Enter Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, and Attendants.OTHELLO Good Michael, look you to the guard tonight. Let’s teach ourselves that honorable stop Not to outsport discretion.CASSIO Iago hath direction what to do,5 But notwithstanding, with my personal eye Will I look to ’t.
OTHELLO Iago is most honest. Michael, goodnight. Tomorrow with your earliest Let me have speech with you. ⌜To Desdemona.⌝ Come,10 my dear love, The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue; That profit’s yet to come ’tween me and you.— Goodnight.⟨Othello and Desdemona⟩ exit, ⌜with Attendants.⌝Enter Iago.CASSIO Welcome, Iago. We must to the watch.IAGO 15Not this hour, lieutenant. ’Tis not yet ten o’ th’ clock. Our general cast us thus early for the love of his Desdemona—who let us not therefore blame; he hath not yet made wanton the night with her, and she is sport for Jove.CASSIO 20She’s a most exquisite lady.IAGO And, I’ll warrant her, full of game.CASSIO Indeed, she’s a most fresh and delicate creature.IAGO What an eye she has! Methinks it sounds a parley25 to provocation.CASSIO An inviting eye, and yet methinks right modest.IAGO And when she speaks, is it not an alarum to love?CASSIO She is indeed perfection.IAGO 30Well, happiness to their sheets! Come, lieutenant, I have a stoup of wine; and here without are a brace of Cyprus gallants that would fain have a measure to the health of black Othello.CASSIO Not tonight, good Iago. I have very poor and35 unhappy brains for drinking. I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of entertainment.IAGO O, they are our friends! But one cup; I’ll drink for you.
CASSIO 40I have drunk but one cup tonight, and that was craftily qualified too, and behold what innovation it makes here. I am ⟨unfortunate⟩ in the infirmity and dare not task my weakness with any more.IAGO What, man! ’Tis a night of revels. The gallants45 desire it.CASSIO Where are they?IAGO Here at the door. I pray you, call them in.CASSIO I’ll do ’t, but it dislikes me.He exits.IAGO If I can fasten but one cup upon him50 With that which he hath drunk tonight already, He’ll be as full of quarrel and offense As my young mistress’ dog. Now my sick fool Roderigo, Whom love hath turned almost the wrong side out,55 To Desdemona hath tonight caroused Potations pottle-deep; and he’s to watch. Three else of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits That hold their honors in a wary distance, The very elements of this warlike isle,60 Have I tonight flustered with flowing cups; And they watch too. Now, ’mongst this flock of drunkards Am I ⟨to put⟩ our Cassio in some action That may offend the isle. But here they come.65 If consequence do but approve my dream, My boat sails freely both with wind and stream.Enter Cassio, Montano, and Gentlemen, ⌜followed by
Servants with wine.⌝CASSIO ’Fore ⟨God,⟩ they have given me a rouse already.MONTANO Good faith, a little one; not past a pint, as I70 am a soldier.IAGO Some wine, ho!
⌜Sings.⌝ And let me the cannikin clink, clink,
And let me the cannikin clink.
A soldier’s a man,
75 O, man’s life’s but a span,
Why, then, let a soldier drink. Some wine, boys!CASSIO ’Fore ⟨God,⟩ an excellent song.IAGO I learned it in England, where indeed they are80 most potent in potting. Your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied Hollander—drink, ho!—are nothing to your English.CASSIO Is your ⟨Englishman⟩ so exquisite in his drinking?IAGO 85Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead drunk. He sweats not to overthrow your Almain. He gives your Hollander a vomit ere the next pottle can be filled.CASSIO To the health of our general!MONTANO 90I am for it, lieutenant, and I’ll do you justice.IAGO O sweet England!⌜Sings.⌝ King Stephen was and-a worthy peer,
His breeches cost him but a crown;
95 He held them sixpence all too dear;
With that he called the tailor lown.
He was a wight of high renown,
And thou art but of low degree;
’Tis pride that pulls the country down,
100 ⟨Then⟩ take thy auld cloak about thee. Some wine, ho!CASSIO ⟨’Fore God,⟩ this is a more exquisite song than the other!IAGO Will you hear ’t again?CASSIO 105No, for I hold him to be unworthy of his place that does those things. Well, ⟨God’s⟩ above all; and there be souls must be saved, [and there be souls must not be saved.]
IAGO It’s true, good lieutenant.CASSIO 110For mine own part—no offense to the General, nor any man of quality—I hope to be saved.IAGO And so do I too, lieutenant.CASSIO Ay, but, by your leave, not before me. The Lieutenant is to be saved before the Ancient. Let’s115 have no more of this. Let’s to our affairs. ⟨God⟩ forgive us our sins! Gentlemen, let’s look to our business. Do not think, gentlemen, I am drunk. This is my ancient, this is my right hand, and this is my left. I am not drunk now. I can stand well enough,120 and I speak well enough.GENTLEMEN Excellent well.CASSIO Why, very well then. You must not think then that I am drunk.He exits.MONTANO To th’ platform, masters. Come, let’s set the watch.⌜Gentlemen exit.⌝IAGO, ⌜to Montano⌝ 125 You see this fellow that is gone before? He’s a soldier fit to stand by Caesar And give direction; and do but see his vice. ’Tis to his virtue a just equinox, The one as long as th’ other. ’Tis pity of him.130 I fear the trust Othello puts him in, On some odd time of his infirmity, Will shake this island.MONTANO But is he often thus?IAGO ’Tis evermore ⟨the⟩ prologue to his sleep.135 He’ll watch the horologe a double set If drink rock not his cradle.MONTANO It were well The General were put in mind of it. Perhaps he sees it not, or his good nature140 Prizes the virtue that appears in Cassio And looks not on his evils. Is not this true?
Enter Roderigo.IAGO, ⌜aside to Roderigo⌝ How now, Roderigo? I pray you, after the Lieutenant, go.⟨Roderigo exits.⟩MONTANO And ’tis great pity that the noble Moor145 Should hazard such a place as his own second With one of an engraffed infirmity. It were an honest action to say so To the Moor.IAGO Not I, for this fair island.150 I do love Cassio well and would do much To cure him of this evil—⟨“Help, help!” within.⟩ But hark! What noise?Enter Cassio, pursuing Roderigo.CASSIO ⟨Zounds,⟩ you rogue, you rascal!MONTANO What’s the matter, lieutenant?CASSIO 155A knave teach me my duty? I’ll beat the knave into a twiggen bottle.RODERIGO Beat me?CASSIO Dost thou prate, rogue?⌜He hits Roderigo.⌝MONTANO Nay, good lieutenant. I pray you, sir, hold160 your hand.CASSIO Let me go, sir, or I’ll knock you o’er the mazard.MONTANO Come, come, you’re drunk.CASSIO Drunk?⟨They fight.⟩IAGO, ⌜aside to Roderigo⌝ 165 Away, I say! Go out and cry a mutiny.⌜Roderigo exits.⌝ Nay, good lieutenant.—⟨God’s will,⟩ gentlemen!— Help, ho! Lieutenant—sir—Montano—⟨sir⟩— Help, masters!—Here’s a goodly watch indeed!⟨A bell is rung.⟩
Who’s that which rings the bell? Diablo, ho!170 The town will rise. ⟨God’s will,⟩ lieutenant, ⟨hold!⟩ You ⟨will be shamed⟩ forever.Enter Othello and Attendants.OTHELLO What is the matter here?MONTANO ⟨Zounds,⟩ I bleed still.175 I am hurt to th’ death. He dies!⌜He attacks Cassio.⌝OTHELLO Hold, for your lives!IAGO Hold, ho! Lieutenant—sir—Montano— gentlemen— Have you forgot all ⌜sense of place⌝ and duty?180 Hold! The General speaks to you. Hold, for shame!OTHELLO Why, how now, ho! From whence ariseth this? Are we turned Turks, and to ourselves do that Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites? For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl!185 He that stirs next to carve for his own rage Holds his soul light; he dies upon his motion. Silence that dreadful bell. It frights the isle From her propriety. What is the matter, masters? Honest Iago, that looks dead with grieving,190 Speak. Who began this? On thy love, I charge thee.IAGO I do not know. Friends all but now, even now, In quarter and in terms like bride and groom Divesting them for bed; and then but now, As if some planet had unwitted men,195 Swords out, and tilting one at other’s ⟨breast,⟩ In opposition bloody. I cannot speak Any beginning to this peevish odds, And would in action glorious I had lost Those legs that brought me to a part of it!
OTHELLO 200 How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot?CASSIO I pray you pardon me; I cannot speak.OTHELLO Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil. The gravity and stillness of your youth The world hath noted. And your name is great205 In mouths of wisest censure. What’s the matter That you unlace your reputation thus, And spend your rich opinion for the name Of a night-brawler? Give me answer to it.MONTANO Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger.210 Your officer Iago can inform you, While I spare speech, which something now offends me, Of all that I do know; nor know I aught By me that’s said or done amiss this night,215 Unless self-charity be sometimes a vice, And to defend ourselves it be a sin When violence assails us.OTHELLO Now, by heaven, My blood begins my safer guides to rule,220 And passion, having my best judgment collied, Assays to lead the way. ⟨Zounds, if I⟩ stir, Or do but lift this arm, the best of you Shall sink in my rebuke. Give me to know How this foul rout began, who set it on;225 And he that is approved in this offense, Though he had twinned with me, both at a birth, Shall lose me. What, in a town of war Yet wild, the people’s hearts brimful of fear, To manage private and domestic quarrel,230 In night, and on the court and guard of safety? ’Tis monstrous. Iago, who began ’t?
MONTANO If partially affined, or ⌜leagued⌝ in office, Thou dost deliver more or less than truth, Thou art no soldier.IAGO 235 Touch me not so near. I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth Than it should do offense to Michael Cassio. Yet I persuade myself, to speak the truth Shall nothing wrong him. ⟨Thus⟩ it is, general:240 Montano and myself being in speech, There comes a fellow crying out for help, And Cassio following him with determined sword To execute upon him. Sir, this gentleman⌜Pointing to Montano.⌝ Steps in to Cassio and entreats his pause.245 Myself the crying fellow did pursue, Lest by his clamor—as it so fell out— The town might fall in fright. He, swift of foot, Outran my purpose, and I returned ⟨the⟩ rather For that I heard the clink and fall of swords250 And Cassio high in oath, which till tonight I ne’er might say before. When I came back— For this was brief—I found them close together At blow and thrust, even as again they were When you yourself did part them.255 More of this matter cannot I report. But men are men; the best sometimes forget. Though Cassio did some little wrong to him, As men in rage strike those that wish them best, Yet surely Cassio, I believe, received260 From him that fled some strange indignity Which patience could not pass.OTHELLO I know, Iago, Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter, Making it light to Cassio.—Cassio, I love thee,265 But nevermore be officer of mine.
Enter Desdemona attended. Look if my gentle love be not raised up! I’ll make thee an example.DESDEMONA What is the matter, dear?OTHELLO All’s well ⟨now,⟩270 sweeting. Come away to bed. ⌜To Montano.⌝ Sir, for your hurts, Myself will be your surgeon.—Lead him off.⌜Montano is led off.⌝ Iago, look with care about the town And silence those whom this vile brawl275 distracted.— Come, Desdemona. ’Tis the soldier’s life To have their balmy slumbers waked with strife.⌜All but Iago and Cassio⌝ exit.IAGO What, are you hurt, lieutenant?CASSIO Ay, past all surgery.IAGO 280Marry, ⟨God⟩ forbid!CASSIO Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation!IAGO 285As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some bodily wound. There is more sense in that than in reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false imposition, oft got without merit and lost without deserving. You have lost no reputation at290 all, unless you repute yourself such a loser. What, man, there are ways to recover the General again! You are but now cast in his mood—a punishment more in policy than in malice, even so as one would beat his offenseless dog to affright an imperious295 lion. Sue to him again and he’s yours.CASSIO I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a commander with so slight, so drunken,
and so indiscreet an officer. [Drunk? And speak parrot? And squabble? Swagger? Swear? And discourse300 fustian with one’s own shadow?] O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil!IAGO What was he that you followed with your sword? What had he done to you?CASSIO 305I know not.IAGO Is ’t possible?CASSIO I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a quarrel, but nothing wherefore. O ⟨God,⟩ that men should put an enemy in their310 mouths to steal away their brains! That we should with joy, pleasance, revel, and applause transform ourselves into beasts!IAGO Why, but you are now well enough. How came you thus recovered?CASSIO 315It hath pleased the devil drunkenness to give place to the devil wrath. One unperfectness shows me another, to make me frankly despise myself.IAGO Come, you are too severe a moraler. As the time, the place, and the condition of this country stands,320 I could heartily wish this had not ⟨so⟩ befallen. But since it is as it is, mend it for your own good.CASSIO I will ask him for my place again; he shall tell me I am a drunkard! Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would stop them all. To be325 now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast! O, strange! Every inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is a devil.IAGO Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used. Exclaim no more against it.330 And, good lieutenant, I think you think I love you.CASSIO I have well approved it, sir.—I drunk!IAGO You or any man living may be drunk at a time, man. ⟨I’ll⟩ tell you what you shall do. Our general’s
wife is now the general: I may say so in this335 respect, for that he hath devoted and given up himself to the contemplation, mark, and ⌜denotement⌝ of her parts and graces. Confess yourself freely to her. Importune her help to put you in your place again. She is of so free, so kind, so apt, so340 blessed a disposition she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more than she is requested. This broken joint between you and her husband entreat her to splinter, and, my fortunes against any lay worth naming, this crack of your love shall grow345 stronger than it was before.CASSIO You advise me well.IAGO I protest, in the sincerity of love and honest kindness.CASSIO I think it freely; and betimes in the morning I350 will beseech the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me. I am desperate of my fortunes if they check me ⟨here⟩.IAGO You are in the right. Good night, lieutenant. I must to the watch.CASSIO 355Good night, honest Iago.Cassio exits.IAGO And what’s he, then, that says I play the villain, When this advice is free I give and honest, Probal to thinking, and indeed the course To win the Moor again? For ’tis most easy360 Th’ inclining Desdemona to subdue In any honest suit. She’s framed as fruitful As the free elements. And then for her To win the Moor—⟨were ’t⟩ to renounce his baptism, All seals and symbols of redeemèd sin—365 His soul is so enfettered to her love That she may make, unmake, do what she list, Even as her appetite shall play the god With his weak function. How am I then a villain
To counsel Cassio to this parallel course370 Directly to his good? Divinity of hell! When devils will the blackest sins put on, They do suggest at first with heavenly shows, As I do now. For whiles this honest fool Plies Desdemona to repair his fortune,375 And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor, I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear: That she repeals him for her body’s lust; And by how much she strives to do him good, She shall undo her credit with the Moor.380 So will I turn her virtue into pitch, And out of her own goodness make the net That shall enmesh them all.Enter Roderigo. How now, Roderigo?RODERIGO I do follow here in the chase, not like a385 hound that hunts, but one that fills up the cry. My money is almost spent, I have been tonight exceedingly well cudgeled, and I think the issue will be I shall have so much experience for my pains, and so, with no money at all and a little more wit, return390 again to Venice.IAGO How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees? Thou know’st we work by wit and not by witchcraft, And wit depends on dilatory time.395 Does ’t not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee, And thou, by that small hurt, ⟨hast⟩ cashiered Cassio. Though other things grow fair against the sun, Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe. Content thyself awhile. ⟨By th’ Mass,⟩ ’tis morning!400 Pleasure and action make the hours seem short. Retire thee; go where thou art billeted.
Away, I say! Thou shalt know more hereafter. Nay, get thee gone.Roderigo exits. Two things are to be done.405 My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress. I’ll set her on. Myself ⌜the⌝ while to draw the Moor apart And bring him jump when he may Cassio find Soliciting his wife. Ay, that’s the way.410 Dull not device by coldness and delay.He exits.
Othello
