OTHELLO

Act 2 Scene 3

(Enter Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, and attendants)
l1l	Othello	 Good Michael, look you to the guard tonight.
l2l		Let’s teach ourselves that honourable stop
l3l		Not to outsport discretion.
l4l	Cassio	Iago hath direction what to do,
l5l		But notwithstanding, with my personal eye
l6l		Will I look to ’t.
	Othello	Iago is most honest.
l7l		Michael, good night. Tomorrow with your earliest
l8l		Let me have speech with you.
		(To Desdemona)
		 Come, my dear love,
l9l		The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue.
l10l		That profit’s yet to come ’tween me and you.
l11l		(To Cassio)
		 Good night.
		(Exeunt Othello, Desdemona, and attendants)
l12l		(Enter Iago)
		Cassio	 Welcome, Iago. We must to the watch.
l13l	Iago	 Not this hour, lieutenant# ’tis not yet ten o’ th’ clock.
l14l		Our general cast us thus early for the love of his
l15l		Desdemona, who let us not therefore blame. He hath
l16l		not yet made wanton the night with her, and she is
l17l		sport for Jove.
l18l	Cassio	She’s a most exquisite lady.
l19l	Iago	And I’ll warrant her full of game.
l20l	Cassio	Indeed, she’s a most fresh and delicate creature.
l21l	Iago	What an eye she has! Methinks it sounds a parley
l22l		to provocation.
l23l	Cassio	An inviting eye, and yet, methinks, right modest.
l24l	Iago	And when she speaks, is it not an alarum to love?
l25l	Cassio	She is indeed perfection.
l26l	Iago	Well, happiness to their sheets. Come, lieutenant. I
l27l		have a stoup of wine, and here without are a brace of
l28l		Cyprus gallants that would fain have a measure to the
l29l		health of black Othello.
l30l	Cassio	Not tonight, good Iago. I have very poor and
l31l		unhappy brains for drinking. I could well wish courtesy
l32l		would invent some other custom of entertainment.
l33l	Iago	O, they are our friends! But one cup. I’ll drink for
l34l		you.
l35l	Cassio	I ha’ drunk but one cup tonight, and that was
l36l		craftily qualified, too, and behold what innovation it
l37l		makes here! I am infortunate in the infirmity, and dare
l38l		not task my weakness with any more.
l39l	Iago	What, man, ’tis a night of revels, the gallants desire
l40l		it!
l41l	Cassio	Where are they?
l42l	Iago	 Here at the door. I pray you call them in.
l43l	Cassio	I’ll do ’t, but it dislikes me.
		(Exit)
l44l	Iago	 If I can fasten but one cup upon him,
l45l		With that which he hath drunk tonight already
l46l		He’ll be as full of quarrel and offence
l47l		As my young mistress’ dog. Now my sick fool Roderigo,
l48l		Whom love hath turned almost the wrong side out,
l49l		To Desdemona hath tonight caroused
l50l		Potations pottle-deep, and he’s to watch.
l51l		Three else of Cyprus—noble swelling spirits
l52l		That hold their honours in a wary distance,
l53l		The very elements of this warlike isle—
l54l		Have I tonight flustered with flowing cups,
l55l		And they watch too. Now ’mongst this flock of drunkards
l56l		Am I to put our Cassio in some action
l57l		That may offend the isle.
		(Enter Montano, Cassio, Gentlemen, and servants with wine)
		 But here they come.
l58l		If consequence do but approve my dream,
l59l		My boat sails freely both with wind and stream.
l60l	Cassio	Fore God, they have given me a rouse already.
l61l	Montano	Good faith, a little one# not past a pint,
l62l		As I am a soldier.
	Iago	Some wine, ho!
l63l		(Sings)
		> And let me the cannikin clink, clink,
l64l		And let me the cannikin clink.
l65l		A soldier’s a man,
l66l		O, man’s life’s but a span,
l67l		Why then, let a soldier drink.
l68l		Some wine, boys!
l69l	Cassio	 Fore God, an excellent song.
l70l	Iago	I learned it in England, where indeed they are most
l71l		potent in potting. Your Dane, your German, and your
l72l		swag-bellied Hollander—drink, ho!—are nothing to
l73l		your English.
l74l	Cassio	Is your Englishman so exquisite in his drinking?
l75l	Iago	Why, he drinks you with facility your Dane dead
l76l		drunk. He sweats not to overthrow your Almain. He
l77l		gives your Hollander a vomit ere the next pottle can
l78l		be filled.
l79l	Cassio	To the health of our general!
l80l	Montano	I am for it, lieutenant, and I’ll do you justice.
l81l	Iago	O sweet England!
l82l		(Sings)
		> King Stephen was and a worthy peer,
l83l		His breeches cost him but a crown#
l84l		He held them sixpence all too dear,
l85l		With that he called the tailor lown.
l86l		He was a wight of high renown,
l87l		And thou art but of low degree.
l88l		’Tis pride that pulls the country down,
l89l		Then take thy auld cloak about thee.
l90l		Some wine, ho!
l91l	Cassio	 Fore God, this is a more exquisite song than the
l92l		other.
l93l	Iago	Will you hear ’t again?
l94l	Cassio	No, for I hold him to be unworthy of his place
l95l		that does those things. Well, God’s above all, and there
l96l		be souls must be saved, and there be souls must not
l97l		be saved.
l98l	Iago	It’s true, good lieutenant.
l99l	Cassio	For mine own part—no offence to the general, nor
l100l		any man of quality—I hope to be saved.
l101l	Iago	And so do I too, lieutenant.
l102l	Cassio	Ay, but, by your leave, not before me. The
l103l		lieutenant is to be saved before the ensign. Let’s ha’
l104l		no more of this. Let’s to our affairs. God forgive us our
l105l		sins. Gentlemen, let’s look to our business. Do not
l106l		think, gentlemen, I am drunk. This is my ensign, this
l107l		is my right hand, and this is my left. I am not drunk
l108l		now. I can stand well enough, and I speak well enough.
l109l	Gentlemen	Excellent well.
l110l	Cassio	Why, very well then. You must not think then
l111l		that I am drunk.
		(Exit)
l112l	Montano	 To th’ platform, masters. Come, let’s set the watch.
		(Exeunt Gentlemen)
l113l	Iago	 You see this fellow that is gone before—
l114l		He’s a soldier fit to stand by Caesar
l115l		And give direction# and do but see his vice.
l116l		’Tis to his virtue a just equinox,
l117l		The one as long as th’ other. ’Tis pity of him.
l118l		I fear the trust Othello puts him in,
l119l		On some odd time of his infirmity,
l120l		Will shake this island.
	Montano	But is he often thus?
l121l	Iago	’Tis evermore his prologue to his sleep.
l122l		He’ll watch the horologe a double set
l123l		If drink rock not his cradle.
	Montano	It were well
l124l		The general were put in mind of it.
l125l		Perhaps he sees it not, or his good nature
l126l		Prizes the virtue that appears in Cassio,
l127l		And looks not on his evils. Is not this true?
		(Enter Roderigo)
l128l	Iago	(aside)
		 How now, Roderigo!
l129l		I pray you after the lieutenant, go.
		(Exit Roderigo)
l130l	Montano	 And ’tis great pity that the noble Moor
l131l		Should hazard such a place as his own second
l132l		With one of an engraffed infirmity.
l133l		It were an honest action to say so
l134l		To the Moor.
	Iago	Not I, for this fair island!
l135l		I do love Cassio well, and would do much
l136l		To cure him of this evil.
l137l	Voices	(within)
		 Help, help!
l138l	Iago	But hark, what noise?
		(Enter Cassio, driving in Roderigo)
l139l	Cassio	 ’Swounds, you rogue, you rascal!
l140l	Montano	What’s the matter, lieutenant?
l141l	Cassio	A knave teach me my duty?—I’ll beat the knave
l142l		into a twiggen bottle.
l143l	Roderigo	Beat me?
l144l	Cassio	Dost thou prate, rogue?
l145l	Montano	Nay, good lieutenant, I pray you, sir, hold your
l146l		hand.
l147l	Cassio	Let me go, sir, or I’ll knock you o’er the mazard.
l148l	Montano	Come, come, you’re drunk.
l149l	Cassio	Drunk?
		(They fight)
l150l	Iago	(to Roderigo)
		 Away, I say. Go out and cry a mutiny.
		(Exit Roderigo)
l151l		Nay, good lieutenant. God’s will, gentlemen!
l152l		Help, ho! Lieutenant! Sir! Montano! Sir!
l153l		Help, masters. Here’s a goodly watch indeed.
		(A bell rung)
l154l		Who’s that which rings the bell? Diablo, ho!
l155l		The town will rise. God’s will, lieutenant, hold.
l156l		You’ll be ashamed for ever.
		(Enter Othello and attendants, with weapons)
		
	Othello	 What is the matter here?
l157l	Montano	’Swounds, I bleed still. I am hurt to th’ death.
		( Attacking Cassio)
		 He dies.
l158l	Othello	Hold, for your lives!
l159l	Iago	Hold, ho, lieutenant, sir, Montano, gentlemen!
l160l		Have you forgot all place of sense and duty?
l161l		Hold, the general speaks to you. Hold, hold, for shame.
l162l	Othello	Why, how now, ho? From whence ariseth this?
l163l		Are we turned Turks, and to ourselves do that
l164l		Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites?
l165l		For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl.
l166l		He that stirs next to carve for his own rage
l167l		Holds his soul light. He dies upon his motion.
l168l		Silence that dreadful bell—it frights the isle
l169l		From her propriety.
		(Bell stops)
		 What is the matter, masters?
l170l		Honest Iago, that looks dead with grieving,
l171l		Speak. Who began this? On thy love I charge thee.
l172l	Iago	I do not know. Friends all but now, even now,
l173l		In quarter and in terms like bride and groom
l174l		Devesting them for bed# and then but now—
l175l		As if some planet had unwitted men—
l176l		Swords out, and tilting one at others’ breasts
l177l		In opposition bloody. I cannot speak
l178l		Any beginning to this peevish odds,
l179l		And would in action glorious I had lost
l180l		Those legs that brought me to a part of it.
l181l	Othello	How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot?
l182l	Cassio	I pray you pardon me. I cannot speak.
l183l	Othello	Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil.
l184l		The gravity and stillness of your youth
l185l		The world hath noted, and your name is great
l186l		In mouths of wisest censure. What’s the matter,
l187l		That you unlace your reputation thus,
l188l		And spend your rich opinion for the name
l189l		Of a night-brawler? Give me answer to it.
l190l	Montano	Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger.
l191l		Your officer Iago can inform you,
l192l		While I spare speech—which something now offends me—
l193l		Of all that I do know# nor know I aught
l194l		By me that’s said or done amiss this night,
l195l		Unless self-charity be sometimes a vice,
l196l		And to defend ourselves it be a sin
l197l		When violence assails us.
	Othello	Now, by heaven,
l198l		My blood begins my safer guides to rule,
l199l		And passion, having my best judgement collied,
l200l		Essays to lead the way. ’Swounds, if I stir,
l201l		Or do but lift this arm, the best of you
l202l		Shall sink in my rebuke. Give me to know
l203l		How this foul rout began, who set it on,
l204l		And he that is approved in this offence,
l205l		Though he had twinned with me, both at a birth,
l206l		Shall lose me. What, in a town of war
l207l		Yet wild, the people’s hearts brimful of fear,
l208l		To manage private and domestic quarrel
l209l		In night, and on the court and guard of safety!
l210l		’Tis monstrous. Iago, who began ’t?
l211l	Montano	(to Iago)
		 If partially affined or leagued in office
l212l		Thou dost deliver more or less than truth,
l213l		Thou art no soldier.
	Iago	Touch me not so near.
l214l		I had rather ha’ this tongue cut from my mouth
l215l		Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio.
l216l		Yet I persuade myself to speak the truth
l217l		Shall nothing wrong him. This it is, general.
l218l		Montano and myself being in speech,
l219l		There comes a fellow crying out for help,
l220l		And Cassio following him with determined sword
l221l		To execute upon him. Sir, this gentleman
l222l		Steps in to Cassio, and entreats his pause.
l223l		Myself the crying fellow did pursue,
l224l		Lest by his clamour, as it so fell out,
l225l		The town might fall in fright. He, swift of foot,
l226l		Outran my purpose, and I returned, the rather
l227l		For that I heard the clink and fall of swords
l228l		And Cassio high in oath, which till tonight
l229l		I ne’er might say before. When I came back—
l230l		For this was brief—I found them close together
l231l		At blow and thrust, even as again they were
l232l		When you yourself did part them.
l233l		More of this matter cannot I report,
l234l		But men are men. The best sometimes forget.
l235l		Though Cassio did some little wrong to him,
l236l		As men in rage strike those that wish them best,
l237l		Yet surely Cassio, I believe, received
l238l		From him that fled some strange indignity
l239l		Which patience could not pass.
	Othello	I know, Iago,
l240l		Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter,
l241l		Making it light to Cassio. Cassio, I love thee,
l242l		But never more be officer of mine.
		(Enter Desdemona, attended)
l243l		Look if my gentle love be not raised up.
l244l		I’ll make thee an example.
l245l	Desdemona	What is the matter, dear?
l246l	Othello	All’s well now, sweeting.
l247l		Come away to bed.
		(To Montano)
		 Sir, for your hurts
l248l		Myself will be your surgeon.
		(To attendants)
		 Lead him off.
		(Exeunt attendants with Montano)
l249l		Iago, look with care about the town,
l250l		And silence those whom this vile brawl distracted.
l251l		Come, Desdemona. ’Tis the soldier’s life
l252l		To have their balmy slumbers waked with strife.
		(Exeunt all but Iago and Cassio)
l253l	Iago	 What, are you hurt, lieutenant?
l254l	Cassio	Ay, past all surgery.
l255l	Iago	Marry, God forbid.
l256l	Cassio	 Reputation, reputation, reputation—O, I ha’ lost
l257l		my reputation, I ha’ lost the immortal part of myself,
l258l		and what remains is bestial! My reputation, Iago, my
l259l		reputation.
l260l	Iago	As I am an honest man, I thought you had received
l261l		some bodily wound. There is more sense in that than
l262l		in reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false
l263l		imposition, oft got without merit and lost without
l264l		deserving. You have lost no reputation at all unless
l265l		you repute yourself such a loser. What, man, there are
l266l		more ways to recover the general again. You are but
l267l		now cast in his mood—a punishment more in policy
l268l		than in malice, even so as one would beat his offenceless
l269l		dog to affright an imperious lion. Sue to him again,
l270l		and he’s yours.
l271l	Cassio	I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so
l272l		good a commander with so slight, so drunken, and so
l273l		indiscreet an officer. Drunk, and speak parrot, and
l274l		squabble? Swagger, swear, and discourse fustian with
l275l		one’s own shadow? O thou invisible spirit of wine, if
l276l		thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee
l277l		devil.
l278l	Iago	What was he that you followed with your sword?
l279l		What had he done to you?
l280l	Cassio	I know not.
l281l	Iago	Is ’t possible?
l282l	Cassio	I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly#
l283l		a quarrel, but nothing wherefore. O God, that
l284l		men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal
l285l		away their brains! That we should with joy, pleasance,
l286l		revel, and applause transform ourselves into beasts!
l287l	Iago	Why, but you are now well enough. How came you
l288l		thus recovered?
l289l	Cassio	It hath pleased the devil drunkenness to give place
l290l		to the devil wrath. One unperfectness shows me
l291l		another, to make me frankly despise myself.
l292l	Iago	Come, you are too severe a moraller. As the time,
l293l		the place, and the condition of this country stands, I
l294l		could heartily wish this had not befallen# but since it
l295l		is as it is, mend it for your own good.
l296l	Cassio	I will ask him for my place again. He shall tell me
l297l		I am a drunkard. Had I as many mouths as Hydra,
l298l		such an answer would stop them all. To be now a
l299l		sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast!
l300l		O, strange! Every inordinate cup is unblessed, and the
l301l		ingredient is a devil.
l302l	Iago	Come, come. Good wine is a good familiar creature,
l303l		if it be well used. Exclaim no more against it. And,
l304l		good lieutenant, I think you think I love you.
l305l	Cassio	I have well approved it, sir—I drunk?
l306l	Iago	You or any man living may be drunk at a time,
l307l		man. I’ll tell you what you shall do. Our general’s wife
l308l		is now the general. I may say so in this respect, for
l309l		that he hath devoted and given up himself to the
l310l		contemplation, mark, and denotement of her parts and
l311l		graces. Confess yourself freely to her. Importune her
l312l		help to put you in your place again. She is of so free,
l313l		so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition, she holds it a
l314l		vice in her goodness not to do more than she is
l315l		requested. This broken joint between you and her
l316l		husband entreat her to splinter, and, my fortunes
l317l		against any lay worth naming, this crack of your love
l318l		shall grow stronger than it was before.
l319l	Cassio	You advise me well.
l320l	Iago	I protest, in the sincerity of love and honest kindness.
l321l	Cassio	I think it freely, and betimes in the morning I will
l322l		beseech the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me.
l323l		I am desperate of my fortunes if they check me here.
l324l	Iago	You are in the right. Good night, lieutenant. I must
l325l		to the watch.
l326l	Cassio	Good night, honest Iago.
		(Exit)
l327l	Iago	 And what’s he then that says I play the villain,
l328l		When this advice is free I give, and honest,
l329l		Probal to thinking, and indeed the course
l330l		To win the Moor again? For ’tis most easy
l331l		Th’ inclining Desdemona to subdue
l332l		In any honest suit. She’s framed as fruitful
l333l		As the free elements# and then for her
l334l		To win the Moor, were ’t to renounce his baptism,
l335l		All seals and symbols of redeemèd sin,
l336l		His soul is so enfettered to her love
l337l		That she may make, unmake, do what she list,
l338l		Even as her appetite shall play the god
l339l		With his weak function. How am I then a villain,
l340l		To counsel Cassio to this parallel course
l341l		Directly to his good? Divinity of hell:
l342l		When devils will the blackest sins put on,
l343l		They do suggest at first with heavenly shows,
l344l		As I do now# for whiles this honest fool
l345l		Plies Desdemona to repair his fortune,
l346l		And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor,
l347l		I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear:
l348l		That she repeals him for her body’s lust,
l349l		And by how much she strives to do him good
l350l		She shall undo her credit with the Moor.
l351l		So will I turn her virtue into pitch,
l352l		And out of her own goodness make the net
l353l		That shall enmesh them all.
		(Enter Roderigo)
		 How now, Roderigo?
l354l	Roderigo	 I do follow here in the chase, not like a hound
l355l		that hunts, but one that fills up the cry. My money is
l356l		almost spent, I ha’ been tonight exceedingly well
l357l		cudgelled, and I think the issue will be I shall have so
l358l		much experience for my pains: and so, with no money
l359l		at all and a little more wit, return again to Venice.
l360l	Iago	 How poor are they that ha’ not patience!
l361l		What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
l362l		Thou know’st we work by wit and not by witchcraft,
l363l		And wit depends on dilatory time.
l364l		Does ’t not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee,
l365l		And thou by that small hurt hast cashiered Cassio.
l366l		Though other things grow fair against the sun,
l367l		Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe.
l368l		Content thyself a while. By the mass, ’tis morning.
l369l		Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.
l370l		Retire thee. Go where thou art billeted.
l371l		Away, I say. Thou shalt know more hereafter.
l372l		Nay, get thee gone.
		(Exit Roderigo)
		 Two things are to be done.
l373l		My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress.
l374l		I’ll set her on.
l375l		Myself a while to draw the Moor apart,
l376l		And bring him jump when he may Cassio find
l377l		Soliciting his wife. Ay, that’s the way.
l378l		Dull not device by coldness and delay.
		(Exit)