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ACT I, SCENE I.

Venice. A street.

Enter RODERIGO and IAGO

RODERIGO
001: Tush! never tell me; I take it much unkindly
002: That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse
003: As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.

IAGO
004: 'Sblood, but you will not hear me:
005: If ever I did dream of such a matter, Abhor me.

RODERIGO
006: Thou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy hate.

IAGO
007: Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city,
008: In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
009: Off-capp'd to him: and, by the faith of man,
010: I know my price, I am worth no worse a place:
011: But he; as loving his own pride and purposes,
012: Evades them, with a bombast circumstance
013: Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;
014: And, in conclusion,
015: Nonsuits my mediators; for, 'Certes,' says he,
016: 'I have already chose my officer.'
017: And what was he?
018: Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
019: One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
020: A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;
021: That never set a squadron in the field,
022: Nor the division of a battle knows
023: More than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric,
024: Wherein the toged consuls can propose
025: As masterly as he: mere prattle, without practise,
026: Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election:
027: And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof
028: At Rhodes, at Cyprus and on other grounds
029: Christian and heathen, must be be-lee'd and calm'd
030: By debitor and creditor: this counter-caster,
031: He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,
032: And I--God bless the mark!--his Moorship's ancient.

RODERIGO
033: By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman.

IAGO
034: Why, there's no remedy; 'tis the curse of service,
035: Preferment goes by letter and affection,
036: And not by old gradation, where each second
037: Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself,
038: Whether I in any just term am affined
039: To love the Moor.

RODERIGO
040: I would not follow him then.

IAGO
041: O, sir, content you;
042: I follow him to serve my turn upon him:
043: We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
044: Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
045: Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
046: That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
047: Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
048: For nought but provender, and when he's old, cashier'd:
049: Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are
050: Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty,
051: Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves,
052: And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
053: Do well thrive by them and when they have lined
054: their coats
055: Do themselves homage: these fellows have some soul;
056: And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,
057: It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
058: Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
059: In following him, I follow but myself;
060: Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
061: But seeming so, for my peculiar end:
062: For when my outward action doth demonstrate
063: The native act and figure of my heart
064: In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
065: But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
066: For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.

RODERIGO
067: What a full fortune does the thicklips owe
068: If he can carry't thus!

IAGO
069: Call up her father,
070: Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight,
071: Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,
072: And, though he in a fertile climate dwell,
073: Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,
074: Yet throw such changes of vexation on't,
075: As it may lose some colour.

RODERIGO
076: Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud.

IAGO
077: Do, with like timorous accent and dire yell
078: As when, by night and negligence, the fire
079: Is spied in populous cities.

RODERIGO
080: What, ho, Brabantio! Signior Brabantio, ho!

IAGO
081: Awake! what, ho, Brabantio! thieves! thieves! thieves!
082: Look to your house, your daughter and your bags!
083: Thieves! thieves!

BRABANTIO appears above, at a window

BRABANTIO
084: What is the reason of this terrible summons?
085: What is the matter there?

RODERIGO
086: Signior, is all your family within?

IAGO
087: Are your doors lock'd?

BRABANTIO
088: Why, wherefore ask you this?

IAGO
089: 'Zounds, sir, you're robb'd; for shame, put on
090: your gown;
091: Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;
092: Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
093: Is topping your white ewe. Arise, arise;
094: Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
095: Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:
096: Arise, I say.

BRABANTIO
097: What, have you lost your wits?

RODERIGO
098: Most reverend signior, do you know my voice?

BRABANTIO
099: Not I what are you?

RODERIGO
100: My name is Roderigo.

BRABANTIO
101: The worser welcome:
102: I have charged thee not to haunt about my doors:
103: In honest plainness thou hast heard me say
104: My daughter is not for thee; and now, in madness,
105: Being full of supper and distempering draughts,
106: Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come
107: To start my quiet.

RODERIGO
108: Sir, sir, sir,--

BRABANTIO
109: But thou must needs be sure
110: My spirit and my place have in them power
111: To make this bitter to thee.

RODERIGO
112: Patience, good sir.

BRABANTIO
113: What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is Venice;
114: My house is not a grange.

RODERIGO
115: Most grave Brabantio,
116: In simple and pure soul I come to you.

IAGO
117: 'Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will not
118: serve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to
119: do you service and you think we are ruffians, you'll
120: have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse;
121: you'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have
122: coursers for cousins and gennets for germans.

BRABANTIO
123: What profane wretch art thou?

IAGO
124: I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter
125: and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.

BRABANTIO
126: Thou art a villain.

IAGO
127: You are--a senator.

BRABANTIO
128: This thou shalt answer; I know thee, Roderigo.

RODERIGO
129: Sir, I will answer any thing. But, I beseech you,
130: If't be your pleasure and most wise consent,
131: As partly I find it is, that your fair daughter,
132: At this odd-even and dull watch o' the night,
133: Transported, with no worse nor better guard
134: But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,
135: To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor--
136: If this be known to you and your allowance,
137: We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;
138: But if you know not this, my manners tell me
139: We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe
140: That, from the sense of all civility,
141: I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:
142: Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,
143: I say again, hath made a gross revolt;
144: Tying her duty, beauty, wit and fortunes
145: In an extravagant and wheeling stranger
146: Of here and every where. Straight satisfy yourself:
147: If she be in her chamber or your house,
148: Let loose on me the justice of the state
149: For thus deluding you.

BRABANTIO
150: Strike on the tinder, ho!
151: Give me a taper! call up all my people!
152: This accident is not unlike my dream:
153: Belief of it oppresses me already.
154: Light, I say! light!

Exit above

IAGO
155: Farewell; for I must leave you:
156: It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place,
157: To be produced--as, if I stay, I shall--
158: Against the Moor: for, I do know, the state,
159: However this may gall him with some cheque,
160: Cannot with safety cast him, for he's embark'd
161: With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars,
162: Which even now stand in act, that, for their souls,
163: Another of his fathom they have none,
164: To lead their business: in which regard,
165: Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains.
166: Yet, for necessity of present life,
167: I must show out a flag and sign of love,
168: Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely find him,
169: Lead to the Sagittary the raised search;
170: And there will I be with him. So, farewell.

Exit

Enter, below, BRABANTIO, and Servants with torches

BRABANTIO
171: It is too true an evil: gone she is;
172: And what's to come of my despised time
173: Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo,
174: Where didst thou see her? O unhappy girl!
175: With the Moor, say'st thou? Who would be a father!
176: How didst thou know 'twas she? O she deceives me
177: Past thought! What said she to you? Get more tapers:
178: Raise all my kindred. Are they married, think you?

RODERIGO
179: Truly, I think they are.

BRABANTIO
180: O heaven! How got she out? O treason of the blood!
181: Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds
182: By what you see them act. Is there not charms
183: By which the property of youth and maidhood
184: May be abused? Have you not read, Roderigo,
185: Of some such thing?

RODERIGO
186: Yes, sir, I have indeed.

BRABANTIO
187: Call up my brother. O, would you had had her!
188: Some one way, some another. Do you know
189: Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?

RODERIGO
190: I think I can discover him, if you please,
191: To get good guard and go along with me.

BRABANTIO
192: Pray you, lead on. At every house I'll call;
193: I may command at most. Get weapons, ho!
194: And raise some special officers of night.
195: On, good Roderigo: I'll deserve your pains.

Exeunt

ACT I, SCENE II.

Another street.

Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Attendants with torches

IAGO
001: Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
002: Yet do I hold it very stuff o' the conscience
003: To do no contrived murder: I lack iniquity
004: Sometimes to do me service: nine or ten times
005: I had thought to have yerk'd him here under the ribs.

OTHELLO
006: 'Tis better as it is.

IAGO
007: Nay, but he prated,
008: And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
009: Against your honour
010: That, with the little godliness I have,
011: I did full hard forbear him. But, I pray you, sir,
012: Are you fast married? Be assured of this,
013: That the magnifico is much beloved,
014: And hath in his effect a voice potential
015: As double as the duke's: he will divorce you;
016: Or put upon you what restraint and grievance
017: The law, with all his might to enforce it on,
018: Will give him cable.

OTHELLO
019: Let him do his spite:
020: My services which I have done the signiory
021: Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know,--
022: Which, when I know that boasting is an honour,
023: I shall promulgate--I fetch my life and being
024: From men of royal siege, and my demerits
025: May speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune
026: As this that I have reach'd: for know, Iago,
027: But that I love the gentle Desdemona,
028: I would not my unhoused free condition
029: Put into circumscription and confine
030: For the sea's worth. But, look! what lights come yond?

IAGO
031: Those are the raised father and his friends:
032: You were best go in.

OTHELLO
033: Not I I must be found:
034: My parts, my title and my perfect soul
035: Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?

IAGO
036: By Janus, I think no.

Enter CASSIO, and certain Officers with torches

OTHELLO
037: The servants of the duke, and my lieutenant.
038: The goodness of the night upon you, friends!
039: What is the news?

CASSIO
040: The duke does greet you, general,
041: And he requires your haste-post-haste appearance,
042: Even on the instant.

OTHELLO
043: What is the matter, think you?

CASSIO
044: Something from Cyprus as I may divine:
045: It is a business of some heat: the galleys
046: Have sent a dozen sequent messengers
047: This very night at one another's heels,
048: And many of the consuls, raised and met,
049: Are at the duke's already: you have been
050: hotly call'd for;
051: When, being not at your lodging to be found,
052: The senate hath sent about three several guests
053: To search you out.

OTHELLO
054: 'Tis well I am found by you.
055: I will but spend a word here in the house,
056: And go with you.

Exit

CASSIO
057: Ancient, what makes he here?

IAGO
058: 'Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land carack:
059: If it prove lawful prize, he's made for ever.

CASSIO
060: I do not understand.

IAGO
061: He's married.

CASSIO
062: To who?

Re-enter OTHELLO

IAGO
063: Marry, to--Come, captain, will you go?

OTHELLO
064: Have with you.

CASSIO
065: Here comes another troop to seek for you.

IAGO
066: It is Brabantio. General, be advised;
067: He comes to bad intent.

Enter BRABANTIO, RODERIGO, and Officers with torches and weapons

OTHELLO
068: Holla! stand there!

RODERIGO
069: Signior, it is the Moor.

BRABANTIO
070: Down with him, thief!

They draw on both sides

IAGO
071: You, Roderigo! come, sir, I am for you.

OTHELLO
072: Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.
073: Good signior, you shall more command with years
074: Than with your weapons.

BRABANTIO
075: O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my daughter?
076: Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her;
077: For I'll refer me to all things of sense,
078: If she in chains of magic were not bound,
079: Whether a maid so tender, fair and happy,
080: So opposite to marriage that she shunned
081: The wealthy curled darlings of our nation,
082: Would ever have, to incur a general mock,
083: Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
084: Of such a thing as thou, to fear, not to delight.
085: Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense
086: That thou hast practised on her with foul charms,
087: Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals
088: That weaken motion: I'll have't disputed on;
089: 'Tis probable and palpable to thinking.
090: I therefore apprehend and do attach thee
091: For an abuser of the world, a practiser
092: Of arts inhibited and out of warrant.
093: Lay hold upon him: if he do resist,
094: Subdue him at his peril.

OTHELLO
095: Hold your hands,
096: Both you of my inclining, and the rest:
097: Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it
098: Without a prompter. Where will you that I go
099: To answer this your charge?

BRABANTIO
100: To prison, till fit time
101: Of law and course of direct session
102: Call thee to answer.

OTHELLO
103: What if I do obey?
104: How may the duke be therewith satisfied,
105: Whose messengers are here about my side,
106: Upon some present business of the state
107: To bring me to him?

First Officer
108: 'Tis true, most worthy signior;
109: The duke's in council and your noble self,
110: I am sure, is sent for.

BRABANTIO
111: How! the duke in council!
112: In this time of the night! Bring him away:
113: Mine's not an idle cause: the duke himself,
114: Or any of my brothers of the state,
115: Cannot but feel this wrong as 'twere their own;
116: For if such actions may have passage free,
117: Bond-slaves and pagans shall our statesmen be.

Exeunt

ACT I, SCENE III.

A council-chamber.

The DUKE and Senators sitting at a table; Officers attending

DUKE OF VENICE
001: There is no composition in these news
002: That gives them credit.

First Senator
003: Indeed, they are disproportion'd;
004: My letters say a hundred and seven galleys.

DUKE OF VENICE
005: And mine, a hundred and forty.

Second Senator
006: And mine, two hundred:
007: But though they jump not on a just account,--
008: As in these cases, where the aim reports,
009: 'Tis oft with difference--yet do they all confirm
010: A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus.

DUKE OF VENICE
011: Nay, it is possible enough to judgment:
012: I do not so secure me in the error,
013: But the main article I do approve
014: In fearful sense.

Sailor [Within]
015: What, ho! what, ho! what, ho!

First Officer
016: A messenger from the galleys.

Enter a Sailor

DUKE OF VENICE
017: Now, what's the business?

Sailor
018: The Turkish preparation makes for Rhodes;
019: So was I bid report here to the state
020: By Signior Angelo.

DUKE OF VENICE
021: How say you by this change?

First Senator
022: This cannot be,
023: By no assay of reason: 'tis a pageant,
024: To keep us in false gaze. When we consider
025: The importancy of Cyprus to the Turk,
026: And let ourselves again but understand,
027: That as it more concerns the Turk than Rhodes,
028: So may he with more facile question bear it,
029: For that it stands not in such warlike brace,
030: But altogether lacks the abilities
031: That Rhodes is dress'd in: if we make thought of this,
032: We must not think the Turk is so unskilful
033: To leave that latest which concerns him first,
034: Neglecting an attempt of ease and gain,
035: To wake and wage a danger profitless.

DUKE OF VENICE
036: Nay, in all confidence, he's not for Rhodes.

First Officer
037: Here is more news.

Enter a Messenger

Messenger
038: The Ottomites, reverend and gracious,
039: Steering with due course towards the isle of Rhodes,
040: Have there injointed them with an after fleet.

First Senator
041: Ay, so I thought. How many, as you guess?

Messenger
042: Of thirty sail: and now they do restem
043: Their backward course, bearing with frank appearance
044: Their purposes toward Cyprus. Signior Montano,
045: Your trusty and most valiant servitor,
046: With his free duty recommends you thus,
047: And prays you to believe him.

DUKE OF VENICE
048: 'Tis certain, then, for Cyprus.
049: Marcus Luccicos, is not he in town?

First Senator
050: He's now in Florence.

DUKE OF VENICE
051: Write from us to him; post-post-haste dispatch.

First Senator
052: Here comes Brabantio and the valiant Moor.

Enter BRABANTIO, OTHELLO, IAGO, RODERIGO, and Officers

DUKE OF VENICE
053: Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you
054: Against the general enemy Ottoman.
[To BRABANTIO]
055: I did not see you; welcome, gentle signior;
056: We lack'd your counsel and your help tonight.

BRABANTIO
057: So did I yours. Good your grace, pardon me;
058: Neither my place nor aught I heard of business
059: Hath raised me from my bed, nor doth the general care
060: Take hold on me, for my particular grief
061: Is of so flood-gate and o'erbearing nature
062: That it engluts and swallows other sorrows
063: And it is still itself.

DUKE OF VENICE
064: Why, what's the matter?

BRABANTIO
065: My daughter! O, my daughter!

DUKE OF VENICE, Senator
066: Dead?

BRABANTIO
067: Ay, to me;
068: She is abused, stol'n from me, and corrupted
069: By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks;
070: For nature so preposterously to err,
071: Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense,
072: Sans witchcraft could not.

DUKE OF VENICE
073: Whoe'er he be that in this foul proceeding
074: Hath thus beguiled your daughter of herself
075: And you of her, the bloody book of law
076: You shall yourself read in the bitter letter
077: After your own sense, yea, though our proper son
078: Stood in your action.

BRABANTIO
079: Humbly I thank your grace.
080: Here is the man, this Moor, whom now, it seems,
081: Your special mandate for the state-affairs
082: Hath hither brought.

DUKE OF VENICE, Senator
083: We are very sorry for't.

DUKE OF VENICE [To OTHELLO]
084: What, in your own part, can you say to this?

BRABANTIO
085: Nothing, but this is so.

OTHELLO
086: Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
087: My very noble and approved good masters,
088: That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter,
089: It is most true; true, I have married her:
090: The very head and front of my offending
091: Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech,
092: And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace:
093: For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,
094: Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used
095: Their dearest action in the tented field,
096: And little of this great world can I speak,
097: More than pertains to feats of broil and battle,
098: And therefore little shall I grace my cause
099: In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,
100: I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver
101: Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms,
102: What conjuration and what mighty magic,
103: For such proceeding I am charged withal,
104: I won his daughter.

BRABANTIO
105: A maiden never bold;
106: Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion
107: Blush'd at herself; and she, in spite of nature,
108: Of years, of country, credit, every thing,
109: To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on!
110: It is a judgment maim'd and most imperfect
111: That will confess perfection so could err
112: Against all rules of nature, and must be driven
113: To find out practises of cunning hell,
114: Why this should be. I therefore vouch again
115: That with some mixtures powerful o'er the blood,
116: Or with some dram conjured to this effect,
117: He wrought upon her.

DUKE OF VENICE
118: To vouch this, is no proof,
119: Without more wider and more overt test
120: Than these thin habits and poor likelihoods
121: Of modern seeming do prefer against him.

First Senator
122: But, Othello, speak:
123: Did you by indirect and forced courses
124: Subdue and poison this young maid's affections?
125: Or came it by request and such fair question
126: As soul to soul affordeth?

OTHELLO
127: I do beseech you,
128: Send for the lady to the Sagittary,
129: And let her speak of me before her father:
130: If you do find me foul in her report,
131: The trust, the office I do hold of you,
132: Not only take away, but let your sentence
133: Even fall upon my life.

DUKE OF VENICE
134: Fetch Desdemona hither.

OTHELLO
135: Ancient, conduct them: you best know the place.
[Exeunt IAGO and Attendants]
136: And, till she come, as truly as to heaven
137: I do confess the vices of my blood,
138: So justly to your grave ears I'll present
139: How I did thrive in this fair lady's love,
140: And she in mine.

DUKE OF VENICE
141: Say it, Othello.

OTHELLO
142: Her father loved me; oft invited me;
143: Still question'd me the story of my life,
144: From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
145: That I have passed.
146: I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
147: To the very moment that he bade me tell it;
148: Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
149: Of moving accidents by flood and field
150: Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach,
151: Of being taken by the insolent foe
152: And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence
153: And portance in my travels' history:
154: Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
155: Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven
156: It was my hint to speak,--such was the process;
157: And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
158: The Anthropophagi and men whose heads
159: Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear
160: Would Desdemona seriously incline:
161: But still the house-affairs would draw her thence:
162: Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
163: She'ld come again, and with a greedy ear
164: Devour up my discourse: which I observing,
165: Took once a pliant hour, and found good means
166: To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart
167: That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
168: Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
169: But not intentively: I did consent,
170: And often did beguile her of her tears,
171: When I did speak of some distressful stroke
172: That my youth suffer'd. My story being done,
173: She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
174: She swore, in faith, twas strange, 'twas passing strange,
175: 'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful:
176: She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd
177: That heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me,
178: And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
179: I should but teach him how to tell my story.
180: And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:
181: She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd,
182: And I loved her that she did pity them.
183: This only is the witchcraft I have used:
184: Here comes the lady; let her witness it.

Enter DESDEMONA, IAGO, and Attendants

DUKE OF VENICE
185: I think this tale would win my daughter too.
186: Good Brabantio,
187: Take up this mangled matter at the best:
188: Men do their broken weapons rather use
189: Than their bare hands.

BRABANTIO
190: I pray you, hear her speak:
191: If she confess that she was half the wooer,
192: Destruction on my head, if my bad blame
193: Light on the man! Come hither, gentle mistress:
194: Do you perceive in all this noble company
195: Where most you owe obedience?

DESDEMONA
196: My noble father,
197: I do perceive here a divided duty:
198: To you I am bound for life and education;
199: My life and education both do learn me
200: How to respect you; you are the lord of duty;
201: I am hitherto your daughter: but here's my husband,
202: And so much duty as my mother show'd
203: To you, preferring you before her father,
204: So much I challenge that I may profess
205: Due to the Moor my lord.

BRABANTIO
206: God be wi' you! I have done.
207: Please it your grace, on to the state-affairs:
208: I had rather to adopt a child than get it.
209: Come hither, Moor:
210: I here do give thee that with all my heart
211: Which, but thou hast already, with all my heart
212: I would keep from thee. For your sake, jewel,
213: I am glad at soul I have no other child:
214: For thy escape would teach me tyranny,
215: To hang clogs on them. I have done, my lord.

DUKE OF VENICE
216: Let me speak like yourself, and lay a sentence,
217: Which, as a grise or step, may help these lovers
218: Into your favour.
219: When remedies are past, the griefs are ended
220: By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended.
221: To mourn a mischief that is past and gone
222: Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
223: What cannot be preserved when fortune takes
224: Patience her injury a mockery makes.
225: The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief;
226: He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.

BRABANTIO
227: So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile;
228: We lose it not, so long as we can smile.
229: He bears the sentence well that nothing bears
230: But the free comfort which from thence he hears,
231: But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow
232: That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow.
233: These sentences, to sugar, or to gall,
234: Being strong on both sides, are equivocal:
235: But words are words; I never yet did hear
236: That the bruised heart was pierced through the ear.
237: I humbly beseech you, proceed to the affairs of state.

DUKE OF VENICE
238: The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes for
239: Cyprus. Othello, the fortitude of the place is best
240: known to you; and though we have there a substitute
241: of most allowed sufficiency, yet opinion, a
242: sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer
243: voice on you: you must therefore be content to
244: slubber the gloss of your new fortunes with this
245: more stubborn and boisterous expedition.

OTHELLO
246: The tyrant custom, most grave senators,
247: Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
248: My thrice-driven bed of down: I do agnise
249: A natural and prompt alacrity
250: I find in hardness, and do undertake
251: These present wars against the Ottomites.
252: Most humbly therefore bending to your state,
253: I crave fit disposition for my wife.
254: Due reference of place and exhibition,
255: With such accommodation and besort
256: As levels with her breeding.

DUKE OF VENICE
257: If you please,
258: Be't at her father's.

BRABANTIO
259: I'll not have it so.

OTHELLO
260: Nor I.

DESDEMONA
261: Nor I; I would not there reside,
262: To put my father in impatient thoughts
263: By being in his eye. Most gracious duke,
264: To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear;
265: And let me find a charter in your voice,
266: To assist my simpleness.

DUKE OF VENICE
267: What would You, Desdemona?

DESDEMONA
268: That I did love the Moor to live with him,
269: My downright violence and storm of fortunes
270: May trumpet to the world: my heart's subdued
271: Even to the very quality of my lord:
272: I saw Othello's visage in his mind,
273: And to his honour and his valiant parts
274: Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.
275: So that, dear lords, if I be left behind,
276: A moth of peace, and he go to the war,
277: The rites for which I love him are bereft me,
278: And I a heavy interim shall support
279: By his dear absence. Let me go with him.

OTHELLO
280: Let her have your voices.
281: Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not,
282: To please the palate of my appetite,
283: Nor to comply with heat--the young affects
284: In me defunct--and proper satisfaction.
285: But to be free and bounteous to her mind:
286: And heaven defend your good souls, that you think
287: I will your serious and great business scant
288: For she is with me: no, when light-wing'd toys
289: Of feather'd Cupid seal with wanton dullness
290: My speculative and officed instruments,
291: That my disports corrupt and taint my business,
292: Let housewives make a skillet of my helm,
293: And all indign and base adversities
294: Make head against my estimation!

DUKE OF VENICE
295: Be it as you shall privately determine,
296: Either for her stay or going: the affair cries haste,
297: And speed must answer it.

First Senator
298: You must away to-night.

OTHELLO
299: With all my heart.

DUKE OF VENICE
300: At nine i' the morning here we'll meet again.
301: Othello, leave some officer behind,
302: And he shall our commission bring to you;
303: With such things else of quality and respect
304: As doth import you.

OTHELLO
305: So please your grace, my ancient;
306: A man he is of honest and trust:
307: To his conveyance I assign my wife,
308: With what else needful your good grace shall think
309: To be sent after me.

DUKE OF VENICE
310: Let it be so.
311: Good night to every one.
[To BRABANTIO]
312: And, noble signior,
313: If virtue no delighted beauty lack,
314: Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.

First Senator
315: Adieu, brave Moor, use Desdemona well.

BRABANTIO
316: Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:
317: She has deceived her father, and may thee.

Exeunt DUKE OF VENICE, Senators, Officers, &c

OTHELLO
318: My life upon her faith! Honest Iago,
319: My Desdemona must I leave to thee:
320: I prithee, let thy wife attend on her:
321: And bring them after in the best advantage.
322: Come, Desdemona: I have but an hour
323: Of love, of worldly matters and direction,
324: To spend with thee: we must obey the time.

Exeunt OTHELLO and DESDEMONA

RODERIGO
325: Iago,--

IAGO
326: What say'st thou, noble heart?

RODERIGO
327: What will I do, thinkest thou?

IAGO
328: Why, go to bed, and sleep.

RODERIGO
329: I will incontinently drown myself.

IAGO
330: If thou dost, I shall never love thee after. Why,
331: thou silly gentleman!

RODERIGO
332: It is silliness to live when to live is torment; and
333: then have we a prescription to die when death is our physician.

IAGO
334: O villainous! I have looked upon the world for four
335: times seven years; and since I could distinguish
336: betwixt a benefit and an injury, I never found man
337: that knew how to love himself. Ere I would say, I
338: would drown myself for the love of a guinea-hen, I
339: would change my humanity with a baboon.

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

IAGO
342: Virtue! a fig! 'tis in ourselves that we are thus
343: or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which
344: our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant
345: nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up
346: thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs, or
347: distract it with many, either to have it sterile
348: with idleness, or manured with industry, why, the
349: power and corrigible authority of this lies in our
350: wills. If the balance of our lives had not one
351: scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the
352: blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us
353: to most preposterous conclusions: but we have
354: reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal
355: stings, our unbitted lusts, whereof I take this that
356: you call love to be a sect or scion.

RODERIGO
357: It cannot be.

IAGO
358: It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of
359: the will. Come, be a man. Drown thyself! drown
360: cats and blind puppies. I have professed me thy
361: friend and I confess me knit to thy deserving with
362: cables of perdurable toughness; I could never
363: better stead thee than now. Put money in thy
364: purse; follow thou the wars; defeat thy favour with
365: an usurped beard; I say, put money in thy purse. It
366: cannot be that Desdemona shou