Enter Montano and two Gentlemen.MONTANO What from the cape can you discern at sea?FIRST GENTLEMAN Nothing at all. It is a high-wrought flood. I cannot ’twixt the heaven and the main Descry a sail.MONTANO 5 Methinks the wind hath spoke aloud at land. A fuller blast ne’er shook our battlements. If it hath ruffianed 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 10 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,15 Seems to cast water on the burning Bear And quench the guards of th’ ever-fixèd pole. I never did like molestation view On the enchafèd flood.MONTANO If that the Turkish fleet20 Be not ensheltered and embayed, they are drowned. It is impossible to bear it out.
Enter a ⟨third⟩ Gentleman.THIRD GENTLEMAN News, lads! Our wars are done. The desperate tempest hath so banged the Turks That their designment halts. A noble ship of Venice25 Hath seen a grievous wrack 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,30 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 comfort35 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 ⟨heaven⟩ he be; For I have served him, and the man commands40 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 th’ aerial blue An indistinct regard.]⟨THIRD⟩ GENTLEMAN 45 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
50 Give him defense against the elements, For I have lost him on a dangerous sea.MONTANO Is he well shipped?CASSIO His bark is stoutly timbered, and his pilot Of very expert and approved allowance;55 Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death, Stand in bold cure.⌜Voices cry⌝ within. “A sail, a sail, a sail!”⟨Enter a Messenger.⟩CASSIO What noise?⟨MESSENGER⟩ The town is empty; on the brow o’ th’ sea Stand ranks of people, and they cry “A sail!”CASSIO 60 My hopes do shape him for the Governor.⟨A shot.⟩⟨SECOND⟩ GENTLEMAN 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 65I shall.He exits.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,70 And in th’ essential vesture of creation Does tire the ⌜ingener.⌝Enter ⟨Second⟩ Gentleman. How now? Who has put in?
⟨SECOND⟩ GENTLEMAN ’Tis one Iago, ancient to the General.CASSIO ’Has had most favorable and happy speed!75 Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds, The guttered rocks and congregated sands (Traitors ensteeped to ⟨clog⟩ the guiltless keel), As having sense of beauty, do omit Their mortal natures, letting go safely by80 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 thoughts85 A sennight’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 renewed fire to our extincted spirits,90 ⟨And bring all Cyprus comfort!⟩Enter Desdemona, Iago, Roderigo, and Emilia. O, behold, The riches of the ship is come on shore! You men of Cyprus, let her have your knees.⌜He kneels.⌝ Hail to thee, lady, and the grace of heaven,95 Before, behind thee, and on every hand Enwheel thee round.⌜He rises.⌝DESDEMONA I thank you, valiant Cassio. What tidings can you tell of my lord?CASSIO He is not yet arrived, nor know I aught100 But that he’s well and will be shortly here.DESDEMONA O, but I fear—How lost you company?
CASSIO The great contention of sea and skies Parted our fellowship.Within “A sail, a sail!” ⌜A shot.⌝ But hark, a sail!⟨SECOND⟩ GENTLEMAN 105 They give ⟨their⟩ greeting to the citadel. This likewise is a friend.CASSIO See for the news.⌜Second Gentleman exits.⌝ Good ancient, you are welcome. Welcome, mistress.⌜He kisses Emilia.⌝ Let it not gall your patience, good Iago,110 That I extend my manners. ’Tis my breeding That gives me this bold show of courtesy.IAGO Sir, would she give you so much of her lips As of her tongue she oft bestows on me, You would have enough.DESDEMONA 115 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 heart120 And chides with thinking.EMILIA You have little cause to say so.IAGO Come on, come on! You are pictures out of door, bells in your parlors, wildcats in your kitchens, saints in your injuries, devils being offended, players125 in your huswifery, and huswives in your beds.DESDEMONA Oh, 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 130 No, let me not.DESDEMONA What wouldst 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 135 Come on, assay.—There’s one gone to the harbor?IAGO Ay, madam.DESDEMONA, ⌜aside⌝ I am not merry, but I do beguile The thing I am by seeming otherwise.— Come, how wouldst thou praise me?IAGO 140I am about it, but indeed my invention comes from my pate as birdlime does from frieze: it plucks out brains and all. But my muse labors, and thus she is delivered: If she be fair and wise, fairness and wit,
145 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 ⟨hit.⟩DESDEMONA Worse and worse.EMILIA 150 How if fair and foolish?IAGO She never yet was foolish that was fair,
For even her folly helped her to an heir.DESDEMONA These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i’ th’ alehouse. What miserable praise155 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 on160 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,
165 Never lacked gold and yet went never gay,
Fled from her wish, and yet said “Now I may,”
She that being angered, her revenge being nigh,
Bade her wrong stay and her displeasure fly,
She that in wisdom never was so frail
170 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 175 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 counselor?CASSIO 180He speaks home, madam. You may relish him more in the soldier than in the scholar.⌜Cassio takes Desdemona’s hand.⌝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 will185 ⌜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; well190 kissed; ⟨an⟩ excellent courtesy! ’Tis so, indeed. Yet
again your fingers to your lips? Would they were ⟨clyster⟩ pipes for your sake!⟨Trumpets within.⟩ The Moor. I know his trumpet.CASSIO ’Tis truly so.DESDEMONA 195Let’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 content200 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 wakened death, And let the laboring bark climb hills of seas Olympus high, and duck again as low205 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 210 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.215 It stops me here; it is too much of joy.⟨They kiss.⟩ And this, and this, the greatest discords be 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,220 As honest as I am.OTHELLO Come. Let us to the castle.— News, friends! Our wars are done. The Turks are drowned.
How does my old acquaintance of this isle?—225 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.230 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.⌜All but Iago and Roderigo⌝ exit.IAGO, ⌜to a departing Attendant⌝ Do thou meet me presently235 at the harbor. ⌜To Roderigo.⌝ 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 thee240 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 fantastical245 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 give250 satiety a fresh appetite, loveliness in favor, 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 and255 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, no260 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-out of occasions,⟩ that ⟨has⟩ an265 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 the270 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 never275 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 obscure280 prologue to the history of lust and foul thoughts. They met so near with their lips that their breaths embraced together. Villainous thoughts, Roderigo! When these ⟨mutualities⟩ so marshal the way, hard at hand comes the master and main exercise, th’285 incorporate conclusion. Pish! But, sir, be you ruled by me. I have brought you from Venice. Watch you tonight. 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 by290 speaking too loud, or tainting his discipline, or from what other course you please, which the time shall more favorably minister.RODERIGO Well.IAGO Sir, he’s rash and very sudden in choler, and
295 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 by300 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 you can bring it to any opportunity.IAGO 305I warrant thee. Meet me by and by at the citadel. I must fetch his necessaries ashore. Farewell.RODERIGO Adieu.He exits.IAGO That Cassio loves her, I do well believe ’t. That she loves him, ’tis apt and of great credit.310 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 peradventure315 I stand accountant for as great a sin) But partly led to diet my revenge For that I do suspect the lusty Moor Hath leaped into my seat—the thought whereof Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards,320 And nothing can or shall content my soul Till I am evened 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,325 If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trace 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 ⟨nightcap⟩ too),
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Othello
ACT 2. SC. 2/3
330 Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me For making him egregiously an ass And practicing upon his peace and quiet Even to madness. ’Tis here, but yet confused. Knavery’s plain face is never seen till used.He exits.
Othello
