| ACT II SCENE III | A hall in the castle. | |
| | Enter OTHELLO, DESDEMONA, CASSIO, and Attendants. | |
| OTHELLO | Good Michael, look you to the guard to-night: | |
| | Let's teach ourselves that honourable 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, good night: to-morrow with your earliest | |
| | Let me have speech with you. | 10 |
| | To DESDEMONA | |
| | Come, my dear love, | |
| | The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue; | |
| | That profit's yet to come 'tween me and you. | |
| | Good night. | |
| | Exeunt OTHELLO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants. | |
| | Enter IAGO. | |
| CASSIO | Welcome, Iago; we must to the watch. | 15 |
| IAGO | Not this hour, lieutenant; 'tis not yet ten o' the | |
| | 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. | 20 |
| CASSIO | She's a most exquisite lady. | |
| IAGO | And, I'll warrant her, fun of game. | |
| CASSIO | Indeed, she's a most fresh and delicate creature. | |
| IAGO | What an eye she has! methinks it sounds a parley of | |
| | provocation. | 25 |
| 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 | Well, happiness to their sheets! Come, lieutenant, I | |
| | have a stoup of wine; and here without are a brace | 30 |
| | of Cyprus gallants that would fain have a measure to | |
| | the health of black Othello. | |
| CASSIO | Not to-night, good Iago: I have very poor and | |
| | unhappy brains for drinking: I could well wish | |
| | courtesy would invent some other custom of | 35 |
| | entertainment. | |
| IAGO | O, they are our friends; but one cup! I'll drink for | |
| | you. | |
| CASSIO | I have drunk but one cup to-night, and that was | |
| | craftily qualified too, and, behold, what innovation | 40 |
| | 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 gallants | |
| | desire it. | |
| CASSIO | Where are they? | 45 |
| IAGO | Here at the door; I pray you, call them in. | |
| CASSIO | I'll do't; but it dislikes me. | |
| | Exit | |
| IAGO | If I can fasten but one cup upon him, | |
| | With that which he hath drunk to-night already, | |
| | He'll be as full of quarrel and offence | 50 |
| | As my young mistress' dog. Now, my sick fool Roderigo, | |
| | Whom love hath turn'd almost the wrong side out, | |
| | To Desdemona hath to-night caroused | |
| | Potations pottle-deep; and he's to watch: | |
| | Three lads of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits, | 55 |
| | That hold their honours in a wary distance, | |
| | The very elements of this warlike isle, | |
| | Have I to-night fluster'd with flowing cups, | |
| | And they watch too. Now, 'mongst this flock of drunkards, | |
| | Am I to put our Cassio in some action | 60 |
| | That may offend the isle.--But here they come: | |
| | If consequence do but approve my dream, | |
| | My boat sails freely, both with wind and stream. | |
| | Re-enter CASSIO; with him MONTANO and Gentlemen; servants following with wine. | |
| CASSIO | 'Fore God, they have given me a rouse already. | |
| MONTANO | Good faith, a little one; not past a pint, as I am | 65 |
| | a soldier. | |
| IAGO | Some wine, ho! | |
| | Sings | |
| | And let me the canakin clink, clink; | |
| | And let me the canakin clink | |
| | A soldier's a man; | 70 |
| | A 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 are | 75 |
| | 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 expert in his drinking? | |
| IAGO | Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead | 80 |
| | 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 | I am for it, lieutenant; and I'll do you justice. | 85 |
| IAGO | O sweet England! | |
| | King Stephen was a worthy peer, | |
| | His breeches cost him but a crown; | |
| | He held them sixpence all too dear, | |
| | With that he call'd the tailor lown. | 90 |
| | He was a wight of high renown, | |
| | And thou art but of low degree: | |
| | 'Tis pride that pulls the country down; | |
| | Then take thine auld cloak about thee. | |
| | Some wine, ho! | 95 |
| CASSIO | Why, this is a more exquisite song than the other. | |
| IAGO | Will you hear't again? | |
| CASSIO | No; 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. | 100 |
| IAGO | It's true, good lieutenant. | |
| CASSIO | For mine own part,--no offence 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 | 105 |
| | lieutenant is to be saved before the ancient. Let's | |
| | have no more of this; let's to our affairs.--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: | 110 |
| | I am not drunk now; I can stand well enough, and | |
| | speak well enough. | |
| All | Excellent well. | |
| CASSIO | Why, very well then; you must not think then that I am drunk. | |
| | Exit | |
| MONTANO | To the platform, masters; come, let's set the watch. | 115 |
| IAGO | You see this fellow that is gone before; | |
| | He is 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 the other: 'tis pity of him. | 120 |
| | 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: | 125 |
| | 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 nature | 130 |
| | Prizes the virtue that appears in Cassio, | |
| | And looks not on his evils: is not this true? | |
| | Enter RODERIGO. | |
| IAGO | Aside to him | |
| | I pray you, after the lieutenant; go. | |
| | Exit RODERIGO. | |
| MONTANO | And 'tis great pity that the noble Moor | |
| | Should hazard such a place as his own second | 135 |
| | With one of an ingraft infirmity: | |
| | It were an honest action to say | |
| | So to the Moor. | |
| IAGO | Not I, for this fair island: | |
| | I do love Cassio well; and would do much | 140 |
| | To cure him of this evil--But, hark! what noise? | |
| | Cry within: 'Help! help!' | |
| | Re-enter CASSIO, driving in RODERIGO. | |
| CASSIO | You rogue! you rascal! | |
| MONTANO | What's the matter, lieutenant? | |
| CASSIO | A knave teach me my duty! | |
| | I'll beat the knave into a twiggen bottle. | 145 |
| RODERIGO | Beat me! | |
| CASSIO | Dost thou prate, rogue? | |
| | Striking RODERIGO. | |
| MONTANO | Nay, good lieutenant; | |
| | Staying him | |
| | I pray you, sir, hold your hand. | |
| CASSIO | Let me go, sir, | 150 |
| | Or I'll knock you o'er the mazzard. | |
| MONTANO | Come, come, | |
| | you're drunk. | |
| CASSIO | Drunk! | |
| | They fight. | |
| IAGO | [Aside to RODERIGO] Away, I say; go out, and cry a mutiny. | |
| | Exit RODERIGO. | |
| | Nay, good lieutenant,--alas, gentlemen;-- | 155 |
| | Help, ho!--Lieutenant,--sir,--Montano,--sir; | |
| | Help, masters!--Here's a goodly watch indeed! | |
| | Bell rings. | |
| | Who's that which rings the bell?--Diablo, ho! | |
| | The town will rise: God's will, lieutenant, hold! | |
| | You will be shamed for ever. | 160 |
| | Re-enter OTHELLO and Attendants. | |
| OTHELLO | What is the matter here? | |
| MONTANO | 'Zounds, I bleed still; I am hurt to the death. | |
| | Faints | |
| OTHELLO | Hold, for your lives! | |
| IAGO | Hold, ho! Lieutenant,--sir--Montano,--gentlemen,-- | |
| | Have you forgot all sense of place and duty? | 165 |
| | Hold! the general speaks to you; hold, hold, for shame! | |
| OTHELLO | Why, how now, ho! from whence ariseth this? | |
| | Are we turn'd Turks, and to ourselves do that | |
| | Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites? | |
| | For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl: | 170 |
| | 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 look'st dead with grieving, | 175 |
| | 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 | |
| | Devesting them for bed; and then, but now-- | |
| | As if some planet had unwitted men-- | 180 |
| | 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! | 185 |
| OTHELLO | 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 great | 190 |
| | 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: | 195 |
| | 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; | 200 |
| | 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; | 205 |
| | And passion, having my best judgment collied, | |
| | Assays to lead the way: if I once 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; | 210 |
| | And he that is approved in this offence, | |
| | Though he had twinn'd 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, | 215 |
| | 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. | 220 |
| IAGO | Touch me not so near: | |
| | I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth | |
| | Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio; | |
| | Yet, I persuade myself, to speak the truth | |
| | Shall nothing wrong him. Thus it is, general. | 225 |
| | 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 | |
| | Steps in to Cassio, and entreats his pause: | 230 |
| | Myself the crying fellow did pursue, | |
| | Lest by his clamour--as it so fell out-- | |
| | The town might fall in fright: he, swift of foot, | |
| | Outran my purpose; and I return'd the rather | |
| | For that I heard the clink and fall of swords, | 235 |
| | And Cassio high in oath; which till to-night | |
| | 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. | 240 |
| | 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, received | 245 |
| | 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 | 250 |
| | But never more be officer of mine. | |
| | Re-enter DESDEMONA, attended. | |
| | Look, if my gentle love be not raised up! | |
| | I'll make thee an example. | |
| DESDEMONA | What's the matter? | |
| OTHELLO | All's well now, sweeting; come away to bed. | 255 |
| | Sir, for your hurts, myself will be your surgeon: | |
| | Lead him off. | |
| | To MONTANO, who is led off. | |
| | Iago, look with care about the town, | |
| | And silence those whom this vile brawl distracted. | |
| | Come, Desdemona: 'tis the soldiers' life | 260 |
| | To have their balmy slumbers waked with strife. | |
| | Exeunt all but IAGO and CASSIO. | |
| IAGO | What, are you hurt, lieutenant? | |
| CASSIO | Ay, past all surgery. | |
| IAGO | Marry, heaven forbid! | |
| CASSIO | Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost | 265 |
| | my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of | |
| | myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, | |
| | Iago, my reputation! | |
| IAGO | As I am an honest man, I thought you had received | |
| | some bodily wound; there is more sense in that than | 270 |
| | in reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false | |
| | imposition: oft got without merit, and lost without | |
| | deserving: you have lost no reputation at all, | |
| | unless you repute yourself such a loser. What, man! | |
| | there are ways to recover the general again: you | 275 |
| | are but now cast in his mood, a punishment more in | |
| | policy than in malice, even so as one would beat his | |
| | offenceless dog to affright an imperious lion: sue | |
| | to him again, and he's yours. | |
| CASSIO | I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so | 280 |
| | good a commander with so slight, so drunken, and so | |
| | indiscreet an officer. Drunk? and speak parrot? | |
| | and squabble? swagger? swear? and discourse | |
| | fustian with one's own shadow? O thou invisible | |
| | spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, | 285 |
| | let us call thee devil! | |
| IAGO | What was he that you followed with your sword? What | |
| | had he done to you? | |
| CASSIO | I know not. | |
| IAGO | Is't possible? | 290 |
| CASSIO | I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; | |
| | a quarrel, but nothing wherefore. O God, that men | |
| | should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away | |
| | their brains! that we should, with joy, pleasance | |
| | revel and applause, transform ourselves into beasts! | 295 |
| IAGO | Why, but you are now well enough: how came you thus | |
| | recovered? | |
| CASSIO | It hath pleased the devil drunkenness to give place | |
| | to the devil wrath; one unperfectness shows me | |
| | another, to make me frankly despise myself. | 300 |
| IAGO | Come, you are too severe a moraler: as the time, | |
| | the place, and the condition of this country | |
| | stands, I could heartily wish this had not 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 | 305 |
| | I am a drunkard! Had I as many mouths as Hydra, | |
| | such an answer would stop them all. To be 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. | 310 |
| IAGO | Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature, | |
| | if it be well used: exclaim no more against it. | |
| | 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. | 315 |
| | I'll tell you what you shall do. Our general's wife | |
| | is now the general: may say so in this 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 | 320 |
| | her help to put you in your place again: she is of | |
| | so free, so kind, so apt, so 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 | 325 |
| | fortunes against any lay worth naming, this | |
| | crack of your love shall grow 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 I will | 330 |
| | beseech the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me: | |
| | I am desperate of my fortunes if they cheque me here. | |
| IAGO | You are in the right. Good night, lieutenant; I | |
| | must to the watch. | |
| CASSIO | Good night, honest Iago. | |
| | Exit | |
| IAGO | And what's he then that says I play the villain? | 335 |
| | When this advice is free I give and honest, | |
| | Probal to thinking and indeed the course | |
| | To win the Moor again? For 'tis most easy | |
| | The inclining Desdemona to subdue | |
| | In any honest suit: she's framed as fruitful | 340 |
| | As the free elements. And then for her | |
| | To win the Moor--were't to renounce his baptism, | |
| | All seals and symbols of redeemed sin, | |
| | His soul is so enfetter'd to her love, | |
| | That she may make, unmake, do what she list, | 345 |
| | Even as her appetite shall play the god | |
| | With his weak function. How am I then a villain | |
| | To counsel Cassio to this parallel course, | |
| | Directly to his good? Divinity of hell! | |
| | When devils will the blackest sins put on, | 350 |
| | They do suggest at first with heavenly shows, | |
| | As I do now: for whiles this honest fool | |
| | Plies Desdemona to repair his fortunes | |
| | And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor, | |
| | I'll pour this pestilence into his ear, | 355 |
| | 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. | |
| | So will I turn her virtue into pitch, | |
| | And out of her own goodness make the net | 360 |
| | That shall enmesh them all. | |
| | Re-enter RODERIGO. | |
| | How now, Roderigo! | |
| RODERIGO | I do follow here in the chase, not like a hound that | |
| | hunts, but one that fills up the cry. My money is | |
| | almost spent; I have been to-night exceedingly well | 365 |
| | cudgelled; 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, return again to Venice. | |
| IAGO | How poor are they that have not patience! | |
| | What wound did ever heal but by degrees? | 370 |
| | Thou know'st we work by wit, and not by witchcraft; | |
| | And wit depends on dilatory time. | |
| | Does't not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee. | |
| | And thou, by that small hurt, hast cashier'd Cassio: | |
| | Though other things grow fair against the sun, | 375 |
| | Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe: | |
| | Content thyself awhile. By the mass, 'tis morning; | |
| | Pleasure and action make the hours seem short. | |
| | Retire thee; go where thou art billeted: | |
| | Away, I say; thou shalt know more hereafter: | 380 |
| | Nay, get thee gone. | |
| | Exit RODERIGO. | |
| | Two things are to be done: | |
| | My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress; | |
| | I'll set her on; | |
| | Myself the while to draw the Moor apart, | 385 |
| | And bring him jump when he may Cassio find | |
| | Soliciting his wife: ay, that's the way | |
| | Dull not device by coldness and delay. | |
| | Exit | |
