Oth. I humbly beseech you, proceed to the affairs of state. With such things else of quality and respect, Duke. The Turk with a most mighty preparation As doth import you. makes for Cyprus :-Othello, the fortitude of the Please your grace, my ancient; place is best known to you: And though we have A man he is of honesty and trust: there a substitute of most allowed sufficiency, yet To his conveyance I assign my wife, opinion, a sovereign mistress of effects, throws a With what else needful your good grace shall think more safer voice on you: you must therefore be To be sent after me. content to slubber' the gloss of your new fortunes Duke. Let it be so.with this more stubborn and boisterous expedition. Good night to every one.-And, noble signior, [To Brabantio. Oth. The tyrant custom, most grave senators, I find in hardness; and do undertake 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 unfolding 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, I saw Othello's visage in his mind; By his dear absence: Let me go with him. Vouch with me, heaven; I therefore beg it not, Duke. Be it as you shall privately determine, Either for her stay, or going: the affair cries-haste, And speed must answer it; you must hence to-night. Des. To-night, my lord? Duke. This night. Oth. Othello, leave some officer behind, And he shall our commission bring to you; If virtue no delighted beauty lack, 1 Sen. Adieu, brave Moor! use Desdemona well. Bra. Look to her, Moor; have a quick eye to see; She has deceiv'd her father, and may thee. [Exeunt Duke, Senators, Officers, &c. Oth. My life upon her faith.-Honest lago, My Desdemona must I leave to thee; I pr'ythee, let thy wife attend on her; Iago. What say'st thou, noble heart? Iago. Why, go to bed and sleep. Rod. I will incontinently 10 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 torment: and then have we a prescription to die, when death is our physician. Jago. O villanous! 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 hiniself. 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 thyme, 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,13 or scion. Rod. It cannot be. Iago. 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. Put money in thy purse; follow these wars; defeat thy favour with an usurped beard; 14 I say, put money in thy purse. It cannot be, that Desdemona should long continue her love to the Moor,-put money in (10) Immediately. (11) Foolish. (12) Unbridled. (13) A sect is what the gardeners call a cutting. (14) Change your countenance with a false beard 1 Gent. Nothing at all: it is a high-wrought flood; cannot, 'twixt the heaven and the main, Desery a sail. Mon. Methinks, the wind hath spoke aloud at land: thy purse;-nor he his to her: it was a violent com- Rod Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on the issue? lago. Thou art sure of me ;-Go, make money: Rod. Where shall we meet i'the morning? Rod. I'll be with thee betimes. Jago. Go to; farewell. Do you hear, Roderigo ? your purse. Jago. No more of drowning, do you hear? Will do, as if for surety. He holds3 me well; That thinks men honest that but seem to be so ; I have't;-it is engender'd :-Hell and night Touching the Turkish loss,-yet he looks sadly, 3 Gent. Come, let's do so; Enter Cassio. Cas. Thanks to the valiant of this warlike isle, Cas. His bark is stoutly timber'd, and his pilot A sail, a sail, a sail! 4 Gent. The town is empty: on the brow o' the sea Stand ranks of people, and they cry-a sail. Cas. My hopes do shape him for the governor. 2 Gent. They do discharge their shot of courtesy; (5) The constellation near the polar star. (7) Allowed and approved expertness. Our friends, at least. [Exit. 2 Gent. I shall. Re-enter second Gentleman. 2 Gent. 'Tis one lago, ancient to the general. Their mortal' natures, letting go safely by Mon. What is she? Des. O, fie upon thee, slanderer! Iago. O gentle lady, do not put me to't; Des. Come on, assay :-There's one gone to the Iago. Ay, madam. Des. I am not merry; but I do beguile lago. I am about it; but, indeed, my invention Cas. She that I spake of, our great captain's If she be fair and wise,-fairness, and wit, captain, Left in the conduct of the bold Iago; Whose footing here anticipates our thoughts, A se'nnight's speed.-Great Jove, Othello guard, Attendants. The riches of the ship is come on shore! The one's for use, the other useth it. Des. Well prais'd! How if she be black and witty? Emil. How, if fair and foolish? lago. She never yet was foolish that was fair; For even her folly help'd her to an heir. Des. These are old fond paradoxes, to make and fools laugh i'the alehouse. What miserable praise Des. Des. O, but I fear;-how lost you company? [Cry within, A sail, a sail! Then guns heard. 2 Gent. They give their greeting to the citadel; This likewise is a friend. Cas. See for the news.[Exit Gentleman. Good ancient, you are welcome ;-Welcome, mis[To Emilia. tress; Let it not gall your patience, good lago, [Kissing her. Des. Alas, she has no speech. Jago. In faith, too much; I find it still, when I have list2 to sleep, Bells in your parlours, wild cats in your kitchens, (2) Desire. hast thou for her that's foul and foolish? 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 could'st 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? Iago. She that was ever fair, and never proud; To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail; Iago. 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. 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 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 in. Very good; well kissed! an excellent courtesy! 'tis so, indeed. Yet again, your fingers to (7) Your good-breeding and gallantry. (4) Foolish. (8) Courtesy, in the sense of obeisance, was ap(6) Shackle, fetter.plied to men as well as women. Des. Let's meet him, and receive him. Cas. Lo, where he comes! Enter Othello, and Attendants. Oth. O my fair warrior! 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 labouring 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. [Kissing her. That e'er our hearts shall make! How do our old acquaintance of this isle? I have found great love amongst them. O my sweet, In mine own comforts.-I pr'ythee, good Iago, 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 green 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." lago. Blessed fig's end! the wine she drinks is made of grapes: if she had been blessed, she would never have loved the Moor: Blessed pudding! Didst thou not see her paddle with the palm of his hand? didst not mark that? Rod. Yes, that I did; but that was but courtesy. lago. Lechery, by this hand; an index, and obscure prologue to the history of lust and foul thoughts. They met so near with their lips, that their breaths embraced together. Villanous thoughts, Roderigo! when these mutualities so marshal the way, hard at hand comes the master and main exercise, the incorporate conclusion:-Pish!-But, sir, be you ruled by me: I have brought you from Venice. Watch you to-night; 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 by speaking too loud, or tainting his discipline; or from what other course you please, which the time shall more favourably minister. Rod. Well. Jago. Sir, he is rash, and very sudden in choler; and, haply, with his truncheon, 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, by 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. Rod. I will do this, if I can bring it to any op [Exeunt Othello, Desdemona, and Attendants. Iago. Do thou meet me presently at the harbour. 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.'portunity. The lieutenant to-night watches on the court of Iago. I warrant thee. Meet me by and by at the guard-First, I must tell thee this-Desdemona citadel: I must fetch his necessaries ashore. Fareis directly in love with him. Rod. With him? why, 'tis not possible. lago. 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 favour; 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 (1) Much solicited by invitation. (3) Listen to me. (4) Minds unripe. well. Rod. Adieu. [Erit. Jago. That Cassio loves her, I do well believe it; (5) Qualities, disposition of mind. 458 At least into a jealousy so strong Cas. Not to-night, good Iago; I have very poor That judgment cannot cure. Which thing to do,-and unhappy brains for drinking: I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of entertainment. If this poor trash' of Venice, whom I trash2 3 Ingo. O, they are our friends; but one cup; I'll drink for you. Cas. I have drunk but one cup to-night, and that Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me, was craftily qualified' too, and, behold, what inno For making him egregiously an ass, And practising upon his peace and quiet Even to madness. 'Tis here, but yet confus'd; SCENE II-A street. Enter a Herald, proclamation; people following. [Exit. with a vation it makes here: I am unfortunate in the infirmity, and dare not task my weakness with any Cas. Where are they? Roderigo, Jago. Here at the door; I pray you, call them in. Cas. I'll do't; but it dislikes me. [Erit Cassio. Her. It is Othello's pleasure, our noble and vallago. If I can fasten but one cup upon him, jant general, that, upon certain tidings now arrived, importing the mere perdition of the Turkish fleet, With that which he hath drunk to-night already, every man put himself into triumph; some to dance, He'll be as full of quarrel and offence some to make bonfires, each man to what sport and As my young mistress' dog. Now, my sick fool, revel his addiction leads him; for, besides these beneficial news, it is the celebration of his nuptials: Whom love has turn'd almost the wrong side outSo much was his pleasure should be proclaimed. All offices are open; and there is full liberty of feasting, from this present hour of five, till the bell hath told eleven. Heaven bless the isle of Cyprus, [Exeunt. and our noble general, Othello. SCENE III-A hall in the castle. Enter Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, and Attendants. Oth. Good Michael, look you to the guard tonight: Let's teach ourselves that honourable stop, Cas. Iago hath direction what to do; Oth. Iago is most honest. Michael, good night: To-morrow, with our earliest, Let me have speech with you.-Come, my dear love, The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue; [To Desdemona. That profit's yet to come 'twixt me and you.Good night. [Exeunt Oth. Des. and Attend. Enter Iago. Cas. Welcome, Iago: We must to the watch. Iago. Not this hour, lieutenant; 'tis not yet ten o'clock: Our general casts us thus early, for the love of his Desdemona; whom let us not therefore blame; he hath not yet made wanton the night with her and she is sport for Jove. Cas. She's a most exquisite lady. Cas. Indeed, she is a most fresh and delicate Iago. And, when she speaks, is it not an alarm to love? Cas. She is, indeed, perfection. Iago. Well, 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 the black Othello. To Desdemona hath to-night carous'd Am I to put our Cassio in some action My boat sails freely, both with wind and stream. And let me the canakin clink, clink; A soldier's a man; Some wine, boys! [Sings. [Wine brought in. Cas. 'Fore heaven, an excellent song. Iago. I learned it in England, where (indeed) they are most potent in potting: your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied Hollander,-Drink, ho!-are nothing to your English. Cas. Is your Englishman so expert in his drinking? Iago. Why, 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. Cas. To the health of our general. Mon. I am for it, lieutenant; and I'll do you justice.' Iago. O sweet England! King Stephen was a worthy peer,10 With that he call'd the tailor-lown." (6) Dismissed. (7) Slily mixed with water. (8) A little more than enough. (9) Drink as much as you do. (10) A worthy fellow. (11) Clown. |