| ACT III SCENE I | Before the castle. | |
| | Enter CASSIO and some Musicians. | |
| CASSIO | Masters, play here; I will content your pains; | |
| | Something that's brief; and bid 'Good morrow, general.' | |
| | Music | |
| | Enter Clown. | |
| Clown | Why masters, have your instruments been in Naples, | |
| | that they speak i' the nose thus? | 5 |
| First Musician | How, sir, how! | |
| Clown | Are these, I pray you, wind-instruments? | |
| First Musician | Ay, marry, are they, sir. | |
| Clown | O, thereby hangs a tail. | |
| First Musician | Whereby hangs a tale, sir? | 10 |
| Clown | Marry. sir, by many a wind-instrument that I know. | |
| | But, masters, here's money for you: and the general | |
| | so likes your music, that he desires you, for love's | |
| | sake, to make no more noise with it. | |
| First Musician | Well, sir, we will not. | 15 |
| Clown | If you have any music that may not be heard, to't | |
| | again: but, as they say to hear music the general | |
| | does not greatly care. | |
| First Musician | We have none such, sir. | |
| Clown | Then put up your pipes in your bag, for I'll away: | 20 |
| | go; vanish into air; away! | |
| | Exeunt Musicians. | |
| CASSIO | Dost thou hear, my honest friend? | |
| Clown | No, I hear not your honest friend; I hear you. | |
| CASSIO | Prithee, keep up thy quillets. There's a poor piece | |
| | of gold for thee: if the gentlewoman that attends | 25 |
| | the general's wife be stirring, tell her there's | |
| | one Cassio entreats her a little favour of speech: | |
| | wilt thou do this? | |
| Clown | She is stirring, sir: if she will stir hither, I | |
| | shall seem to notify unto her. | 30 |
| CASSIO | Do, good my friend. | |
| | Exit Clown. | |
| | Enter IAGO. | |
| | In happy time, Iago. | |
| IAGO | You have not been a-bed, then? | |
| CASSIO | Why, no; the day had broke | |
| | Before we parted. I have made bold, Iago, | 35 |
| | To send in to your wife: my suit to her | |
| | Is, that she will to virtuous Desdemona | |
| | Procure me some access. | |
| IAGO | I'll send her to you presently; | |
| | And I'll devise a mean to draw the Moor | 40 |
| | Out of the way, that your converse and business | |
| | May be more free. | |
| CASSIO | I humbly thank you for't. | |
| | Exit IAGO. | |
| | I never knew | |
| | A Florentine more kind and honest. | 45 |
| | Enter EMILIA | |
| EMILIA | Good morrow, good Lieutenant: I am sorry | |
| | For your displeasure; but all will sure be well. | |
| | The general and his wife are talking of it; | |
| | And she speaks for you stoutly: the Moor replies, | |
| | That he you hurt is of great fame in Cyprus, | 50 |
| | And great affinity, and that in wholesome wisdom | |
| | He might not but refuse you; but he protests he loves you | |
| | And needs no other suitor but his likings | |
| | To take the safest occasion by the front | |
| | To bring you in again. | 55 |
| CASSIO | Yet, I beseech you, | |
| | If you think fit, or that it may be done, | |
| | Give me advantage of some brief discourse | |
| | With Desdemona alone. | |
| EMILIA | Pray you, come in; | 60 |
| | I will bestow you where you shall have time | |
| | To speak your bosom freely. | |
| CASSIO | I am much bound to you. | |
| | Exeunt | |
Abbreviations. — A.-S. = Anglo-Saxon: M.E. = Middle
English (from the 13th to the 15th century) ; Fr. = French ;
Ger. = German ; Gr. = Greek ; Cf. = compare (Lat. confer) ;
Abbott refers to the excellent Shakespearean Grammar of Dr.
Abbott; Schmidt, to Dr. Schmidt's invaluable Shakespeare Lexicon.
____
24. Quillets, short for quidlibet, anything; you choose.
45. Iago was a Venetian, and Cassio a Florentine.
{Additional Note: This line has prompted some needless debate over Iago's place of origin. Iago is identified as Venetian in two separate scenes in Acts 3 and 5. Cassio here is stating that he has never met someone -- not even a fellow Florentine -- as kind and honest as this Venetian Iago.}
47. Displeasure, the disfavor you are in.
61. Bestow, stow, place in secrecy.
