But words are words; I never yet did hear, That the bruis'd heart was pierced through the ear. I humbly beseech you, proceed to the affairs of state. Duke. The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes for Cyprus:-Othello, the fortitude of the place is best known to you: And though we have there a substitute of most allowed sufficiency, yet opinion, a sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer voice on you: you must therefore be content to slubber the gloss of your new fortunes with this more stubborn and boisterous expedition. Oth. The tyrant custom, most grave senators, Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war My thrice-driven bed of down: I do agnizes A natural and prompt alacrity,

I find in hardness, and do undertake

These present wars against the Ottomites.

Most humbly therefore bending to your state,
I crave fit disposition for my wife;
Due reference of place, and exhibition
With such accominodation, and besort,
As levels with her breeding.
Duke.

Be't at her father's.
Bra.

Oth. Nor I.
Des.

If you please,

I'll not have it so.

Nor I; I would not there reside,
To put my father in impatient thoughts,
By being in his eye. Most gracious duke,
To my untolding lend a gracious ear;
And let me find a charter in your voice,
To assist my simpleness.

Duke. What would you, Desdemona ?

Des. That I did love the Moor to live with him,
My downright violence and storm of fortunes
May trumpet to the world; my heart's subdued
Even to the very quality of my lord:
Isaw Othello's visage in his mind;

And to his honors, and his valiant parts,
Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.

So that, dear lords, if I be left behind,
A moth of peace, and he go to the war,
The rites, for which I love him, are bereft me,
And I a heavy interim shall support
By his dear absence: Let me go with him.

Oth. Your voices, lords:-'beseech you, let her will Have a free way.

Vouch with me, heaven; I therefore beg it not,
To please the palate of my appetite:
Nor to comply with heat, the young affects,8
In my distinct and proper satisfaction;
But to be free and bounteous to her mind:
And heaven defend your good souls, that you
think

I will your serious and great business scant,
For she is with me: No, when light-wing'd toys
Of feather'd Cupid seel with wanton dulness
My speculative and active instruments,
That my disports corrupt and taint my business,
Let housewives make a skillet of my helm,
And all indign and base adversities
Make head against my estimation!

Duke. Be it as you shall privately determine, Either for her stay, or going: the aflair crieshaste,

And speed must answer it; you must hence tonight.

Des. To-night, my lord?
Duke.
Oth.

This night.

With all my heart. Duke. At nine i' the morning here we'll meet

again.

Othello, leave some officer behind,

And he shall our commission bring to you;
With such things else of quality and respect,
As doth import you.
Oth.

Please your grace, my ancient;
A man he is of honesty and trust:
To his conveyance I assign my wife,

Bra. Look to her, Moor; have a quick eye to see: She has deceiv'd her father, and may thee.

[Exeunt DUKE, Senators, Officers, ye
Oth. My life upon her faith.-Honest lago,
My Desdemona must I leave to thee:
I pry'thee, let thy wife attend on ner;
And bring them after in the best advantage.-
Come, Desdemona; I have but an hour
Of love, of worldly matters and direction,
To spend with thee: we must obey the time.
[Exeunt OTHELLO and DESDEMONA
Rod. Iago.

Iugo. What say'st thou, noble heart?
Rod. What will I do, thinkest thou?
Iago. Why, go to bed, and sleep.

Rod. I will incontinently drown myself.

Iago. Well, if thou dost, I shall never love thee after it. Why, thou silly gentleman!

Rod. It is silliness to live, when to live is a tor ment: and then have we a prescription to die, when death is our physician.

Iago. O villainous! I have looked upon the world for four times seven years! and since I could distinguish between a benefit and an injury, I never found a man that knew how to love himself. Ere I would say, I would drown myself for the love of a Guinea-hen, I would change my humanity with a baboon.

Rod. What should I do? I confess it is my shame to be so fond; but it is not in virtue to amend it.

Iago. Virtue a fig! 'tis in ourselves, that we are thus, or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which, our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce; set hyssop, and weed up thy me; supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many; either to have it steril with idleness, or manured with industry; why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. If the balance of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions: But we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lust; whereof I take this, that you calllove, to be a sect or scion.

Rod. It cannot be.

Put

lago. It is merely a lust of the blood, and a permission of the will. Come, be a man: Drown thyself? drown cats and blind puppies. I have professed me thy friend, and I confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of perdurable toughness; I could never better stead thee than now. money in thy purse; follow these wars; defeat thy favor with an usurped beard! I say, put money in thy purse. It cannot be, that Desdeinona should long continue her love to the Moor,-put money in thy purse; nor he his to her: it was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration;-put but money in thy purse.-These Moors are changeable in their wills;-fill thy purse with money: the food that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida. She must change for youth: when she is sated with his body, she will find the error of her choice.-She must have change, she must: therefore put money in thy purse.-It thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money thou canst: If sanctimony, and a frail vow betwixt an erring barbarian and a supersubtle Venetian, be not too hard for my wits, and all the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her; therefore make money. A pox of drowning thyselt! it is clean out of the way: seek thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy, than to be drowned and go without her.

Rod. Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on the issue?

lago. Thou art sure of me;-Go, make money:

To be sent after me.

Duke.

Let it be so.

Good-night to every one,-And, noble signior,

[To BRABANTIO.

f virtue no delighted beauty lack,
Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.

1 Sen. Adieu, brave Moor! use Desdemona well.

and again, I hate the Moor: My cause is hearted; thine hath no less reason: Let us be conjunctive in our revenge against him: if thou canst cuckold him, thou dost thyself a pleasure, and me a sport. There are many events in the womb of time, which will be delivered. Traverse; go; provide thy • Unbridled.

Immediately.

A sect is what the gardeners call a cutting. Change your countenance with a false beard. An ancient military word of command.

money. We will have more of this to-morrow. Adieu.

Rod. Where shall we meet i' the morning?
Iago. At my lodging.

Rod. I'll be with thee betimes.

lago. Go to; farewell. Do you hear, Roderigo? Rod. What say you?

Iago. No more of drowning, do you hear? Rod. I am changed. I'll sell all my land. Iugo. Go to; farewell; put money enough in your purse. [Exit RODERIGO. Thus do I ever make my fool my purse: For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane, If I would time expend with such a snipe, But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor; And it is thought abroad, that twixt my sheets He has done my office: I know not if't be true;

But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will do, as if for surety. He holds me well;
The better shall my purpose work on him.
Cassio's a proper man: Let me see now;
To get his place, and to plume up my will;
A double knavery,-How! how-Let me see:-
After some time, to abuse Othello's car,
That he is too familiar with his wife:-
He hath a person, and a smooth dispose,
To be suspected; framed to make women false
The Moor is of a free and open nature,
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so;
And will as tenderly be led by the nose,

Enter MONTANO and two Gentlemen.

Mon. What from the cape can you discern at sea? 1 Gent. Nothing at all: it is a high-wrought flood;

I cannot, 'twixt the heaven and the main,
Descry a sail.

Mon. Methinks, the wind hath spoke aloud at land;

A fuller blast ne'er shook our battlements:
If it hath ruffian'd so upon the sea,
What ribs of oak, when mountains melt on them,
Can hold the mortise? what shall we hear of this?
2 Gent. A segregation of the Turkish fleet:
For do but stand upon the foaming shore,
The chiding billow seems to pelt the clouds;
The wind-shaked surge, with high and monstrous
main,

Seems to cast water on the burning bear,2
And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole:
I never did like molestation view
On th' enchafed flood.
Mon.

If that the Turkish fleet Be not inshelter'd and embay'd, they are drown'd: It is impossible they bear it out.

Enter a third Gentleman.

3 Gent. News, lords! our wars are done: The desperate tempest hath so bang'd the Turks, That their designment halts: A noble ship of Venice Hath seen a grievous wreck and sutlerance 'n most part of their fleet. Mon.

How! is this true? - Gent. The ship is here put in,

A Veronesé; Michael Cassio,

Lieutenant to the warlike Moor, Othello,
Is come on shore: The Moor himself's at sea,
And is in full commission here for Cyprus.

Mon. I am glad on't; 'tis a worthy governor.
3 Gent. But this same Cassio,-though he speak

of comfort.

Touching the Turkish loss,-yet he looks sadly, And prays the Moor be safe; for they were parted With foul and violent tempest.

Mon. 'Pray heaven he be; For I have serv'd him, and the man commands Like a full soldier. Let's to the sea-side, 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 the aërial blue, An indistinct regard.

3 Gent. Come, let's do so; For every minute is expectancy

Of more arrivance.

Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death, Stand in bold cure. [Within.]

A sail, a sail, a sail!

Enter a Gentleman.

Cas. What noise?

4 Gent. The town is empty; on the brow o' the

sea

Eri

Stand ranks of people, and they cry-a sail. Cus. My hopes do shape him for the governor. 2 Gent. They do discharge their shot of cour tesy: [Guns heard. Our friends, at least. Cas. I pray you, sir, go forth, And give us truth who 'tis that is arrived. 2 Gent. I shall. Mon. But, good lieutenant, is your general wived? Cas. Most fortunately: he hath achiev'd a mad That paragons description, and wild tame; One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens, And in the essential vesture of creation, Does bear all excellency.-How now? who has put in?

Re-enter second Gentleman.

2 Gent. 'Tis one lago, ancient to the general. Cas. He has had most favorable and happy speed:

Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds,
The gutter'd rocks, and congregated sands.-
Traitors ensteep'd to clog the guiltless keel,
As having sense of beauty, do omit
Their mortal natures, letting go safely by
The divine Desdemona.

Cus. She that I spake of, our great captain's captain,

Left in the conduct of the bold Iago;
Whose footing here anticipates our thoughts,
A se'nnight's speed.-Great Jove, Othello guard,
And swell his sail with thine own powerful breath;
That he may bless this bay with his tall shop,
Make love's quick pants in Desdemona's armas
Give renew'd tire to our extincted spirits,
And bring all Cyprus comfort!-0, behold,
Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, IAGO, RODERICO, and
Attendants.

The riches of the ship is come on shore!
Ye men of Cyprus, let her have your knees ;—
Hail to thee, lady! and the grace of heaven,
Before, behind thee, and on every hand,
Enwheel thee round!

Des.
I thank you, valiant Cassio.
What tidings can you tell me of my lord!
Cus. He is not yet arrived; nor know I aught
But that he's well, and will be shortly here.
Des. O, but I fear;-How lost you company!
Cas. The great contention of the sea and skies
Parted our fellowship: But, hark! a sail!

[Cry within, A sail, a sail! Then Guns heard. 2 Gent. They give their greeting to the citadei, This likewise is a friend.

You have little cause to say so. Jugo. Come on, come on; you are pictures out of doors,

Bells in your parlors, wild cats in your kitchens, Saints in your injuries, devils being offended, Players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds.

Drs. O, fye on thee, slanderer!

Jago. Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk; You rise to play, and go to bed to work. Emil. You shall not write my praise. Jugo.

No, let me not.

Des. What wouldst thou 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,

Des. Let's meet him, and receive him. Cas. Lo, where he comes!

Enter OTHELLO and Attendants.

Oth. O my fair warrior!

Des.
My dear Othello!
Oth. It gives me wonder great as my content,
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 waken'd death!
And let the laboring bark climb hills of seas,
Olympus-high; and duck again as low

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.

But that our loves and comforts should increase, Even as our days do grow!

Oth.

Ingo. Ay, madam.

Des. I am not merry: but I do beguile The thing I am, by seeming otherwise.Come, how wouldst thou praise me?

Iago. I am about it; but, indeed, my invention Comes from my pate, as birdlime does from frize; It plucks out brains and all: But my muse labors, And thus she is deliver'd.

If she be fair and wise,-fairness, and wit,
The one's for use, the other useth it.

Des. Well prais'd! How if she be black and witty?

Inge. If she be black, and thereto have a wit, She'll find a white that shall her blackness fit. Des. Worse and worse.

Emil. How, if fair and foolish?

logo. She never yet was foolish that was fair; For even her folly help'd her to an heir.

Des. These are old fonds paradoxes, to make fools laugh i'the alehouse. What miserable praise hast thou for her that's foul and toolish?

lago. There's none so foul and foolish thereunto, But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do. Des. O heavy ignorance!-thou praisest the worst best. But what praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving woman indeed? one that, in the authority of her merit, did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself!

Ingo. She that was ever fair, and never proud;
Had tongue at will, and yet was never loud;
Never lack'd gold, and yet went never gay;
Fled from her wish, and yet said,-now I may;
She that, being anger'd, her revenge being nigh,
Bade her wrong stay, and her displeasure fly;
She, that in wisdom never was so frail,

To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail;
She that could think, and ne'er disclose her mind,
Se suitors following, and not look behind;
She was a wight,-it ever such wight were,—
Des. To do what?

lego. To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer. Des. 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 counsellor?

Cas. He speaks home, madam; you may relish him more in the soldier, than in the scholar.

Lugo. [Aside. He takes her by the palm: Ay, well said, whisper: with as little a web as this will ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. Ay, smile upon er, do. I will 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 m. Very good; well kissed! an excellent courtesy! 'tis so, indeed. Yet again, your fingers to Shackle, fetter.

• Pesire.

• Foolish.

Your good-breeding and gallantry.

[Kissing her.

Iago. O, you are well tuned now! But I'll set down the pegs that make this music, As honest as I am. [Aside. Come, let's to the castle.News, friends; our wars are done, the Turks are drown'd.

Oth.

How do our old acquaintance of this isle-
Honey, you shall be well desir'd 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 pr'ythee, good Iago,
Go to the bay, and disembark my coffers:
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.

[Exeunt OTHELLO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants.

Iago. Do thou meet me presently at the harbor. 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 to-night watches on the court of guard-First, I must tell thee this-Desdemona is directly in love with him.

Rod. With him! why, 'tis not possible. Jugo. 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 fantastical 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 give 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 and 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 eminently in the degree of this fortune, as Cassio does? a knave very voluble; no further conscionable, than in putting on the mere form of civil and humane seeming, for the better compass ing of his salt and more hidden loose affection? why, none; why, none: A slippery and subtle knave; a finder out of occasions; that has an 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 greer minds look after: A pestilent complete knave; and the woman hath found him already.

Rod. I cannot believe that in her; she is full of most blessed condition.2

Much solicited by invitation.
Qualities, disposition of the mind.

1 Listen to me.

your Englishman so expert in his drink

hy, he drinks you, with facility, your di drunk; he sweats not to overthrow your he gives your Hollander a vomit, ere the le can be filled.

o the health of our general.

sweet England!

ng Stephen was a worthy peer,3 His breeches cost him but a crown; e held them sixpence all too dear, With that he call'd the tailor-lown.

e was a wight of high renown, And thou art but of low degree:

is pride that pulls the country down, Then take thine auld cloak about thee. vine, ho!

Why, this is a more exquisite song than the

Will you hear it again?

No; for I hold him to be unworthy of his that does those things.-Well,-Heaven's all; and there be souls that must be saved, ere be souls must not be saved.

. It's true, good lieutenant.

For mine own part,-no offence to the geneany man of quality,-I hope to be saved. 7. And so do I too, lieutenant.

Ay, but, by your leave, not before me; the nant is to be saved before the ancient. Let's no more of this; let's to our affairs.-Forgive ir sins!-Gentlemen, let's look to our busiDo not think, gentlemen, I am drunk; this ancient; this is my right hand, and this is eft hand:-I am not drunk now; I can stand enough, and speak well enough.

1. Excellent well.

3. Why, very well, then: you must not think that I am drunk. [Exit. on. To the platform, masters; come, let's set watch.

go. You see this fellow that is gone before;is a soldier, fit to stand by Cæsar

1 give direction; and do but see his vice;
s to his virtue a just equinox,

e one as long as the other: 'tis pity of him.
ar, the trust Othello puts him in,
some odd time of his infirmity

shake this island.

The town will rise: God's will, lieutenant! held You will be shamed for ever.

Are we turn'd Turks; and to ourselves do that,
Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites?
For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl
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 lago, that look'st dead with grieving,
Speak, who began this? on thy love, I charge thee.
lago. 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.)
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
These legs, that brought me to a part of it!
Oth. How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot?
Cus. I pray you pardon me, I cannot speak.
Oth. Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil;
The gravity and stillness of your youth
The world hath noted, and your name is great
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.
Mon. Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger;
Your officer, lago, 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;
Unless self-charity be sometime a vice;
And to defend ourselves it be a sin,
When violence assails us.

Oth.
Now, by heaven,
My blood begins my safer guides to rule;
And passion, having my best judgment collied,8
Assays to lead the way: If once 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;
And he that is approv'd 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,

In night, and on the court and guard of safety! 'Tis monstrous.-Iago, who began it?

Mon. If partially affin'd, or leagued in office, Thou dost deliver more or less than truth, Thou art no soldier.

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.
Montano and myself being in speech,
There comes a fellow, crying out for help;
And Cassio following him with determin'd sword,
To execute upon him: Sir, this gentleman
Steps in to Cassio, and entreats his pause;
Myself the crying fellow did pursue.
Lest, by his clamor, (as it so fell out.)

• Darkened.

Related by nearness of office.

Convicted by proof