William Shakespeare

“ CASSIO.
I’ll do’t; but it dislikes me.
[Exit.]
IAGO.
If I can fasten but one cup upon him,
With that which he hath drunk tonight already,
He’ll be as full of quarrel and offence
As my young mistress’ dog. Now my sick fool Roderigo,
Whom love hath turn’d almost the wrong side out,
To Desdemona hath tonight carous’d
Potations pottle-deep; and he’s to watch:
Three lads of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits,
That hold their honours in a wary distance,
The very elements of this warlike isle,
Have I tonight fluster’d with flowing cups,
And they watch too. ”

“ IAGO.
My lord, you know I love you.
OTHELLO.
I think thou dost;
And for I know thou’rt 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’re close dilations, working from the heart,
That passion cannot rule.
IAGO.
For Michael Cassio,
I dare be sworn I think that he is honest.
OTHELLO.
I think so too.
IAGO.
Men should be what they seem ”

“ CASSIO.
That’s one of them.
IAGO.
O murderous slave! O villain!
[Stabs Roderigo.]
RODERIGO.
O damn’d Iago! O inhuman dog!
IAGO.
Kill men i’ the dark! Where be these bloody thieves?
How silent is this town! Ho! murder! murder!
What may you be? Are you of good or evil?
LODOVICO.
As you shall prove us, praise us.
IAGO.
Signior Lodovico?
LODOVICO.
He, sir.
IAGO.
I cry you mercy. Here’s Cassio hurt by villains.
GRATIANO.
Cassio!
IAGO.
How is’t, brother?
CASSIO.
My leg is cut in two.
IAGO.
Marry, heaven forbid!
Light, gentlemen, I’ll bind it with my shirt. ”

“ Sir, for your hurts, myself will be your surgeon.
Lead him off.
[Montano is led off.]
Iago, look with care about the town,
And silence those whom this vile brawl distracted.
Come, Desdemona: ’tis the soldiers’ life
To have their balmy slumbers wak’d with strife.
[Exeunt all but Iago and Cassio.]
IAGO.
What, are you hurt, lieutenant?
CASSIO.
Ay, past all surgery.
IAGO.
Marry, Heaven forbid!
CASSIO.
Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation! ”

“ CASSIO.
Good night, honest Iago.
[Exit.]
IAGO.
And what’s he then, that says I play the villain?
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
The inclining Desdemona to subdue
In any honest suit. She’s fram’d as fruitful
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 enfetter’d to her love
That she may make, unmake, do what she list,
Even as her appetite shall play the god
With his weak function. ”

“ EMILIA.
Is not this man jealous?
DESDEMONA.
I ne’er saw this before.
Sure there’s some wonder in this handkerchief,
I am most unhappy in the loss of it.
EMILIA.
’Tis not a year or two shows us a man:
They are all but stomachs and we all but food;
They eat us hungerly, and when they are full,
They belch us.
Enter Cassio and Iago.
Look you, Cassio and my husband.
IAGO.
There is no other way; ’tis she must do ’t,
And, lo, the happiness! Go and importune her. ”

“ EMILIA.
How if fair and foolish?
IAGO.
She never yet was foolish that was fair,
For even her folly help’d her to an heir.
DESDEMONA.
These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i’ the alehouse. What miserable praise hast thou for her that’s foul and foolish?
IAGO.
There’s none so foul and foolish thereunto,
But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do.
DESDEMONA.
O heavy ignorance! Thou praisest the worst best. But what praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving woman indeed, one that in the authority of her merit did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself? ”

“ She puts her tongue a little in her heart,
And chides with thinking.
EMILIA.
You have little cause to say so.
IAGO.
Come on, come on; you are pictures out of doors,
Bells in your parlours, wild-cats in your kitchens,
Saints in your injuries, devils being offended,
Players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds.
DESDEMONA.
O, fie upon thee, slanderer!
IAGO.
Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk.
You rise to play, and go to bed to work.
EMILIA.
You shall not write my praise.
IAGO.
No, let me not.
DESDEMONA.
What wouldst thou write of me, if thou shouldst praise me? ”

“ IAGO.
Come, you are too severe a moraler. As the time, the place, and the condition of this country stands, I 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 man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast! O strange! Every inordinate cup is unbless’d, and the ingredient is a devil.
IAGO.
Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used. ”

“ 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,
And wit depends on dilatory time.
Does’t not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee,
And thou, by that small hurt, hast cashier’d Cassio;
Though other things grow fair against the sun,
Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe.
Content thyself awhile. By the mass, ’tis morning;
Pleasure and action make the hours seem short. ”

“ RODERIGO.
Signior, is all your family within?
IAGO.
Are your doors locked?
BRABANTIO.
Why, wherefore ask you this?
IAGO.
Zounds, sir, you’re robb’d, 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. ”

“ 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.
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?
DESDEMONA.
Why, your lieutenant, Cassio. Good my lord,
If I have any grace or power to move you,
His present reconciliation take;
For if he be not one that truly loves you,
That errs in ignorance and not in cunning,
I have no judgement in an honest face. ”

“ OTHELLO.
Devil!
[Striking her.]
DESDEMONA.
I have not deserv’d this.
LODOVICO.
My lord, this would not be believ’d in Venice,
Though I should swear I saw’t: ’tis very much.
Make her amends. She weeps.
OTHELLO.
O devil, devil!
If that the earth could teem with woman’s tears,
Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.
Out of my sight!
DESDEMONA.
I will not stay to offend you.
[Going.]
LODOVICO.
Truly, an obedient lady.
I do beseech your lordship, call her back.
OTHELLO.
Mistress!
DESDEMONA.
My lord?
OTHELLO.
What would you with her, sir?
LODOVICO.
Who, I, my lord? ”

“ IAGO.
Should you do so, my lord,
My speech should fall into such vile success
Which my thoughts aim’d not. Cassio’s my worthy friend.
My lord, I see you’re mov’d.
OTHELLO.
No, not much mov’d.
I do not think but Desdemona’s honest.
IAGO.
Long live she so! And long live you to think so!
OTHELLO.
And yet, how nature erring from itself—
IAGO.
Ay, there’s the point. As, to be bold with you,
Not to affect many proposed matches,
Of her own clime, complexion, and degree,
Whereto we see in all things nature tends ”

“ IAGO.
Or to be naked with her friend in bed
An hour or more, not meaning any harm?
OTHELLO.
Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm?
It is hypocrisy against the devil:
They that mean virtuously and yet do so,
The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.
IAGO.
So they do nothing, ’tis a venial slip.
But if I give my wife a handkerchief—
OTHELLO.
What then?
IAGO.
Why then, ’tis hers, my lord, and being hers,
She may, I think, bestow’t on any man.
OTHELLO.
She is protectress of her honour too.
May she give that?
IAGO.
Her honour is an essence that’s not seen ”

“ I gave her such a one, ’twas my first gift.
IAGO.
I know not that: but such a handkerchief
(I am sure it was your wife’s) did I today
See Cassio wipe his beard with.
OTHELLO.
If it be that,—
IAGO.
If it be that, or any that was hers,
It speaks against her with the other proofs.
OTHELLO.
O, that the slave had forty thousand lives!
One is too poor, too weak for my revenge!
Now do I see ’tis true. Look here, Iago;
All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven.
’Tis gone.
Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow hell! ”

“ IAGO.
Can he be angry? I have seen the cannon,
When it hath blown his ranks into the air
And, like the devil, from his very arm
Puff’d his own brother, and can he be angry?
Something of moment then. I will go meet him.
There’s matter in’t indeed if he be angry.
DESDEMONA.
I prithee do so.
[Exit Iago.]
Something sure of state,
Either from Venice, or some unhatch’d practice
Made demonstrable here in Cyprus to him,
Hath puddled his clear spirit, and in such cases
Men’s natures wrangle with inferior things,
Though great ones are their object. ’Tis even so. ”

“ RODERIGO.
It cannot be.
IAGO.
It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will. Come, be a man. Drown thyself? Drown cats and blind puppies. I have professed me thy friend, and I confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of perdurable toughness; I could never better stead thee than now. Put money in thy purse; follow thou the wars; defeat thy favour with an usurped beard; I say, put money in thy purse. ”

“ Handkerchief—confessions—handkerchief! To confess, and be hanged for his labour. First, to be hanged, and then to confess. I tremble at it. Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without some instruction. It is not words that shake me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips. Is’t possible?—Confess?—handkerchief?—O devil!—
[Falls in a trance.]
IAGO.
Work on,
My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught,
And many worthy and chaste dames even thus,
All guiltless, meet reproach. What, ho! my lord!
My lord, I say! Othello!
Enter Cassio.
How now, Cassio! ”

“ IAGO.
I grant indeed it hath not appeared, and your suspicion is not without wit and judgement. But, Roderigo, if thou hast that in thee indeed, which I have greater reason to believe now than ever,—I mean purpose, courage, and valour,—this night show it. If thou the next night following enjoy not Desdemona, take me from this world with treachery and devise engines for my life. ”

“ Desdemona is directly in love with him.
RODERIGO.
With him? Why, ’tis not possible.
IAGO.
Lay thy finger thus, and let thy soul be instructed. Mark me with what violence she first loved the Moor, but for bragging, and telling her fantastical lies. And will she love him still for prating? Let not thy discreet heart think it. Her eye must be fed. And what delight shall she have to look on the devil? When the blood is made dull with the act of sport, there should be, again to inflame it and to give satiety a fresh appetite, loveliness in favour, sympathy in years, manners, and beauties ”

“ RODERIGO.
What should I do? I confess it is my shame to be so fond, but it is not in my virtue to amend it.
IAGO.
Virtue! a fig! ’Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners. So that if we will plant nettles or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness or manured with industry, why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. ”

“ I would on great occasion speak with you.
[Exit Cassio.]
How is it, general? Have you not hurt your head?
OTHELLO.
Dost thou mock me?
IAGO.
I mock you? No, by heaven.
Would you would bear your fortune like a man!
OTHELLO.
A horned man’s a monster and a beast.
IAGO.
There’s many a beast, then, in a populous city,
And many a civil monster.
OTHELLO.
Did he confess it?
IAGO.
Good sir, be a man.
Think every bearded fellow that’s but yok’d
May draw with you. There’s millions now alive
That nightly lie in those unproper beds
Which they dare swear peculiar: your case is better. ”

“ Zounds, I bleed still, I am hurt to the death.
OTHELLO.
Hold, for your lives!
IAGO.
Hold, ho! lieutenant,—sir,—Montano,—gentlemen,—
Have you forgot all place of sense and duty?
Hold! The general speaks to you; hold, hold, for shame!
OTHELLO.
Why, how now, ho! From whence ariseth this?
Are we turn’d Turks, and to ourselves do that
Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites?
For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl:
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. ”

“ A soldier’s a man,
O, man’s life’s but a span,
Why then let a soldier drink.
Some wine, boys!
CASSIO.
’Fore God, an excellent song.
IAGO.
I learned it in England, where indeed they are most potent in potting: your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied Hollander,—drink, ho!—are nothing to your English.
CASSIO.
Is your Englishman so expert in his drinking?
IAGO.
Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead drunk; he sweats not to overthrow your Almain; he gives your Hollander a vomit ere the next pottle can be filled.
CASSIO.
To the health of our general! ”

“ Do well thrive by them, and when they have lin’d 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 complement 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. ”

“ And bring them after in the best advantage.—
Come, Desdemona, I have but an hour
Of love, of worldly matters, and direction,
To spend with thee. We must obey the time.
[Exeunt Othello and Desdemona.]
RODERIGO.
Iago—
IAGO.
What sayst thou, noble heart?
RODERIGO.
What will I do, thinkest thou?
IAGO.
Why, go to bed and sleep.
RODERIGO.
I will incontinently drown myself.
IAGO.
If thou dost, I shall never love thee after. Why, thou silly gentleman!
RODERIGO.
It is silliness to live, when to live is torment; and then have we a prescription to die when death is our physician. ”

“ Marry, I would not do such a thing for a joint-ring, nor for measures of lawn, nor for gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any petty exhibition; but, for the whole world—why, who would not make her husband a cuckold to make him a monarch? I should venture purgatory for ’t.
DESDEMONA.
Beshrew me, if I would do such a wrong for the whole world.
EMILIA.
Why, the wrong is but a wrong i’ the world; and having the world for your labour, ’tis a wrong in your own world, and you might quickly make it right. ”

“ IAGO.
My friend is dead. ’Tis done at your request.
But let her live.
OTHELLO.
Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her, damn her!
Come, go with me apart, I will withdraw
To furnish me with some swift means of death
For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant.
IAGO.
I am your own for ever.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE IV. Cyprus. Before the Castle. Enter Desdemona, Emilia and Clown.
DESDEMONA.
Do you know, sirrah, where Lieutenant Cassio lies?
CLOWN.
I dare not say he lies anywhere.
DESDEMONA.
Why, man?
CLOWN.
He’s a soldier; and for one to say a soldier lies is stabbing. ”