The Tragedy Of Othello, The Moor Of Venice

1 Enter Othello, Desdemona, Cassio and Attendants.
2 OTHELLO.
3 Good Michael, look you to the guard tonight.
4 Let’s teach ourselves that honourable stop,
5 Not to outsport discretion.
6 CASSIO.
7 Iago hath direction what to do.
8 But notwithstanding with my personal eye
9 Will I look to’t.
10 OTHELLO.
11 Iago is most honest.
12 Michael, good night. Tomorrow with your earliest
13 Let me have speech with you. [_To Desdemona._] Come, my dear love,
14 The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue;
15 That profit’s yet to come ’tween me and you.—
16 Good night.
17 [_Exeunt Othello, Desdemona and Attendants._]
18 Enter Iago.
19 CASSIO.
20 Welcome, Iago. We must to the watch.
21 IAGO.
22 Not this hour, lieutenant. ’Tis not yet ten o’ th’ clock. Our general
23 cast us thus early for the love of his Desdemona; who let us not
24 therefore blame: he hath not yet made wanton the night with her; and
25 she is sport for Jove.
26 CASSIO.
27 She’s a most exquisite lady.
28 IAGO.
29 And, I’ll warrant her, full of game.
30 CASSIO.
31 Indeed, she is a most fresh and delicate creature.
32 IAGO.
33 What an eye she has! methinks it sounds a parley to provocation.
34 CASSIO.
35 An inviting eye, and yet methinks right modest.
36 IAGO.
37 And when she speaks, is it not an alarm to love?
38 CASSIO.
39 She is indeed perfection.
40 IAGO.
41 Well, happiness to their sheets! Come, lieutenant, I have a stoup of
42 wine; and here without are a brace of Cyprus gallants that would fain
43 have a measure to the health of black Othello.
44 CASSIO.
45 Not tonight, good Iago. I have very poor and unhappy brains for
46 drinking. I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of
47 entertainment.
48 IAGO.
49 O, they are our friends; but one cup: I’ll drink for you.
50 CASSIO.
51 I have drunk but one cup tonight, and that was craftily qualified too,
52 and behold, what innovation it makes here: I am unfortunate in the
53 infirmity, and dare not task my weakness with any more.
54 IAGO.
55 What, man! ’Tis a night of revels. The gallants desire it.
56 CASSIO.
57 Where are they?
58 IAGO.
59 Here at the door. I pray you, call them in.
60 CASSIO.
61 I’ll do’t; but it dislikes me.
62 [_Exit._]
63 IAGO.
64 If I can fasten but one cup upon him,
65 With that which he hath drunk tonight already,
66 He’ll be as full of quarrel and offence
67 As my young mistress’ dog. Now my sick fool Roderigo,
68 Whom love hath turn’d almost the wrong side out,
69 To Desdemona hath tonight carous’d
70 Potations pottle-deep; and he’s to watch:
71 Three lads of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits,
72 That hold their honours in a wary distance,
73 The very elements of this warlike isle,
74 Have I tonight fluster’d with flowing cups,
75 And they watch too. Now, ’mongst this flock of drunkards,
76 Am I to put our Cassio in some action
77 That may offend the isle. But here they come:
78 If consequence do but approve my dream,
79 My boat sails freely, both with wind and stream.
80 Enter Cassio, Montano and Gentlemen; followed by Servant with wine.
81 CASSIO.
82 ’Fore God, they have given me a rouse already.
83 MONTANO.
84 Good faith, a little one; not past a pint, as I am a soldier.
85 IAGO.
86 Some wine, ho!
87 [_Sings._]
88 _And let me the cannikin clink, clink,
89 And let me the cannikin clink, clink:
90 A soldier’s a man,
91 O, man’s life’s but a span,
92 Why then let a soldier drink._
93 Some wine, boys!
94 CASSIO.
95 ’Fore God, an excellent song.
96 IAGO.
97 I learned it in England, where indeed they are most potent in potting:
98 your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied Hollander,—drink, ho!—are
99 nothing to your English.
100 CASSIO.
101 Is your Englishman so expert in his drinking?
102 IAGO.
103 Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead drunk; he sweats not
104 to overthrow your Almain; he gives your Hollander a vomit ere the next
105 pottle can be filled.
106 CASSIO.
107 To the health of our general!
108 MONTANO.
109 I am for it, lieutenant; and I’ll do you justice.
110 IAGO.
111 O sweet England!
112 [_Sings._]
113 _King Stephen was a worthy peer,
114 His breeches cost him but a crown;
115 He held them sixpence all too dear,
116 With that he call’d the tailor lown.
117 He was a wight of high renown,
118 And thou art but of low degree:
119 ’Tis pride that pulls the country down,
120 Then take thine auld cloak about thee._
121 Some wine, ho!
122 CASSIO.
123 ’Fore God, this is a more exquisite song than the other.
124 IAGO.
125 Will you hear ’t again?
126 CASSIO.
127 No, for I hold him to be unworthy of his place that does those things.
128 Well, God’s above all, and there be souls must be saved, and there be
129 souls must not be saved.
130 IAGO.
131 It’s true, good lieutenant.
132 CASSIO.
133 For mine own part, no offence to the general, nor any man of quality, I
134 hope to be saved.
135 IAGO.
136 And so do I too, lieutenant.
137 CASSIO.
138 Ay, but, by your leave, not before me; the lieutenant is to be saved
139 before the ancient. Let’s have no more of this; let’s to our affairs.
140 Forgive us our sins! Gentlemen, let’s look to our business. Do not
141 think, gentlemen, I am drunk. This is my ancient, this is my right
142 hand, and this is my left. I am not drunk now. I can stand well enough,
143 and I speak well enough.
144 ALL.
145 Excellent well.
146 CASSIO.
147 Why, very well then. You must not think, then, that I am drunk.
148 [_Exit._]
149 MONTANO.
150 To the platform, masters. Come, let’s set the watch.
151 IAGO.
152 You see this fellow that is gone before,
153 He is a soldier fit to stand by Cæsar
154 And give direction: and do but see his vice,
155 ’Tis to his virtue a just equinox,
156 The one as long as th’ other. ’Tis pity of him.
157 I fear the trust Othello puts him in,
158 On some odd time of his infirmity,
159 Will shake this island.
160 MONTANO.
161 But is he often thus?
162 IAGO.
163 ’Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep:
164 He’ll watch the horologe a double set
165 If drink rock not his cradle.
166 MONTANO.
167 It were well
168 The general were put in mind of it.
169 Perhaps he sees it not, or his good nature
170 Prizes the virtue that appears in Cassio,
171 And looks not on his evils: is not this true?
172 Enter Roderigo.
173 IAGO.
174 [_Aside to him._] How now, Roderigo?
175 I pray you, after the lieutenant; go.
176 [_Exit Roderigo._]
177 MONTANO.
178 And ’tis great pity that the noble Moor
179 Should hazard such a place as his own second
180 With one of an ingraft infirmity:
181 It were an honest action to say so
182 To the Moor.
183 IAGO.
184 Not I, for this fair island.
185 I do love Cassio well and would do much
186 To cure him of this evil. But, hark! What noise?
187 [_Cry within_: “Help! help!”]
188 Enter Cassio, driving in Roderigo.
189 CASSIO.
190 Zounds, you rogue, you rascal!
191 MONTANO.
192 What’s the matter, lieutenant?
193 CASSIO.
194 A knave teach me my duty! I’ll beat the knave into a twiggen bottle.
195 RODERIGO.
196 Beat me?
197 CASSIO.
198 Dost thou prate, rogue?
199 [_Striking Roderigo._]
200 MONTANO.
201 Nay, good lieutenant;
202 I pray you, sir, hold your hand.
203 CASSIO.
204 Let me go, sir,
205 Or I’ll knock you o’er the mazard.
206 MONTANO.
207 Come, come, you’re drunk.
208 CASSIO.
209 Drunk?
210 [_They fight._]
211 IAGO.
212 [_Aside to Roderigo._] Away, I say! Go out and cry a mutiny.
213 [_Exit Roderigo._]
214 Nay, good lieutenant, God’s will, gentlemen.
215 Help, ho!—Lieutenant,—sir,—Montano,—sir:—
216 Help, masters! Here’s a goodly watch indeed!
217 [_A bell rings._]
218 Who’s that which rings the bell?—Diablo, ho!
219 The town will rise. God’s will, lieutenant, hold,
220 You will be sham’d forever.
221 Enter Othello and Attendants.
222 OTHELLO.
223 What is the matter here?
224 MONTANO.
225 Zounds, I bleed still, I am hurt to the death.
226 OTHELLO.
227 Hold, for your lives!
228 IAGO.
229 Hold, ho! lieutenant,—sir,—Montano,—gentlemen,—
230 Have you forgot all place of sense and duty?
231 Hold! The general speaks to you; hold, hold, for shame!
232 OTHELLO.
233 Why, how now, ho! From whence ariseth this?
234 Are we turn’d Turks, and to ourselves do that
235 Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites?
236 For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl:
237 He that stirs next to carve for his own rage
238 Holds his soul light; he dies upon his motion.
239 Silence that dreadful bell, it frights the isle
240 From her propriety. What is the matter, masters?
241 Honest Iago, that looks dead with grieving,
242 Speak, who began this? On thy love, I charge thee.
243 IAGO.
244 I do not know. Friends all but now, even now,
245 In quarter, and in terms like bride and groom
246 Devesting them for bed; and then, but now,
247 As if some planet had unwitted men,
248 Swords out, and tilting one at other’s breast,
249 In opposition bloody. I cannot speak
250 Any beginning to this peevish odds;
251 And would in action glorious I had lost
252 Those legs that brought me to a part of it!
253 OTHELLO.
254 How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot?
255 CASSIO.
256 I pray you, pardon me; I cannot speak.
257 OTHELLO.
258 Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil.
259 The gravity and stillness of your youth
260 The world hath noted, and your name is great
261 In mouths of wisest censure: what’s the matter,
262 That you unlace your reputation thus,
263 And spend your rich opinion for the name
264 Of a night-brawler? Give me answer to it.
265 MONTANO.
266 Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger.
267 Your officer, Iago, can inform you,
268 While I spare speech, which something now offends me,
269 Of all that I do know; nor know I aught
270 By me that’s said or done amiss this night,
271 Unless self-charity be sometimes a vice,
272 And to defend ourselves it be a sin
273 When violence assails us.
274 OTHELLO.
275 Now, by heaven,
276 My blood begins my safer guides to rule,
277 And passion, having my best judgement collied,
278 Assays to lead the way. Zounds, if I stir,
279 Or do but lift this arm, the best of you
280 Shall sink in my rebuke. Give me to know
281 How this foul rout began, who set it on,
282 And he that is approv’d in this offence,
283 Though he had twinn’d with me, both at a birth,
284 Shall lose me. What! in a town of war,
285 Yet wild, the people’s hearts brimful of fear,
286 To manage private and domestic quarrel,
287 In night, and on the court and guard of safety?
288 ’Tis monstrous. Iago, who began’t?
289 MONTANO.
290 If partially affin’d, or leagu’d in office,
291 Thou dost deliver more or less than truth,
292 Thou art no soldier.
293 IAGO.
294 Touch me not so near.
295 I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth
296 Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio.
297 Yet I persuade myself, to speak the truth
298 Shall nothing wrong him. Thus it is, general:
299 Montano and myself being in speech,
300 There comes a fellow crying out for help,
301 And Cassio following him with determin’d sword,
302 To execute upon him. Sir, this gentleman
303 Steps in to Cassio and entreats his pause.
304 Myself the crying fellow did pursue,
305 Lest by his clamour (as it so fell out)
306 The town might fall in fright: he, swift of foot,
307 Outran my purpose: and I return’d the rather
308 For that I heard the clink and fall of swords,
309 And Cassio high in oath, which till tonight
310 I ne’er might say before. When I came back,
311 (For this was brief) I found them close together,
312 At blow and thrust, even as again they were
313 When you yourself did part them.
314 More of this matter cannot I report.
315 But men are men; the best sometimes forget;
316 Though Cassio did some little wrong to him,
317 As men in rage strike those that wish them best,
318 Yet surely Cassio, I believe, receiv’d
319 From him that fled some strange indignity,
320 Which patience could not pass.
321 OTHELLO.
322 I know, Iago,
323 Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter,
324 Making it light to Cassio. Cassio, I love thee,
325 But never more be officer of mine.
326 Enter Desdemona, attended.
327 Look, if my gentle love be not rais’d up!
328 I’ll make thee an example.
329 DESDEMONA.
330 What’s the matter?
331 OTHELLO.
332 All’s well now, sweeting; come away to bed.
333 Sir, for your hurts, myself will be your surgeon.
334 Lead him off.
335 [_Montano is led off._]
336 Iago, look with care about the town,
337 And silence those whom this vile brawl distracted.
338 Come, Desdemona: ’tis the soldiers’ life
339 To have their balmy slumbers wak’d with strife.
340 [_Exeunt all but Iago and Cassio._]
341 IAGO.
342 What, are you hurt, lieutenant?
343 CASSIO.
344 Ay, past all surgery.
345 IAGO.
346 Marry, Heaven forbid!
347 CASSIO.
348 Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I
349 have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My
350 reputation, Iago, my reputation!
351 IAGO.
352 As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some bodily wound;
353 there is more sense in that than in reputation. Reputation is an idle
354 and most false imposition, oft got without merit and lost without
355 deserving. You have lost no reputation at all, unless you repute
356 yourself such a loser. What, man, there are ways to recover the general
357 again: you are but now cast in his mood, a punishment more in policy
358 than in malice, even so as one would beat his offenceless dog to
359 affright an imperious lion: sue to him again, and he’s yours.
360 CASSIO.
361 I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a commander
362 with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet an officer. Drunk? and
363 speak parrot? and squabble? swagger? swear? and discourse fustian with
364 one’s own shadow? O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name
365 to be known by, let us call thee devil!
366 IAGO.
367 What was he that you followed with your sword? What had he done to you?
368 CASSIO.
369 I know not.
370 IAGO.
371 Is’t possible?
372 CASSIO.
373 I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a quarrel, but
374 nothing wherefore. O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths
375 to steal away their brains! That we should with joy, pleasance, revel,
376 and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!
377 IAGO.
378 Why, but you are now well enough: how came you thus recovered?
379 CASSIO.
380 It hath pleased the devil drunkenness to give place to the devil wrath.
381 One unperfectness shows me another, to make me frankly despise myself.
382 IAGO.
383 Come, you are too severe a moraler. As the time, the place, and the
384 condition of this country stands, I could heartily wish this had not
385 befallen; but since it is as it is, mend it for your own good.
386 CASSIO.
387 I will ask him for my place again; he shall tell me I am a drunkard!
388 Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would stop them all. To
389 be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast! O
390 strange! Every inordinate cup is unbless’d, and the ingredient is a
391 devil.
392 IAGO.
393 Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used.
394 Exclaim no more against it. And, good lieutenant, I think you think I
395 love you.
396 CASSIO.
397 I have well approved it, sir.—I drunk!
398 IAGO.
399 You, or any man living, may be drunk at a time, man. I’ll tell you what
400 you shall do. Our general’s wife is now the general; I may say so in
401 this respect, for that he hath devoted and given up himself to the
402 contemplation, mark, and denotement of her parts and graces. Confess
403 yourself freely to her. Importune her help to put you in your place
404 again. She is of so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition,
405 she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more than she is
406 requested. This broken joint between you and her husband entreat her to
407 splinter, and, my fortunes against any lay worth naming, this crack of
408 your love shall grow stronger than it was before.
409 CASSIO.
410 You advise me well.
411 IAGO.
412 I protest, in the sincerity of love and honest kindness.
413 CASSIO.
414 I think it freely; and betimes in the morning I will beseech the
415 virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me; I am desperate of my fortunes
416 if they check me here.
417 IAGO.
418 You are in the right. Good night, lieutenant, I must to the watch.
419 CASSIO.
420 Good night, honest Iago.
421 [_Exit._]
422 IAGO.
423 And what’s he then, that says I play the villain?
424 When this advice is free I give and honest,
425 Probal to thinking, and indeed the course
426 To win the Moor again? For ’tis most easy
427 The inclining Desdemona to subdue
428 In any honest suit. She’s fram’d as fruitful
429 As the free elements. And then for her
430 To win the Moor, were’t to renounce his baptism,
431 All seals and symbols of redeemed sin,
432 His soul is so enfetter’d to her love
433 That she may make, unmake, do what she list,
434 Even as her appetite shall play the god
435 With his weak function. How am I then, a villain
436 To counsel Cassio to this parallel course,
437 Directly to his good? Divinity of hell!
438 When devils will the blackest sins put on,
439 They do suggest at first with heavenly shows,
440 As I do now: for whiles this honest fool
441 Plies Desdemona to repair his fortune,
442 And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor,
443 I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear,
444 That she repeals him for her body’s lust;
445 And by how much she strives to do him good,
446 She shall undo her credit with the Moor.
447 So will I turn her virtue into pitch,
448 And out of her own goodness make the net
449 That shall enmesh them all.
450 Enter Roderigo.
451 How now, Roderigo?
452 RODERIGO.
453 I do follow here in the chase, not like a hound that hunts, but one
454 that fills up the cry. My money is almost spent, I have been tonight
455 exceedingly well cudgelled; and I think the issue will be, I shall have
456 so much experience for my pains, and so, with no money at all and a
457 little more wit, return again to Venice.
458 IAGO.
459 How poor are they that have not patience!
460 What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
461 Thou know’st we work by wit, and not by witchcraft,
462 And wit depends on dilatory time.
463 Does’t not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee,
464 And thou, by that small hurt, hast cashier’d Cassio;
465 Though other things grow fair against the sun,
466 Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe.
467 Content thyself awhile. By the mass, ’tis morning;
468 Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.
469 Retire thee; go where thou art billeted.
470 Away, I say, thou shalt know more hereafter.
471 Nay, get thee gone.
472 [_Exit Roderigo._]
473 Two things are to be done,
474 My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress.
475 I’ll set her on;
476 Myself the while to draw the Moor apart,
477 And bring him jump when he may Cassio find
478 Soliciting his wife. Ay, that’s the way.
479 Dull not device by coldness and delay.
480 [_Exit._]