
207 Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely find him,
208 Lead to the Sagittary the raised search,
209 And there will I be with him. So, farewell.
210 [_Exit._]
211 Enter Brabantio with Servants and torches.
212 BRABANTIO.
213 It is too true an evil. Gone she is,
214 And what’s to come of my despised time,
215 Is naught but bitterness. Now Roderigo,
216 Where didst thou see her? (O unhappy girl!)
217 With the Moor, say’st thou? (Who would be a father!)
218 How didst thou know ’twas she? (O, she deceives me
219 Past thought.) What said she to you? Get more tapers,
220 Raise all my kindred. Are they married, think you?
221 RODERIGO.
222 Truly I think they are.
223 BRABANTIO.
224 O heaven! How got she out? O treason of the blood!
225 Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters’ minds
226 By what you see them act. Is there not charms
227 By which the property of youth and maidhood
228 May be abused? Have you not read, Roderigo,
229 Of some such thing?
230 RODERIGO.
231 Yes, sir, I have indeed.
232 BRABANTIO.
233 Call up my brother. O, would you had had her!
234 Some one way, some another. Do you know
235 Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?
236 RODERIGO.
237 I think I can discover him, if you please
238 To get good guard, and go along with me.
239 BRABANTIO.
240 Pray you lead on. At every house I’ll call,
241 I may command at most. Get weapons, ho!
242 And raise some special officers of night.
243 On, good Roderigo. I will deserve your pains.
244 [_Exeunt._]