The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare/Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso/shakes/text/35/01_01

Text File | 1991-04-10 | 9KB | 249 lines

Venice. A Street.
 Enter RODERIGO and IAGO.

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

Iago    Sblood, but you will not hear me.
    If ever I did dream of such a matter,
    Abhor me.

Roderigo    Thou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy hate.

Iago    Despise me if I do not. Three great ones of the city,
    In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
    Off-capped to him; and, by the faith of man,
    I know my price, I am worth no worse a place.
    But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
    Evades them with a bombast circumstance
    Horribly stuffed with epithets of war;
    And in conclusion,
    Non-suits my mediators. For "Certes," says he
    "I have already chose my officer".
    And what was he?
    Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
    One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
    A fellow almost damned in a fair wife,
    That never set a squadron in the field,
    Nor the division of a battle knows
    More than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric,
    Wherein the togd consuls can propose
    As masterly as he. Mere prattle without practice
    Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had th' election,
    And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof
    At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds
    Christian and heathen, must be belee'd and calmed
    By debitor and creditor; this counter-caster,
    He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,
    And I, God bless the mark, his Moorship's ensign.

Roderigo    By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman.

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

Roderigo                        I would not follow him then.

Iago    O sir, content you;
    I follow him to serve my turn upon him.
    We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
    Cannot be truly followed. You shall mark
    Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave
    That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
    Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
    For naught but provender; and when he's old, cashiered.
    Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are
    Who, trimmed in forms and visages of duty,
    Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves,
    And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
    Do well thrive by them; and, when they have lined their
    coats,
    Do themselves homage. These fellows have some soul;
    And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,
    It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
    Were I the Moor I would not be Iago.
    In following him I follow but myself.
    Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
    But seeming so for my peculiar end;
    For when my outward action doth demonstrate
    The native act and figure of my heart
    In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
    But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
    For daws to peck at. I am not what I am.

Roderigo    What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe,
    If he can carry't thus!

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

Roderigo    Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud.

Iago    Do; with like timorous accent and dire yell
    As when, by night and negligence, the fire
    Is spied in populous cities.

Roderigo    What ho, Brabantio! Signor Brabantio, ho!

Iago    Awake! What ho, Brabantio! Thieves! Thieves!
    Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags!
    Thieves, thieves!

                    Enter BRABANTIO above at a window.

Brabantio    What is the reason of this terrible summons?
    What is the matter there?

Roderigo    Signor, is all your family within?

Iago    Are your doors locked?

Brabantio                            Why, wherefore ask you this?

Iago    Zounds, sir, you're robbed; for shame put on your gown;
    Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul.
    Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
    Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise!
    Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
    Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you.
    Arise, I say.

Brabantio                What, have you lost your wits?

Roderigo    Most reverend signor, do you know my voice?

Brabantio    Not I. What are you?

Roderigo    My name is Roderigo.

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

Roderigo    Sir, sir, sir!

Brabantio                    But thou must needs be sure
    My spirit and my place have in them power
    To make this bitter to thee.

Roderigo                                    Patience, good sir.

Brabantio    What tell'st thou me of robbing? This is Venice;
    My house is not a grange.

Roderigo                                Most grave Brabantio,
    In simple and pure soul I come to you.

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

Brabantio    What profane wretch art thou?

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

Brabantio    Thou art a villain.

Iago                            You are a senator.

Brabantio    This shalt thou answer; I know thee, Roderigo

Roderigo    Sir, I will answer anything. But I beseech you,
    If't be your pleasure and most wise consent-
    As partly I find it is - that your fair daughter,
    At this odd-even and dull watch o'the night,
    Transported with no worse nor better guard
    But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,
    To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor-
    If this be known to you, and your allowance,
    We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;
    But if you know not this, my manners tell me
    We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe
    That from the sense of all civility
    I thus would play and trifle with your reverence.
    Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,
    I say again, hath made a gross revolt;
    Trying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes
    In an extravagant and wheeling stranger
    Of here and everywhere. Straight satisfy yourself.
    If she be in her chamber or your house,
    Let loose on me the justice of the state
    For thus deluding you.

Brabantio                            Strike on the tinder, ho!
    Give me a taper; call up my all people.
    This accident is not unlike my dream;
    Belief of it oppresses me already.
    Light, I say! Light!
                                                [Exit.
Iago                            Farewell, for I must leave you.
    It seems not meet nor wholesome to my place
    To be produced, as if I stay I shall,
    Against the Moor; for I do know the state,
    However this may gall him with some check,
    Cannot with safety cast him; for he's embarked
    With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars,
    Which even now stand in act, that, for their souls,
    Another of his fathom they have none
    To lead their business; in which regard,
    Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains,
    Yet, for necessity of present life,
    I must show out a flag and sign of love,
    Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely find him,
    Lead to the Sagittary the raisd search,
    And there will I be with him. So, farewell.
                                                [Exit.

   Enter below, BRABANTIO in his nightgown, and SERVANTS with torches.

Brabantio    It is too true an evil. Gone she is;
    And what's to come of my despisd time
    Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo,
    Where didst thou see her? O unhappy girl!
    With the Moor, sayst thou? Who would be a father?
    How didst thou know 'twas she? O, she deceives me
    Past thought! What said she to you? Get more tapers.
    Raise all my kindred. Are they married, think you?

Roderigo    Truly I think they are.

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

Roderigo                            Yes, sir, I have indeed.

Brabantio    Call up my brother. O that you had had her!
    - Some one way, some another. - Do you know
    Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?

Roderigo    I think I can discover him, if you please
    To get good guard and go along with me.

Brabantio    Pray you lead on. At every house I'll call;
    I may command at most. Get weapons, ho!
    And raise some special officers of night.
    On, good Roderigo; I'll deserve your pains.
                                                [Exeunt.