away their brains! that we should with joy, pleasance,
revel and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!
IAGO Why, but you are now well enough: how came
you thus recovered?
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CASSIO It hath pleased the devil drunkenness to give
place to the devil wrath; one unperfectness shows me
another, to make me frankly despise myself.
IAGO Come, you are too severe a moraler. As the time,
the place and the condition of this country stands, I
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could heartily wish this had not befallen; but since it is
as it is, mend it for your own good.
CASSIO I will ask him for my place again, he shall tell me
I am a drunkard: had I as many mouths as Hydra, such
an answer would stop them all. To be now a sensible
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man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast! O
strange! – Every inordinate cup is unblest, and the
ingredience is a devil.
IAGO Come, come, good wine is a good familiar crea-
ture, if it be well used: exclaim no more against it.
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And, good lieutenant, I think you think I love you.
CASSIO I have well approved it, sir. I drunk?
IAGO You, or any man living, may be drunk at some
time, man. I’ll tell you what you shall do. Our
general’s wife is now the general. I may say so in this
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respect, for that he hath devoted and given up himself
to the contemplation, mark and denotement of her
parts and graces. Confess yourself freely to her,
importune her help to put you in your place again.
She is of so free, so kind, so apt, so blest a disposition
310
that she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more
than she is requested. This broken joint between you
and her husband entreat her to splinter – and my
fortunes against any lay worth naming, this crack of
your love shall grow stronger than it was before.
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CASSIO You advise me well.
IAGO I protest, in the sincerity of love and honest
kindness.
CASSIO I think it freely, and betimes in the morning I will
beseech the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me. I
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am desperate of my fortunes if they check me here.
IAGO You are in the right. Good-night, lieutenant, I
must to the watch.
CASSIO Good-night, honest Iago. Exit.
IAGO And what’s he then that says I play the villain?
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When this advice is free I give and honest,
Probal to thinking and indeed the course
To win the Moor again? For ’tis most easy
Th’inclining Desdemona to subdue
In any honest suit. She’s framed as fruitful
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As the free elements: and then for her
To win the Moor, were’t to renounce his baptism,
All seals and symbols of redeemed sin,
His soul is so enfettered to her love
That she may make, unmake, do what she list,
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Even as her appetite shall play the god
With his weak function. How am I then a villain
To counsel Cassio to this parallel course
Directly to his good? Divinity of hell!
When devils will the blackest sins put on
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They do suggest at first with heavenly shows
As I do now. For whiles this honest fool
Plies Desdemona to repair his fortune,
And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor,
I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear:
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That she repeals him for her body’s lust.
And by how much she strives to do him good
She shall undo her credit with the Moor –
So will I turn her virtue into pitch
And out of her own goodness make the net
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That shall enmesh them all.
Enter RODERIGO.
How now, Roderigo?
RODERIGO I do follow here in the chase not like a hound
that hunts, but one that fills up the cry. My money is
almost spent, I have been tonight exceedingly well
cudgelled, and I think the issue will be I shall have so
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much experience for my pains: and so, with no money
at all, and a little more wit, return again to Venice.
IAGO How poor are they that have not patience!
What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
Thou know’st we work by wit and not by witchcraft,
360
And wit depends on dilatory time.
Does’t not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee
And thou by that small hurt hast cashiered Cassio.
Though other things grow fair against the sun
Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe;
365
Content thyself a while. By the mass, ’tis morning:
Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.
Retire thee, go where thou art billeted,
Away, I say, thou shalt know more hereafter:
Nay, get thee gone. Exit Roderigo.
Two things are to be done:
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My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress,
I’ll set her on.
Myself the while to draw the Moor apart
And bring him jump when he may Cassio find
Soliciting his wife: ay, that’s the way!
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Dull not device by coldness and delay! Exit.
3.1 Enter CASSIO and some Musicians.
CASSIO Masters, play here, I will content your pains;
Something that’s brief, and bid ‘Good morrow, general.’
They play. Enter Clown.
CLOWN Why, masters, have your instruments been in
Naples, that they speak i’th’ nose thus?
1 MUSICIAN How, sir? how?
5
CLOWN Are these, I pray you, wind instruments?
1 MUSICIAN Ay marry are they, sir.
CLOWN O, thereby hangs a tail.
1 MUSICIAN Whereby hangs a tail, sir?
CLOWN Marry, sir, by many a wind instrument that I
10
know. But, masters, here’s money for you, and the
general so likes your music that he desires you, for
love’s sake, to make no more noise with it.
1 MUSICIAN Well, sir, we will not.
CLOWN If you have any music that may not be heard,
15
to’t again. But, as they say, to hear music the general
does not greatly care.
1 MUSICIAN We have none such, sir.
CLOWN Then put up your pipes in your bag, for I’ll
away. Go, vanish into air, away! Exeunt Musicians.
20
CASSIO Dost thou hear, mine honest friend?
CLOWN No, I hear not your honest friend, I hear you.
CASSIO Prithee keep up thy quillets; there’s a poor piece
of gold for thee – if the gentlewoman that attends the
general’s wife be stirring, tell her there’s one Cassio
25
entreats her a little favour of speech. Wilt thou do this?
CLOWN She is stirring, sir; if she will stir hither, I shall
seem to notify unto her.
Enter IAGO.
CASSIO Do, good my friend. Exit Clown.
In happy time, Iago.
IAGO You have not been a-bed then?
30
&n
bsp; CASSIO Why no, the day had broke before we parted.
I have made bold, Iago, to send in
To your wife: my suit to her is that she will
To virtuous Desdemona procure me
Some access.
IAGO I’ll send her to you presently,
35
And I’ll devise a mean to draw the Moor
Out of the way, that your converse and business
May be more free.
CASSIO I humbly thank you for’t. Exit Iago.
I never knew
A Florentine more kind and honest.
40
Enter EMILIA.
EMILIA Good morrow, good lieutenant. I am sorry
For your displeasure, but all will sure be well.
The general and his wife are talking of it,
And she speaks for you stoutly; the Moor replies
That he you hurt is of great fame in Cyprus
45
And great affinity,
And that in wholesome wisdom he might not but
Refuse you; but he protests he loves you
And needs no other suitor but his likings
To take the safest occasion by the front
50
To bring you in again.
CASSIO Yet I beseech you,
If you think fit, or that it may be done,
Give me advantage of some brief discourse
With Desdemon alone.
EMILIA Pray you come in,
I will bestow you where you shall have time
55
To speak your bosom freely.
CASSIO I am much bound to you.
Exeunt.
3.2 Enter OTHELLO, IAGO and Gentlemen.
OTHELLO These letters give, Iago, to the pilot,
And by him do my duties to the Senate;
That done, I will be walking on the works,
Repair there to me.
IAGO Well, my good lord, I’ll do’t.
OTHELLO This fortification, gentlemen, shall we see’t?
5
1 GENTLEMAN We’ll wait upon your lordship. Exeunt.
3.3 Enter DESDEMONA, CASSIO and Emilia.
DESDEMONA Be thou assured, good Cassio, I will do
All my abilities in thy behalf.
EMILIA
Good madam, do, I warrant it grieves my husband
As if the cause were his.
DESDEMONA
O, that’s an honest fellow. Do not doubt, Cassio,
5
But I will have my lord and you again
As friendly as you were.
CASSIO Bounteous madam,
Whatever shall become of Michael Cassio,
He’s never anything but your true servant.
DESDEMONA
I know’t, I thank you. You do love my lord,
10
You have known him long, and be you well assured
He shall in strangeness stand no farther off
Than in a politic distance.
CASSIO Ay, but, lady,
That policy may either last so long,
Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet,
15
Or breed itself so out of circumstance,
That, I being absent and my place supplied,
My general will forget my love and service.
DESDEMONA Do not doubt that: before Emilia here
I give thee warrant of thy place. Assure thee,
20
If I do vow a friendship I’ll perform it
To the last article. My lord shall never rest,
I’ll watch him tame and talk him out of patience,
His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift,
I’ll intermingle everything he does
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With Cassio’s suit: therefore be merry, Cassio,
For thy solicitor shall rather die
Than give thy cause away.
Enter OTHELLO and IAGO.
EMILIA Madam, here comes my lord.
CASSIO Madam, I’ll take my leave.
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DESDEMONA Why, stay and hear me speak.
CASSIO Madam, not now; I am very ill at ease,
Unfit for mine own purposes.
DESDEMONA Well, do your discretion. Exit Cassio.
IAGO Ha, I like not that.
OTHELLO What dost thou say?
35
IAGO Nothing, my lord; or if – I know not what.
OTHELLO Was not that Cassio parted from my wife?
IAGO Cassio, my lord? no, sure, I cannot think it
That he would steal away so guilty-like
Seeing you coming.
OTHELLO I do believe ’twas he.
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DESDEMONA How now, my lord?
I have been talking with a suitor here,
A man that languishes in your displeasure.
OTHELLO Who is’t you mean?
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 419