He was a wight of high renown,
And thou art but of low degree:
'Tis pride that pulls the country down,
Then take thine auld cloak about thee.
Some wine, ho!

Cas. Why, this is a more exquisite song than the

other.

lago. Will you hear it again?

Cas. No; for I hold him to be unworthy of his place, that does those things.-Well,-Heaven's above all; and there be souls that must be saved, and there be souls must not be saved.

Iago. It's true, good lieutenant.

Cas. For mine own part,-no offence to the general, or any man of quality,-I hope to be saved. fago. And so do I too, lieutenant.

Cas. Ay, but, by your leave, not before me; the lieutenant is to be saved before the ancient. Let's have no more of this; let's to our affairs.-Forgive us our sins!-Gentlemen, let's look to our business. Do not think, gentlemen, I am drunk; this is my ancient ;-this is my right hand, and this is my left hand-I am not drunk now; I can stand well enough, and speak well enough.

All. Excellent well.

Cas. Why, very well, then: you must not think then that I am drunk.

[Exit.

I pray you, sir, hold your hand.
Cas.

Or I'll knock you o'er the mazzard.
Mon.

Let me go, sir,

Come, come, you're drunk.
Cas. Drunk!
[They fight.
lago. Away, I say! go out, and cry-a mutiny!
[Aside to Rod. who goes out.
Nay, good lieutenant,-alas, gentlemen,-
Help, ho!-Lieutenant,-sir,-Montano,-sir ;-
Help, masters!-Here's a goodly watch, indeed!
Bell rings.
Who's that that rings the bell?-Diablo, ho!
The town will rise; God's will, lieutenant! hold;
You will be sham'd for ever.

Enter Othello, and Attendants.

Oth.
What is the matter here?
Mon. I bleed still, I am hurt to the death;-he
dies,

Oth. Hold, for your lives.

Iago. Hold, hold, lieutenant, sir, Montano,-
gentlemen,-

Have you forgot all sense of place and duty?
Hold, hold! the general speaks to you; hold, for
shame!

Oth. Why, how now, ho! from whence ariseth
this?

Mon. To the platform, masters; come, let's set Are we turn'd Turks; and to ourselves do that, Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites?

the watch.

Iago. You see this fellow, that is gone before;-For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl: He is a soldier, fit to stand by Cæsar

And give direction: and do but see his vice;
'Tis to his virtue a just equinox,

The one as long as the other: 'tis pity of him.
I fear, the trust Othello puts him in,
On some odd time of his infirmity,
Will shake this island.

Mon.

But is he often thus ?

Iago. 'Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep:
He'll watch the horologe a double set,'

If drink rock not his cradle.
Mon.

It were well,

The general were put in mind of it.
Perhaps, he sees it not; or his good nature
Prizes the virtue that appears in Cassio,
And looks not on his evils; Is not this true?

He that stirs next to carve for his own rage,
Holds his soul light; he dies upon his motion.-
Silence that dreadful bell, it frights the isle
From her propriety.-What is the matter, mas-

ters?

Honest lago, that look'st dead with grieving,
Speak, who began this? on thy love, I charge thee.
lago. I do not know ;-friends all but now, even

now,

In quarter, and in terins like bride and groom
Devesting them for bed: and then, but now
(As if some planet had unwitted men,)
Swords out, and tilting one at other's breast,
In opposition bloody. I cannot speak
Any beginning to this peevish odds;
And 'would in action glorious I had lost
These legs, that brought me to a part of it!

Oth. How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot?*
Cas. I pray you, pardon me, I cannot speak.
Oth. Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil;
The gravity and stillness of your youth
The world hath noted, and your name is great
In mouths of wisest censure; What's the matter,

That you unlace your reputatiou thus,
And spend your rich opinion, for the name
Of a night-brawler? give me answer to it.
Mon. Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger;
Your officer, Iago, can inform you-
While I spare speech, which something now offends

Shall sink in my rebuke. Give me to know
How this foul rout began, who set it on;
And he that is approv'd' in this offence,
Though he had twinn'd with me, both at a birth,
Shall lose me.-What! in a town of war,
Yet wild, the people's hearts brinful of fear,
To manage private and domestic quarrel,
In night, and on the court and guard of safety!
'Tis monstrous.-lago, who began it?

Mon. If partially affin'd, or leagu'd in office,
Thou dost deliver more or less than truth,
Thou art no soldier.

Iago.

Touch me not so near:

I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth,
Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio;
Yet, I persuade myself, to speak the truth
Shall nothing wrong him. Thus it is, general.
Montano and myself being in speech,
There comes a fellow, crying out for help;
And Cassio following him with determin'd sword,
To execute upon him: Sir, this gentleman
Steps in to Cassio, and entreats his pause;
Myself the crying fellow did pursue,
Lest, by his clamour (as it so fell out,)

The town might fall in fright: he, swift of foot,
Outran my purpose; and I return'd the rather
For that I heard the clink and fall of swords,
And Cassio high in oath; which, till to-night,
I ne'er might say before: when I came back
(For this was brief,) I found them close together,
At blow, and thrust; even as again they were,
When you yourself did part them.
More of this matter can I not report :-
But men are men; the best sometimes forget:-
Though Cassio did some little wrong to him,-
As men in rage strike those that wish them best,
Yet, surely, Cassio, I believe, receiv'd,
From him that fled, some strange indignity,
Which patience could not pass.

Oth.
I know, Iago,
Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter,
Making it light to Cassio:-Cassio, I love thee;
But never more be officer of mine.-

Enter Desdemona, attended.

Look, if my gentle love be not rais'd up ;-
I'll make thee an example.
Des.

loser. What, man! there are ways to recover the general again: You are but now cast in his mood,' a punishment more in policy than in malice; even so as one would beat his offenceless dog, to affright an imperious lion: sue to him again, and he's yours.

Cas. I will rather sue to be despised, than to deceive so good a commander, with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet an officer. Drunk ? and speak parrot ?4 and squabble? swagger? swear? and discourse fustian with one's own shadow ?-0 thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee-devil!

lago. What was he that you followed with your sword? What had he done to you?

Cas. I know not.

lago. Is it possible?

Cas. I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a quarrel, but nothing wherefore.—0, that men should put an enemy in their mouths, to steal away their brains! that we should, with joy, revel, pleasure, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!

Iago. Why, but you are now well enough: How came you thus recovered?

Cas. 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 conn try stands, I could heartily wish this had not befallen; but, since it is as it is, mend it for your own good.

Cas. 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 man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast! O strange!-Every inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is a devil.

more

Iago. Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used; exclaim no against it. And, good lieutenant, I think, you think I love you.

Cas. I have well approved it, sir.-I drunk! lago. 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 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; she'll help to put you in your place again: she is of so free, so kind, [To Montano, who is led off. so apt, so blessed a disposition, that she holds it a

What's the matter, dear? Oth. All's well now, sweeting; Come away to bed.

Sir, for your hurts,

Myself will be your surgeon: Lead him off.

vice in her goodness, not to do more than she is

fago, look with care about the town; And silence those whom this : ile brawl distracted.-requested: This broken joint, between you and Come, Desdemona; 'tis the soldier's life,

To have their balmy slumbers wak'd with strife.
[Exeunt all but lago and Cassio.
Jago. What, are you hurt, lieutenant ?
Cas. Av, past all surgery.

Jago. Marry, heaven forbid!

Cas. Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I

her husband, entreat her to splinter; and, my for-
tunes against any lays worth naming, this crack of
your love shall grow stronger than it was before.
Cas. You advise me well.

Jago. I protest, in the sincerity of love, and honest kindness.

Cas. I think it freely; and, betimes in the mornhave lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal ing, I will beseech the virtuous Desdemona to unpart, sir, of myself, and what remains is bestial.-dertake for me: I am desperate of my fortunes, if My reputation, Iago, my reputation.

Iago. As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some bodily wound; there is more offence in that, than in reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving: You have lost no reputation at all, unless you repute yourself such a

(1) Convicted by proof.

(2) Related by nearness of office.

they check me here.

Jago. You are in the right. tenant; I must to the watch.

Good night, lieu

Cas. Good night, honest Iago. [Exit Cassio. Iago. And what's he then, that says,-I play the villain?

When this advice is free, I give, and honest,

(3) Dismissed in his anger. (4) Talk idly. (5) Bet or wager.

I heard thee say but now,-Thou lik'dst not that,
When Cassio left my wife; What didst not like?
And, when I told thee-he was of my counsel
In my whole course of wooing, thou cry'dst, Indeed?
And didst contract and purse thy brow together,
As if thou then hadst shut up in thy brain
Some horrible conceit: If thou dost love me,
Show me thy thought.

Jago. My lord, you know I love you.
Oth.
I think thou dost;
And, for I know thou art full of love and honesty,
And weigh'st thy words before thou giv'st them
breath,-

Therefore these stops of thine fright me the more;
For such things, in a false disloyal knave,
Are tricks of custom; but, in a man that's just,
They are close denotements, working from the
heart,

That passion cannot rule.

Iago.

Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something,
nothing;

'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he, that filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that, which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.

Oth. By heaven, I'll know thy thought.
lago. You cannot, if my heart were in your hand;
Nor shall not, whilst 'tis in my custody.
Oth. Ha!

lago.

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;

It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock
The meat it feeds on: That cuckold lives in bliss,
Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;
But, O, what damned minutes tells he o'er,
Who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strongly
loves!

Oth. O misery!

Iago. Poor, and content, is rich, and rich enough;
But riches, fineless, is as poor as winter,
To him that ever fears he shall be poor :-
Good heaven, the souls of all my tribe defend
From jealousy!

Oth.

Why? why is this?
Think'st thou, I'd make a life of jealousy,
To follow still the changes of the moon
With fresh suspicions? No: to be once in doubt,
Is-once to be resolv'd: Exchange me for a goat,
When I shall turn the business of my soul
such exsufflicate and blown surmises,
Matching thy inference. 'Tis not to make me
jealous,

For Michael Cassio,-To I dare be sworn, I think that he is honest.

Oth. I think so too. Iago.

Men should be what they seem;
Or, those that be not, 'would they might seem none
Oth. Certain, men should be what they seem.
Jago.

I think that Cassio is an honest man.
Oth. Nay, yet there's more in this :

Why then,

I pray thee, speak to me as to thy thinkings,

To say-my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company,
Is free of speech, sings, plays, and dances well;
Where virtue is, these are more virtuous :4
Nor from my own weak merits will I draw
The smallest fear, or doubt of her revolt;
For she had eyes, and chose me: No, lago;
I'll see, before I doubt; when I doubt, prove;

As thou dost ruminate; and give thy worst of And, on the proof, there is no more but this,

thoughts

The worst of words.

Jago.

Away at once with love, or jealousy.

Jago. I am glad of this, for now I shall have reason
Good my lord, pardon me; To show the love and duty that I bear you

Though I am bound to every act of duty,
I am not bound to that all slaves are free to.
Utter my thoughts? Why, say, they are vile and
false,-

As where's that palace, whereinto foul things
Sometimes intrude not? who has a breast so pure,
But some uncleanly apprehensions
Keep leets, and law-days, and in session sit
With meditations lawful?'

Oth. Thou dost conspire against thy friend, Iago,
If thou but think'st him wrong'd, and mak'st his ear
A stranger to thy thoughts.

Jago.
I do beseech you,-
Though I, perchance, am vicious in my guess,
As, I confess, it is my nature's plague
To spy into abuses; and, oft, my jealousy
Shapes faults that are not,-I entreat you then,
From one that so imperfectly conjects,"
You'd take no notice; nor build yourself a trouble
Out of his scattering and unsure observance :-
It were not for your quiet, nor your good,
Nor for my manhood, honesty, or wisdom,
To let you know my thoughts.
Oth.
What dost thou mean?
Iago. Good name, in man, and woman, dear my
lord,

(1) Courts of inquiry.

(2) Conjectures. (3) Endless, unbounded. LaWhich makes fair gifts fairer.'

With franker spirit: therefore, as I am bound,
Receive it from me :-I speak not yet of proof.
Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio,
Wear your eye-thus, not jealous, nor secure :
I would not have your free and noble nature,
Out of self-bounty, be abus'd; look to't:
I know our country disposition well;
In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks
They dare not show their husbands; their best

conscience