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Copyright, 1 90 1
By
THE UNIVERSITY SOCIETY
COLLEG
LIBRARY
Pi?
THE TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO. /^ '
^
Preface.
The Early Editions. The First Edition of Othello
was a Quarto, published in 1622, with the following title-
page :—
" The I Tragoedy of Othello, | The Moore of Venice. |
As it hath bccnc diners times acted at the \ Globe, and at
the Black-Friers, by | his Maiesties Scruants. \ Written
by William Shakespeare. | [Vignette] | London, | Printed
by N. O. for Thomas Walkley, and are to be sold at his |
shop, at the Eagle and Child, in Brittans Bursse. | 1622." *
In 1623 appeared the First Folio, containing Othello
among the ''Tragedies" (pp. 310-339) ; the text, how-
ever, was not derived from the same source as the First
Quarto; an independent MS. must have been obtained,
in addition to many improved readings, the play as printed
in the Folio contained over one hundred and fifty verses
omitted in the earlier edition, while, on the other hand,
ten or fifteen lines in the Quarto were not represented in
the Folio version. Thomas Walkley had not resigned his
interest in the play ; it is clear from the Stationers' Regis-
* Prefixed to this First Quarto were the following lines : —
" The Stationer to the Reader.
'' To set forth a booke without an Epistle, zvere like to the old
English protierhe, A blew coat without a badge, &- the Author
being dead, I thought good to take that piece of u'orke upon mee:
To commend it, I will not, for that which is good I hope euery
matt will commend, without interaty: and I am the bolder, because
the author s name is sufUcient to vent his worke. Thus leauing
cuery one to the liberty of iudgcment: I haue ventTred to print
this plav, and Icaue it to the generall censure. Yours, Thomas
Walkley."
Preface TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
tcr that it remained his property until March ist, 1627
{i.e. 1628) when he assigned ** Orthello the More of
Venice " unto Richard Hawkins, who issued the Second
Quarto in 1630. A Third Quarto appeared in 1655 ; and
later Quartos in 1681, 1687, 1695.
The text of modern editions of the play is based on that
of the First Folio, though it is not denied that we have in
the First Quarto a genuine play-house copy; a notable
difference, pointing to the Quarto text as the older, is its
retention of oaths and asseverations, which are omitted or
toned down in the Folio version.
Date of Composition. This last point has an impor-
tant bearing on the date of the play, for it proves that
Othello was written before the Act of Parliament was
issued in 1606 against the abuse of the name of God in
plays. External and internal evidence seem in favour of
1604 as the birth-year of the tragedy, and this date has
been generally accepted since the publication of the Vari-
onim Shakespeare of 1821, wherein Malone's views in
favour of that year were set forth (Alalone had died nine
years before the work appeared). After putting forward
various theories, he added : — " We know it was acted in
1604, and I have therefore placed it in that year." For
twenty years scholars sought in vain to discover upon
what evidence he knezv this important fact, until at last,
about the year 1840, Peter Cunningham announced his
discovery of certain Accounts of the Revels at Court, con-
taining the following item : —
" By the King's * Hallamas Day, being the first of Nov,
Matis Plaiers. A play at the bankettinge House att
Whitehall, called the Moor of Venis
[1604].'"*
We now know that this manuscript was a forgery, but
strange to say, there is every reason to believe that though
' the book ' itself is spurious, the information which it
*v. Shakespeare Society Puhlications, 1842.
THE MOOR OF VENICE Preface
yields is genuine, and that Malone had some such entry
in his possession when he wrote his emphatic statement
(z'ide Grant White's account of the whole story, quoted
in Furness' Varionun edition ; cp. pp. 351-357).
The older school of critics, and Malone himself at first,
assigned the play to circa 161 1 on the strength of the lines,
III. iv. 46, 47 : —
' The hearts of old gave hands;
But our new heraldry is hands not hearts,'
which seemed to be a reference to the arms of the order
of Baronets, instituted by King James in 161 1 ; Malone,
however, in his later edition of the play aptly quoted a
passage from the Essays of Sir William Comwallis, the
younger, published in 1601, which may have suggested
the thought to Shakespeare: — ''They (our forefathers)
had zi'ont to give their hands and their hearts together,
hut zee think it a finer grace to look asquint, our hand'
looking one zvay, and our heart another."
The Original Othello. From the elegy on the death
of Richard Burbage in the year 1618, it appears that the
leading character of the play was assigned to this most
famous actor : —
"But let me not forget one chief est pan
Wherein, beyond the rest, he mov'd the heart,
The grieved Moor, made jealous by a slave,
Who sent his wife to till a timeless grave.
Then slew himself upon the bloody bed.
All these and many more zvith him are dead." *
The Source of the Plot. The story of ' // Moro di
Venezia ' was taken from the Heccatommithi of the Italian
novelist Giraldi Cinthio ; it is the seventh tale of the third
deca,de, which deals with " The unfaithfulness of Hus-
bands and Wives." No English translation of the novel
* Z'. Ingleby's Centurie of Prayse (New Shak. Soe.), 2nd edi-
tion, p. 131, where the elegy is discussed, and a truer version
printed.
Preface TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
existed in Shakespeare's time (at least we know of none),
but a French translation appeared in the year 1584, and
through this medium the work may have come to Eng-
land. Cinthio's novel may have been of Oriental origin,
and in its general character it somewhat resembles the tale
of The Three Apples in The Thousand and One Nights;
on the other hand it has been ingeniously maintained that
" a certain Christophal Moro, a Luogotenente di Cipro,
who returned from Cyprus in 1508, after having lost his
wife, was the original of the Moor of Venice of Giraldi
Cinthio." " Fronting the summit of the Giants' Stair/'
writes Mr. Rawdon Brown, the author of this theory,
*' where the Doges of Venice were crowned, there are
still visible four shields spotted with mulberries (strazu-
berries in the description of Desdemona's handkerchief),
indicating that that part of the palace portal on which they
are carved was terminated in the reign of Christopher
Moro, whose insignia are three mulberries sable and three
bends azure on a field argent ; the word Moro signifying
in Italian either mulberry-tree or blackamoor." Perhaps
Shakespeare learnt the true story of his Othello from
some of the distinguished Venetians in England ; '' Cin-
thio's novel would never have sufficed him for his
Othello "* (z'ide Fumess, pp. 372-389. Knowing, how-
ever, Shakespeare's transforming power, w^e may well
maintain that, without actual knowledge of Christopher
]\Ioro's history, he was capable of creating Othello from
Cinthio's savage Moor, lago from the cunning cowardly
ensign of the original, the gentle lady Desdemona from
" the virtuous lady of marvellous beauty, named Disde-
* The title of the novel summarises its contents as follows : —
" A Moorish Captain takes to a wife a Venetian Dame, and his
Ancient accuses her of adultery to her husband : it is planned
that the Ancient is to kill him whom he believes to be the adul-
terer : the Captain kills the woman, is accused by the Ancient, the
Moor does not confess, but after the infliction of extreme torture,
is banished; and the wicked Ancient, thinking to injure others,
provided for himself a miserable death."
THE MOOR OF VENICE Preface
mona (i.e. 'the hapless one'),"* who is beaten to death
" with a stocking filled with sand," Cassio and Emilia
from the vaguest possible outlines. The .tale should be
read side by side with the play by such as desire to study
the process whereby a not altogether artless tale of hor-
rorf has become the subtlest of tragedies — " perhaps the
greatest work in the world. "J; " The most pathetic of
human compositions. "§
" Dreams, Books, are each a world : and books, we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good ;
Round them with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow.
There find I personal theme, a plenteous store,
Matter wherein right voluble I am,
To which I listen with a ready ear;
Two shall be named pre-eminently dear, —
The gentle Lady married to the Moor;
And heavenly Una, with her milk-white Lamb."
* This is the only name given by Cinthio. Steevens first pointed
out that " Othello " is found in Reynold's God's Revenge against
Adultery, standing in one of his arguments as follows: — "She
marries Othello, an old Gefman soldier." The name " lago " also
occurs in the book. It is also found in " The first and second
part of the History of the famous Euordanus, Prince of Den-
mark. With the strange adventures of lago, Prince of Saxonie:
and of both their several fortunes in Love. At London, 1605."
t Mrs. Jameson rightly calls attention to a striking incident of
the origmal story : — Desdemona does not accidentally drop the
handkerchief: it is stolen from her by lago's little child, an irifant
of three years old, whom he trains and bribes to the theft. The
love of Desdemona for this child, her little playfellow — the pretty
description of her taking it in her arms and caressing it, while
it profits by its situation to steal the handkerchief from her bosom,
are well imagined and beautifully told, etc.
X Macaulay.
§ Wordsworth — "The tragedy of Othello, Plato's records of the
last scenes in the career of Socrates, and Izaak Walton's Life of
George Herbert are the most pathetic of human compositions."
(A valuable summary of criticisms, English and foreign, will be
found in Furness's Othello, pp. 407-453.)
Preface TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
Duration of Action. The action seems to cover three
days : — Act L, one day. Interval for voyage. Act II.,
one day. Acts III., IV., V., one day. In order to get
over the difficulty of this time-division various theories
have been advanced, notably that of Double Time, pro-
pounded by Halpin and Wilson ; according to the latter,
" Shakespeare counts off days and hours, as it were, by
two clocks, on one of which the true Historic Time is
recorded, and on the other the Dramatic Time, or a false
show of time, whereby days, weeks, and months may be
to the utmost contracted " (Furness, pp. 358-372).
According to Mr. Fleay, the scheme of time for the
play is as follows : —
Act I., one day. Interval for voyage. Act II., one
day. Act III., one day (Sunday). Interval of a week, at
least. Act IV. Sc. i., ii., iii. ; Act V. Sc. i., ii., iii., one
day : where Act IV. begins with what is now Act III.
Sc. iv., and Act V. with the present Act IV. Sc. iii.
THE MOOR OF VENICE
Critical Comments.
I.
Argument.
I, Desdemoiia, a beautiful and high-born Venetian
maiden, is wooed and won by Othello, a Moorish gen-
eral, whose dusky skin cannot conceal a chivalrous and
adventurous spirit such as women love. Desdemona's
father, Brabantio, learning of their secret marriage, is
much incensed and goes before the Duke of Venice and
complains that his daughter has been stolen from him.
But it so happens that Othello's warlike qualities are in
demand upon the very night in which these affairs cul-
minate. He has been in the service of the Venetian
government, and the state now requires his presence in
Cypress to oppose a Turkish fleet. He is therefore suf-
fered to depart in peace with his wife Desdemona, espe-
cially since she, in the council chamber, declares her love
and confidence in him.
II. lago, Othello's ancient or ensign, has sworn se-
cret enmity against his master because the Moor raised
Cassio instead of himself to the chief Heutenancy. The
enmity has taken the form of carefully laid plots, which
began with the very nuptial night of Othello. In
Cyprus, whither Othello and his train repair, the plots
have abundant time for ripening. A storm has wrecked
the Turkish fleet, and Othello remains in command on
land amid a general revelry, authorized by him, to cele-
brate the dispersion of the enemy and in honor of his
own nuptials. During the feasting lago makes Cassio
drunk and involves him in a street brawl. Othello ar-
rives on the scene and deprives the officer of his lieuten-
ancy.
7
Comments TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
IIL lago advises Cassio to sue for favor and restora-
tion of rank through Desdemona, since Othello will deny
her nothing. Cassio, unsuspicious of treachery, obtains
an interview with her, and lago lures Othello to the
scene — innocent enough, but greeted by lago with an
ominous shake of the head. Othello, seeing the ges-
ture, questions his ensign, whereupon the latter instils
the poison of jealousy into his master's ears, making
him to doubt Desdemona's relations with Cassio. The
doubt is intensified when that lady, in the kindness of her
heart, intercedes for Cassio. Henceforward lago loses
no opportunity to add to his master's jealousy. He
procures by stealth a handkerchief given by Othello to
Desdemona, and causes it to be found in Cassio's pos-
session.
IV. Othello becomes convinced that his wife has
been untrue to him. He determines upon her death,
and charges his supposed friend lago with the task of
despatching Cassio. Nothing loth, lago embroils Cas-
sio in a night combat with Roderigo, a former suitor
of Desdemona's, entangled in the meshes of lago.
V. Cassio wounds Roderigo. lago desires the death
of both, and so, unseen, stabs Cassio. ^Meanwhile
Othello goes to Desdemona's bedchamber and smothers
her to death. Emilia, the wife of lago and devoted
servant of Desdemona, proves to Othello that the wife
he has just murdered is innocent. lago kills Emilia.
Othello wounds lago, then kills himself. Cassio, who
still lives, is advanced to the government of Cyprus,
lago is reserved for lingering torture.
IL
lago and Roderigo.
Admirable is the preparation, so truly and peculiarly
Shakespearian, in the introduction of Roderigo, as the
dupe on whom lago shall first exercise his art, and in
8
THE MOOR OF VENICE Comments
so doing display his own character. Roderigo, without
any fixed principle, but not without the moral notions
and sympathies with honour, which his rank and con-
nections had hung upon him, is already well fitted and
predisposed for the purpose; for very want of character
and strength of passion, like wnnd loudest in an empty
house, constitute his character. The first three lines
happily state the nature and foundation of the friendship
between him and lago — the purse — as also the con-
trast of Roderigo's intemperance of mind with lago's
coolness — the coolness of a preconceiving experimenter.
The mere language of protestation —
If ever I did dream of such a matter, abhor me —
wdiich falling in with the associative link, determines
Roderigo's continuation of complaint —
Thou told'st me, thou didst hold him in thy hate —
elicits at length a true feeling of lago's mind, the dread
of contempt habitual to those, who encourage in them-
selves, and have their keenest pleasure in, the expression
of contempt for others. Observe lago's high self-
opinion, and the moral, that a wicked man will employ
real feelings, as well as assume those most alien from his
own, as instruments of his purposes : —
And. by the faith of man,
I know my place, I am worth no worse a place.
I think Tyrwhitt's reading of " life " for " wife " —
A fellow almost damn'd in a fair zvifc —
the true one, as fitting to lago's contempt for whatever
did not display power, and that intellectual power. In
what follows, let the reader feel how by and through
the glass of two passions, disappointed vanity and envy,
the very vices of which he is complaining, are made to
act upon him as if they were so many excellences, and
the more appropriately, because cunning is always ad-
mired and wished for bv minds conscious of inward
V
Comments TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
weakness; — but they act only by half, like music on an
inattentive auditor, swelling the thoughts which pre-
vent him from listening to it.
Coleridge: Notes and Lectures upon Shakespeare.
Roderigo thinks he is buying up lago's talents and
efiforts. This is just what lago means to have him
think; and it is something doubtful which glories most,
the one in having money to bribe talents, or the other
in having wit to catch money. Still it is plain enough
that lago, with a pride of intellectual mastery far
stronger than his love of lucre, cares less for the money
than for the fun of wheedling and swindling others
out of it. . . .
Still, to make his scheme work, he must allege some
reasons for his purpose touching the Moor: for Rod-
erigo, gull though he be, is not so gullible as to entrust
his cause to a groundless treachery; he must know
something of the strong provocations w^hich have led
lago to cherish such designs. lago understands this
perfectly: he therefore pretends a secret grudge against
Othello, which he is but holding in till he can find or
make a fit occasion; and therewithal assigns such
grounds and motives as he knows will secure faith in
his pretence; whereupon the other gets too warm with
the anticipated fruits of his treachery to suspect any
similar designs on himself. Wonderful indeed are the
arts whereby the rogue wins and keeps his ascendancy
over the gull! During their conversation, \\q can almost
see the former worming himself into the latter, hke a
corkscrew into a cork.
Hudson : The Works of Shakespeare.
lago has no other aim than his own advantage. It
is the circumstance that not he, but Cassio, has been
appointed second in command to Othello, which first
sets his craft to work on subtle combinations. He
10
THE MOOR OF VENICE Comments
coveted this post, and he will stick at nothing in order
to win it. In the meantime, he takes advantage of
every opportunity of profit that ofifers itself; he does
not hesitate to fool Roderigo out of his money and his
jewels. He is always masked in falsehood and hypoc-
risy; and the mask he has chosen is the most impene-
trable one, that of rough outspokenness, the straight-
forward, honest bluntness of the soldier who does not
care what others think or say of him. He never flatters
Othello or Desdemona, or even Roderigo. He is the
free-spoken, honest friend.
He does not seek his own advantage without side-
glances at others. He is mischievousness personified.
He does evil for the pleasure of hurting, and takes
active delight in the adversity and anguish of others.
He is that eternal envy which merit or success in others
never fails to irritate — not the petty envy which is con-
tent with coveting anotfief's honours or possessions, or
with holding itself more deserving of another's good
fortune. No; he is an ideal personification. He is
blear-eyed rancour itself, figuring as a great power —
nay, as fJic motive force — in human life. He embodies
the detestation for others' excellences which shows itself
in obstinate disbelief, suspicion, or contempt; the in-
stinct of hatred for all that is open, beautiful, bright,
good, and great.
Shakespeare not only knew that such wickedness
exists; he seized it and set his stamo on it, to his eternal
honour as a psychologist.
Every one has heard it said that this tragedy is mag-
nificent in so far as the true and beautiful characters of
Othello and Desdemona are concerned; but lago — who
knows him? — what motive underlies his conduct? — what
can explain such wickedness? If only he had even been
frankly in love with Desdemona, and therefore hated
Othello, or had had some other incentive of a like
nature !
II
Comments TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Yes, if he had been the ordinary amorous villain and
slanderer, everything would undoubtedly have been
much simpler; but, at the same time, everything would
have sunk into banality, and Shakespeare would here
have been imequal to himself.
No, no! precisely in this lack of apparent motive lies
the profundity and greatness of the thing. Shakespeare
understood this. lago in his monologues is incessantly
giving himself reasons for his hatred. Elsewhere, in
reading Shakespeare's monologues, we learn what the
person really is; he reveals himself directly to us; even
a villain like Richard III. is quite honest in his mono-
logues. Not so lago. This demi-devil is always try-
ing to give himself reason for his malignity, is always
half fooling himself by dwelling* on half motives, in
which he partly believes, but disbelieves in the main.
Coleridge has aptly designated this action of his mind:
" The motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity." Again
and again he expounds to himself that he believes Othello
has been too familiar with his wife, and that he will
avenge the dishonour. He now and then adds, to ac-
count for his hatred of Cassio, that he suspects him too
of tampering with Emilia. He even thinks it worth
while to allege, as a secondary motive, that he himself
is enamoured of Desdemona.
Brandes: JVilliitiii Shakespeare.
in.
Othello.
Othello must not be considered as a negro, but a high
and chivalrous Moorish chief. Shakespeare learned the
spirit of the character from the Spanish poetry, which
was prevalent in England in his time. Jealousy does
not strike me as the point in his passion; I take it to
be rather an agony that the creature, whom he had
believed angelic, with whom he had garnered up his
12
THE MOOR OF VENICE Comments
heart, and whom he could not help still loving, should
be proved impure and worthless. It was the struggle
not to love her. It was a moral indignation and regret
that virtue should so fall: — " But' yet the pity of it, lago!
— O lago! the pity of it, lago!" In addition to this,
his honour was concerned: lago would not have suc-
ceeded but by hinting that his honour was compro-
mised. There is no ferocity in Othello; his mind is
majestic and composed. He deliberately determines to
die; and speaks his last speech with a view of showing
his attachment to the Venetian State, though it had
superseded him.
Schiller has the material Sublime; to produce an
effect, he sets you a whole town on fire, and throws
infants with their mothers into the flames, or locks up
a father in an old tower. But Shakespeare drops a
handkerchief, and the same or greater effects follow.
Lear is the most tremendous effort of Shakespeare
as a poet; Hamlet as a philosopher or meditator; and
Othello is the union of the two. There is something
gigantic and unformed in the former two; but in the
latter, everything assumes its due place and proportion,
and the whole mature powers of his mind are displayed
in admirable equilibrium
Coleridge : Tabic Talk.
Now what is Othello? He is night. An immense
fatal figure. Night is amorous of day. Darkness loves
the dawn. The African adores the white woman. Des-
demona is Othello's brightness and frenzy! And then
how easy to him is jealousy! He is great, he is digni-
fied, he is majestic, he soars above all heads, he has as
an escort bravery, battle, the braying of trumpets, the
banner of war, renown, glory; he is radiant with twenty
victories, he is studded with stars, this Othello: but
he is black. And thus how soon, when jealous, the hero
becomes monster, the black becomes the negro! How
13
Comments TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
speedily has night beckoned to death! By the side of
Othello, who is night, there is lago, who is evil. Evil,
the other form of darkness. Night is but the night of
the world; evil is the night of the soul. How deeply
black are perfidy and falsehood! To have ink or treason
in the veins is the same thing. Whoever has jostled
against imposture and perjury knows it. One must
blindly grope one's way with roguery. Pour hypocrisy
upon the break of day, and you put out the sun, and
this, thanks to false religions, happens to God. lago
near Othello is the precipice near the landslip. '' This
way! " he says in a low voice. The snare advises
blindness. The being of darkness guides the black.
Deceit takes upon itself to give what light may be re-
quired by night. Jealousy uses falsehood as the blind
man his dog. lago the traitor, opposed to whiteness
and candour, Othello the negro, what can be more ter-
rible! These ferocities of the darkness act in unison.
These two incarnations of the eclipse comprise together,
the one roaring, the other sneering, the tragic suffocation
of light.
Hugo: Jl'illiani Shakespeare.
The Moor has for the most part been regarded as
specially illustrating the workings of jealousy. Whether
there be anything, and, if so, how much, of this passion
in him, may indeed be questions having two sides ; but
we may confidently affirm that he has no special pre-
disposition to jealousy; and that whatsoever of it there
may be in him does not grow in such a way, nor from
such causes, that it can justly be held as the leading
feature of his character, much less as his character itself;
though such has been the view more commonly taken
of him. On this point, there has been a strange ignoring
of the inscrutable practices in which his passion orig-
inates. Instead of going behind the scene, and taking
its grounds of judgement directly from, the subject hini-
14
THE MOOR OF VENICE Comments
self, criticism has trusted overmuch in what is said of
him by other persons in the drama, to whom he must
perforce seem jealous, because they know and can
know nothing of the devilish cunning that has been at
work with him. And the common opinion has no doubt
been much furthered by the stage; lago's villainy being
represented as so open and barefaced, that the Moor
must have been grossly stupid or grossly jealous not
to see through him; whereas, in fact, so subtle is the
villain's craft, so close and involved are his designs, that
Othello deserves but the more respect and honour for
being taken in by him.
It seems clear enough that a passion thus self-gener-
ated and self-sustained ought not to be confounded with
a state of mind superinduced, like Othello's, by forgery
or external proofs, — a forgery wherein himself has no
share but as the victim. And we may safely affirm that
he has no aptitude for such a passion; it is against the
whole grain of his mind and character. lago evidently
knows this; knows the Moor to be incapable of spon-
taneous distrust ; that he must see, before he '11 doubt :
that when he doubts, he '11 prove ; and that when he has
proved, he will retain his honour at all events, and retain
his love, if it be compatible with honour. Accordingly,
lest the Moor should suspect himself of jealousy, lago
pointedly warns him to beware of it; puts him on his
guard against such self-delusion, that so his mind may
be more open to the force of evidence, and lest from
fear of being jealous he should entrench himself in the
opposite extreme, and so be proof against conviction.
The struggle, then, in Othello is not between love
and jealousy, but between love and honour; and lago's
machinations are exactly adapted to bring these two
latter passions into collision. Indeed it is the Moor's
very freedom from a jealous temper, that enables the
villain to get the mastery of him. Such a character
as his, so open, so generous, so confiding, is just the
Comments TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
one to be taken in the strong toils of lago's cunning;
to have escaped them, would have argued him a par-
taker of the strategy under which he falls.
Hudson : The Works of Shakespeare.
IV.
Desdemona.
At the period of the story a spirit of wild adventure
had seized all Europe. The discovery of both Indies
was yet recent; over the shores of the western hem-
isphere still fable and mystery hung, with all their dim
enchantments, visionary terrors, and golden promises!
perilous expeditions and distant voyages were every day
undertaken from hope of plunder, or mere love of en-
terprise; and from these the adventurers returnd with
tales of " antres vast and desarts wild — of cannibals that
did each other eat — of Anthropophagi, and men whose
heads did grow beneath their shoulders." With just
such stories did Raleigh and Clifford, and their follow-
ers, return from the New World: and thus by their
splendid or fearful exaggerations, which the imperfect
knowledge of those times could not refute, was the
passion for the romantic and marvellous nourished at
home, particularly among the women. A cavalier of
those days had no nearer, no surer way to his mistress's
heart than by entertaining her with these wondrous nar-
ratives. What was a general feature of his time, Shak-
speare seized and adapted to his purpose with the most
exquisite felicity of effect. Desdemona, leaving her
household cares in haste, to hang breathless on Othello's
tales, was doubtless a picture from the life; and her
inexperience and her quick imagination lend it an added
propriety: then her compassionate disposition is inter-
ested by all the disastrous chances, hair-breadth 'scapes,
and moving accidents by flood and field, of which he has
to tell ; and her exceeding gentleness and timidity, and
i6
THE MOOR OF VENICE Comments
iicr domestic turn of mind, render her more easily cap-
tivated by the mihtary renown, the valour, and lofty
bearing of the noble Moor.
When Othello first outrages her in a manner which
appears inexplicable, she seeks and finds excuses for
him. She is so innocent that not only she cannot be-
lieve herself suspected, but she cannot conceive the ex-
istence of guilt in others.
Something, sure, of state.
Either from Venice, or some nnhatch'd practice
Made demonstrable here in Cyprus to him,
Hath puddled his clear spirit.
'T is even so —
Nay, we must think, men are not gods,
Nor of them look for such observances
As fit the bridal.
And when the direct accusation of crime is flung on her
in the vilest terms, it does not anger but stun her, as
if it transfixed her whole being; she attempts no reply,
no defence; and reproach or resistance never enters
her thought.
And there is one stroke of consummate delicacy, sur-
prising, when we remember the latitude of expression
prevailing in Shakspeare's time, and which he allowed
to his other women generally; she says, on recovering
from her stupefaction —
Desd. Am I that name, lago?
I ago. What name, sweet lady?
Desd. That which she says my lord did say I was.
So completely did Shakspeare enter into the angelic
refinement of the character.
Endued with that temper which is the origin of super-
stition in love as in religion — which, in fact, makes love
itself a religion — she not only does not utter an up-
braiding, Init nothing that Othello does or says, no out-
rage, no injustice, can tear away the charm with which
her imagination had invested him, or impair her faith
17
Comments TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
in his honour. " Would you had never seen him! " ex-
claims Emilia.
Desd. So would not I ! — my love doth so appro\e hhn.
That even his stubbornness, his checks and frowns
Have grace and favour in them.
There is another peculiarity, which, in reading the
play of Othello, we rather feel than perceive: through the
Vv^hole of the dialogue appropriated to Desdemona there
is not one general observation. Words are with her
the vehicle of sentiment, and never of reflection; so that
I cannot find throughout a sentence of general applica-
tion.
Mrs. Jameson : Characteristics of Women.
Emilia, Instrument of Nemesis.
It is lago's own wife Emilia whose quick woman's
wit is the first to pierce the web of intrigue, and stim-
ulated by sight of her murdered mistress she gives her
suspicions vent, though at the point of her husband's
sword. The principle underlying this nemesis is one
of the profoundest of Shakespeare's moral ideas — that
evil not only corrupts the heart, but equally undermines
the judgement. To lago is applicable the biting sen-
tence of Junius'. "Virtue and simplicity have so long
been synonymous that the reverse of the proposition
has grown into credit, and every villain fancies himself
a man of ability." It is because he knows himself un-
fettered by scruples that lago feels himself infallible, and
considers honest men fools; he never sees how his foul
thoughts have bhnded his perceptive powers, and made
him blunder where simple men would have gone straight.
True, he brings infinite acuteness to bear upon the details
of his intrigues; but he never perceives, what the reader
sees at a glance, that the whole ground of his action
i8
THE MOOR OF VENICE Comments
in these intrigues — his suspicions that Emilia has been
tampered with by Cassio and Othello — is a stupid mis-
take, which no one with any wholesome knowledge of
human nature would make. And the same want of in-
sight into honest human nature, which made him set
up his atrocious schemes, is the cause now of their fail-
ure. He thought he had foreseen everything: it never
occurred to him that his wife might betray him ivith
nothing to gain by such betrayal, simply from affection
and horror.
I care not for thy sword ; I "11 make thee known,
Though I lost twenty lives. — Help ! help, ho ! help !
The Moor hath kill'd my mistress !
In vain lago seeks to stop her mouth; a few words put
all the suspicious circumstances together, until in rage
and spite lago stabs Emilia, though the blow seals his
own ruin. This detail is a fresh touch in the perfection
of the nemesis upon lago: in a sense different from what
he intended he is now " evened " with Othello, " wife
for wife." The nemesis draws items of equal retribu-
tion from all the intrigues of lago. It was on account
of Emilia that he played the villain, and it is Emilia who
betrays him. He had made a tool of Roderigo, and
the contents of the dead Roderigo's pockets furnish the
final links of evidence against him. His main purpose
was to oust Cassio both from office and life: Cassio
lives to succeed Othello as Governor, and make his first
official act the superintendence of lago's torturing.
MouLTON : Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist.
VI.
Other Characters,
The subordinate figures are worked out with hardly
less skill than the principal characters of the tragedy.
Emilia especially is inimitable — good-hearted, honest,
19
Comments TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
and not exactly light, but still sufficiently the daughter of
Eve to be unable to understand Desdemona's naive and
innocent chastity.
At the end of Act IV. (in the bedroom scene) Desde-
mona asks Emilia if she believes that there really are
women who do what Othello accuses her of. Emilia
answers in the affirmative. Then her mistress asks
again: " Would'st thou do such a deed for all the
world? " and receives the jesting answer, '' The world 's
a huge thing; it is a great price for a small vice: —
" 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, the
wrong is but a wrong i' the world ; and having the world for your
labour, 'tis a wrong in your own world, and 3'OU might quickly
make it right."
In passages like this a mildly playful note is struck in
the very midst of the horror. And according to his
habit and the custom of the times, Shakespeare also in-
troduces, by means of the Clown, one or two deliber-
ately comic passages ; but the Clown's merriment is
subdued, as Shakespeare's merriment at this period
always is.
Brandes : IVilliain Shakespeare.
Cassio is an enthusiastic admirer, almost a worshipper,
of Desdemona. O, that detestable code that excellence
cannot be loved in any form that is female, but it must
needs be selfish! Observe Othello's "honest," and
Cassio's " bold " lago, and Cassio's full guilelcssdiearted
wishes for the safety and love-raptures of Othello and
" the divine Desdemona." And also note the exquisite
circumstance of Cassio's kissing lago's wife, as if it
ought to be impossible that the dullest auditor should
not feel Cassio's religious love of Desdemona's purity,
lago's answers are the sneers which a proud bad intel-
lect feels towards women, and expresses to a wife.
20
THE MOOR OF VENICE Comments
Surely it ought to be considered a very exalted compli-
ment to women, that all the sarcasms on them in Shake-
speare are put in the mouths of villains.
Coleridge: Notes and Lectures upon Shakespeare.
VII.
Spiritual Import of the Play.
Were Othello but the spirited portrait of a half-tamed
barbarian, we should view him as a bold and happy
poetical conception, and, as such, the Poet's work might
satisfy our critical judgement; but it is because it depicts
a noble mind, wrought by deep passion and dark devices
to agonies such as every one might feel, that it awakens
our strongest sympathies. We see in this drama a grand
and true moral picture; we read in it a profound ethical
lesson; for (to borrow the just image of the classical
Lowth) while the matchless work is built up to the
noblest height of poetry, it rests upon the deepest foun-
dations of true philosophy.
Verplanck : The Illustrated Shakespeare.
The central point of its spiritual import lies in the
contrast between lago and his victim. lago, with keen
intellectual faculties and manifold culture in Italian vice,
lives and thrives after his fashion in a world from which
all virtue and all beauty are absent. Othello, with his bar-
baric innocence and regal magnificence of soul, must
cease to live the moment he ceases to retain faith in
the purity and goodness which were to him the highest
and most real things upon earth. Or if he live, life must
become to him a cruel agony. Shakspere compels us
to acknowledge that self-slaughter is a rapturous en-
ergy — that such prolonged agony is joy in comparison
with the earthy Hfe-in-death of such a soul as that of
lago. The noble nature is taken in the toils because it
21
Comments
is noble. lago suspects his wife of every baseness, but
the suspicion has no other effect than to intensify his
malignity. lago could not be captured and constrained
to heroic suffering and rage. The shame of every be-
ing who bears the name of woman is credible to lago,
and yet he can grate from his throat the jarring music: —
" And let me the canakin clink, clink !
And let me the canakin clink ! "
There is, therefore, Shakspere would have us under-
stand, something more inimical to humanity than suf-
fering — namely, an incapacity for noble pain. To die
as Othello dies is indeed grievous. But to live as lago
lives, devouring the dust and stinging — this is more ap-
palling.
Such is the spiritual motive that controls the tragedy.
And the validity of this truth is demonstrable to every
sound conscience. No supernatural authority needs to
be summoned to bear witness to this reality of human
life. No pallid flame of hell, no splendour of dawning
heaven, needs show itself beyond the verge of earth to
illumine this truth. It is a portion of the ascertained
fact of human nature, and of this our moral existence.
DowDEN : Shakspere,
22
The Tragedy of
Othello, The Moor of Venice.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
Duke of Venice.
Brabantio^ a senator.
Other Senators.
Gratiano, brother to Brabantio.
LoDOVico, kinsman to Brabantio.
Othello, a noble Moor in the service of the Venetian state.
Cassio, his lieutenant.
Iago^ his ancient.
RoDERiGO, a J-^enetia}! gentleman.
Montano, Othello's predecessor in the government of Cyprus.
Clown, servant to Othello.
Desdemona, daughter to Brabantio and zvife to Othello.
Emilia,, wife to lago.
Bianca^ mistress to Cassio.
Sailor, Messenger, Herald, Officers, Gentlemen, Musicians, and
Attendants.
Scene: Venice: a seaport in Cyprus.
24
o
The Tragedy of
Othello, The Moor of Venice.
ACT FIRST.
Scene I.
Venice. A street.
Enter Roderigo and lago.
Rod. Tush, never tell me; I take it much unkindly
That thou, lago, who hast had my purse
As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.
lago. 'Sblood, but you will not hear me:
If ever I did dream of such a matter,
Abhor me.
Rod. Thou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy hate.
lago. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city.
In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
Of¥-capp'd to him: and, by the faith of man, lo
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 stuff 'd with epithets of war;
And, in conclusion,
Nonsuits 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, 20
A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife ; li.6*
25
Act I. Sc. i. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
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 toged consuls can propose
As masterly as he: mere prattle without practice
Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election:
And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof
At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds
Christian and heathen, must be be-lee'd and calm'd
By debitor and creditor: this counter-caster, 31
He, in good time, must his lieutenant be.
And I — God bless the mark ! — his Moorship's ancient.
Rod. By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman.
lago. Why, there 's no remedy ; 'tis the curse of service,
Preferment goes by letter and affection.
And not by 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.
Rod. I would not follow him then. 40
lago. O, sir, content you;
follow him to serve my turrr upon him:
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
I Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
J /Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
^ V V That doting on his own obsequious bondage
' 3^^^ Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
^^ For nought but provender, and when he 's old,
^^ P cashier'd:
^^ ^Vhip me such honest knaves. Others there are
Mr ^ * AVho, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty, 50
^ (/ Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves,
9^ ^f And throwing but shows of service on their lords
/
26
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act I. Sc. i.
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 lago:
In following him, I follow but myself;
Heaven is my judge, not I f on love and duty,
But seeming so, for my p^qpnar end: 60
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.
Rod. What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe,
If he can carry 't thus!
lago. 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, 70
Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,
Yet throw such changes of vexation on 't
As it may lose some colour.
Rod. Here is her father's house; I. '11 call aloud.
Jag^o. Do; with like timorous accent and dire yell
As when, by night and negligence, the fire
Is spied in populous cities.
Rod. What, ho, Brabantio! Signior Brabantio, ho! ^*
lago. Awake! what, ho, Brabantio! thieves! thieves I
thieves !
Look to your house, your daughter and your bags!
Thieves! thieves! 81
27
Act I. Sc. i. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Brabantio appears above, at a windozu.
Bra. What is the reason of this terrible summons?
What is the matter there?
Rod. Signior, is all your family within?
I ago. Are your doors lock'd?
Bra. Why, wherefore ask you this?
I ago. '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, 90
Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:
Arise, I say.
Bra. What, have you lost your wits?
Rod. Most reverend signior, do you know my voice?
Bra. Not I : w^iat are you ?
Rod. My name is Roderigo.
Bra. 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 100
To start my quiet.
Rod. Sir, sir, sir, —
Bra. But thou must needs be sure
My spirit and my place have in them power
To make this bitter to thee.
Rod. Patience, good sir.
Bra. What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is Venice;
28
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act I. Sc. i.
My house is not a grange.
Rod. Most grave Brabantio,
In simple and pure soul I come to you.
lago. '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 no
ruffians, you '11 have your daughter covered with
a Barbary horse; you'll have your nephews
neigh to you; you '11 have coursers for cousins,
and gennets for germans.
Bra. What profane wretch art thou?
lago. I am one, sir, that comes to tell you youf
daughter and the Moor are now making the
beast with two backs.
Bar. Thou art a villain.
lago. You are — a senator. 119
Bra. This thou slialt answer; I know thee, Roderigo.
Rod. Sir, I will answer any thing. 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 130
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe
That, from the sense of all civility,
I thus Vv'ould play and trifle with your reverence:
Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,
I say again, hath made a gross revolt,
29
Act I. Sc. i, TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
Tying her duty, beauty, wit and fortunes,
In an extravagant and wheeling stranger
Of here and every where. Straight satisfy yourself :
If she be in her chamber or your house,
Let loose on me the justice of the state 140
For thus deluding you.
Bra. Strike on the tinder, ho!
Give me a taper! call up all my people!
This accident is not unlike my dream:
Belief of it oppresses me already.
Light, I sav! I Mit! [Exit above.
I ago. 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 embark'd
With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars, 151
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 raised search;
And there will I be with him. So farewell. [Exit.
Enter hcloii', Brahantio, in Jiis night-gozvn, and
Servants zi'ith torches.
Bra. It is too true an evil: gone she is; 161
30
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act I. Sc. ii.
And what's to come of my despised time
Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo,
Where didst thou see her? O unhappy girl!
With the Moor, say'st 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?
Rod. Truly, I think they are.
Bra. O heaven! How got she out? O treason of the
blood! • 170
Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds
By what you see them ai:t. Is there not charms
By which the property of youth and maidhood
May be abused? Have yoi\ not read, Roderigo,
Of some such thing?
Rod. Yes, sir, X have indeed.
Bra. Call up my brother. O, would you had had her!
Some one way, some another. Do you know
Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?
Rod. I think I can discover him, if you please
To get good guard and go along with me. 180
Bra. Pray you, lead on. At every house I '11 call ;
I may command at most. Get weapons, ho!
And raise some special officers of night.
On, good Roderigo; I '11 deserve your pains.
{Exeunt.
Scene II.
Another street.
Enter Othello, lago, and Attendants icith torches.
lago. Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
Yet do I hold it very stuff o' the conscience
31
Act I. Sc. ii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
To do no contrived murder: I lack iniquity
Sometimes to do me service : nine or ten times
I had thought to have yerk'd him here under the
ribs.
0th. 'Tis better as it is.
lagv. Nay, but he prated
And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
Against your honour,
That, with the httle godHness I have,
I did full hard forbear him. But I pray you, sir,
Are you fast married? Be assured of this, ii
That the magnifico is much beloved,
And hath in his effect a voice potential
As double as the duke's: he will divorce you,
Or put upon you what restraint and grievance
The law, with all his might to enforce it on,
Will give him cable.
0th. Let him do his spite:
My services, which I have done the signlory,
Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know —
Which, when I know that boasting is an honour, 20
I shall promulgate — I fetch my life and being
From men of royal siege, and my demerits
May speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reach'd: for know, lago.
But that I love the gentle Desdemona,
I would not my unhoused free condition
Put into a circumscription and confine
For the sea's worth. But, look! what lights come
yond?
lago. Those are the raised father and his friends:
You were best go in.
32
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act I. 5c. ii.
Oth. Not I; I must be found: 30
My parts, my title and my perfect soul,
Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?
lago. By J anus, I thinkj ip.
Enter Cassio, aiid certain Officers zvith torches.
Oth. The servants of the duke, and my Heutenant.
The goodness of the night upon you, friends!
What is the news?
Cas. The duke does greet you, general,
And he requires your haste-post-haste appearance,
Even on the instant.
Oth. What is the matter, think you?
Cas. Something from Cyprus, as I may divine:
It is a business of some heat: the galleys 40
Have sent a dozen sequent messengers
This very night at one another's heels;
And many of the consuls, raised and met,
Are at the duke's already: you have been hotly call'd
for;
When, being not at your lodging to be found,
The senate hath sent about three several quests
To search you out.
Oth. 'Tis well I am found by you.
I will but spend a word here in the house.
And go with you. [Exit
Cas. Ancient, what makes he here?
lago. Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land carack: 50
If it prove lawful prize, he 's made for ever.
Cas. I do not understand. V <i
lago. He's married. \ ^ y
Cas. To who? A -^*^
33
Act I. Sc. ii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Re-enter Othello.
I ago. Marry, to — Come, captain, will you go?
0th. Have with you.
Cas. Here comes another troop to seek for you.
I ago. It is Brabantio: general, be advised;
He comes to bad intent.
Enter Brabantio, Roderigo, and 0-fficers zvith torches
and weapons.
0th. Hallo! stand there!
Rod. Signior, it is the Moor.
Bra. Down with him, thief!
[They draw on both sides,
I ago. You, Roderigo! come, sir, I am for you.
0//i. ,Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust
them,
rood signior, you shall more command with years
'han with your weapons. 61
Bra. O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my
daughter?
Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her;
For I '11 refer me to all things of sense,
If she in chains of magic were not bound,
Whether a maid so tender, fair and happy,
So opposite to marriage that she shunn'd
The wealthy curled darlings of our nation,
Would ever have, to incur a general mock.
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom 70
Of such a thing as thou, to fear, not to delight.
Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense
That thou hast practised on her with foul charms,
Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals
34
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act I. Sc. ii.
That weaken motion : I '11 have 't disputed on ;
'Tis probable, and palpable to thinking.
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee
For an abuser of the world, a practiser
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant.
Lay hold upon him: if he do resist, 80
Subdue him at his peril.
0th. Hold your hands,
Both you of my inclining and the rest:
Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it
Without a prompter. Where will you that I go
To answer this your charge?
Bra. To prison, till fit time
Of law and course of direct session
Call thee to answer.
Oik. What if I do obey? ) |^
How may the duke be therewith satisfied, (^
Whose messengers are here about my side,)
Upon some present business of the state ^'-. qo r-^,^^jt
To bring me to him? £jb>«-
First Off. Tis true, most worthy signior; —
The duke 's in council, and your noble self, -€c»-Ce<^
I am sure, is sent for. -^JUujtJix^
Bra. How! the duke in council! .Ju;x<>L>t^
In this time of the night! Bring him away: Qot^c^tL^\Sl/vaJ
Mine 's not an idle cause : the duke himself, JL iR g.
Or any of my brothers of the state, J^HJ^JiikS^iu^
Cannot but feel this w^rong as 'twxre their own; ^^~*~-^
For if such actions may have passage free.
Bond-slaves and pagans shall our statesmen be.
[Exeunt.
35
Act L Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Scene IIL
A council-chamber.
The Duke and Senators sitting at a table; Officers
attending.
Duke. There is no composition in these news
That gives them credit.
First Sen. Indeed they are disproportion'd;
My letters say a hundred and seven galleys.
Duke. And mine, a hundred and forty.
Sec. Sen. And mine, two hundred:
But though they jump not on a just account, —
As in these cases, where the aim reports,
'Tis oft with difference, — yet do they all confirm
A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus.
Duke. Nay, it is possible enough to judgement:
I do not so secure me in the error, lo
But the main article I do approve
In fearful sense.
Sailor. [PVithin] What, ho! what, ho! what, ho!
First Off. A messenger from the galleys.
Filter Sailor.
Duke. Now, what 's the business?
Sail. The Turkish preparation makes for Rhodes ;
So was I bid report here to the state
By Signior Angelo.
Duke. How say you by this change?
First Sen. This cannot be,
By no assay of reason: 'tis a pageant
To keep us in false gaze. When we consider
The importancy of Cyprus to the Turk, 20
36
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act I. Sc. iii.
And let ourselves again but understand
That as it more concerns the Turk than Rhodes,
So may he with more facile question bear it,
For that it stands' not in such warlike brace,
But altogether lacks the abilities
That Rhodes is dress 'd in : if we make thought of this.
We must not think the Turk is so unskilful
To leave that latest which concerns him first.
Neglecting an attempt of ease and gain,
To wake and wage a danger profitless. 30
D^ikc. Nay, in all confidence, he 's not for Rhodes.
First Off. Here is more news.
Enter a Messcui^cr.
Mess. The Ottomites, reverend and gracious.
Steering with due course toward the isle of Rhodes,
Have there injointed them with an after fleet.
First Sen. Ay, so I thought. How many, as you guess?
Mess. Of thirty sail : and now they do re-stem
Their backward course, bearing with frank appearance
Their purposes toward Cyprus. Signior Montano
Your trusty and most valiant servitor, 40
With his free duty recommends you thus,
And prays you to believe him.
Ditke. 'Tis certain then for Cyprus.
Marcus Luccicos, is not he in town?
First Sen. He 's now in Florence.
Duke, Write from us to him ; post-post-haste dispatch.
First Sen. Here comes Brabantio and the valiant Moor.
Enter Brabantio, Othello, Iai!;o, Roderigo, and Officers.
Dnke. Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you
Against the general enemy Ottoman.
37
Act I. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
[To Brabantio] I did not see you; welcome, gentle
signior ; 50
We lack'd your counsel and your help to-night.
Bra. So did I yours. Good your grace, pardon me;
Neither my place nor aught I heard of business
Hath raised me from my bed, nor doth the general care
Take hold on me; for my particular grief
Is of so flood-gate and o'erbearing nature
That it engluts and swallows other sorrows,
And it is still itself.
Duke. Why, what 's the matter?
Bra. My daughter! O, my daughter!
All. Dead?
Bra. Ay, to me;
She is abused, stol'n from me and corrupted 60
By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks;
For nature so preposterously to err,
Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense,
Sans witchcraft could not.
Duke. Whoe'er he be that in this foul proceeding
Hath thus beguiled your daughter of herself
And you of her, the bloody book of law
You shall yourself read in the bitter letter
After your own sense, yea, though our proper son
Stood in your action.
Bra. Humbly I thank your grace. 70
Here is the man, this Moor; whom now, it seems.
Your special mandate for the state-affairs
Hath hither brought.
All. We are very sorry for 't.
Duke. [To OtJiello] What in your own part can you say
to this?
38
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act I. Sc. iii.
Bra. Nothing, but this is so.
Ofh. Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
My very noble and approved good masters,
That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter,
It is most true; true, I have married her:
The very head and front of my offending 80
Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech,
And little blest with the soft phrase of peace;
For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,
Till now some nine moons w^asted, they have used
Their dearest action in the tented field; — jg
And little of t his great world can I speak , ~^?^'''^ ^-^^ £
More than pertains to feats of broil and batu^ ^^
And therefore httle shall I grace my cause
In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious pa-
tience,
I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver 90
Of my whole course of love ; what drugs, what charms,
What conjuration and what mighty magic —
For such proceeding I am charged withal —
I won his daughter.
Bra. A maiden never bold; I VcJuX^*.
Of spirit so still and quiet that her motion a
Blush'd at herself ; and she — in spite of nature, ^oflwlftucji
Of years, of country, credit, every thing —
To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on!
It is a judgement maim'd and most imperfect.
That will confess perfection so could err 100
Against all rules of nature; and must be driven
To find out practices of cunning hell,
Why this should be. I therefore vouch again,
That wqth some mixtures powerful o'er the blood,
Or with some dram conjured to this effect,
39
Act I. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
He wrought upon her.
Duke. To vouch this, is no proof,
Without more certain and more overt test
Than these thin habits and poor hkeHhoods
Of modern seeming do prefer against him.
First Sen. But, Othello, speak: no
Did you by indirect and forced courses
Subdue and poison this young maid's affections?
Or came it by request, and such fair question
As soul to soul affordeth?
0th. I do beseech -you,
Send for the lady to the Sagittary,
And let her speak of me before her father:
If you do find me foul in her report.
The trust, the office I do hold of you.
Not only take away, but let your sentence
Even fall upon my life.
Duke. Fetch Desdemona hither, 120
0th. Ancient, conduct them; you best know the place.
[Exeunt lago and Attendants.
And till she come, as truly as to heaven
I do confess the vices of my blood.
So justly to your grave ears I '11 present
How I did thrive in this fair lady's love
And she in mine.
Duke. Say it, Othello.
0th. Her father loved me, oft invited me,
Still questioned me the story of my life
From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes, 130
That I have pass'd.
I ran it through, even from my boyish days
To the very moment that he bade me tell it:
40
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act I. Sc. iii.
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances, taQLcfli
Of moving accidents by flood and held, H ^
Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach, T
Of being taken by the insolent foe, »p J'^
And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence, '^^**-«» f^
And portance in my travels' history: ^'<^c9QtA<
Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle, 140^^^**'^
Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch '^^'*^^*'
heaven, ^ye^^o^
It was my hint to speak, — such was the process ; "^^^^QBtfte^d
And of the Cannibals that each other eat, -»<-
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline:
But still the house-afifairs would draw her thence;
Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
She 'Id come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse: which I observing, 150
Took once a pliant hour, and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate.
Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
But not intentively : I did consent,
And often did beguile her of her tears
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffer'd. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs :
She swore, in faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing
strange; 160
'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful:
She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd
That heaven had made her such a man : she thank'd
me,
41
Act I. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:
She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd,
And I loved her that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have used.
Here comes the lady; let her witness it. 170
Enter Desdemona, lago, and Attendants.
Duke. I think this tale would win my daughter too.
Good Brabantio,
Take up this mangled matter at the best:
Men do their broken weapons rather use
Than their bare hands.
Bra. I pray you, hear her speak:
If she confess that she was half the wooer.
Destruction on my head, if my bad blame
Light on the man! Come hither, gentle mistress:
Do you perceive in all this noble company
Where most you owe obedience?
Des. My noble father, 180
, I do perceive here a divided duty:
1 To you I am bound for life and education ;
! My life and education both do learn me
How to respect you; you are the lord of duty,
I am hitherto your daughter : but here 's my husband.
And so much duty as my mother show'd
To you, preferring you before her father.
So much I challenge that I may profess
Due to the Moor my lord.
Bra. God be with you! I have done.
Please it your grace, on to the state-affairs: 190
42
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act I. Sc. iii.
I had rather to adopt a child than get it.
Come hither, Moor:
I here do give thee that with all my heart,
Which, but thou hast already, with all my heart
I would keep from thee. For your sake, jewel,
I am glad at soul I have no other child;
For thy escape would teach me tyranny,
To hang clogs on them. I have done, my lord.
Duke. Let me speak like yourself, and lay a sentence i Jfj
Which, as a grise or step, may help these lovers 200 r ^
Into your favour.
When remedies are past, the griefs are ended
By seeing the w^orst, which late on hopes depended.
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone
Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
What cannot be preserved when fortune takes.
Patience her injury a mockery makes.
The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief,
He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.
Bra. So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile; 210 ^'Y,
We lose it not so long as we can smile.
He bears the sentence well, that nothing bears
But the free comfort which from thence he hears;
But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow,
That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow.
These ^^VftM^e'^f^sugar or to gall, Juu^^^d^
Being strong on both sides, are equivocal: ^f ^^juLfJi^dbx^
But words are words; I never yet did hear
That the bruised heart was pierced through the ear.
I humbly beseech you, proceed to the afifairs of state.
Duke. The Turk with a most mighty preparation 221
makes for Cyprus. Othello, the fortitude of the
43
^
rt-^
Act I. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
place is best known to you; and though we have
there a substitute of most allowed sufficiency,
yet opinion, a sovereign mistress of effects,
throws a more safer voice on you: you must
therefore be content to slubber the gloss of your
new fortunes with this more stubborn and bois-
terous expedition.
0th. The tyrant custom, most grave senators, 230
Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down : I do agnize
A natural and prompt alacrity
I find in hardness ; and do undertake
These present wars against the Ottomites.
Most humbly therefore bending to your state,
I crave fit disposition for my wife,
Due reference of place and exhibition.
With such accommodation and besort
As levels with her breeding.
Duke. If you please, 240
Be 't at her father's.
Bra. I '11 not have it so.
0th. Nor I.
Des. Nor I, I would not there reside.
To put my father in impatient thoughts
By being in his eye. Most gracious dukc^
To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear.
And let me find a charter in your voice
To assist my simpleness.
Duke. What would you, Desdemona?
Dcs. That I did love the Moor to live with him.
My downright violence and storm of fortunes 250
May trumpet to the world : my heart 's subdued
44
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act I. Sc. iii.
Even to the very quality of my lord:
I 5aw Othello's visage in his mind,
And to his honours and his valiant parts
Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.
So that, dear lords, if I be left behind,
A moth of peace, and he go to the war,
The rites for which I love him are bereft me, ,
And I a heavy interim shall support
By his dear absence. Let me go with him. 260
0th. Let her have your voices.
Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not,
To please the palate of my appetite;
Nor to comply with heat — the young affects
In me defunct — and proper satisfaction;
But to be free and bounteous to her mind:
And heaven defend your good souls, that you think
I will your serious and great business scant
For she is with me. No, when light-wing'd toys
Of feather'd Cupid seel with wanton dullness 270
My speculative and officed instruments,
That my disports corrupt and taint my business,
Let housewives make a skillet of m.y helm.
And all indign and base adversities
Make head against my estimation!
Duke. Be it as you shall privately determine.
Either for her stay or going: the afifair cries haste,
And speed must answer 't; you must hence to-night.
Des. To-night, my lord?
Duke. This night.
0th. With all my heart.
Duke. At nine i' the morning here we '11 meet again. 280
Othello, leave some officer behind,
45
Act I. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
And he shall our commission bring to you;
With such things else of quality and respect'
As doth import you.
0th. So please your grace, my ancient;
A man he is of honesty and trust:
To his conveyance I assign my wife,
With what else needful your good grace shall think
To be sent after me.
Duke. Let it be so.
"^ jGood night to every one. [To Brah.] And, noble
<iy signior,
4^ f If virtue no delighted beauty lack, 290
Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.
First Sen. Adieu, brave Moor; use Desdemona well.
Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see
She has deceived her father, and may thee.
[Exeunt Duke, Senators, Officers, &c.
0th. My life upon her faith! Honest lago.
My Desdemona must I leave to thee:
I prithee, let thy wife attend on her;
And bring them after in the best advantage.
Come, Desdemona ; I have but an hour
Of love, of worldly matters and direction, 300
To spend with thee : we must obey the time.
[Exeunt Othello and Desdemona.
Rod. lago!
logo. What say'st thou, noble heart?
Rod. What will I do, thinkest thou?
lago. Why, go to bed and sleep.
Rod. I will incontinently drown myself.
lago. If thou dost, I shall never love thee after.
Why, thou silly gentleman!
46
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act I. Sc. iii.
Rod. It is silliness to live when to live is torment;
and then have we a prescription to die when 310
death is our physician.
logo. O villanons! I have looked upon the world
for four times seven years; and since I could
distinguish betwixt a benefit and an injury, I
never found man that knew how to love himself.
Ere I would say I would drown myself for
the love of a guinea-hen, I would change my
humanity with a baboon.
Rod. What should I do? I confess it is my shame
to be so fond; but it is not in my virtue to 320
amend it.
lago. 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 Hes
in our wills. If the balance of our lives had not 330
one scale of reason to poise another of sensual-
ity, the blood and baseness of our natures would
conduct us to most preposterous conclusions:
but we have reason to cool our raging motions,
our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts; whereof
I take this, that you call love, to be a sect or
scion.
Rod. It cannot be.
lago. It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission
of the will. Come, be a man: drown thyself! 340
47
Act I. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
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. It cannot be that
Desdemona should long continue her love to
the Moor — put money in thy purse — nor he his
to her: it was a violent commencement, and 350
thou shalt see an answerable sequestration; put
but money in thy purse. These ivloors are
changeable in their wills: — fill thy purse with
money. The food that to him now is as luscious
as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as
coloquintida. She must change for youth:
when she is sated with his body, she will find the
error of her choice : she must have change, she
must: therefore put money m thy purse. If
thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a more deli- 360
cate way than drowning. Make all the money
thou canst: if sanctimony and a frail vow be-
twixt an erring barbarian and a supersubtle
Venetian be not too hard for my wits and all the
tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her; therefore
make money. A pox of drowning thyself! it is
clean out of the way: seek thou rather to be
hanged in compassmg thy joy than to be
drowned and go without her.
Rod. Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on 370
the issue?
lago. Thou art sure of me: go, make money: I have
48
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act I. Sc. iii.
told thee often, and I re-tell thee again and
again, I hate the Moor : my cause is hearted ;
thine hath no less reason. Let us be conjunctive
in our revenge against him : if thou canst cuckold
him, thou dost thyself a pleasure, me a sport.
There are many events in the womb of time,
which will be delivered. Traverse ; go ; pro-
vide thy money. We will have more of this 380
to-morrow. Adieu.
Rod. Where shall we meet i' the morning?
lago. At my lodging.
Rod. I '11 be with thee betimes,
lago. Go to : farewell. Do you hear, Roderigo ?
Rod. What say you ?
lago. No more of drowning, do you hear?
Rod. I am changed : I '11 go sell all my land. [Exit,
lago. Thus do I ever make my fool my purse ;
For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane.
If I would time expend with such a snipe 391
But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor ;
And it is thought abroad that 'twixt my sheets
He has done my office : I know not if 't be true ;
But I for mere suspicion in th^t kind
Will do as if for surety. He holds me well ;
The better shall my purpose work on him.
Cassio 's a proper man : let me see now :
To get his place, and to plume up my will
In double knavery — How, how ? — Let 's see : — 400
After some time, to abuse Othello's ear
That he is too familiar with his wife.
He hath a person and a smooth dispose
To be suspected ; framed to make women false.
49
Act II. Sc. i. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
The Moor is of a free and open nature,
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so ;
And will as tenderly be led by the nose
As asses are.
I have 't. It is engender'd. Hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light.
[Exit.
ACT SECOND.
Scene I.
A sea-port in Cyprus, An open place near the quay.
Enter Montano and tzvo Gentlemen.
Mon. What from the cape can you discern at sea?
First Gent. Nothing at all : it is a high-wrought flood ;
I cannot, 'twixt the heaven and the main.
Descry a sail.
Mon. Alethinks the wind hath spoke aloud at land ;
A fuller blast ne'er shook our battlements :
If it hath ruffian'd so upon the sea,
What ribs of oak, when mountains melt on them.
Can hold the mortise? What shall we hear of this?
Sec. Gent. A segregation of the Turkish fleet : lo
For do but stand upon the foaming shore.
The chidden billow seems to pelt the clouds
The wind-shaked surge, with high and monstrous
mane.
Seems to cast water on the burning bear.
And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole :
I never did like molestation view
On the enchafed flood.
50
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act II. Sc. i.
Mon. If that the Turkish fleet
Be not enshelter'd and embay'd, they are drown'd ;
It is impossible to bear it out.
Enter a third Gentleman.
Third Gent. News, lads! our wars are done. 20
The desperate tempest hath so bang'd the Turks,
That their designment halts : a noble ship of Venice
Hath seen a grievous wreck and sufferance
On most part of their fleet.
Mon. How ! is this true ?
Third Gent. The ship is here put in,
A Veronesa ; Michael Cassio,
Lieutenant to the warlike Moor Othello,
Is come on shore : the Moor himself at sea,
And is in full commission here for Cyprus.
Mon. I am glad on 't ; 'tis a worthy governor. 30
Third Gent. But this same Cassio, though he speak of
comfort
Touching the Turkish loss, yet he looks sadly
And prays the Moor be safe ; for they were parted
With foul and violent tempest.
Mon. Pray heavens he be;
For I have served him, and the man commands
Like a full soldier. Let 's to the seaside, ho !
As well to see the vessel that 's come in
As to throw out our eyes for brave Othello,
Even till we make the main and the aerial blue
An indistinct regard.
Third Gent. Come, let 's do so; 40
For every minute is expectancy
Of more arrivance.
SI
Act II. Sc. i. ' TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Enter Cassio.
Cas. Thanks, you the valiant of this warlike isle,
That so approve the Moor ! O, let the heavens
Give him defence against the elements,
For I have lost him on a dangerous sea.
Mon. Is he well shipp'd?
Cas. His bark is stoutly timber'd, and his pilot
Of very expert and approved allowance;
Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death, 50
Stand in bold cure.
[A cry within : ' A sail, a sail, a sail ! '
Enter a fourth Gentleman.
Cas. What Moise?
Fourth Gent. The town is empty ; on the brow o' the sea
Stand ranks of people, and they cry ' A sail ! '
Cas. My hopes do shape him for the governor.
{Giins heard.
Sec. Gent. They do discharge their shot of courtesy:
Our friends at least.
Cas. I pray you, sir, go forth,
And give us truth who 'tis that is arrived.
Sec. Gent. I shall. [Exit.
Mon. But, good lieutenant, is your general wived ? 60
Cas. Most fortunately : he hath achieved a maid
That paragons description and wild fame ;
One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens,
And in the essential vesture of creation
Does tire the ingener.
Re-enter second Gentleman.
How now ! who has put in ?
52
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act II. Sc. i.
Sec. Gent. 'Tis one lago, ancient to the general.
Cas. He has had most favourable and happy speed :
Tempests. themselves, high seas, and howling winds.
The gutter'd rocks, and congregated sands,
Traitors ensteep'd to clog the guiltless keel, 70
As having sense of beauty, do omit
Their mortal natures, letting go safely by
The divine Desdemona.
Mon. \Miat is she?
Cas. She that I spake of, our great captain's captain,
Left in the conduct of the bold lago ;
Whose footing here anticipates our thoughts
A se nnight's speed. Great Jove, Othello guard,
And swell his sail with thine own powerful breath,
That he may bless this bay with his tall ship,
Make love's quick pants in Desdemona's arms, 80
Give renew 'd fire to our extincted spirits,
And bring all Cyprus comfort.
Enter Desdemona, Emilia, lago, Roderigo, and
Attendants.
O, behold.
The riches of the ship is come on shore !
\ e men of Cyprus, let her have your knees.
Hail to thee, lady ! and the grace of heaven,
Before, behind thee, and on every hand,
i^nwheel thee round !
Des. I thank you, valiant Cassio.
What tidings can you tell me of my lord ?
Cas, He is not yet arrived : nor know I aught
But that he 's well and will be shortly here. 90
Des. O, but I fear — How lost you company ?
Cas, The great contention of the sea and skies
53
Act II. Sc. i. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Parted our fellowship — But, hark ! a sail.
[A cry zvithin : ' A sail, a sail ! ' Guns heard.
Sec. Gent. They give their greeting to the citadel :
This likewise is a friend.
Cas. See for the news. [Exit Gentleman.
Good ancient, you are welcome. {To Emilia] Wel-
come, mistress :
Let it not gall your patience, good lago,
That I extend my manners ; 'tis my breeding
That gives me this bold show of courtesy. lOO
[Kissi)ig her.
lago. Sir, would she give you so much of her lips
As of her tongue she oft bestows on me,
You 'Id have enough.
Des. Alas, she has no speech.
lago. In faith, too much ;
I find it still when I have list to sleep :
Marry, before your ladyship, I grant,
She puts her tongue a little in her heart
And chides with thinking.
Emil. You have little cause to say so.
lago. Come on, come on; you are pictures out of
doors, no
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.
Des. O, fie upon thee, slanderer!
lago. Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk :
You rise to play, and go to bed to work.
EviiL You shall not write my praise.
lago. No, let me not.
54
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act II. Sc. i.
Dcs. What wouldst thou write of me, if thou shouldst
praise me?
lago. O gentle lady, do not put me to 't;
For I am nothing if not critical. 120
Dcs. Come on, assay — There 's one gone to the harbour?
lago. Ay, madam.
Des. I am not merry; but I do beguile
The thing I am by seeming otherwise.
Come, how wouldst thou praise me?
lago. I am about it; but indeed my invention
Comes from my pate as birdlime does from frize;
It plucks out brains and all: but my Muse labours,
And thus she is deliver'd.
If she be fair and wise, fairness and wit, 130
The one's for use, the other useth it.
Des. Well praised! How if she be black and witty?
lago. If she be black, and thereto have a wit.
She '11 find a white that shall her blackness fit.
Dcs. Worse and worse.
Entil. How if fair and foolish?
lago. She never yet was foolish that was fair;
For even her folly help'd her to an heir.
Dcs. These are old fond paradoxes to make fools
laugh i' the alehouse. What miserable praise 140
hast thou for her that's foul and foolish?
lago. There 's none so foul, and foolish thereunto,
But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do.
Dcs. O heavy ignorance ! thou praisest the worst best.
But what praise couldst thou bestow on a de-
serving woman indeed, one that in the author-
ity of her merit did justly put on the vouch of
very malice itself?
55
Act II. Sc. i. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
lago. She that was ever fair and never proud,
Had tongue at v^ill and yet was never loud, 150
Never lack'd gold and yet went never gay,
Fled from her wish and yet said ' Now I may ';
She that, being anger'd, her revenge being nigh.
Bade her wrong stay and her displeasure fly;
She that in wisdom never was so frail
To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail;
She that could think and ne'er disclose her mind.
See suitors following and not look behind;
She was a wight, if ever such wight were, —
Dcs. To do what? 160
lago. To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.
Dcs. O most lame and impotent conclusion ! Do not
learn of him, Emilia, though he be thy husband.
How say you, Cassio? is he not a most profane
and liberal counsellor?
Cas. He speaks home, madam: you may relish him
more in the soldier than in the scholar.
lago. [Asidc^^ He takes her by the palm: ay, well
said, whisper: with as little a web as this will I
ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. Ay, smile upon 170
her, do; I will gyve thee in thine own courtship.
You say true; 'tis so, indeed: if such tricks as
these strip you out of your lieutenantry, it had
been better you had not kissed your three fin-
gers so oft, which now again you are most apt
to play the sir in. Very good; well kissed! an
excellent courtesy! 'tis so, indeed. Yet again
your fingers to your lips? would they were clys-
ter-pipes for your sake! — [Trumpet within.']
The Moor! I know his trumpet. 180
56
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act II. Sc. i.
Cas. 'Tis truly so.
Des. Let 's meet him and receive him.
Cas. Lo, where he comes !
Enter Othello and Attendants.
0th. O my fair warrior!
Des. Aly dear Othello !
0th. It gives me wonder great as my content
To see you here before me. O my soul's joy !
If after every tempest come such calms,
May the winds blow till they have waken'd death!
And let the labouring bark climb hills of seas
Olympus-high, and duck again as low 190
As hell 's from heaven ! If it were now to die,
'Twere now to be most happy ; for I fear,
My soul hath her content so absolute
That not another comfort like to this
Succeeds in unknown fate.
Des. The heavens forbid
But that our loves and comforts should increase.
Even as our days do grow !
0th. Amen to that, sweet powers !
I cannot speak enough of this content ;
It stops me here ; it is too much of joy : 199
And this, and this, the greatest discords be
[Kissing her.
That e'er our hearts shall make!
I ago. \ Aside] O, you arc well tuned now!
But I '11 set down the pegs that make this music,
As honest as I am.
0th. Come, let us to the castle.
News, friends ; our wars are done, the Turks are
drown 'd.
57
Act II. Sc. i. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
How does my old acquaintance of this isle?
Honey, you shall be well desired in Cyprus ;
I have found great love amongst them. O my sweet,
I prattle cut of fashion, and I dote
In mine own comforts. I prithee, good lago,
Go to the bay, and disembark my coffers : 210
Bring thou the master to the citadel ;
He is a good one, and his worthiness
Does challenge much respect. Come, Desdemona,
Once more well met at Cyprus.
[Exeunt all but lago and Roderigo.
lago. Do thou meet me presently at the harbour.
Come hither. If thou be'st valiant — as, they
say, base men being in love have then a nobility
in their natures more than is native to them —
list me. The lieutenant to-night watches on
the court of guard. First, I must tell thee this : 220
Desdemona is directly in love with him.
Rod. With him ? why, 'tis not possible.
lago. Lay thy finger thus, and let- thy soul be in-
structed. 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 230
to inflame it and to give satiety a fresh appetite,
loveliness in favour, sympathy in years, manners
and beauties ; all which the Moor is defective
in : now, for want of these required conveniences,
her delicate tenderness will find itself abused,
58
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act II. Sc. i.
begin to heave the gorge, disrelish and abhor
the ]Moor; very nature will instruct her in it and
compel her to some second choice. Now, sir,
this granted — as it is a most pregnant and un-
forced position — who stands so eminently in 240
the degree of this fortune as Cassio does? a
knave very voluble; no further conscionable
than in putting on the mere form of civil and
humane seeming, for the better compassing
of his salt and most hidden loose affection? why,
none; why, none: a slipper and subtle knave;
a finder out of occasions; that has an eye can
stamp and counterfeit advantages, though true
advantage never present itself: a devilish knave!
Besides, the knave is handsome, young, and hath 250
all those requisites in him that folly and green
minds look after: a pestilent complete knave;
and the woman hath found him already.
Rod. I cannot believe that in her; she 's full of most
blest condition.
lago. Blest fig's-end! the wine she drinks is made
of grapes; if she had been blest, she would
never have loved the Moor: blest pudding!
Didst thou not see her paddle with the palm of
his hand? didst not mark that? 260
Rod. Yes, that I did; but that was but courtesy.
lago. Lechery, by this hand; an index and obscure
prologue to the history of lust and foul thoughts.
They met so near with their lips that their
breaths embraced together. Villanous thoughts,
Roderigo! when these mutualities so marshal
the way, hard at hand comes the master and
S9
Act II. Sc. i TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
main exercise, the incorporate conclusion: pish!
But, sir, be you ruled by me: I have brought
you from Venice. Watch you to-night; for 270
the command, I '11 lay 't upon you : Cassio
knows you not: I '11 not be far from you: do
you find some occasion to anger Cassio, either
by speaking too loud, or tainting his discipline,
or from what other course you please, which the
time shall more favourably minister.
Rod. Well.
lago. Sir, he is rash and very sudden in choler, and
haply may strike at you: provoke him, that he
may; for even out of that will I cause these of 280
Cyprus to mutiny; whose qualification shall
come into no true taste again but by the dis-
planting of Cassio. So shall you have a shorter
journey to your desires by the means I shall
then have to prefer them, and the impediment
most profitably removed, without the which
there were no expectation of our prosperity.
Rod. I will do this, if I can bring it to any oppor-
tunity.
Icigo. I warrant thee. Meet me by and -by at the 290
citadel: I must fetch his necessaries ashore.
Farewell.
Rod. Adieu. [Exit.
logo. That Cassio loves her, I do well believe it;
That she loves him, 'tis apt and o^ great credit:
The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not,
Is of a constant, loving, noble nature;
And I dare think he '11 prov^ to Desdemona
A. most dear husband. Now, I do love her too,
60
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act II. Sc. ii.
Not out of absolute lust, though peradventure 300
I stand accountant for as great a sin,
But partly led to diet my revenge,
For that I do suspect the lusty Moor
Hath leap'd into my seat: the thought whereof
Doth like a poisonous mineral gnaw my inwards ;
And nothing can or shall content my soul
Till I am even'd with him, wife for wife;
Or failing so, yet that I put the Moor
At least into a jealousy so strong
That judgement cannot cure. Which thing to do,
If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trash 311
For his quick hunting, stand the putting on,
I '11 have our ^Michael Cassio on the hip,
Abuse him to the Moor in the rank garb;
For I fear Cassio with my night-cap too;
Make the Moor thank me, love me and reward me,
For making him egregiously an ass
And practising upon his peace and quiet
Even to madness. 'Tis here, but yet confused: 319
Knavery's plain face is never seen till used. [Exit.
Scene II.
A street.
Enter a Herald z^itJi a proclamation; people
follozving.
Her. It is Othello's pleasure, our noble and valiant
general, that upon certain tidings now arrived,
importing the mere perdition of the Turkish
fleet, every man put himself into triumph: some
to dance, some to make bonfires, each man to
what sport and revels his addiction leads him : for,
61
Act II. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
besides these beneficial news, it is the celebration
of his nuptial. So much was his pleasure should
be proclaimed. All offices are open, and there
is full liberty of feasting from this present hour lo
of five till the bell have told eleven. Heaven
bless the isle of Cyprus and our noble general
Othello! [Exeunt.
Scene III.
A hall in the castle.
Enter Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, and Attendants.
0th. Good Michael, look you to the guard to-night:
Let 's teach ourselves that honourable stop,
Not to outsport discretion.
Cas. lago hath direction what to do;
But notwithstanding with my personal eye
Will I look to 't.
0th. lago is most honest.
Michael, good night: to-morrow with your earliest
Let me have speech with you. Come, my dear love.
The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue;
That profit 's yet to come 'tween me and you. lo
Good night.
[Exeunt Othello, Desdemona, and Attendants.
Enter lago.
Cas. Welcome, lago; we must* to the watch.
lago. Not this hour, lieutenant ; 'tis not yet ten o' the
clock. Our general cast us thus early for the
love of his Desdemona ; who let us not therefore
62
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act II. Sc. iii.
blame : he hath not yet made wanton the night
with her, and she is sport for Jove,
Cas. She 's a most exquisite lady.
lago. And, I '11 warrant her, full of game.
Cas. Indeed she 's a most fresh and delicate creature. 20
lago. What an eye she has! methinks it sounds a
parley to provocation.
Cas. An inviting eye ; and yet methinks right modest.
lago. And when she speaks, is it not an alarum to
love?
Cas. She is indeed perfection.
lago. Well, happiness to their sheets! Come, lieu-
tenant, I have a stoup of wine; and here with-
out are a brace of Cyprus gallants that would
fain have a measure to the health of black 30
Othello.
Cas. Not to-night, good lago : I have very poor and
unhappy brains for drinking: I could well wish
courtesy would invent some other custom of
entertainment.
lago. O, they are our friends; but one cup: I'll
drink for you.
Cas. I have drunk but one cup to-night, and that
was craftily qualified too, and behold what in-
novation it makes here: I am unfortunate in the 40
infirmity, and dare not task my weakness with
any more.
lago. What, man! 'tis a night of revels: the gallants
desire it.
Cas. Where are they?
lago. Here at the door; I pray you, call them in.
Cas. I '11 do 't; but it dislikes me. [Exit.
63
Act II. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
I ago. If I can fasten but one cup upon him,
With that which he hath drunk to-night already,
He '11 be as full of quarrel and offence 50
As my young mistress' dOg. Now my sick fool
Roderigo,
Whom love hath turn'd almost the wrong side out,
To Desdemona hath to-night caroused
Potations pottle-deep; and he 's to watch:
Three lads of Cyprus, noble swelHng spirits.
That hold their honours in a wary distance,
The very elements of this warlike isle,
Have I to-night fluster'd with flowing cups,
And they watch too. Now, 'mongst this flock of
drunkards,
Am I to put our Cassio in some action 60
That may offend the isle. But here they come:
If consequence do but approve my dream,
My boat sails freely, both with wind and stream.
Re-enter Cassio; with him Montano and Gentlemen;
Servants folloiving zvith zvine.
Cas. 'Fore God, they have given me a rouse already.
Mon. Good faith, a little one; not past a pint, as I
am a soldier.
lago. Some wine, ho!
f^/n^^^] And let me the canakin cHnk, clink;
And let me the canakin clink:
A soldier 's a man; 70
A life's but a span;
Why then let a soldier drink.
Some wine, boys!
Cas. 'Fore God, an excellent song.
64
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act II. Sc. iii.
lago. I learned it in England, where indeed they are
most potest in potting: your Dane, your Ger-
man, and your swag-bellied Hollander, — Drink,
ho! — are nothing to your EngHsh.
Cas. Is your Englishman so expert in his drinking?
lago. Why, he drinks you with facility your Dane 80
dead drunk; he sweats not to overthrow your
Almain; he gives your Hollander a vomit ere
the next pottle can be filled.
Cas. To the health of our general!
Mon. I am for it, lieutenant, and I '11 do you justice.
lago. O sweet England!
r^/;z^^] King Stephen was a worthy peer,
His breeches cost him but a crown;
He held them sixpence all too dear.
With that he call'd the tailor lown. 90
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 't again?
Cas. No; for I hold him to be unworthy of his place
that does those things. Well: God's above 100
all; and there be souls must be saved, and there
be souls must not be saved.
lago. It 's true, good lieutenant.
Cas. For mine own part — no ofifence to the general,
nor any man of quality — I hope to be saved.
65
Act II. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
lago. 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.
God forgive us our sins! Gentlemen, let 's look no
to our business. Do not think, gentlemen, I am
drunk: this is my ancient: this is my right
hand, and this is my left. 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.
Mon. To the platform, masters; come, let 's set the
watch. 1 20
lago. You see this fellow that is gone before;
He is a soldier fit to stand by Caesar
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?
lago. Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep:
He '11 watch the horologe a double set, 130
If drink rock not his cradle.
Mon. It were well
The general w^ere 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?
66
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act II. Sc. iii.
Enter Rodcrigo.
lago. [Aside to hini] How now, Roderigo !
I pray you, after the lieutenant ; go ! [Exit Roderigo.
Mon. And 'tis great pity that the noble Moor
Should hazard such a place as his own second
With one of an ingraft infirmity : 140
It were an honest action to say
So to the Moor.
lago. Not I, for this fair island :
I do love Cassio well, and would do much
To cure him of this evil: — But, hark! what noise?
[A cry within: * Help ! help ! '
Re-enter Cassio, drivim^ in Roderis^o.
Cas. 'Zounds ! you rogue ! you rascal !
Mo}i. What 's the matter, lieutenant?
Cas. A knave teach me my duty ! But I '11 beat the
knave into a wicker bottle.
Rod. Beat me !
Cas. Dost thou prate, rogue ? [Striking Roderigo. 150
Mon. Nay, good lieutenant ; I pray you, sir, hold
your hand.
Cas. Let me go, sir, or I '11 knock you o'er the mazzard.
Mon. Come, come, you 're drunk.
Cas. Drunk! [They fight.
lago. [Aside to Roderigo] Away, I say; go out, and cry
a mutiny. [E,rit Roderigo.
Nay, good lieutenant ! God's will, gentlemen !
Help, ho ! — Lieutenant, — sir, — Montano, — sir ; —
Help, masters ! — Here 's a goodly watch indeed !
[A bell rings.
Who 's that that rings the bell ?— Diablo, ho !
67
Act II. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
The town will rise : God's will, lieutenant, hold ; i6o
You will be shamed for ever.
Re-enter Othello and Attendants.
0th. What is the matter here?
Mon. "Zounds, I bleed still ; I am hurt to the death.
[Faints.
0th. Hold, for your lives !
lago. Hold, ho! Lieutenant, — sir, — Montano, — gentle-
men, —
Have you forgot all sense of place and duty?
Hold! the general speaks to you; hold, hold, for shame!
0th. 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 171
Holds his soul light ; he dies upon his motion.
Silence that dreadful bell : it frights the isle
From her propriety. W^hat is the matter, masters ?
Honest lago, that look'st dead with grieving,
Speak, w^ho began this ? on thy love, I charge thee.
lago. I do not know : friends all but now, even now,
In quarter, and in terms like bride and groom
Devesting them for bed ; and then, but now,
As if some planet had unwitted men, 180
vSwords 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
Those legs that brought me to a part of it !
0th. How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot?
68
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act II. Sc. iii.
Cas. I pray you, pardon me; I cannot speak.
0th. Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil;
The gravity and stillness of your youth
The world hath noted, and your name is great 190
In mouths of wisest censure: what's the matter,
That you unlace your reputation 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 ofBcer, lago, can inform you —
While I spare speech, which something now ofTends
me —
Of all that I do know: nor know I aught
By me that 's said or done amiss this night;
Unless self-charity be sometimes a vice, 200
And to defend ourselves it be a sin
When violence assails us.
0th. Now, by heaven,
My blood begins my safer guides to rule,
And passion, having my best judgement collied,
Assays to lead the way: if I once stir.
Or do but hft this arm, the best of you
Shall sink in my rebuke. Give me to know
How this foul rout began, who set it on,
And he that is approved in this ofifence,
Though he had twinn'd with me, both at a birth, 210
Shall lose me. What, in a town of war,
Yet wild, the people's hearts brimful of fear.
To manage private and domestic quarrel.
In night, and on the court and guard of safety!
'Tis monstrous. lago, who began 't?
Mon. If partially affined, or leagued in ofifice,
Thou dost deliver more or less than truth,
69
Act II. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Thou art no soldier.
I ago. Touch me not so near:
I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth
Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio; 220
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 determined 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 — 229
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 cannot I report:
But men are men; the best sometimes forget:
Though Cassio did some little wrong to him, 240
As men in rage strike those that wish them best,
Yet surely Cassio, I believe, received
From him that fled some strange indignity.
Which patience could not pass.
0th. I know, lago.
Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter,
Making it light to Cassio. Cassio, I love thee;
But never more be officer of mine.
70
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act II. Sc. iii.
Re-enter Desdcinona, attended.
Look, if my gentle love be not raised up !
I '11 make thee an example.
Des. What 's the matter?
0th. All 's well now, sweeting; come away to bed, 250
Sir, for your hurts, myself will be your surgeon :
[To Montana, who is led off.
Lead him off.
lago, look with care about the town,
xA.nd silence those whom this vile brawl distracted.
Come, Desdemona : 'tis the soldiers' life
To have their balmy slumbers waked with strife.
[Exeunt all but lago and Cassio,
lago. What, are you hurt, lieutenant ?
Cas. Ay, past all surgery.
lago. Marry, heaven forbid!
Cas. Reputation, reputation, reputation ! O, I have 260
lost my reputation ! I have lost the immortal
part of myself, and what remains is bestial.
My reputation, lago, my reputation !
lago. As I am an honest man, I thought you had
received some bodily wound ; there is more
sense in that than in reputation. Reputation is
an idle and most false imposition ; oft got with-
out merit and lost without deserving: you have
lost no reputation at all, unless you repute your-
self such a loser. What, man ! there are ways 270
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.
71
Act II. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
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? and squabble? swagger? swear? and
discourse fustian with one's own shadow? O 280
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 't possible?
Cas. I remember a mass of things, but nothing dis-
tinctly ; a quarrel, but nothing wherefore. O
God, that men should put an enemy in their
mouths to steal away their brains ! that we 290
should, with joy, pleasance, revel and applause,
transform ourselves into beasts !
lago. \\' hy, 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.
la^o. Come, you are too severe a moraler : as the
time, the place, and the condition of this country 300
stands, I could heartily wish this had not be-
fallen ; 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
72-
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act II. Sc. iii.
by a fool, and presently a beast! O strange!
Every inordinate cup is unblest, and the in-
gredient is a devil. 310
lago. Come, come, good wine is a good familiar
creature, if it be well used: exclaim no more
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 '11 tell you what you shall do.
Our general's wife is now the general. I mav
say so in this respect, for that he hath devoted
and given up himself to the contemplation, mark 320
and denotement of her parts and graces: con-
fess yourself freely to her; importune her help
to put you in your place again : she is of so free,
so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition, 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. 330
Cas. You advise me well.
lago. I protest, in the sincerity of love and honest
kindness.
Cas. I think it freely; and betimes in the morning I
will beseech the virtuous Desdemona to under-
take for me: I am desperate of my fortunes if
they check me here.
lago. You are in the right. Good night, lieutenant;
I must to the watch.
72
Act II. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Cas. Good night, honest lago. [Exit. 340
lago. 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 v^in the Moor again? For 'tis most easy
The inclining Desdemona to subdue
In any honest suit. She 's framed as fruitful
As the free elements. And then for her
To w^in the Moor, w^ere 't to renounce his baptism,
All seals and symbols of redeemed sin,
His soul is so enfetter'd to her love, 350
That she may make, unmake, do what she list,
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,
They do suggest at first with heavenly shows,
As I do now: for whiles this honest fool
Plies Desdemona to repair his fortunes,
And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor, 360
I '11 pour this pestilence into his ear.
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
That shall enmesh them all.
Enter Rodcrigo.
How now, Roderigo!
Rod. I do follow here in the chase, not like a hound
74
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act II. Sc. iii.
that hunts, but one that fills up the cry. My
money is almost spent; I have been to-night 370
exceedingly well cudgelled; and I think the
issue will be, I shall have so rijuch experience
for my pains ; and so, with no money at all and
a little more wit, return again to Venice.
I ago. 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 witch-
craft,
And wit depends on dilatory time.
Does 't not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee, 380
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.
Retire thee; go where thou art billeted:
Away, I say; thou shalt know more hereafter:
Nay, get thee gone. [Exit Rod.] Two things are
to be done:
My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress;
I'll set her on; 39°
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;
Dull not device by coldness and delay. [Exit.
75
Act III. Sc. i. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
ACT THIRD.
Scene I.
Before the castle.
Enter Cassio and some Musicians.
Cas. Masters, play here; I will content your pains;
Something that 's brief; and bid ' Good morrow,
general.' [Music.
Enter Cloivn.
Clo. Why, masters, have your instruments been in
Naples, that they speak i' the nose thus?
First M us. How, sir, how?
Clo. Are these, I pray you, wind-instruments?
First Mas. Ay, marry, are they, sir.
Clo. O, thereby hangs a tail.
First Mils. Whereby hangs a tale, sir?
Clo. Marry, sir, by many a wind-instrument that I lo
know. But, masters, here 's money for you:
and the general so likes your music, that he de-
sires you, for love's sake, to make no more noise
with it.
First Mils. Well, sir, we will not.
Clo. If you have any music that may not be heard,
to 't again: but, as they say, to hear music the
general does not greatly care.
First Mus. We have none such, sir.
Clo. Then put up your pipes in your bag, for I '11 20
away: go; vanish into air; away!
[Exeunt Musicians.
Cas. Dost thou hear, my honest friend ?
76
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act III. Sc. i.
Clo. No, I hear not your honest friend; I hear you.
Cas, 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 entreats her a little favour of
speech: wilt thou do this?
Clo. She is stirring, sir : if she will stir hither, I shall
seem to notify unto her. 30
Cas. Do, good my friend. {Exit Clown.
Enter lago.
In happy time, lago.
lago. You have not been a-bed, then?
Cas. Why, no; the day had broke
Before we parted. I have made bold, lago,
To send in to your wife: my suit to her
Is, that she will to virtuous Desdemona
Procure me some access.
lago. I '11 send her to you presently;
And I '11 devise a mean to draw the Moor
Out of the way, that your converse and business
May be more free. 40
Cas. I humbly thank you for 't. [Exit lago.] I never knew
A Florentine more kind and honest.
Enter Emilia.
Emil. 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
And great affinity, and that in wholesome wisdom
77
Act III. Sc. ii.=iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
He might not but refuse you; but he protests he
loves you,
And needs no other suitor but his Hkings 50
To take the safest occasion by the front
To bring you in again.
Cas. Yet, I beseech you,
If you think fit, or that it may be done,
Give me advantage of some brief discourse
With Desdemona alone.
Einil. Pray you, come in:
I will bestow you where you shall have time
To speak your bosom freely.
Cas. I am much bound to you.
[Exeunt.
Scene IL
A room in the castle.
Enter Othello, lago, and Gentlemen.
0th. These letters give, lago, 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.
lago. Well, my good lord, I '11 do 't.
0th. This fortification, gentlemen, shall we see 't?
Gent. We '11 wait upon your lordship. [Exeunt.
Scene IIL
The garden of the castle.
Enter Desdemona, Cassio, and Emilia.
Des. Be thou assured, good Cassio, I will do
All my abilities in thy behalf.
78
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act III. Sc. iii.
Emil. Good madam, do : I warrant it grieves my husband
As if the case were his.
Des. O, that 's an honest fellow. Do not doubt, Cassio,
But I will have my lord and you again
As friendly as you were.
Cas. Bounteous madam,
Whatever shall become of Michael Cassio,
He 's never any thing but your true servant.
Des. I know 't : I thank you. You do love my lord : lo
You have known him long; and be you well assured
He shall in strangeness stand no farther off
Than in a politic distance.
Cas. , Ay, but, lady,
That policy may either last so long.
Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet,
Or breed itself so out of circumstance,
That, I being absent and my place supplied,
My general will forget my love and service.
Des. Do not doubt that; before Emilia here
I give thee warrant of thy place: assure thee, 20
If I do vow a friendship, I '11 perform it
To the last article: my lord shall never rest;
I '11 watch him tame and talk him out of patience;
His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift;
I '11 intermingle every thing he does
With Cassio's suit: therefore be merry, Cassio;
For thy solicitor shall rather die
Than give thy cause away.
Enter Othello and lago, at a distance.
Emil. Madam, here comes my lord.
Cas. Madam, I '11 take my leave. 30
79
Act III. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Dcs. Nay, stay and hear me speak.
Cas. Madam, not now : I am very ill at ease,
Unfit for mine own purposes.
Dcs. Well, do your discretion. [Exit Cassio.
I ago. Ha! I like not that.
0th. What dost thou say?
I ago. Nothing, my lord : or if — I know not what.
0th. Was not that Cassio parted from my wife?
I ago. Cassio, my lord ! No, sure, I cannot think it,
That he would steal away so guilty-like,
Seeing you coming.
0th. I do believe 'twas he.
Des. How now, my lord!
I have been talking with a suitor here.
A man that languishes in your displeasure.
0th. Who is 't you mean?
Dcs. 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: 50
I prithee, call him back.
0th. Went he hence now?
Dcs. Ay, sooth; so humbled.
That he hath left part of his grief with me,
To suffer with him. Good love, call him back.
0th. Not now, sweet Desdemona; some other time.
Dcs. But shall 't be shortly?
0th. The' sooner, sweet, for you.
Dcs. Shall 't be to-night at supper?
0th. No, not to-night.
80
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act III. Sc. iii.
' Dcs. To-morrow dinner then?
0th. I shall not dine at home ;
I meet the captains at the citadel.
Des. Why then to-morrow night; or Tuesday morn; 60
On Tuesday noon, or night; on Wednesday morn:
I prithee, name the time; but let it not
Exceed three days: in faith, he 's penitent;
And yet his trespass, in our common reason —
Save that, they say, the wars must make examples
Out of their best — is not almost a fault
To incur a private check. When shall he come?
Tell me, Othello: I wonder in my soul,
What you would ask me, that I should deny, 69
Or stand so mammering on. What ! Michael Cassio,
That came a-wooing with you, and so many a time
When I have spoke of you dispraisingly
Hath ta'en your part; to have so much to do
To bring him in ! Trust me, I could do much —
0th. Prithee, no more: let him come when he will;
I will deny thee nothing.
Dcs. Why, this is not a boon ;
'Tis as I should entreat you wear your gloves,
Or feed on nourishing dishes, or keep you warm,
Or sue to you to do a peculiar profit
To your own person : nay, when I have a suit 80
Wherein I mean to touch your love indeed,
It shall be full of poise and difficult weight,
And fearful to be granted.
0th. I will deny thee nothing:
Whereon, I do beseech thee, grant me this.
To leave me but a little to myself.
Des. Shall I deny you? no: farewell, my lord.
81
Act III. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
Oth. Farewell, my Desdemona : I '11 come to thee straight.
Dcs. Emilia, come. Be as your fancies teach you;
Whate'er you be, I am obedient.
[Exeunt Desdemona and Emilia.
Oth. Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul, 90
But I do love thee! and when I love thee not,
Chaos is come again.
lago. My noble lord, —
Oth. What dost thou say, lago?
lago. Did Michael Cassio, when you woo'd my lady,
Know of your love?
Oth. He did, from first to last: why dost thou ask?
lago. But for a satisfaction of my thought;
No further harm.
Oth. Why of thy thought, lago?
lago. I did not think he had been acquainted with her.
Oth. O, yes, and went between us very oft. lOO
lago. Indeed!
Oth. Indeed! ay, indeed: discern'st thou aught in that?
Is he not honest?
lago. Honest, my lord!
Oth. Honest! ay, honest.
lago. My lord, for aught I know.
Oth. What dost thou think?
lago. Think, my lord!
Oth. Think, my lord! By heaven, he echoes me.
As if there were some monster in his thought
Too hideous to be shown. Thou dost mean some-
thing:
I heard thee say even now, thou likedst not that.
When Cassio left my wife: what didst not like? no
And when I told thee he was of my counsel
82
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act III. Sc. iii.
In my whole course of wooing, thou criedst ' 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.
lago. My lord, you know I love you.
0th. I think thou dost;
And for I know thou Vt full of love and honesty
And weigh'st thy words before thou givest them
breath.
Therefore these stops of thine fright me the more:
For such things in a false disloyal knave 121
Are tricks of custom; but in a man that 's just
They 're close delations, working from the heart.
That passion cannot rule.
Jcigo. For Michael Cassio,
I dare be sworn I think that he is honest.
0th. I think so too.
lago. Men should be what they seem;
Or those that be not, would they might seem none!
0th. Certain, men should be what they seem.
lago. Why then I think Cassio 's an honest man.
0th. Nay, yet there 's more in this: 130
I prithee, speak to me as to thy thinkings,
As thou dost ruminate, and give thy worst of thoughts
The worst of words.
lago. Good my lord, pardon me:
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 ;
And where 's that palace whereinto foul things
Sometimes intrude not? who has a breast so pure
83
Act III. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
But some uncleanly apprehensions
Keep leets and law-days, and in session sit 140
With meditations lawful?
Ofh. Thou dost conspire against thy friend, lago,
If thou but think'st him wrong'd and makest his ear
A stranger to thy thoughts.
lago. I do beeseech 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 — that your wisdom yet,
From one that so imperfectly conceits,
Would take no notice, nor build yourself a trouble
Out of his scattering and unsure observance. 151
It were not for your quiet nor your good,
Nor for my manhood, honesty, or wisdom.
To let you know my thoughts.
0th. What dost thou mean?
lago. Good name in man and woman, dear my lord.
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 160
And makes me poor indeed.
0th. By heaven, I '11 know thy thoughts.
lago. You cannot, if my heart were in your hand;
Nor shall not, whilst 'tis in my custody.
0th. Ha!
lago. O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock
84
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act III. Sc. iii.
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 !
0th. O misery! 171
lago. 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!
Ofh. Why, why is this!
Think'st thou I 'Id 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 resolved: exchange me for a goat, 180
When I shall turn the business of my soul
To such exsuiflicate and blown surmises,
Matching thy inference. 'Tis not to make me jealous
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:
Nor from mine 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; 190
And on the proof, there is no more but this,
Away at once with love or jealousy!
lago. I am glad of it; for now I shall have reason
To show the love and duty that I bear you
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;
85
Act III. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Wear your eye thus, not jealous nor secure:
I would not have your free and noble nature
Out of self-bounty be abused; look to 't: 200
I know our country disposition well;
In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks
They dare not show their husbands; their best con-
science
Is not to leave 't undone, but keep 't unknown.
0th. Dost thou say so?
I ago: She did deceive her father, marrying you ;
And when she seem'd to shake and fear your looks,
She loved them most.
0th. And so she did.
I ago. Why, go to then;
She that so young could give out such a seeming.
To seel her father's eyes up close as oak — 210
He thought 'twas witchcraft — but I am much to
blame;
I humbly do beseech you of your pardon
For too much loving you.
0th. I am bound to thee for ever.
lago. I see this hath a little dash'd your spirits.
0th. Not a jot, not a jot. ^
lago. V faith, I fear it has.
I hope you will consider what is spoke
Comes from my love; but I do see you're moved:
I am to pray you not to strain my speech
To grosser issues nor to larger reach
Than to suspicion. 220
0th. I will not.
lago. Should you do so, my lord,
My speech should fall into such vile success
As my thoughts aim not at. Cassio 's my worthy
friend —
86
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act III. Sc. iii.
My lord, I see you 're moved.
Oih. No, not much moved:
I do not think but Desdemona 's honest.
lago. Long Hve she so! and long live you to think so!
0th. And yet, how nature erring from itself —
lago. Ay, there 's the point : as — to be bold with you —
Not to effect many proposed matches
Of her own clime, complexion and degree, 230
Whereto we see in all things nature tends —
Foh! one may smell in such a will most rank,
Foul disproportion, thoughts unnatural.
But pardon me: I do not in position
Distinctly speak of her; though I may fear
Her will, recoiling to her better judgement.
May fall to match you with her country forms,
And happily repent,
0th. Farewell, farewell:
If more thou dost perceive, let me know more ;
Set on thy wife to observe: leave me, lago. 240
lago. [Going] My lord, I take my leave.
0th. Why did I marry? This honest creature doubtles^
Sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds.
lago. [Returning] My lord, I would I might entreat your
honour
To scan this thing no further; leave it to time:
Though it be fit that Cassio have his place.
For sure he fills it up with great ability,
Yet, if you please to hold him ofif awhile,
You shall by that perceive him and his means:
Note if your lady strain his entertainment 250
With any strong or vehement importunity;
Much will be seen in that. In the mean time,
87
Act III. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Let me be thought too busy in my fears —
As worthy cause I have to fear I am —
And hold her free, I do beseech your honour.
0th. Fear not my government.
lago. I once more take my leave. [Exit.
0th. This fellow 's of exceeding honesty,
And knows all qualities, with a learned spirit.
Of human dealings. If I do prove her haggard, 260
Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings,
I 'Id whistle her ofif and let her down the wind
To prey at fortune. Haply, for I am black
And have not those soft parts of conversation
That chamberers have, or for I am declined
Into the vale of years, — yet that 's not much —
She 's gone; I am abused, and my relief
Must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage,
That we can call these delicate creatures ours.
And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad.
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon, 271
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others' uses. Yet, 'tis the plague of great ones;
Prerogatived are they less than the base;
'Tis destiny unshunnable, like death:
Even then this forked plague is fated to us
When we do quicken. Desdemona comes:
Re-enter Desdemona and Emilia.
If she be false, O, then heaven mocks itself!
I '11 not believe 't.
Des. How now, my dear Othello!
Your dinner, and the generous islanders 280
By you invited, do attend your presence.
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act III. Sc. iii.
0th. I am to blame.
Dcs. Why do you speak so faintly?
Are you not well?
0th. I have a pain upon my forehead here.
Dcs. Faith, that 's with watching; 'twill away again:
Let me but bind it hard, within this hour
It will be well.
0th. Your napkin is too little;
[He puts the handkerchief from him; and she drops it.
Let it alone. Come, I '11 go in with you.
Dcs. I am very sorry that you are not well.
{Exeunt Othello and Dcsdemona.
Emil. I am glad I have found this napkin: 290
This was her first remembrance from the Moor:
My wayward husband hath a hundred times
Woo'd me to steal it; but she so loves the token,
For he conjured her she should ever keep it,
That she reserves it evermore about her
To kiss and talk to. I '11 have the work ta'en out,
And give 't lago : what he will do with it
Heaven knows, not I;
I nothing but to please his fantasy.
Re-enter Ias:o.
lago. How now! what do you here alone? 300
Emil. Do not you chide; I have a thing for you.
lago. A thing for me? it is a common thing —
Emil. Ha!
lago. To have a foolish wife.
Emil. O, is that all? What will you give me now
For that same handkerchief?
lago. What handkerchief?
89
Act III. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
Einil. What handkerchief!
Why, that the Moor nrst gave to Desdemona;
That which so often you did bid me steal.
I ago. Hast stol'n it from her? 310
Emii. No, faith; she let it drop by negligence,
And, to the advantage, I being here took 't up.
Look, here it is.
I ago. A good wench; give it me.
Emil. What will you do with 't, that you have been so
earnest
To have me filch it?
lago. [Snatching it] Why, wliat 's that to you?
Emil. If 't be not for some purpose of import,
Give 't me again : poor lady, she '11 run mad
When she shall lack it.
lago. Be not acknown on 't; I have use for it.
Go, leave me. [Exit Emilia. 320
I will in Cassio's lodging lose this napkin,
And let him find it. Trifles light as air
Are to the jealous confirmations strong'
As proofs of holy writ : this may do something.
The Moor already changes with my poison:
Dangerous conceits are in their natures poisons,
Which at the first are scarce found to distaste,
But with a little act upon the blood
Burn like the mines of sulphur. I did say so :
Look, where he comes !
Re-enter Othello.
Not poppy, nor mandragora, 330
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
90
I
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act III. Sc. iii.
Which thou owedst yesterday.
0th. Ha! ha! false to me?
I ago. Why, how now, general! no more of that.
0th. Avaimt! be gone! thou hast set me on the rack:
I swear 'tis better to be much abused
Than but to know 't a little.
J ago. How now, my lord!
0th. What sense had I of her stol'n hours of lust?
I saw 't not, thought it not, it harm'd not me:
I slept the next night well, was free and merry; 340
I found not Cassio's kisses on her lips:
He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stol'n.
Let him not know 't and he 's not robbed at all.
lago. I am sorry to hear this.
0th. I had been happy, if the general camp,
Pioners and all, had tasted her sweet body,
So I had nothing known. O, now for ever
Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!
Farewell the plumed troop and the big wars
That make ambition virtue! O, farewell, 350
Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump.
The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner and all quality.
Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war!
And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats
The immortal Jove's dread clamours counterfeit,
Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone!
Tago. Is 't possible, my lord?
0th. Villain; be sure thou prove my love a whore;
Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof; 360
Or, by the worth of man's eternal soul.
Thou hadst been better have been born a dog
91
Act III. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Than answer my waked wrath!
I ago. Is 't come to this?
0th. Make me to see 't; or at the least so prove it,
That the probation bear no hinge nor loop
To hang a doubt on; or woe upon thy life!
lago. My noble lord, —
0th. If thou dost slander her and torture me,
Never pray more; abandon all remorse;
On horror's head horrors accumulate; 370
Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed;
For nothing canst thou to damnation add
Greater than that.
lago. O grace! O heaven defend me!
Are you a man? have you a soul or sense?
God be wi' you; take mine office. O wretched
fool,
That livest to make thine honesty a vice!
monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world,
To be direct and honest is not safe,
1 thank you for this profit, and from hence
I '11 love no friend sith love breeds such offence. 380
0th. Nay, stay: thou shouldst be honest.
lago. I should be wise; for honesty 's a fool.
And loses that it works for.
0th. By the world,
I think my wife be honest, and think she is not;
I think that thou art just, and think thou art not:
I '11 have some proof. Her name, that was as fresh
As Dian's visage, is now begrimed and black
As mine own face. If there be cords, or knives,
Poison, or fire, or suffocating streams,
I '11 not endure it. Would I were satisfied! 390
92
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act III. Sc. iii.
lago. I see, sir, you are eaten up with passion:
I do repent me that I put it to you.
You would be satisfied?
0th. Would! nay, I will.
lago. And may: but, how? how satisfied, my lord?
Would you, the supervisor, grossly gape on?
Behold her topp'd?
0th. Death and damnation! O!
lago. It were a tedious difficulty, I think.
To bring them to that prospect : damn them then.
If CA^er mortal eyes do see them bolster
i\Iore than their own! What then? how then? 400
Wliat shall I say? Where 's satisfaction?
It is impossible you should see this,
Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys,
As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross
As ignorance made drunk. But yet, I say,
If imputation and strong circumstances,
Wliich lead directly to the door of truth,
Will give you satisfaction, you may have 't.
0th. Give me a living reason she 's disloyal.
lago. I do not like the office: 410
But sith I am enter'd in this cause so far,
Prick'd to 't by foolish honesty and love,
I will go on. I lay with Cassio lately,
And being troubled with a raging tooth,
I could not sleep.
There are a kind of men so loose of soul,
That in their sleeps will mutter their afifairs:
One of this kind is Cassio:
In sleep I heard him say ' Sweet Desdemona,
Let us be wary, let us hide our loves'; 420
93
Act III. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my
hand,
Cry ' O sweet creature! ' and then kiss me hard,
As if he pluck'd up kisses by the roots,
That grew upon my Hps : then laid his leg
Over my thigh, and sigh'd and kiss'd, and then
Cried * Cursed fate that gave thee to the Moor!*'
OiJi. O monstrous! monstrous!
lago. Nay, this was but his dream.
0th. But this denoted a foregone conclusion:
Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream.
lago. And this may help to thicken other proofs 430
That do demonstrate thinly.
0th. I '11 tear her all to pieces.
lago. Nay, but be wise : yet we see nothing done ;
She may be honest yet. Tell me but this ;
Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief
Spotted with strawberries in your wife's hand:
0th. I gave her such a one; 'twas my first gift.
lago. I know not that : but such a handkerchief —
I am sure it was your wife's — did I to-day
See Cassio wipe his beard with.
0th. If it be that,—
lago. If it be that, or any that was hers, 440
It speaks against her with the other proofs.
0th. 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, lago;
. All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven :
'Tis gone.
Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!
Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne
94
y ,
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act III. Sc. iii.
To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught,
For 'tis of aspics' tongues!
lago. Yet be content. 450
0th. O, blood, blood, blood!
I ago. Patience, I say; your mind perhaps may change.
0th. Never, lago. Like to the Pontic sea.
Whose icy current and compulsive course
Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
To the Propontic and the Hellespont;
Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,
Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love.
Till that a capable and wide revenge 459
Swallow them up. Now, by yond marble heaven,
In the due reverence of a sacred vow [Kneels.
I here engage my words.
Jdgo. Do not rise yet. [Kneels.
Witness, you ever-burning lights above,
You elements that clip us round about.
Witness that here lago doth give up
The execution of his wit, hands, heart.
To wrong'd Othello's service! Let him command.
And to obey shall be in me remorse,
What bloody business ever. [They rise.
0th. I greet thy love,
Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous,
And will upon the instant put thee to 't: 471
Within these three days let me hear thee say
That Cassio 's not alive.
lago. My friend is dead; 'tis done at your request:
But let her live.
OtJi. Danm her, lewd minx! O, damn her!
Come, go with me apart; I will withdraw,
95
Act III. Sc. iv. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
To furnish me with some swift means of death
For the fair devil. Now art thou my Heutenant.
lago. I am your own for ever. {Exeunt.
Scene IV.
Before the castle.
Enter Desdemona, EiiiiJia, and Cloivn.
Des. Do you know, sirrah, where Lieutenant Cassio
Hes?
Clo. I dare not say he Hes any where.
Des. Why, man?
Clo. He 's a soldier; and for one to say a soldier lies,
is stabbing.
Des. Go to: where lodges he?
Clo. To tell vou where he lodges, is to tell vou where
I He.
Des. Can any thing be made of this? lo
Clo. I know not where he lodges; and for me to
devise a lodging, and say he lies here or he lies
there, were to lie in mine own throat.
Des. Can you inquire him out and be edified by
report?
Clo. I will catechize the world for him; that is, make
questions and by them answer.
Des. Seek him, bid him come hither: tell him I have
moved my lord on his behalf and hope all will
be well. 20
Clo. To do this is within the compass of man's wit,
and therefore I will attempt the doing it. [Exit.
Des. Where should 1 lose that handkerchief, Emilia?
Emil. I know not. madam.
Des. Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse
96
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act III. Sc. iv.
Full of crusadoes : and, but my noble Moor
Is true of mind and made of no such baseness
As jealous creatures are, it were enough
To put him to ill thinking.
Emil. Is he not jealous?
Dcs. Who, he? I think the sun where he was born 30
Drew all such humours from him.
Einil. , Look, where he comes.
Dcs. I will not leave him now till Cassio
Be call'd to him.
Enter Othello.
How is 't with you, my lord?
0th. Well, my good lady. [Aside] O, hardness to dis-
semble!
How do you, Desdemona?
Des. Well, my good lord.
0th. Give me your hand : this hand is moist, my lady.
Dcs. It yet has felt no age nor known no sorrow.
0th. This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart:
Hot, hot, and moist: this hand of yours requires
A sequester from liberty, fasting and prayer, 40
Much castigation, exercise devout;
For here 's a young and sweating devil here,
That commonly rebels. 'Tis a good hand,
A frank one.
Dcs. You may, indeed, say so;
For 'twas that hand that gave away my heart.
0th. A liberal hand: the hearts of old gave hands;
But our new heraldry is hands, not hearts.
Dcs. T cannot speak of this. Come now, your promise.
0th. What promise, chuck?
97
Act III. Sc. iv. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Dcs. I have sent to bid Cassio come speak with you. 50
0th. I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me;
Lend me thy handkerchief.
Dcs. Here, my lord.
0th. That which I gave you.
Dcs. I have it not about me.
0th. Not?
Dcs. No, indeed, my lord.
0th. That 's a fault. That handkerchief
\ Did an Egyptian to my mother give;
\ She was a charmer, and could almost read
The thoughts of people: she told her, while she
kept it
'Twould make her amiable and subdue my father
Entirely to her love, but if she lost it 60
i / Or made a gift of it, my father's eye
^ Should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt
After new fancies: she dying gave it me,
And bid me, when my fate would have me wife,
To give it her. I did so: and take heed on 't;
Make it a darling like your precious eye;
To lose 't or give 't away were such perdition
As nothing else could match.
Des. Is 't possible?
0th. 'Tis true: there 's magic in a web of it:
A sibyl, that had number'd in the world 70
The sun to course two hundred compasses,
In her prophetic fury sew'd the work;
The worms were hallow'd that did breed the silk;
And it was dyed in mummy which the skilful
Conserved of maidens' hearts.
Des. Indeed, is 't true?
98
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act III. Sc. iv.
Oth. Most veritable; therefore look to 't well.
Dcs. Then v/ould to God that I had never seen 't!
Oth. Ha! wherefore?
Dcs. Why do you speak so startingly and rash?
Oth. Is 't lost? is 't gone? speak, is it out o' the way? 80
Dcs. Heaven bless us!
Ofh. Say you?
Dcs. It is not lost ; but what an if it were ?
Oth. How!
Dcs. I say, it is not lost.
Oth. Fetch 't, let me see it.
Dcs. Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now.
This is a trick to put me from my suit :
Pray you, let Cassio be received again.
Oth. Fetch me the handkerchief: my mind misgives)^
Dcs. Come, come; \ 90
You '11 never meet a more sufficient man.
Oth. The handkerchief!
Dcs. I pray, talk me of Cassio.
Oth. The handkerchief!
Dcs. A man that all his time
Hath founded his good fortunes on your love^
Shared dangers with you, — /-^
Oth. The handkerchief!
Dcs. In sooth, you are to blame.
Ofh. Away! ^ [Exit.
Emil. Is not this man jealous?
Dcs. I ne'er saw this before. 100
Sure there 's some wonder in this handkerchief:
I am most unhappy in the loss of it.
Emil. 'Tis not a year or two shows us a man :
They are all but stomachs and we all but food;
99
Act III. Sc. iv. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
They eat us hungerly, and when they are full
They belch us. Look you, Cassio and my husband.
Enter Cassio and I ago.
logo. There is no other way; 'tis she must do 't:
And, lo, the happiness! go and importune her.
Dcs. How now, good Cassio! what 's the news with you?
Cas. Madam, my former suit: I do beseech you no
That by your virtuous means I may again
Exist, and be a member of his love
Whom I with all the office of my heart
Entirely honour: I would not be delayed.
If my ofifence be of such mortal kind.
That nor my service past nor present sorrows
Nor purposed merit in futurity
Can ransom me into his love again,
But to know so must be my benefit;
So shall I clothe me in a forced content 120
And shut myself up in some other course
To fortune's alms.
Dcs. Alas, thrice-gentle Cassio!
My advocation is not now in tune;
My lord is not my lord, nor should I know him
Were he in favour as in humour alter'd.
So help me every spirit sanctified,
As I have spoken for you all my best
And stood within the blank of his displeasure
For my free speech! You must awhile be patient:
What I can do I wall; and more I will 130
Than for myself I dare : let that suffice you.
lago. Is my lord angry?
Emil. He went hence but now,
100
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act III. Sc. iv.
And certainly in strange unquietness.
I ago. Can he 1)e 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 >vill go meet him :
There 's matter in 't indeed if he be angry.
Dcs. I prithee, do so. [Exit lago.
Something sure of state, 140
Either from Venice some imhatch'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;
For let our finger ache, and it indues
Our other healthful members even to that sense
Of pain: nay, we must think men are not gods,
Nor of them look for such observancy
As fits the bridal. Beshrew^ me much, Emilia, 150
I was, unhandsome warrior as I am,
Arraigning his unkindness with my soul;
But now I find I had suborn'd the witness,
And he 's indicted falsely.
Eniii. Pray heaven it be state-matters, as you think,
And no conception nor no jealous toy
Concerning you.
Dcs. Alas the day, I i;ever gave him cause!
Eniil. But jealous souls will not be answer'd so;
They are not ever jealous for the cause, 160
But jealous for they are jealous: 'tis a monster
Begot upoH itself, born on itself.
Dcs. Heaven keep that monster from Othello's mind!
Act III. Sc. iv. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
Ernil. Lady, amen.
Dcs. I will go seek him. Cassio, walk hereabout :
If I do find him fit, I '11 move your suit,
And seek to effect it to my uttermost.
Cas. I humbly thank your ladyship.
[Exeunt Dcsdemona and Emilia.
Enter Bianea.
Bian. Save you, friend Cassio!
Cas. What make you from home?
How is it with you, my most fair Bianea? 170
r faith, sweet love, I was coming to your house.
Bian. And I was going to your lodging, Cassio.
What, keep a week away? seven days and nights?
Eight score eight hours? and lovers' absent hours,
More tedious than the dial eight score times?
weary reckoning!
Cas. Pardon me, Bianea:
1 have this while with leaden thoughts been press'd;
But I shall in a more continuate time
Strike off this score of absence. Sweet Bianea,
[Giving her Desdemonas handkerchief.
Take me this work out.
Bian. O Cassio, whence came this?
This is some token from a newer friend: 181
To the felt absence now I feel a cause:
Is 't come to this? Well, well. .
Cas. Go to, woman !
Throw your vile guesses in the devil's teeth,
From whence you have them. You are jealous now
That this is from some mistress, some remembrance :
No, by my faith, Bianea.
102
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act IV. Sc. i.
Bian. Why, whose is it?
Cas. I know not, sweet: I found it in my chamber.
I like the work well: ere it be demanded —
As like enough it will — I 'Id have it copied: 190
Take it, and do 't; and leave me for this time.
Bian. Leave you! wherefore?
Cas. I do attend here on the general;
And think it no addition, nor my wish,
To have him see me woman'd.
Biaii. Why, I pray you?
Cas. Not that I love you not.
Bian. But that you do not love me.
I pray you, bring me on the way a little;
And say if I shall see you soon at night.
Cas. 'Tis but a little way that I can bring you;
For I attend heVe : but I '11 see you soon. 200
Bian. 'Tis very good; I must be circumstanced. [Exeunt.
ACT FOURTH.
Scene I.
Cyprus. Before the castle.
Enter Othello and I ago.
I ago. Will you think so?
Ofh. Think so, lago!
logo. What,
To kiss in private ?
0th. An unauthorized kiss.
lago. Or to be naked with her friend in bed
An hour or more, not meaning any harm?
0th. Naked in bed, lago, and not mean harm!
103
Act IV. Sc. i. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
It is hypocrisy against the devil:
They that mean virtuously and yet do so,
The devil their virtue tempts and they tempt heaven.
I ago. So they do nothing, 'tis a venial slip:
But if I give my wife a handkerchief — lo
0th. What then?
Icigo. Why, then, 'tis hers, my lord; and being hers,
She may, I think, bestow t on any man.
0th. She is protectress of her honour too:
May she give that?
I ago. Her honour is an essence that 's not seen;
They have it very oft that have it not:
But for the handkerchief —
0th. By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it;
Thou said'st — O, it comes o'er my memory, 20
As doth the raven o'er the infected house,
Boding to all — he had my handkerchief.
I a go. Ay, what of that?
0th. That 's not so good now.
lago. What,
If I had said I had seen him do you wrong?
Or heard him say — as knaves be such abroad.
Who having, by their own importunate suit.
Or voluntary dotage of some mistress,
Convinced or supplied them, cannot choose
But they must blab —
0th. Hath he said anything?
lago. He hath, my lord; but be you well assured, 30
No more than he '11 unswear.
0th. What hath he said?
lago. Faith, that he did — I know not what he did.
0th. What, what?
104
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act IV. Sc. i.
I a go. Lie —
0th. With her?
I ago. With her, on her; what you will.
0th. Lie with her! lie on her! — We say lie on her,
when they belie her. — Lie with her ! 'Zounds,
that's fulsome! Handkerchief — confessions —
handkerchief! — To confess, and be hanged
for his labour ; first, to be hanged, and then to 40
confess. I tremble at it. Nature would not in-
vest herself in such shadowing passion without
some instruction. It is not words that shakes
me thus. Pish! Noses, ears and lips. Is 't pos-
sible? — Confess? — Handkerchief? — O devil!
[Falls ill a trance,
lago. 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 Cassia.
How now, Cassio!
Cos. What 's the matter? 50
lago. My lord is fall'n into an epilepsy:
This is his second fit; he had one yesterday.
Cas. Rub him about the temples.
[ago. No, forbear;
The lethargy must have his quiet course:
If not, he foams at mouth, and by and by
Breaks out to savage madness. Look, he stirs:
Do you withdraw yourself a little while,
105
Act IV. Sc. i. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
He will recover straight: when he is gone,
I would on great occasion speak with you.
[Exit Cassio.
How is it, general? have you not hurt your head?
0th. Dost thou mock me?
lago. I mock you! no, by heaven. 6i
Would you would bear your fortune like a man!
0th. A horned man 's a monster and a beast.
lago. There 's many a beast then in a populous city,
And many a civil monster.
0th. Did he confess it?
lago. Good sir, be a man;
Think every bearded fellow that 's but yoked
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.
O, 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock, yi
To lip a wanton in a secure couch,
And to suppose her chaste! No, let me know;
And knowing what I am, I know what she shall be.
0th. O, thou art wise; 'tis certain.
lago. Stand you awhile apart;
Confine yourself but in a patient list.
Whilst you were here o'erwhelmed with your grief —
A passion most unsuiting such a man —
Cassio came hither: I shifted him away.
And laid good 'sense upon your ecstasy; 8o
Bade him anon return and here speak with me;
The which he promised. Do but encave yourself,
And mark the fleers, the gibes and notable scorns
That dwell in every region of his face;
For I will make him tell the tale anew,
io6
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act IV. Sc. i.
Where, how, how oft, how long ago and when
He hath and is again to cope your wife :
I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience;
Or I shall say you are all in all in spleen.
And nothing of a man.
Ofh. Dost thou hear, lago? 90
I will be found most cunning in my patience;
But — dost thou hear? — most bloody.
logo. That's not amiss;
But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw ?
[Othello retires.
Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,
A housewife that by selling her desires
Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature
That dotes on Cassio; as 'tis the strumpet's plague
To beguile many and be beguiled by one.
He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain
From the excess of laughter. Here he comes. 100
Re-enter Cassio.
As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;
And his unbookish jealousy must construe
Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures and light behaviour,
Quite in the wrong. How do you now, lieutenant?
Cos. The worser that you give me the addition
Whose want even kills me.
logo. Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on 't.
Now, if this suit lay in Bianca's power,
How quickly should you speed!
Cos. Alas, poor caitiff!
0th. Look, how he laughs already! no
logo. I never knew a woman love man so.
107
Act IV. Sc. i. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Cos. Alas, poor rogue ! I think, i' faith, she loves
me.
0th. Xow he denies it faintly and laughs it out.
lago. Do you hear, Cassio?
Oth. Xow he importunes him
To tell it o'er: go to; well said, well said.
lago. She gives it out that you shall marry her:
Do you intend it?
Cas. Ha, ha, ha! 120
Ofh. Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?
Cas. I marry her! what, a customer! I prithee,
bear some charity to my wit; do not think it so
unwholesome. Ha, ha, ha!
Ofh. So, so, so, so: they laugh that win.
lago. Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her.
Cos. Prithee, say true.
logo. I am a very villain else.
OfJi. Have you scored me? Well.
Cas. This is the monkey's own giving out: she is 130
persuaded I will marry her, out of her own love
and flattery, not out of my promise.
Oth. lago beckons me; now he begins the story.
Cas. She was here even now: she haunts me in every
place. I was the other day talking on the sea-
bank with certain Venetians ; and thither comes
the bauble, and, by this hand, she falls me thus
about my neck —
Oth. Crying ' O dear Cassio! ' as it were: his ges-
ture imports it. 140
Cas. So hangs and lolls and weeps upon me; so
hales and pulls me: ha, ha, ha!
Ofh. Now he tells how she plucked him to my
108
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act IV. Sc. i.
chamber. O, I see that nose of yours, but not
that dog I shall throw it to.
Cas. Well, I must leave her company.
lago. Before me ! look, where she comes.
Cas. 'Tis such another fitchew ! marry, a perfumed
one.
Enter Bianca.
What do you mean by this haunting of me ? 150
Bian. Let the devil and his dam haunt you ! What
did you mean by that same handkerchief you
gave me even now ! I was a fine fool to take
it. I must take out the work? A likely piece
of work, that you should find it in your chamber,
and not know who left it there ! This is some
minx's token, and I must take out the work?
There ; give it your hobby-horse : wheresoever
you had it, I '11 take out no work on 't.
Cas. How now, my sweet Bianca I how now! how 160
now !
Otii. By heaven, that should be my handkerchief!
Bian. An you '11 come to supper to-night, you may;
an you will not, come when you are next pre-
pared for. [Exit.
lago. After her, after her.
Cas. Faith, I must ; she '11 rail i' the street else.
lago. Will you sup there?
Cas. Faith, I intend so.
lago. W^ell, I may chance to see you; for I would 170
very fain speak with you.
Cas. Prithee, come ; will you ?
lago. Go to ; say no more. [Exit Cassio.
0th. [Advancing] How shall I murder him, lago?
109
Act IV. Sc. i. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
lago. Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice?
0th. O lago!
lago. And did you see die handkerchief?
Otii. Was that mine?
lago. Yours, by this hand : and to see how he prizes
the fooHsh woman your wife ! she gave it him, i8o
and he hath given it his wdiore.
0th. I would have him nine years a-killing. A fine
woman ! a fair woman ! a sweet woman !
lago. Nay, you must forget that.
0th. Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be damned to-
night ; for she shall not live : no, my heart is
turned to stone ; I strike it, and it hurts my
hand. O, the world hath not a sweeter crea-
ture : she might lie by an emperor's side, and
command him tasks. 190
lago. Nay, that 's not };our way.
0th. Hang her! I do but say what she is: so deli-
cate with her needle : an admirable musician :
O, she will sing the savageness out of a bear :
of so high and plenteous wit and invention : —
lago. She 's the worse for all this.
0th. O, a thousand thousand times : and then, of so
gentle a condition !
lago. Ay, too gentle.
0th. Nay, that 's certain : but \et the pity of it, lago! 200
O lago, the pity of it, lago !
lago. If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her
patent to offend ; for, if it touch not you, it
, comes near nobody.
th. I wdll chop her into messes : cuckold me !
lago. O, 'tis foul in her.
no
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act IV. Sc. i.
0th. With mine officer!
logo. That 's fouler.
0th. Get me some poison, lago ; this night. I '11 not
expostulate with her, lest her body and beauty 210
un provide my mind again : this night, lago.
lago. Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed,
even the bed she hath contaminated.
0th. Good, good : the justice of it pleases : very good.
lago. And for Cassio, let me be his undertaker : you
shall hear more by midnight.
0th. Excellent good. [A trumpet zvithin.] What
trumpet is that same? t
lago. Something from Venice, sure. 'Tis Lodovico
Come from the duke : and, see, your wife is with him.
Enter Lodovico, Desdemona, and Attendants.
Lod. God save the worthy general !
0th. With all my heart, sir.
Lod. The duke and senators of Venice greet you. 221
[Gives him a letter.
0th. I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.
[Opens the letter, and reads.
Des. And what 's the news, good cousin Lodovico ?
lago. I am very glad to see you, signior ;
Welcome to Cyprus.
Lod. I thank you. How does Lieutenant Cassio ?
lago. Lives, sir.
Des. Cousin, there 's fall'n between him and my lord
An unkind breach : but you shall make all well.
0//t. Are you sure of that? 230
Des. My lord ?
0th. [Reads] * This fail you not to do as you will — '
III
Act JV. Sc. i. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
Lod, He did not call ; he 's busy in the paper.
Is there division 'twixt my lord and Cassio?
Des, A most unhappy one : I would do much
To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio.
0th, Fire and brimstone !
Des. My lord?
0th. Are you wise?
Des. What, is he angry ?
Lod. May be the letter moved him ;
For, as I think, they do command him home,
Deputing Cassio in his government.
Des. By my troth, I am glad on 't.
0th. Indeed !
Des. My lord? 240
0th. I am glad to see you mad.
Des. Why, sweet Othello?
0th. Devil! [Striking her.
Des. I have not deserved this.
Lod. My lord, this would not be believed in Venice,
Though I should swear I saw 't : 'tis very much :
Make her amends ; she weeps.
0th. 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 !
Des. I will not stay to offend you. [Going.
Lod. Truly, an obedient lady : 250
I do beseech your lordship, call her back.
0th. Mistress!
Des. My lord?
0th. What would you with her, sir?
Lod. W'ho, I, my lord ?
112
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act IV. Sc. i.
0th. Ay ; you did wish that I would make her turn ■
Sir, she can turn and turn, and yet go on,
And turn again ; and she can weep, sir, weep ;
And she 's obedient, as you say, obedient.
Very obedient. Proceed you in your tears.
Concerning this, sir, — O well-painted passion ! —
I am commanded home. Get you away ; 260
I '11 send for you anon. Sir, I obey the mandate.
And will return to Venice. Hence, avaunt !
[Exit Dcsdcinoiia.
Cassio shall have my place. And, sir, to-night,
I do entreat that w^e may sup together :
You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus. Goats and mon-
keys ! " [Exit.
Lod. Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate
Call all in all sufficient ? This the nature
Whom passion could not shake? whose solid virtue
The shot of accident nor dart of chance 270
Could neither graze nor pierce ?
lago. He is much changed.
Lod. Are his wits safe ? is he not light of brain ?
lago. He 's that he is : I may not breathe my censure
What he might be : if what he might he is not,
I would to heaven he were !
Lod. What, strike his wife.
lago. Faith, that was not so well ; yet would I knew
That stroke would prove the worst !
Lod. Is it his use?
Or did the letters work upon his blood,
And new create this fault ?
lago. Alas, alas !
It is not honesty in me to speak 280
113
Act IV. Sc. ii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
What I have seen and known. You shall observe him,
And his own courses will denote him so
That I may save my speech : do but go after,
And mark how he continues.
Lod. I am sorry that I am deceived in him. [Exeunt.
Scene IL
A room in the castle.
Enter Othello and Emilia.
0th. You have seen nothing, then?
Einil. Nor ever heard, nor ever did suspect.
0th. Yes, you have seen Cassio and she together.
Emil. But then I saw no harm, and then I heard
Each syllable that breath made up between them.
0th. \Miat, did they never whisper?
Emil. Never, my lord.
0th. Nor send you out o' the way?
Emil. Never.
0th. To fetch her fan, her gloves, her mask, nor nothing?
Emil. Never, my lord. lo
0th. That 's strange.
Emil. I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest,
Lay down my soul at stake : if you think other,
Remove your thought ; it doth abuse your bosom.
If any wretch have put this in your head,
Let heaven requite it with the serpent's curse !
For if she be not honest, chaste and true,
There 's no man happy ; the purest of their wives
Is foul as slander.
0th. Bid her come hither : go. [Exit Emilia.
She says enough : yet she 's a simple bawd 20
114
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act IV. Sc. ii.
That cannot say as much. This is a subtle whore,
A closet lock and key of villanous secrets :
And yet she '11 kneel and pray ; I have seen her do 't.
Enter Desdcnwna zvith Emilia.
Des. My lord, what is your will ?
0th. Pray, chuck, come hither.
Des, What is your pleasure?
0th. Let me see your eyes;
Look in my face.
Des. What horrible fancy 's this ?
0th. [To Emilia] Some of your function, mistress,
Leave procreants alone and shut the door ;
Cough, or cry hem, if any body come :
Your mystery, your mystery : nay, dispatch. 30
[Exit Emilia,
Des. Upon my knees, what doth your speech import?
I understand a fury in your words.
But not the words.
0th. Why, what art thou ?
Des. Your wife, my lord ; your true and loyal wife.
0th. Come, swear it, damn thyself ;
Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves
Should fear to seize thee : therefore be double-
damn'd ;
Swear thou art honest.
Des. Heaven doth truly know it.
0th. Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell.
Des. To whom, my lord ? with whom ? how am I false ?
0th. O Desdemona! Away! away! away! 41
Des. Alas the heavy day ! Why do you weep ?
Am I the motive of these tears, my lord ?
IIS
Act IV. Sc. ii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
If haply you my father do suspect
An uistrument of this your calHng back,
Lay not your blame on me : if you have lost him,
Why, I have lost him too.
0th. Had it pleased heaven
To try me with affliction ; had they rain'd
All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head,
Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips, 50
Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes,
I should have found in some place of my soul
A drop of patience : but, alas, to make me
A fixed figure for the time of scorn
To point his slow unmoving finger at !
Yet could I bear that too ; well, very well :
But there, where I have garner'd up my heart.
Where either I must live or bear no life,
The fountain from the which my current runs.
Or else dries up ; to be discarded thence ! 60
Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads
To knot and gender in ! Turn thy complexion there.
Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubin.
Ay, there, look grim as hell !
Dcs. I hope my noble lord esteems me honest.
0th. O, ay; as summer flies are in the shambles.
That quicken even with blowing. O thou weed.
Who art so lovely fair and smell'st so sweet
That the sense aches at thee, would thou hadst ne'er
been born !
Dcs. Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed ? 70
0th. W^as this fair paper, this most goodly book.
Made to write ' whore ' upon ? What committed !
Committed ! O thou public commoner !
116
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act IV. Sc. ii.
I should make very forges of my cheeks,
That would to cinders burn up modesty,
Did I but speak thy deeds. What committed !
Heaven stops the nose at it, and the moon winks ;
The bawdy wind, that kisses all it meets,
Is hush'd within the hollow mine of earth,
And will not hear it. What committed ! 80
Impudent strumpet !
Dcs. By heaven, you do me wrong.
0th. Are not you a strumpet?
Dcs. No, as I am a Christian :
If to preserve this vessel for my lord
From any other foul unlawful touch
Be not to be a strumpet, I am none.
0th. Wliat, not a whore?
Dcs. No, as I shall be saved.
0th. Is 't possible?
Dcs. O, heaven forgive us !
0th, I cry you mercy then :
I took you for that cunning whore of Venice
That married with Othello. [Raising his voice}
You, mistress, 90
That have the office opposite to Saint Peter.
And keep the gate of hell !
Re-enter Emilia.
You, you, ay, you !
y\Q have done our course ; there 's money for your
pains :
I pray you, turn the kev, and keep our counsel.
[Exit.
EmiL Alas, what does this gentleman conceive?
117
Act IV. Sc. ii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
How do you, madam ? how do you, my good lady ?
Des. Faith, half asleep.
Emil. Good madam, what 's the matter with my lord?
Dcs. With who?
Emil. Why, with my lord, madam. lOO
Dcs. Who is thy lord?
Emil. He that is yours, sweet lady.
Des. I have none : do not talk to me, Emilia ;
I cannot weep, nor answer have I none
But what should go by water. Prithee, to-night
Lay on my bed my wedding sheets : remember ;
And call thy husband hither.
Emil. Here's a change indeed!
{Exit.
Des. 'Tis meet I should be used so, very meet.
How have I been behaved, that he might stick
The small'st opinion on my least misuse?
Re-enter Emilia, with I a go.
logo. \Miat is your pleasure, madam ? How is 't with
you? no
Des. I cannot tell. Those that do teach young babes
Do it with gentle means and easy tasks :
He might have chid me so ; for, in good faith,
I am a child to chiding.
lago. What 's the matter, lady ?
Emil. Alas, lago, my lord hath so bewhored her,
Thrown such despite and heavy terms upon her,
As true hearts cannot bear.
Des. Am I that name, lago?
lago. What name, fair lady?
Des. Such as she says my lord did say I was.
ii8
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act IV. Sc. ii.
Emil. He call'd her whore : a beggar in his drink 120
Could not have laid such terms upon his callet.
lago. Why did he so?
Dcs. I do not know : I am sure I am none such.
lago. Do not weep, do not weep. Alas the day !
Emil. Hath she forsook so many noble matches,
Her father and her country and her friends,
To be call'd whore ? would it not make one weep ?
Des. It is my wTetched fortune.
lao-Q. Beshrew him for't!
How comes this trick upon him ?
Dcs. Xay, heaven doth know.
Emil. I will be hang'd, if some eternal villain, 130
Some busy and insinuating rogue.
Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office,
Have not devised this slander ; I '11 be hang'd else.
Jago. Fie, there is no such man : it is impossible.
Des. If any such there be, heaven pardon him !
Emil. A halter pardon him ! and hell gnaw his bones ?
Why should he call her whore ? who keeps her com-
pany ?
What place? what time? what form? what likeli-
hood?
The Moor's abused by some most villanous knave.
Some base notorious knave, some scurvy fellow. 140
O heaven, that such companions thou 'Idst unfold.
And put in every honest hand a whip
To lash the rascals naked through the world
Even from the east to the west !
lago. Speak within door.
Emil. O, fie upon them! Some such squire he was
That tum'd your wit the seamy side without,
119
Act IV. Sc. ii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
And made you to suspect me with the Moor.
I ago. You are a fool ; go to.
Dcs. O good lago,
What shall I do to win my lord again ?
Good friend, go to him ; for, by this light of heaven,
I know not how I lost him. Here I kneel : 151
If e'er my will did trespass 'gainst his love
Either in discourse of thought or actual deed,
Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any sense,
Delighted them in any other form,
Or that I do not yet, and ever did.
And ever will, though he do shake me ofif
To beggarly divorcement, love him dearly,
Comfort forswear me! Unkindness may do much;
And his unkindness may defeat my life, 160
But never taint my love. I cannot say ' whore ' :
It doth abhor rhe now I speak the word :
To do the act that might the addition earn
Not the world's mass of vanity could make me.
lago. I pray you, be content : 'tis but his humour :
The business of the state does him offence.
And he does chide with you.
Des. If 'twere no other, —
lago. 'Tis but so, I warrant. [Trumpets zvithin.
Hark, how these instruments summon to supper !
The messengers of Venice stay the meat : 170
Go in, and weep not ; all things shall be well.
[Exeunt Desdeinona and Emilia.
Enter Roderigo.
How now, Roderigo !
Rod, I do not find that thou dealest justly with me.
120
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act IV. Sc. ii.
logo. What in the contrary?
Rod. Every day thou daffest me with some device,
lago ; and rather, as it seems to me now, keepest
from me all conveniency than suppliest me with
the least advantage of hope. * I will indeed no
longer endure it ; nor am I yet persuaded to put
up in peace what already I have foolishly suf- i8o
fered.
lago. Will you hear me, Roderigo ?
Rod. Faith, for I have heard too much ; for your
words and performances are no kin together.
lago. You charge me most unjustly.
Rod. With nought but truth. I have wasted myself
out of my means. The jewels you have had
from me to deliver to Desdemona would half
have corrupted a votarist : you have told me she
hath received them and returned me expecta-
tions and comforts of sudden respect and ac- 190
quaintance ; but I find none.
lago. \\' ell ; go to ; very well.
Rod. Very well ! go to ! I cannot go to, man ; nor
'tis not very well : by this hand, I say 'tis very
scurvy, and begin to find myself fopped in it.
lago. Very well.
Rod. I tell you 'tis not very well. I will make myself
known to Desdemona : if she will return me my
jewels, I will give over my suit and repent my
unlawful solicitation ; if not, assure yourself I 200
will seek satisfaction of you.
lago. You have said now.
Rod. Ay. and said nothing but what I protest intend-
ment of doing.
lago. Why, now I see there 's mettle in thee ; and
121
Act IV. Sc. ii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
even from this instant do build on thee a better
opinion than ever before. Give me thy hand,
Roderigo : thou hast taken against me a most
just exception ; but yet, I protest, I have dealt
more directly in thy affair. 210
Rod. It hath not appeared.
lago. 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.
Rod. Well, what is it? is it within reason and com- 220
pass?
lago. Sir, there is especial commission come from
Venice to depute Cassio in Othello's place.
Rod. Is that true? why then Othello and Desdemona
return again to Venice.
lago. 0,no; he goes into Mauritania, and takes away
with him the fair Desdemona, unless his abode be
lingered here by some accident : wherein none
can be so determinate as the removing of Cassio. 230
Rod. How do you mean, removing of him ?
lago. Why, by making him uncapable of Othello's
place ; knocking out his brains.
Rod. And that you would have me to do ?
lago. Ay, if you dare do yourself a profit and a right.
He sups to-night with a harlotry, and thither will
I go to him : he knows not yet of his honourable
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act IV. Sc. iii.
fortune. If you will watch his going thence,
which I will fashion to fall out between twelve
and one, you may take him at your pleasure : I 240
will be near to second your attempt, and he shall
fall between us. Come, stand not amazed at it,
but go along with me ; I will show you such a
necessity in his death that you shall think your-
self bound to put it on him. It is now high
supper-time, and the night grows to waste:
about it.
Rod. I will hear further reason for this.
I ago. And you shall be satisfied. [Exeunt.
Scene III.
Another room in the castle.
Enter Othello, Lodovico, Desdeniona, Emilia, and
Attendants.
Lod. I do beseech you, sir, trouble yourself no further.
0th. O, pardon me ; 'twill do me good to walk.
Lod. Madam, good night ; I humbly thank your ladyship.
Des. Your honour is most welcome.
0th. Will you walk, sir?
O, — Desdemona, —
Des. My lord ?
0th. Get you to bed on the instant ; I will be re-
turned forthwith : dismiss your attendant there :
look it be done.
Des. I will, my lord. 10
[Exeunt Othello, Lodovico, and Attendants
Emit. How goes it now ? he looks gentler than he did.
Des. He says he will return incontinent :
He hath commanded me to go to bed,
123
Act IV. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
And bade me to dismiss you.
Ejiiil. Dismiss me!
Dcs. It was his bidding ; therefore, good Emilia,
Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu :
We must not now displease him.
EmiL I would you had never seen him!
Dcs. So would not I : my love doth so approve him, 19
That even his stubbornness, his checks, his frowns, —
Prithee, unpin me, — have grace and favour in
them.
Eniil. I have laid those sheets vou bade me on the
bed.
Dcs. All 's one. Good faith, how foolish are our minds !
If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me
In one of those same sheets.
Emil. Come, come, you talk.
Dcs. My mother had a maid call'd Barbara :
She was in love ; and he she loved proved mad
And did forsake her : she had a song of ' willow ' ;
An old thing 'twas, but it express'd her fortune,
And she died singing it : that song to-night 30
Will not go from my mind ; I have much to do
But to go hang my head all at one side
And sing it like poor Barbara. Prithee, dispatch.
Eniii. Shall I go fetch your night-pown ^
Dcs. No, unpin me here.
This Lodovico is a proper man.
Emil. A very handsome man.
Dcs. He speaks well.
Einil. I know a lady in Venice would have walked
barefoot to Palestine for a touch of his nether
lip. 40
124
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act IV. Sc. iii.
Des. [Singing \ The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
Sing all a green willow ;
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing willow, willow, willow :
The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her
moans ;
Sing willow, willow, willow ;
Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the stones ; —
Lay by these : —
[Singing'] Sing willow, willow, willow ;
Prithee, hie thee ; he '11 come anon : — 50
[5'f/z^f^//zo^] Sino^ alia green willow must be my garland.
Let nobody blame him ; his scorn I approve, —
Nay, that 's not next. Hark ! who is 't that knocks ?
Emil. It 's the wind.
Des. [Singing] I call'd my love false love; but what
said he then ?
Sing willow, willow, willow :
If I court moe women, you '11 couch with moe men.
So get thee gone ; good night. ]\Iine eyes do itch ;
Doth that bode weeping?
Emil. 'Tis neither here nor there.
Des. I have heard it said so. O, these men, these men !
Dost thou in conscience think, — tell me, Emilia, —
That there be women do abuse their husbands 62
In such gross kind?
Emil. There be some such, no question.
Des. Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world ?
Emil. Why, would not you?
Des, No, by this heavenly light !
125
Act IV. Sc. iii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
Emil. Nor I neither by this heavenly Hght ; I might
do 't as well i' the dark.
Dcs. Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world ?
Emil. The world 's a huge thing : it is a great price
For a small vice.
Des. In troth, I think thou wouldst not.
Einil. In troth, I think I should ; and undo 't when I 71
had done. 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 purga-
tory for 't.
Des. Beshrew me, if I would do such a wrong
For the whole world. 80
Eniil. Why, the wrong is but a wrong i' the world ;
and having the Vv'orld for your labour, 'tis a
wrong in your own world, arid you might
quickly make it right.
Des. I do not think there is any such woman.
Emil. Yes, a dozen ; and as many to the vantage as
would store the world they played for.
But I do think it is their husbands' faults
If wives do fall : say that they slack their duties
And pour our treasures into foreign laps, 90
Or else break out in peevish jealousies.
Throwing restraint upon us, or say they strike us.
Or scant our former having in despite,
Why, we have galls, and though we h.ave some grace,
Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
Their wives have sense like them : they see and smell
126
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act V. Sc. i.
And have their palates both for sweet and sour,
As husbands have. What is it that they do
When they change us for others? Is it sport?
I think it is : and doth affection breed it ?
I think it doth: is 't frailty that thus errs? loo
It is so too : and have not we affections,
Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
Then let them use us well : else let them know.
The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.
Des. Good night, good night : heaven me such uses send,
Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend !
[Exeimt.
ACT FIFTH.
Scene I.
Cyprus. A street.
Enter I a go and Roderigo.
logo. Here, stand behind this bulk ; straight will he come :
Wear thy good rapier bare, and put it home :
Quick, quick ; fear nothing ; I '11 be at thy elbow :
It makes us, or it mars us ; think on that.
And fix most firm thy resolution.
Rod. Be near at hand ; I may miscarry in 't.
lago. Here, at thy hand : be bold, and take thy stand.
[Retires.
Rod. I have no great devotion to the deed ;
And yet he hath given me satisfying reasons:
'Tis but a man gone. Forth, my sword : he dies. lo
lago. I have rubb'd this young quat almost to the sense.
And he grows angry. Now, whether he kill Cassio,
Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other,
127
Act V. Sc. i. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
Every way makes my gain : live Roderigo,
He calls me to a restitution large
Of gold and jewels that I bobb'd from him,
As gifts to Desdemona :
It must not be : if Cassio do remain,
He hath a daily beauty in his life
That makes me ugly ; and besides, the Moor 20
May unfold me to him ; there stand I in much peril :
No, he must die. Be 't so. I hear him coming.
Enter Cassio.
Rod. I know his gait ; 'tis he. Villain, thou diest !
[Makes a pass at Cassio.
Cas. That thrust had been mine enemy indeed,
But that my coat is better than thou know'st :
I will make proof of thine.
[Drazi's, and icounds Roderigo.
Rod. O, I am slain !
[I ago from behind zi'ounds Cassio in the leg, and exit.
Cas. I am maim'd for ever. Help, ho ! murder ! murder !
[Falls.
Enter Othello.
0th. The voice of Cassio: lago keeps his word.
Rod. O, villain that I am !
0th. It is even so.
Cas. O, help, ho ! light ! a surgeon ! 30
OfJi. 'Tis he. O brave lago, honest and just,
That hast such noble sense of thy friend's wrong !
Thou teachest me. Minion, your dear lies dead,
And your unblest fate hies : strumpet, I come !
Forth of my heart those charms, thine eyes, are blotted :
Thv bed lust-stain'd shall with lust's blood be spotted.
[Exit.
128
THE MOOR OF VENICE 'Act V. Sc. i.
Enter Lodovico and Gratiano.
Cas. What, ho ! no watch ? no passage ? murder ! murder !
Gra. 'Tis some mischance; the cry is very direful.
Cas, O, help!
Lod. Hark ! 40
Rod. O wretched villain.
Lod. Two or three groan : it is a heavy night :
These may be counterfeits : let 's think 't unsafe
To come into the cry without more help.
Rod. Nobody come ? then shall I bleed to death.
Lod. Hark!
Re-enter I ago, zvith a light.
Gra. Here's one comes in his shirt, with light and weapons.
I ago. Who's there ? whose noise is this that cries on murder ?
Lod. We do not know.
lago. Did not you hear a cry? 49
Cas. Here, here ! for heaven's sake, help me !
lago. What 's the matter ?
Gra. This is Othello's ancient, as I take it.
Lod. The same indeed ; a very valiant fellow.
lago. What are you here that cry so grievously?
Cas. lago? O, I am spoil'd, undone by villains!
Give me some help.
lago. O me, lieutenant ! what villains have done this ?
Cas. I think that one of them is here about.
And cannot make away.
lacro. O treacherous villains?
o
What are you there ? come in and give some help.
[To Lodovico and Gratiano.
Rod. Q, help me here ! 60
Cas. That 's one of them.
129
Act V. Sc. i. • TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
lago. O murderous slave ! O villain !
[Stabs Roderigo.
Rod. O damn'd lago! O inhuman dog!
lago. 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 ?
Lod. As you shall prove us, praise us.
lago. Signior Lodovico?
Lod, He, sir.
lago. I cry you mercy. Here 's Cassio hurt by villains.
Gra. Cassio! 70
lago. How is 't, brother ?
Cas. My leg is cut in two.
lago. Marry, heaven forbid!
Light, gentlemen : I '11 bind it with my shirt.
Enter Bianca.
Bian. What is the matter, ho ? who is 't that cried ?
lago. Who is 't that cried !
Bian. O my dear Cassio! my sweet Cassio! O
Cassio, Cassio, Cassio !
lago. O notable strumpet ! Cassio, may you suspect
Who they should be that have thus mangled you ?
Cas. No. 80
Gra. I am sorry to find you thus : I have been to seek you.
lago. Lend me a garter. So. O, for a chair.
To bear him easily hence !
Bian. Alas, he faints ! O Cassio, Cassio, Cassio !
lago. Gentlemen all, I do suspect this trash
To be a party in this injury.
Patience awhile, good Cassio. Come, come;
Lend me a light. Know we this face or no?
130
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act V. Sc. i.
Alas, my friend and my dear countryman
Roderigo? no: — yes, sure: O heaven! Roderigo.
Gra, What, of Venice? 91
lago. Even he, sir : did you know him ?
Gra. Know him ! ay.
lago. Signior Gratiano ? I cry you gentle pardon ;
These bloody accidents must excuse my manners,
That so neglected you.
Gra. I am glad to see you.
lago. How do you, Cassio ? O, a chair, a chair ?
Gra. Roderigo!
lago. He, he, 'tis he. [A chair brought in.] O, that's
well said ; the chair :
Some good man bear him carefully from hence ;
I '11 fetch the general's surgeon. [To Biafica] For
you, mistress, 100
Save you your labour. He that lies slain here, Cassio,
Was my dear friend : what malice was between you ?
Gas. None in the world ; nor do I know the man.
lago. [To Bian.] What, look you pale? O, bear him out
o' the air. [Gassio and Roderigo are home off.
Stay you, good gentlemen. Look you pale, mis-
tress ?
Do you perceive the gastness of her eye?
Nay, if you stare, we shall hear more anon.
Behold her well ; I pray you, look upon her :
Do you see, gentlemen ? nay, guiltiness will speak,
Though tongues were out of use. no
Enter Emilia.
Emil. 'Las, what's the matter? what's the matter, hus-
band?
lago. Cassio hath here been set on in the dark
131
Act V. Sc. ii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
By Roderigo, and fellows that are 'scaped :
He 's almost slain, and Roderigo dead.
Emil. Alas, good gentleman ! alas, good Cassio !
lago. This is the fruit of whoring. Prithee, Emilia,
Go know of Cassio where he supp'd to-night.
What, do you shake at that ?
Bian. He supp'd at my house ; but I therefore shake not.
lago. O, did he so?. I charge you, go with me. 120
Emil. Fie, fie upon thee, strumpet !
Bian. I am no strumpet ; but of life as honest
As you that thus abuse me.
Einil. As I ! foh ! fie upon thee !
lago. Kind gentlemen, let 's go see poor Cassio dress'd.
Come, mistress, you must tell 's another tale.
Emilia, run you to the citadel.
And tell my lord and lady what hath happ'd !
Will you go on ? I pray. [Aside] This is the night
That either makes me or fordoes me quite. [Exeunt.
Scene IL
A bedchamber in the castle: Desdemona in bed
asleep ; a light burning.
Enter Othello.
0th. It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul :
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars !
It is the cause. Yet I '11 not shed her blood,
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow
And smooth as monumental alabaster.
Yet she must die, else she '11 betray more men.
Put out the light, and then put out the light :
If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,
132
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act V. Sc. ii.
I can again thy former light restore,
Should I repent me : but once put out thy light, lo
Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature,
I know not where is that Promethean heat
That can thy light relume. When I have pluck'd
the rose,
I cannot give it vital growth again,
It must needs wither : I '11 smell it on the tree.
[Kissing her.
Ah, balmy breath, that dost almost persuade
Justice to break her sword ! One more, one more :
Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee,
And love thee after : one more, and this the last :
So sweet was ne'er so fatal. I must weep, 20
But they are cruel tears : this sorrow 's heavenly ;
It strikes where it doth love. She wakes.
Des. Who's there? Othello?
Otli. Ay, Desdemona.
Dcs. Will you come to bed, my lord?
0th. Have you pray'd to-night, Desdemona?
Des. Ay, my lord.
0th. If you bethink yourself of any crime
Unreconciled as yet to heaven and grace,
Solicit for it straight.
Des. Alas, my lord, what may you mean by that?
0th, Wdl, do it, and be brief ; I will walk by : 30
I would not kill thy unprepared spirit ;
No ; heaven forfend ! I would not kill thy soul.
Des. Talk you of killing?
th. Ay, I do.
Des. Then heaven have mercy on me !
0th. Amen, with all my heart !
133
Act V. Sc. ii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Des. If you say so, I hope you will not kill me.
0th. Hum!
Dcs. And yet I fear you ; for you are fatal then
When your eyes roll so : why I should fear I know not,
Since guiltiness I know not ; but yet I feel I fear.
0th. Think on thy sins.
Des. They are loves I bear to you. 40
0th. Ay, and for that thou diest.
Dcs. That death 's unnatural that kills for loving.
Alas, why gnaw you so your nether lip ?
Some bloody passion shakes your very frame:
These are portents ; but yet I hope, I hope,
They do not point on me.
0th. Peace, and be still!
Dcs. I will so. What 's the matter?
0th. That handkerchief which I so loved and gave thee
Thou gavest to Cassio.
Des. . No, by my life and soul ! 49
Send for the man, and ask him.
0th. Sweet soul, take heed.
Take heed of perjury; thou art on thy death-bed.
Dcs. Ay, but not yet to die.
0th. Yes, presently :
Therefore confess thee freely of thy sin ;
For to deny each article with oath
Cannot remove nor choke the strong conception
That I do groan withal. Thou art to die.
Dcs. Then Lord have mercy on me !
0th. I say, amen.
Des. And have you mercy too ! I never did
Offend you in my life ; never loved Cassio
But with such general warranty of heaven 60
134
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act V. Sc. ii.
As I might love : I never gave him token.
0th. By heaven, I saw my handkerchief in 's hand.
perjured woman! thou dost stone my heart,
And makest me call what I intend to do
A murder, which I thought a sacrifice :
1 saw the handkerchief.
Des. He found it then ;
I never gave it him : send for him hither ;
Let him confess a truth.
0th. He hath confess'd.
Des, What, my lord?
0th. That he hath used thee.
Des. How? unlawfully?
th. Ay. 70
Des. He will not say so.
0th. No, his mouth is stopp'd;
Honest lago hath ta'en order for 't.
Des. O, my. fear interprets ! what, is he dead ?
0th. Had all his hairs been lives, my great revenge
Had stomach for them all.
Des. Alas, he is betray'd, and I undone!
0th. Out, strumpet ! weep'st thou for him to my face?
Des. O, banish me, my lord, but kill me not !
0th. Down, strumpet!
Des. Kill me to-morrow ; let me live to-night ! 80
0th. Nay, if you strive, —
Des. But half an hour!
0th. Being done, there is no pause.
Des. But while I say one prayer !
0th. It is too late. [He stifles her.
Emil. [Within] I\Iy lord, my lord! what, ho! my lord,
my lord !
^35
Act V. Sc. ii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
0th. What noise is this ? Not dead ? not yet quite dead ?
I that am cruel am yet merciful ;
I would not have thee linger in thy pain :
So, so.
Emil. [Within] What, ho! my lord, my lord!
0th. Who's there?
Emil. [Within] O, good my lord, I would speak a word
with you ! 90
0th. Yes : 'tis Emilia. By and by. She 's dead.
'Tis like she comes to speak of Cassio's death.
The noise was here. Ha ! no more moving ?
Still as the grave. Shall she come in ? were 't good ?
I think she stirs again. No. What's best to do?
If she come in, she '11 sure speak to my wife :
My wife! my wife! what wife? I have no wife.
O, insupportable! O heavy hour!
Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse
Of sun and moon, and that the affrighted globe 100
Should yawn at alteration.
Emil. [Within] I do beseech you
That I may speak with you, O, good my lord !
0th. T had forgot thee : O, come in, Emilia.
Soft ; by and by. Let me the curtains draw.
Where art thou? [Unlocks the door.
Enter Emilia.
What 's the matter with thee now ?
Emil. O, my good lord, yonder 's foul murders done !
0th. What, now?
Emil. But now, my lord.
0th, It is the very error of the moon ;
She comes more nearer earth than she was wont
136
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act V. Sc. ii.
And makes men mad. ill
EmiL Cassio, my lord, hath kill'd a young Venetian
Call'd Roderigo.
0th. Roderigo kill'd !
And Cassio kill'd !
EmiL No, Cassio is not kill'd.
0th. Not Cassio kill'd ! then murder 's out of tune,
And sweet revenge grows harsh.
Des. O, falsely, falsely murder'd !
EmiL Alas, what cry is that?
0th. That! what?
EmiL Out, and alas ! that was my lady's voice.
Help! help, ho! help! O lady, speak again ! I20
Sweet Desdemona! O sw^eet mistress, speak!
Des. A guiltless death I die.
EmiL O, who hath done this deed ?
Des. Nobody ; I myself. Farewell :
Commend me to my kind lord : O, farewell ! [Dies.
0th. Why, how should she be murder'd?
EmiL Alas, who knows ?
0th. You heard her say herself, It was not I.
EmiL She said so : I must needs report the truth.
0th. She 's like a liar gone to burning hell :
'Twas I that kill'd her.
EmiL O, the more angel she, 130
And you the blacker devil !
0th. She tum'd to folly, and she was a whore.
EmiL Thou dost belie her, and thou art a devil.
0th. She was false as water.
EmiL Thou art rash as fire, to say
That she was false : O, she was heavenly true !
0th. Cassio did top her ; ask thy husband else.
137
Act V. Sc. ii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
O, I were damn'd beneath all depth in hell,
But that I did proceed upon just grounds
To this extremity. Thy husband knew it all.
Emil. My husband ! 140
th. Thy husband. *
Ejjiil. That she was false to wedlock?
OtJi. Ay, with Cassio. Nay, had she been true,
If heaven would make me such another world
Of one entire and perfect chrysolite,
I 'Id not have sold her for it.
Emil. My husband!
0th. Ay, 'twas he that told me first:
An honest man he is, and hates the slime
That sticks on filthy deeds.
Emil. My husband! 149
0th. What needs this iteration, woman ? I say thy husband.
Emil. O mistress, villany hath made mocks with love !
My husband say that she was false !
0th. He, woman ;
I say thy husband: dost understand the word?
My friend, thy husband, honest, honest lago.
Emil. If he say so, may his pernicious soul
Rot half a grain a day ! he Hes to the heart :
She was too fond of her most filthy bargain.
0th. Ha!
Emil. Do thy worst :
This deed of thine is no more worthy heaven 160
Than thou wast worthy her.
0th. Peace, you were best.
Emil. Thou hast not half that power to do me harm
As I have to be hurt. O gull ! O dolt !
As ignorant as dirt ! thou hast done a deed—
138
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act V. Sc. ii.
I care not for thy sword ; I '11 make thee known,
Though I lost twenty lives. Help ! help, ho ! help I
The Moor hath kill'd my mistress ! Murder ! murder !
Enter Montano, Gratiano, lago, and others,
Mon. What is the matter ? How now, general !
Emil. O, are you come, lago? you have done well.
That men must lay their murders on your neck. 170
Gra. What is the matter?
Emil. Disprove this villain, if thou be'st a man :
He says thou told'st him that his wife was false :
I know thou didst not, thou 'rt not such a villain.
Speak, for my heart is full.
lago. I told him what I thought, and told no more
Than what he found himself was apt and true.
Emil. But did you ever tell him she was false ?
lago. I did.
Emil, You told a lie, an odious, damned lie; 180
Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie !
She false with Cassio ! Did you say with Cassio ?
lago. With Cassio, mistress. Go to, charm your tongue.
Emil. I will not charm my tongue ; I am bound to speak :
My mistress here lies murder'd in her bed, —
All. O heavens forf end !
Eniil. And your reports have set the murder on.
0th. Nay, stare not, masters : it is true indeed.
Gra. 'Tis a strange truth.
Mon. O monstrous act !
E,mil. Villany, villany, villany ! 190
I think upon 't : I think : I smell 't : O villany !
I thought so then : I '11 kill myself for grief :
O villany, villany !
139
Act V. Sc. ii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
I ago. What, are you mad ? I charge you, get you home.
Emil. Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak :
'Tis proper I obey him, but not now.
Perchance, lago, I will ne'er go home.
0th. 0\ O! O! [Falling on the bed.
Emil. Nay, lay thee down and roar ;
For thou hast kill'd the sweetest innocent
That e'er did lift up eye.
0th. [Rising^^ O, she was foul ! 200
I scarce did know you, uncle : there lies your niece,
Whose breath indeed these hands have newly stopp'd :
I know this act shows horrible and grim.
Gra. Poor Desdemona ! I am glad thy father 's dead :
Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief
Shore his old thread in twain : did he live now.
This sight would make him do a desperate turn,
Yea, curse his better angel from his side,
And fall to reprobation.
0th. 'Tis pitiful ; but yet lago knows 210
That she with Cassio hath the act of shame
A thousand times committed ; Cassio confess'd it :
And she did gratify his amorous works
With that recognizance and pledge of love
Which I first gave her ; I saw it in his hand :
It was a handkerchief, an antique token
My father gave my mother.
Emil. O heaven ! O heavenly powers !
lago. 'Zounds ! hold your peace.
Emil. Twill out, 'twill out. I peace!
No, I will speak as liberal as the north : 220
Let heaven and men and devils, let them all.
All, all, cry shame against me, yet I '11 speak.
140
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act V. Sc. ii.
lago. Be wise, and get you home.
Emil. I will not.
[lago offers to stab Emilia.
Gra. Fie !
Your sword upon a woman !
Emil. O thou dull Moor! that handkerchief thou speak'st
of
I found by fortune and did give my husband;
For often with a solemn earnestness,
More than indeed belong'd to such a trifle,
He begg'd of me to steal it.
lago. A'illanous whore!
Emil. She give it Cassio ! no, alas, I found it, 230
And I did give 't my husband.
lago. Filth, thou liest !
Emil. By heaven, I do not, I do not, gentlemen.
O murderous coxcomb ! what should such a fool
Do with so good a wife?
0th. Are there no stones in heaven
But what serve for the thunder ? Precious villain !
[He runs at lago: lago, from behind,
stabs Emilia, and exit.
Gra*. The woman falls ; sure, he hath kill'd his wife.
Emil. Ay, ay : O, lay me by my. mistress' side.
Gra. He 's gone, but his wife 's kill'd.
Mon. 'Tis a notorious villain. Take you this weapon,
Which I have here recover'd from the Moor : 240
Come, guard the door without ; let him not pass,
But kill him rather. I '11 after that same villain.
For 'tis a damned slave.
[Exeunt all but Othello and Emilia.
0th. I am not valiant neither,
141
Act V. Sc. ii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
But every puny whipster gets my sword.
But why should honour outUve honesty?
Let it go all.
Efiiil. What did thy song bode, lady?
Hark, canst thou hear me ? I will play the swan,
And die in music. [vS/n^/;/ o-] Willow, willow, willow.
Moor, she was chaste ; she loved thee, cruel Moor ;
So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true ; 250
So speaking as I think, I die, I die. [Dies.
0th. I have another weapon in this chamber ;
It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook's temper. —
O, here it is. Uncle, I must come forth.
Gra. [Within] If thou attempt it, it will cost thee dear:
Thou hast no weapon, and perforce must suffer.
0th. Look in upon me then, and speak with me,
Or, naked as I am, I will assault thee.
Re-enter Gratiano.
Gra. What is the matter?
0th. Behold, I have a weapon;
A better never did itself sustain 260
Upon a soldier's thigh : I have seen the day
That with this little arm and this good sword
I have made my way .through more impediments
Than twenty times your stop : but, O vain boast !
Who can control his fate? 'tis not so now.
Be not afraid, though you do see me weapon'd ;
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt
And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.
Do you go back dismay'd ? 'tis a lost fear :
Man but a rush against Othello's breast, 270
And he retires. Where should Othello go?
142
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act V. Sc. ii.
Now, how dost thou look now ? O ill-starr'd wench !
Pale as thy smock ! when we shall meet at compt,
This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven,
And fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl !
Even like thy chastity. O cursed slave !
Whip me, ye devils.
From the possession of this heavenly sight !
Blow me about in winds ! roast me in sulphur !
Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire ! 280
O Desdemona ! Desdemona ! dead !
Oh! Oh! Oh!
Enter Lodovico, Montana, Cassio carried in a chair,
and Oificers, kvith I a go, prisoner.
Lod. Where is this rash and most unfortunate man?
0th. That 's he that was Othello : here I am.
Lod. Where is that viper ? bring the villain forth.
0th. I look down towards his feet; but that 's a fable.
If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee.
[Wounds lago.
Lod. Wrench his sword from him.
lago. 1 bleed, sir, but not kilFd.
0th. I am not sorry neither : I 'Id have thee live ;
For, in my sense, 'tis happiness to die. 290
Lod. O thou Othello, that wert once so good,
Fall'n in the practice of a damned slave,
What shall be said to thee?
0th. Why, any thing:
An honourable murderer, if you will ;
For nought did I in hate, but all in honour.
Lod. This wretch hath part confess'd his villany: ?
Did you and he consent in Cassio's death?
143
Act V. Sc. ii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
th, Ay.
Cas. Dear general, I never gave you cause.
0th. I do believe it, and I ask your pardon. 300
Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil
Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body ?
1 ago. Demand me nothing ; what you know, you know :
From this time forth I never will speak word.
Lod. What, not to pray ?
Gra. Torments will ope your lips.
0th. Well, thou dost best.
Lod. Sir, you shall understand what hath befall'n,
Which, as I Chink, you know not. Here is a letter
Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo,
And here another : the one of them imports 310
The death of Cassio to be undertook
By Roderigo.
0th. O villain !
Cas. Most heathenish and most gross !
Lod. Now here 's another discontented paper.
Found in his pocket too ; and this, it seems,
Roderigo meant to have sent this damned villain ;
But that, belike, lago in the interim
Came in and satisfied him.
0th. O the pernicious caitiff !
How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief
That was my wife's ?
Cas. I found it in my chamber : 320
And he himself confess'd but even now
That there he dropp'd it for a special purpose
Which wrought to his desire.
^Oth. O fool! fool! fool!
Cas. There is besides In Roderigo's letter,
144
THE MOOR OF VENICE Act V. Sc. ii.
How he upbraids lago, that he made him
Brave me upon the watch ; whereon it came
That I was cast : and even but now he spake
After long seeming dead, lago hurt him,
lago set him on.
Lod. You must forsake this room, and go with us : 330
Your power and your command is taken off,
And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave,
If there be any cunning cruelty
That can torment him much and hold him long.
It shall be his. You shall close prisoner rest.
Till that the nature of your fault be known
To the Venetian state. Come, bring away.
0th. Soft you ; a word or two before you go.
I^have done the state some service, and they know 't.
No more of that. I pray you, in your letters, 340
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate.
Speak of me as I am ; nothing extenuate.
Nor set down aught in malice : then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely but too well ;
Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
Perplex'd in the extreme ; of one whose hand',
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe ; of one whose subdued eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood.
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees 350
Their medicinal gum. Set you down this ;
And say besides, that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog
And smote him, thus. [Stabs himself.
145
Act V. Sc. ii. TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
Lod. O bloody period !
Gra. All that 's spoke is marr'd.
0th, I kiss'd thee ere I kill'd thee : no way but this,
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.
[Falls on the bed, and dies.
Cas. This did I fear, but thought he had no weapon ; 360
For he was great of heart.
Lod. [To lago] O Spartan dog,
More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea !
Look on the tragic loading of this bed ;
This is thy work: the object poisons sight;
Let it be hid. Gratiano, keep the house.
And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor,
For th^y succeed on you. To you, lord governor,
Remains the censure of this hellish villain.
The time, the place, the torture : O, enforce it !
Myself will straight aboard, and to the state 370
This heavy act with heavy heart relate. [Exeunt.
T1.6
THE MOOR OF VENICE
Glossary,
Abhor; "it doth a. me," it is
abhorrent to me ; IV. ii. 162.
About, out; I. ii. 46.
Abuse, deceive; I. iii. 401.
Abused, deceived; I. i. 174.
Abuser, corrupter ; I. ii. 78.
Achieved, won ; II. i. 61.
Acknown on't, confess any
knowledge of it; III. iii. 319.
Act, action, working; III. iii.
328.
Action, accusation ; I. iii. 70.
Addiction, inclination ; II. ii. 6.
Addition, honour; III. iv. 194.
Advantage; "in the best a.,"
at the most favourable op-
portunity; I. iii. 298.
Advised, careful ; I. ii. 55.
Advocation, advocacy; III. iv.
123.
AiHned, bound by any tie ; I. i.
39-
Affinity, connexions; III. i. 49.
Agnize, confess with pride; I.
iii. 232.
Aim, conjecture; I. iii. 6.
All in all, wholly, altogether;
IV. i. 89.
Allowance ; "and your a.," and
has your permission ; I. i. 128.
Allowed, acknowledged; I. iii.
224.
All's one, very well; IV. iii. 23.
Ahnain, German ; II. iii. 86.
A n c i e n t, ensign (Folio i,
" Auntient") ; I. i. 33.
Anthropophagi, cannibals
(Quartos, "A n t h r p 0-
phagie"; Folio i, " Antropo-
phague ") ; I.' iii. 144. For
' men whose heads do grow
beneath their shoulders.' Cp.
illustration.
From Kuchlein's illustrations of the
lourney held at Stuttgart, 1609.
Antres, caverns ; I. iii. 140.
Apart, aside; II. iii. 391.
Approve, prove, justify; II. iii.
, love, adore ; IV. iii. 19.
Approved, proved to have been
involved; II. iii. 211.
Apt, natural ; II. i. 295.
Arraigning, accusing; III. iv.
152.
Arrivance, arrival (Folios, ''^4 r-
rivancy" or "Arrivancie");
II. i. 42.
147
Glossary
TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
As, as if; III. iii. 77-
Aspics, venomous snakes ; III.
iii. 450.
Assay, a test; I. iii. 18.
, try; 11. i. 121.
Assure thee, be assured; III.
iii. 20.
At, on ; I. ii. 42.
Atone, reconcile; IV. i. 236.
Attach, arrest ; I. ii. 77.
Attend, await ; III. iii. 281.
Bauble, fool (used contemptu-
ously) ; IV. i. 137.
Bear, the Constellation so
called; II. iyi4.
Bear out, get the better of; II.
i. 19.
Beer; " small beer," small ac-
counts, trifles ; II. i. 161.
Be-lee'd, placed on the lee
(Quarto i, "he led"); I. i.
30.
Beshrew me, a mild assevera-
tion; III. iv. 150.
Besort, what is becoming ; I. iii.
239-
Best; " were b.," had better ; I.
ii. 30.
Bestozv, place ; III. i. 56.
Betimes, early ; I. iii. 383.
Bid " good morrow," alluding
to the custom of friends bid-
ding good-morroiij by sere-
nading a newly married
couple on the morning after
their marriage ; III. i. 2.
Birdlime, lime to catch birds ;
II. i. 127.
Black, opposed to "fair"; III.
iii. 263.
Blank, the white mark in the
centre of the butt, the aim;
III. iv. 128.
Blazoning, praising ; II. i. 63.
Blood, anger, passion ; II. iii.
205.
Blozvn, empty, puffed out ; III.
iii. 182.
Bohb'd, got cunningly; V. i. 16.
Boding, foreboding, ominous;
IV. i. 22.
Bootless, profitless ; I. iii. 209.
Brace, state of defence (prop-
erly, armour to protect the
arm) ; I. iii. 24.
Brave, defy ; V. ii. 326.
Bravery, bravado, defiance ; I.
i. 100.
Bring on the ivay, accompany ;
III. iv. 197.
Bulk, the projecting part of a
shop on which goods were
exposed for sale ; V. i. i.
Butt, goal, limit ; V. ii. 267.
By, aside ; V. ii. 30.
, " how you say by," what
say you to; I. iii. 17.
By and by, presently; II. iii.
309.
Cable; "give him c./' give him
scope; I. ii. 17.
Caitiff, thing, wretch; a term
of endearment ; IV. i. 109.
Callet, a low woman; IV. ii.
121.
Calm'd, becalmed, kept from
motion ; I. i. 30.
Canakin, little can; II. iii. 71.
Cannibals; I. iii. I43- Cp. il-
lustration.
Capable, ample; III. iii. 459.
148
THE MOOR OF VENICE
Glossary
From a rare old broadside depicting
the habits of the aboriginal Mexicans.
Carack, large ship, galleon; I.
ii. 50.
Caroused, drunk; II. iii. 55.
Carve for, indulge (Quarto i,
" carve forth ") ; II. iii. 173.
Case, matter (Folios,
" cause ") ; III. iii. 4.
Cast, dismissed, degraded from
office ; V. ii. 327.
Censure, judgement ; II. iii.
, opinion ; IV. i. 273.
Certes, certainly ; I. i. 16.
Chair; " a chair, to bear
easily hence " ; V. i. 82.
illustration.
193-
him
Cp.
From a plate in Sandy's Travels (1621 V
depicting a sick person carried to
the sulpnur-baths at Pozzuoli, near
Naples.
Challenge, claim; I. iii. 188.
Chamhcrers, effeminate men;
III. iii. 265.
Chances, events ; I. iii. 134.
Charm, make silent, restrain ;
V. ii. 183.
CJiarnicr, enchantress, sorcer-
ess ; III. iv. 57.
Cherubin, cherub; IV. ii. 62.
Chidden, chiding, making an
incessant noise ; II. i. 12.
Chide, quarrel ; IV. ii. 167.
Chuck, a term of endearment ;
III. iv. 49.
Circumscription, restraint; I.
ii. 27.
Circumstance, circumlocution ;
I. i. 13.
, appurtenances ; III. iii.
354-
Circumstanced, give way to
circumstances; III. iv. 201.
Civil, civilised; IV. i. 65.
Clean, entirely, altogether ; I.
iii. 366.
Clime, country; III. iii. 230.
Clip, embrace ; III. iii. 464.
Clog, encumber (Folios i, 2, 3.
" enclogge ") ; II. i. 70.
Close, secret ; III. iii. 123.
Close as oak = " close as the
grain of oak " ; III. iii. 210.
Clyster-pipes, tubes used fon*
injection ; II. i, 179.
Coat, coat of mail ; V. i. 25.
Cogging, deceiving by lying;
IV. ii. 132.
C allied, blackened, darkened ;
II. iii. 204,
Coloquintida, colocynth, or bit-
ter apple; I. iii. 355.
Commoner, harlot ; IV. ii. 72,
149
Glossary
TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Companions, fellows (used
contemptuously) ; IV. ii. 141.
Compasses, annual circuits ;
III.iv.71.
Compliment extern, external
shov*' ; I. i. 63.
Composition, consistency; I.
iii. I.
Compt, reckoning, day of reck-
oning; V. ii. 273.
Conceit, idea; thought (Quarto
I, "connsell"); III. iii. 115.
Conceits, conceives, judges;
III. iii. 149.
Condition, temper, disposition ;
II. i. 255.
Confine, limit ; I. ii. 27.
Conjunctive, closely united
(Quarto i, " communica-
tiue " ; Quarto 2, " conjec-
tiue") ; I. iii. 375.
Conjured, charmed by incanta-
tions; I. iii. 105.
Conscionable, conscientious ;
II. i. 242.
Consent in, plan together; V.
ii. 297.
Consequence, that which fol-
lows or results ; II. iii. 64.
Conserved, preserved (Quarto
I, " conserues" \ Quarto 2,
" concerue") ; III. iv. 75.
Consuls, senators (Theobald,
" Couns'lers " ; H a n m e r,
"counsel") ; I. ii. 43.
Content, joy; II. i. 185.
, satisfy, reward; III. i. i.
Content you, be satisfied, be
easy; I. i. 41.
Continuate, continual, uninter-
rupted (Quarto i, "' conuen-
icnt") ; Ill.iv. 178.
Contrived, plotted, deliberate;
I. ii. 3-
Conveniences, comforts; IT. i,
234-
Converse, conversation ; III. i.
40.
Cope, meet ; IV. i. 87.
Corrigible, corrective ; I. iii.
329.
Counsellor, prater (Theobald,
" censurer ") ; II. i. 165.
C un t e r-castcr, accountant
(used contemptuously) ; I. i.
31-
Course, proceeding (Quarto i.
" cause") ; II. i. 275.
, run (Quarto i, " make") ;
III.iv.71.
Court and guard of safety,
" very spot and guarding
place of safety " (Theobald,
" court of guard and safe-
ty"); II. iii. 216.
Court of guard, the main
guardhouse ; II. i. 220.
Courtship, civility, elegance of
manners (Quarto i, ''courte-
sies") ; II. i. 171.
Coxcomb, fool ; V. ii. 233.
Cozening, cheating ; IV. ii. 132.
Crack, breach ; II. iii. 330.
Creation, nature ; II. i. 64.
Cries on, cries out (Folios 2,3,
4, " cries out") ; V. i. 48.
Critical, censorious ; II. i. 120.
Crusadoes, Portuguese gold
coins ; so called from the
cross on them (worth be-
tween six and seven shil-
lings) ; III. iv. 26. Cp. illus-
tration.
150
THE MOOR OF VENICE
Glossary
From an engraving by Fairho t.
Cry, pack of hounds ; II. iii.
370.
Cunning, knowledge; III. iii.
49.
Curled, having hair formed into
ringlets, Jience affected, fop-
pish ; I. ii. 68.
Customer, harlot ; IV. i. 112.
Daffcf, dost put off (Collier,
" d a ff ' .s' t " ; Quartos,
" dofftst " ; Folio i\" dafts ") ;
IV. ii. 175-
Danger; " hurt to danger,''
dangerously hurt, wounded ;
II. iii. 197.
Darlings, favourites ; I. ii. 68.
Daws, jack-daws ; 1. i. 65.
Dear, deeply felt ; I. iii. 260.
Dearest, most zealous; I. iii. 85.
Debitor and creditor, " the title
of certain ancient treatises on
book-keeping here used as a
nick-name " (Clarke) ; I. i.
.V.
Defeat, destroy; IV. ii. 160.
, disfigure; I. iii. 346.
Defend, forbid; I. iii. 267.
Delations, accusations; III. iii.
123.
Pelighted, delightful ; I. iii. 290.
Deliver, say, relate; II. iii. 217.
Demand, ask; V. ii. 301.
Demerits, merits; I. ii. 22.
Demonstrable, "made d.,"
demonstrated, revealed; III.
iv. 142.
Denotement, denoting; II. iii.
323-
Deputing, substituting ; IV. i.
248.
Designment, design ; II. i. 22.
Desired ; " well d.," well loved,
a favourite ; II, i. 206.
Despite, contempt, aversion ;
IV.ii. 116.
Determinate, decisive ; W . ii.
232.
Devesting, divesting; II. iii.
179
Diablo, the Devil ; II. iii. 161.
Diet, feed; II. i. 302.
Dilate, relate in detail, at
length; I. iii. 153.
Directly, in a direct straightfor-
ward way ; IV. ii. 210.
Discontented, full of dissatis-
faction ; V. ii. 314.
Discourse of thought, faculty of
thinking, range of thought ;
IV.ii. 153-
Dislikes, displeases; II. iii. 49.
Displeasure ; " your d.," the
disfavour you have incurred ;
III. i. 45.
Disports, sports, pastimes; I.
iii. 272.
Dispose, disposition ; I. iii. 403.
Disprove, refute ; V. ii. 172.
Disputed on, argued, investi-
gated; I. ii. 75.
Distaste, be distasteful ; III. iii.
327-
Division, arrangement ; I. i. 23.
Do, act ; I. iii. 395.
Dotage, affection for ; IV. i. 27.
151
Glossary
TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Double, of two-fold influence ;
I. ii. 14.
Double set, go twice round ; II.
iii. 135-
Doubt, suspicion ; III. iii. 188.
, fear; III. iii. 19.
Dream, expectation, anticipa-
tion ; II. iii. 64.
Ecstacy, swoon ; IV. i. 80.
Elements, a pure extract, the
quintessence ; II. iii. 59.
Embay' d, land-locked; II. i.
18.
Encave, hide, conceal ; IV. i.
82.
Enchafed, chafed, angry; II. i.
17-
Engage, pledge ; III. iii. 462.
Engines, devices, contrivances,
(?) instruments of torture;
IV. ii. 219.
Engluts, engulfs, swallows up ;
I. iii. 57.
Enshelter'd, sheltered ; II. i. 18.
Ensteep'd, steeped, lying con-
cealed under water (Quarto
I, " enscerped ") ; II. i. 70.
Entertainment, re-engagement
in the service; III. iii. 250.
Enzi'heel, encompass, surround;
II. i. 87.
Equinox, counterpart; II. iii.
129.
Erring, wandering; III. iii. 227.
Error, deviation, irregularity ;
V. ii. 109.
Escape, escapade, wanton
freak; I. iii. 197.
Essential, real ; II. i. 64.
Estimation, reputation ; I. iii.
27$'
Eternal, damned (used to ex-
press abhorrence) ; IV. ii.
130.
Ever-fixed, fixed for ever
(Quartos, " ever-Hred") ; II.
i. 15.
Execute, to wreak anger; II.
iii. 228.
Execution, working; III. iii.
466.
Exercise, religious exercise ;
III. iv. 41.
Exhibition, allowance; I. iii.
Expert, experienced; II. iii. 82.
Expert and approved allozv-
ance, acknowledged and
proved ability ; II. i. 49.
ExsuMicate, inflated, unsub-
stantial; (Quartos, Folios i,
2, 3, " cxiMicate " ; Folio 4.
" exsumicatcd") ; III. iii.
182.
Extern, eternal ; I. i. 63.
Extincted, extinct (Folios 3,4,
" extinctest " ; Rowe, "ex-
tinguished ") ; II. i. 81.
Extravagant, vagrant, wander-
ing; Li. 137.
Facile, easy; I. iii. 23.
Falls, lets fall ; IV. i. 248.
Fantasy, fancy; III. iii. 299.
Fashion, conventional custom ;
II. i. 208.
Fast, faithfully devoted; I. iii.
369.
Fathom, reach, capacity; I. i.
153-
Favour, countenance, appear-
ance ; III. iv. 125.
Fearful, full of fear ; I. iii, 12.
152
THE MOOR OF VENICE
Glossary
Fell, cruel ; V. ii. 362.
Filches, pilfers, steals ; III. iii.
159-
Filth, used contemptuously; V.
ii. 231.
Fineless, without limit, bound-
less; III. iii. 173.
Fitchew, pole-cat (used con-
temptuously) ; IV. i. 150.
Fits, befits; III. iv. 150.
Fleers, sneers ; IV. i. 83.
Flood, sea ; I. iii. 135.
Flood-gate, rushing, impetu-
ous ; I. iii. 56.
Folly, unchastity ; V. ii. 132.
Fond, foolish; I. iii. 320.
Fopped, befooled, duped ; IV. ii.
195.
For, because (Folios,
" zvhen ") ; I. iii. 269.
Forbear, spare; I. ii. 10.
Fordoes, destroys ; V. i. 129.
Forfend, forbid; V. ii. 32.
Forgot; " are thus f.," have so
forgotten yourself ; II. iii. 188.
Forms and visages, external
show, outward appearance ;
1. i. 50.
Forth of, forth from, out of
(Folio I, "For of"; Folios
2. 3, 4, "For off") ; V. i. 35-
Fortitude, strength; I. iii. 222.
Fortune, chance, accident ; V.
ii. 226.
Framed, moulded, formed ; I.
iii. 404.
Fraught, freight, burden ; III.
iii. 449.
Free, innocent, free from guilt ;
III. iii. 255.
, liberal ; I. iii. 266.
Frights, terrifies; II. iii. 175.
Frise, a kind of coarse woollen
stuff; II. i. 127.
From, contrary to ; I. i. 132.
Fruitful, generous ; II. iii. 347.
Full, perfect ; II. i. 36.
Function, exercise of the facul-
ties ; II. iii. 354.
Fustian; " discourse f.," talk
rubbish ; II. iii. 282.
Galls, rancour, bitterness of
mind ; IV. iii. 93.
Garb, fashion, manner ; II. i.
314-
Garner' d, treasured; IV. ii. 57.
Gastness, ghastliness (Quar-
tos I, 2, " ieastures" ; Quar-
to 3, " jestures" ; Quarto
1687, "" gestures " ; Knight,
" ghastness") ; V. i. 106.
Gender, kind, sort ; I. iii. 326.
Generous, noble; III. iii. 280.
Give azvay, give up; III. iii. 28.
Government, self-control ; III.
iii. 256.
Gradation, order of promotion ;
I. i. 2>7-
Grange, a solitary farm-house ;
I. i. 106.
Green, raw, inexperienced; II.
i. 251.
Grise, step ; I. iii. 200.
Gross in sense, palpable to rea-
son ; I. ii. y2.
Guardage, guardianship ; I. ii.
70.
Guards, guardians ("alluding
to the star Arctophylax,"
Johnson) ; II. i. 15.
Guinea-hen, a term of con-
tempt for a woman ; I. iii.
317.
153
Glossary
TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Gyve, fetter, ensnare; II. i. 171.
Habits, appearances, outward
show ; I. iii. 108.
Haggard, an untrained wild
hawk; III. iii. 260.
Hales, hauls, draws; IV. i. 141.
Haply, perhaps; II. i. 279.
Happ'd, happened, occurred ;
V. i. 127.
Happiness, good luck; III. iv.
108.
Happy; " in h. time," at the
right moment; III. i. 32.
Hard at hand, close at hand
(Quartos, "hand at hand") ;
II. i. 268.
Hardness, hardship ; I. iii. 234.
Hast-posthaste, very great
haste ; I. ii. 37.
Have with you, I '11 go with
you; I. ii. 53-
Having, allowance (?) "pin-
money " ; IV. iii. 92.
Hearted, seated in the heart;
III. iii. 448.
Heavy, sad; V. ii. 371.
; " a h. night," a thick
cloudy night ; V. i. 42.
Heat, urgency; I. ii. 40.
Helm, helmet; I. iii. 273.
Herself, itself; I. iii. 96.
Hie, hasten ; IV. iii. 50.
High suppertime, high time for
supper ; IV. ii. 245-6.
Hint, subject, theme; I. iii. 142.
Hip; "have on the h.," catch
at an advantage (a term in
wrestling) ; II. i. 314.
Hold, make to linger; V. ii.
334-
Home, to the point ; II. i. 166.
Honestly, becoming; IV. i. 288.
Honey, sweetheart ; II. i. 206.
Horologe, clock; II. iii. 130.
Houseivife, hussy ; IV. i. 95.
Htmgerly, hungrily; III. iv.
105.
Hurt; "to be h.," to endure
being hurt; V. ii. 163.
Hydra, the fabulous monster
with many heads ; II. iii. 308.
Ice-brook's temper, i.e. a sword
tempered in the frozen
brook; alluding to the an-
cient Spanish custom of
hardening steel by plunging
red-hot in the rivulet Salo
near Bilbilis ; V. ii. 252.
Idle, barren ; I. iii. 140.
Idleness, unproductiveness,
want of cultivation ; I. iii.
328.
Import, importance ; III. iii.
316.
Importancy, importance ; I. iii.
20.
In, on ; I. i. 137.
Inclining, favourably disposed;
II. iii. 346.
Incontinent, immediately: lY .
ii. 12.
Incontinently, immediately; I.
iii. 306.
Index, introduction, prologue :
II. i. 263.
Indign, unworthy; I. iii. 274.
Indues, affects, makes sensi-
tive; (Quarto 3, "endures" ;
Johnson conj. "subdues") ;
III. iv. 146.
In^ener, inventor (of praises) ;
ii. i. 65.
154
THE MOOR OF VENICE
Glossary
hifiraft, ingrafted ; II. iii. 145.
Inhibited, prohibited, forbid-
den ; I. ii. 79.
In jointed them, joined them-
selves ; I. iii. 35.
Injuries; " in your i.," while
doing injuries; II. i. 112.
Inordinate, immoderate; II.
iii. 311-
Intendment, intention; IV. ii.
203.
Intentively, with unbroken at-
tention (Folio I, " instinctiue-
ly " : Folios 2, 3, 4, " distinc-
tively" \ Gould conj. " con-
nectively ") ; I. iii. 155.
Invention, mental activity; IV.
i. 195.
Issues, conclusions ; III. iii. 219.
Iteration, repetition; V. ii. 150.
Janus, the two-headed Roman
God ; I. ii. 23-
I esses, straps of leather or silk,
with which hawks were tied
by the leg for the falconer
to hold her by; III. iii. 261.
Cp. illustration.
From an engraving of the year 1593.
Joint-ring, a ring with joints
in it, consisting of two
halves ; a lover's token ; IV.
iii. JZ' Cp' illustration.
From a woodcut by Fairholt.
Jump, exactly; II. iii. 392.
, agree ; I. iii. 5.
Just, exact; I. iii. 5.
Justly, truly and faithfully ; I.
iii. 124.
Keep up, put up, do not draw ;
I. ii. 59-
Knave, servant ; I. i. 45.
Knee-crooking, fawning, ob-
sequious ; I. i. 45.
Know of, learn from, find out
from; V. i. 117.
Lack, miss; III. iii. 318.
Law-days, court-days ; III. iii.
140.
Leagued, connected in friend-
ship (Quartos, Folios,
"league") ; II. iii. 218.
Learn, teach ; I. iii. 183.
Learned, intelligent ; III. iii.
259.
Lcets, days on which courts are
held; III. iii. 140.
Levels, is in keeping, is suit-
able ; I. iii. 240.
Liberal, free, wanton; II. i. 165.
155
Glossary
TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Lies, resides; III. iv, 2,
Like, equal ; II. i. 16.
Lingered, prolonged; IV. ii.
228.
List, boundary ; " patient 1.," the
bounds of patience ; IV. i. 76.
, inclination (Folios. Quar-
tos 2, 3, " leaue") ; II. i. 105,
, listen to, hear ; II. i. 219
Living, real, valid; III. iii. 409,
Lost, groundless, vain ; V. ii,
269,
Lown, lout, stupid, blockhead
II. iii. 95.
Magniiico, a title given to a
Venetian grandee ; I. ii. 12.
Maidhood, maidenhood ; I. i.
173.
Main, sea, ocean; II. i. 3.
Make away, get away; V. i. 58.
Makes, does ; I. ii. 49.
Manunering, hesitating (Fo-
lios, Quartos 2, 3, " mam'-
ring" ', Quarto i, " mutter-
'i^ig " ; Johnson, " mummer-
ing ") ; III. iii. 70.
Man, wield; V. ii. 270.
Manage, set on foot ; II. iii. 215.
Mandragora, mandrake, a plant
supposed to induce sleep ; III.
iii. 330.
Mane, crest ; II. i. 13.
Manifest, reveal : I. ii. 32.
Marble, (?) everlasting; III.
iii. 460.
Mass; " by the mass," an oath
(Folios I, 2, 3, "Introth'';
Folio 4, "In troth") ; II. iii.
384.
Master, captain; II. i. 211.
May, can; V. i. 78.
Maasai'd, head; II. iii. 155.
Me; " whip me," whip (me
ethic dative) ; I. i. 49.
Mean, means; III. i. 39.
Meet, seemly, becoming ; I. i.
146.
Mere, utter, absolute ; II. ii. 3.
Minion, a spoilt darling ; V. i.
33.
Mischance, misfortune; V. 1.
38.
Mock, ridicule; I. ii. 69.
Modern, common-place ; I. iii.
109.
Moe, more ; IV. iii. 57.
Molestation, disturbance ; II. i.
16.
Monstrous (trisyllabic) (Ca-
pell, " monsterous") ; II. iii.
217.
Moons, months ; I. iii. 84.
Mo or ship's (formed on analo-
gy of worship ; Quarto i
reads " Worship's ") ; I. i. 2>Z-
Moraler, moralizer; II. iii. 301.
Mortal, deadly ; II. i. 72.
, fatal ; V. ii. 205.
Mortise, " a hole made in tim-
ber to receive the tenon of
another piece of timber ; II.
i- 9.
Moth, "an idle eater"; I. iii.
257-
Motion, impulse, emotion; I.
iii. 95.
, natural impulse; I. ii. 75.
Mountebanks, quacks: I. iii. 61.
Mummy, a preparation used
for magical — as well as me-
dicinal — purposes, made orig-
inally from mummies; III.
iv. 74.
156
THE MOOR OF VENICE
Glossary
Mutualities, familiarities; 11. i.
266.
Mystery, trade craft ; IV. ii. 30.
Naked, unarmed ; V. ii. 258.
Napkin, handkerchief; III. iii.
287.
Native, natural, real ; I. i. 62.
New, fresh (Quartos,
" more") ; I. iii. 205.
Next, nearest ; I. iii. 205.
North, north wind ; V. ii. 220.
Notorious, notable, egregious ;
IV. ii. 140.
Nuptial, wedding (Quartos,
"Ntiptialls"); II. ii. 8.
Obscure, abstruse ; II. i. 263.
Ohservancy, homage; III. iv.
149.
Odd-even, probably the interval
between twelve o'clock at
night and one o'clock in the
morning; I. i. 124.
Odds, quarrel ; II. iii. 185.
Off, away; V. ii. 331.
Off-capp'd, doffed their caps,
saluted (Quartos, "oft
capt") ; I. i. 10.
Offends, hurts, pains ; II. iii.
199-
Office, duty (Quarto i,
"duty") ; III. iv. 113.
OfHced, having a special func-
tion ; I. iii. 271.
Offices, domestic offices, where
food and drink were kept ; II.
ii. 9.
Old, time-honoured system ; I.
i. 37-
On, at ; II. iii. 132.
On't, of it; II. i. 30.
Opinion, public opinion, repu-
tation ; II. iii. 196.
Opposite, opposed ; I. ii. 67.
Other, otherwise; IV. ii. 13.
Ottomites, Ottomans; I. iii.
33-
Out-tongue, bear down; I. ii.
19.
Overt; " o. test," open proofs ;
I. iii. 107.
Owe, own ; I. i. 66.
Oivcdst, didst own ; III. iii. 2,33-
Paddle, play, toy; II. i. 259.
Pageant, show, pretence ; I. iii.
18.
Paragons, excels, surpasses ; II.
i. 62.
Parcels, parts, portions ; I. iii.
154.
Partially, with undue favour
(Qq-. "partiality''); II. iii.
218.
Parts, gifts; III. iii. 264.
Passage, people passing; V. i.
37-^
Passing, surpassingly; I. iii.
160.
Patent, privilege; IV. i. 203.
Patience (trisyllabic) ; II. iii.
376.
Peculiar, personal ; III. iii. 79.
Peevish, childish, silly; II. iii.
185.
Pegs, " the pins of an instru-
ment on which the strings are
fastened " ; II. i. 202.
Perdurable, durable, lasting ; I.
iii; 343-
Period, ending ; V. ii. 357.
Pestilence, poison ; II. iii. 362.
Pierced, penetrated; I. iii. 219.
157
Glossary
TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Pioners, pioneers, the common-
est soldiers, employed for
rough, hard work, such as
levelling roads, forming
mines, etc. ; III. iii. 346.
Plcasancc, pleasure (Quartos,
" pleasure ") ; II. iii. 293.
Pliant, convenient; I. iii. 151.
Plume up, make to triumph
(Quarto i, "make up"); I.
iii. 398.
Poise, weight ; III. iii. 82.
Pontic sea, Euxine or Black
Sea ; III. iii. 453.
Portance, conduct ; I. iii. 139.
Position, positive assertion ;
III. iii. 234.
Post-post-haste, very great
haste ; I. iii. 46.
Pottle-deep, to the bottom of
the tankard, a measure of
two quarts ; II. iii. 56.
Practice, plotting; III. iv. 141.
Precious, used ironically
(Quartos 2, 3, " perni-
tious") ; V. ii. 235.
Prefer, promote ; II. i. 286.
, show, present ; I. iii. 109.
Preferment, promotion ; I. i.
Pregnant, probable; II. i. 239.
Presently, immediately ; III. i.
38.
Prick'd, incited, spurred ; III.
iii. 412.
Probal, probable, reasonable ;
II. iii. 344.
Probation, proof; III. iii. 365.
Profane, coarse, irreverent ; II.
i. 165.
ProfA, profitable lesson ; III. iii.
379.
Proof ; " make p.," test, make
trial ; V. i. 26.
Proper, own ; I. iii. 69.
, handsome ; I. iii. ^gy.
Propontic, the Sea of Mar-
mora; III. iii. 456.
Propose, speak ; I. i. 25.
Propriety ; " from her p.," out
of herself; II. iii. 176.
Prosperity, success ; II. i. 287.
Prosperous, propitious ; I. iii.
245-
Puddled, muddled; III. iv. 143.
Purse, wrinkle, frown ; III. iii.
113.
Purse . . . strings; I. i. 2, 3.
Cp. illustration.
From the leaden seal of the Confra-
ternity of Purse-makers (Boursiers)
of Paris.
Put on, incite, instigate ; II. iii.
357.
Qualitication, appeasement ; II.
i. 281.
Qualified, diluted; II. iii. 41.
Quality; " very q.," i.e. very na-
ture ; I. iii. 252.
Quarter ; " in q.," in peace,
friendship; II. iii. 180.
158
THE MOOR OF VENICE
Glossary
Quat, pistLile, pimple (used
contemptuously) ; Quarto i.
"gnat"; Theobald, "knot,"
etc.) ; V. i. ii.
Question, trial and decision by
force of arms ; L iii. 23.
Quests, bodies of searchers; I.
ii. 46.
Quicken, receive life; III. iii.
277.
Quillets, quibbles ; III. i. 25.
Quirks, shallow conceits ; II. i.
63.
Raised up, awakened ; II. iii.
250.
Rank, coarse; II. i. 314.
Rank, lustful ( ? morbid) ; III.
iii. 232.
Recognizance, token; V. ii. 214.
Reconciliation, restoration to
favour; III. iii. 47.
Reference, assignment (Quarto
I, " reuerence" ; Folios 3, 4,
"reverence" ', Johnson conj.
"preference") ; I. iii. 238.
Regard, view ; II. i, 40.
Region, part ; IV. i. 84.
Relume, rekindle ; V. ii. 13.
Remorse, pity, compassion; III.
iii. 369.
Remove, banish; IV. ii. 14.
Repeals, recalls to favour ; II.
iii. 363.
Reprobation, perdition, damna-
tion (Folios, " Repro-
hance") ; V. ii. 209.
Reverses, keeps ; III. iii. 295.
Respect, notice ; IV. ii. 190.
Re-stem, retrace; I. iii. 37.
Revolt, inconstancy; III. iii.
188.
Rich, valuable, precious ; II. iii.
195.
Roman (used ironically) ; IV.
i. 121.
Round, straightforward, plain ;
I. iii. 90.
Rouse, bumper, full measure ;
II. iii. 66.
Rude, harsh ; III. iii. 355.
RuiHan'd, been bois t e r o u s,
raged ; II. i. 7.
Sadly, sorrowfully ; II. i. 32.
Safe, sound ; IV. i. 2y2.
Sagittary, a public building in
Venice; I. i. 159.
Salt, lustful ; II. i. 245.
Sans, without ; I. iii. 64.
'Sblood, a corruption of God's
blood; an oath (the reading
of Quarto i ; omitted in
others) ; I. i. 4.
Scant, neglect ; I. iii. 268.
'Scapes, escapes ; I. iii. 136.
Scattering, random; III. iii.
151.
Scion, slip, off-shoot (Quartos,
"syen"; Folios, " Seyen") ;
I. iii. 337-
Scored me, " made my reckon-
ing, settled the term of my
life" (Johnson, Schmidt).
"branded me" (Steevens,
Clarke) ; IV. i. 129.
Scorns, expressions of scorn :
IV. i. 83.
Seamy side without, wrong side
out ; IV. ii. 146.
Sect, cutting, scion ; I. iii. 336.
Secure, free from care ; IV. i.
72.
159
Glossary
TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
Secure me, feel myself secure;
I. iii. 10.
Seel, blind (originally a term
in falconry) ; I. iii. 270.
Seeming, appearance, exterior ;
I. iii. 109.
, hypocrisy ; III. iii. 209.
Segregation, dispersion ; II. i.
10.
Self-bounty, inherent kindness
and benevolence ; III. iii.
200.
Self-charity, charity to one's
self; II. iii. 202.
Sennight's, seven night's, a
week's ; II. i. yy.
Sense, feeling (Quartos, "of-
fence ") ; II. iii. 268.
; "to the s.," i.e. "to the
quick "; V. i, 11.
Sequent, successive; I. ii. 41.
Sequester, sequestration ; III.
iv. 40.
Sequestration, rupture, divorce ;
I. iii. 351.
Shore, did cut; V. ii. 206.
Should, could; III. iv. 23.
Shrewd, bad, evil ; III. iii. 429.
Shrift, shriving place, confes-
sional ; III. iii. 24.
Shut up in, confine to; III. iv.
121.
Sibyl, prophetess ; III. iv. 70.
Siege, rank, place ; I. ii. 22.
Simpleness, simplicity ; I. iii.
247.
Sir; " play the s.," play the fine
gentleman; II. i. 176.
Sith, since (Quartos, " since ") ;
III. iii. 380.
Skillet, boiler, kettle ; I. iii. 273.
The accompanying illustra-
tion represents an old six-
teenth century helmet used as
a skillet, which was found in
dredging the Thames near
the Tower of London.
Slight, worthless, frivolous; II.
iii. 279.
Slipper, slippery; II. i. 246.
Slubber, sully, soil ; I. iii. 22y.
Snipe, simpleton (Folio i,
" S n p e" ', Folio 2, *' a
Swaine " ; Folios 3, 4, " a
Swain") ; I. iii. 390.
Snorting, snoring; I. i. 90.
Soft, mild, gentle ; I. iii. 82.
Soft you, hold ; V. ii. 338.
Something, somewhat; II. iii.
199.
Sorry, painful (Quartos, "sul-
len"; Collier MS., "sud-
den") ; III. iv. 51.
Spake, said, affirmed (Quarto
3, " speake") ; V. ii. s^y.
160
THE MOOR OF VENICE
Glossary
spartan dog, the dogs of Spar-
tan breed were fiercest ; V. ii.
361.
Speak i' the nose, " the Nea-
poHtans have a singularly
drawling nasal twang in the
utterance of their dialect;
and Shylock tells of ' when
the bagpipe sings i' the
nose'" (Clarke); (Collier
MS., "squeak"; etc.); III.
i. 5.
Speak parrot, talk nonsense ; II.
iii. 280.
Speculative, possessing the
power of seeing; I. iii. 271.
Spend, waste, squander ; II. iii.
195.
Spleen, choler, anger ; IV. i. 89.
Splinter, secure by splints; II.
iii. 329.
Squire, fellow (used contemp-
tuously) ; IV. ii. 145.
Stand in act, are in action ; I. i.
152.
Start, startle, rouse; I. i. loi.
Startingly, abruptly (Folios 3,
4. " staringly ") ; III. iv. 79.
Stay, are waiting for ; IV. ii.
170.
Stead, benefit, help; I. iii. 344.
Still, often, now and again ; I.
iii. 147.
Stomach, appetite ; V. ii. 75.
Stop; "your s.," the impedi-
ment you can place in my
way ; V. ii. 264.
Stoup, a vessel for holding
liquor ; II. iii. 30.
Stozv'd, bestowed, placed ; I. ii.
62.
Straight, straightway ; I. i. 138.
Strain, urge, press ; III, iii. 250.
Strangeness, estrang e m e n t
(Quartos, "strangest") ; III.
iii. 12.
Strazvberries; the accompany-
ing engraving is copied from
" a piece of Elizabethan nee-
dlework in which the straw-
berry and pink alternate over
a ground of fawn-coloured
silk" ; III. iii. 435.
Stuff 0' the conscience, matter
of conscience; I. ii. 2.
Subdued, make subject; I. iii.
251.
Success, that which follows,
consequence; III. iii. 222.
Sudden, quick, hasty ; II. i. 278.
Sufferance, damage, loss ; II. i.
23-
Sufficiency, ability ; I. iii. 224.
Sufficient, able ; III. iv. 91.
Suggest, tempt ; II. iii. 358.
Supersubtle, excessively crafty
(Collier MS., "super-sup-
ple ") ; I. iii. 363.
Szveeting, a term of endear-
ment ; II. iii. 252.
Swelling, inflated ; II. iii. 57.
161
Glossary
TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
Szvord of Spain, Spanish
swords were celebrated for
their excellence ; V. ii. 253.
Ta'en order, taken measures ;
V. ii. 72.
Ta'en out, copied ; III. iii. 296.
Tainting, disparaging ; II. i.
274.
Take out, copy ; III. iv. 180.
Take up at the best, make the
best of; I. iii. 173.
Talk, talk nonsense ; IV. iii. 25.
Ta/^ ^^z^", speak to me ; III.iv.92.
Tells o'er, counts; III. iii. 169.
Theoric, theory ; I. i. 24.
Thick-lips ; used contemptuous-
ly for " Africans " ; I. i. 66.
Thin, slight, easily seen
through ; I. iii. 108.
Thread, thread of life ; V. ii.
206.
Thrice-driven, " referring to
the selection of the feathers
by driving with a fan, to sep-
arate the light from the
heavy " (Johnson) ; I. iii.
232.
Thrive in, succeed in gaining ;
I. iii. 125.
Time, life; I. i. 162.
Timorous, full of fear ; I. i. 75.
Tire, make tired, weary out ; II.
i. 65.
Toged, wearing the toga ; I. i.
25.
Told, struck, counted (Folios
3, 4. " toll'd") ; II. ii. II.
Toy, fancy; III. iv. 156.
Toys, trifles ; I. iii. 269.
Trash, worthless thing, dross ;
II. i. 311.
, keep back, hold in check
(a hunter's term) ; II. i. 311.
Traverse, march, go on ; I. iii.
Trimm'd in, dressed in, wear-
ing; I. i. 50.
Turn; " t. thy complexion,"
change colour ; IV. ii. 62.
Unblest, accursed; II. iii. 311.
Unbonnetted, without taking
off the cap, on equal terms ;
I. ii. 23.
Unbookish, ignora.nt ; IV. i. 102.
Uncapable, incapable; IV. ii.
232.
Undertaker; " his u.," take
charge of him, dispatch him ;
IV. i. 224.
Unfold, reveal, bring to light ;
IV. ii. 141.
Unfolding, communication ; I.
iii. 245.
Unhandsome, unfair; III. iv.
151-
Unhatch'd, undisclosed; III. iv.
141.
Unhoused, homeless, not tied to
a household and family; I. ii.
26.
Unlace, degrade ; II. iii. 194.
Unperfectness, imperfection;
II. iii. 298.
Unprovide, make unprepared ;
IV. i. 211.
Unsure, uncertain ; III. iii. 151.
Unvarnish'd, plain, unadorned ;
I. iii. 90.
Unzvitted, deprived of under-
standing; II. iii. 182.
Upon, incited by, urged by; I.
i. 100.
162
THE MOOR OF VENICE
Glossary
Use, custom ; IV. i. 277.
Uses, manners, habits (Quarto
I, " z'sage") ; IV. iii. 105.
Vantage; " to the v.," over and
above; IV. iii. 85.
Vessel, body ; IV. ii. 83.
Vesture, garment ; II. i. 64.
Violence, bold action ; I. iii.
250.
Virtuous, having efficacy, pow-
erful ; III. iv. III.
Voices, votes; I. iii. 261.
Vouch, assert, maintain ; I. iii.
103, 106.
, bear witness ; I. iii. 262.
, testimony; II. i. 148.
Wage, venture, attempt ; I. iii.
30.
Watch, watchman; V. i. 2>7-
Watch him, keep him from
sleeping ; a term in falconry ;
III. iii. 23.
Wearing, clothes ; IV. iii. 16.
Well said, well done (Quartos,
"well sed") ; II. i. 168.
What, who; I. i. 18.
Wheeling, errant (Quarto 2.
'■ zvheedling ") ; I. i. 137.
Vl'' hipster, one who whips out
his sword (used contemptu-
ously) ; V. ii. 244.
White (used with a play upon
white and wight) ; II. i. 134.
Wholesome, reasonable; III. i.
49-
Wicker, covered with wicker-
work; (Folios," Twiggen ") ;
II. iii. 152.
Wight, person (applied to both
sexes) ; II. i. 159.
Wind; "let her down the w.";
the falconers always let the
hawk fly against the wind ; if
she flies with the wind behind
her she seldom returns. If
therefore a hawk was for any
reason to be dismissed, she
was let down tJie wind, and
from that time shifted for
herself and preyed at for-
tune" (Johnson); III. iii.
262.
Wind-shaked, wind-shaken ; II.
i. 13-
With, by ; II. i. 34.
Withal, with ; I. iii. 93.
With all my heart, used both
as a salutation, and also as a
reply to a salutation ; IV. i.
220.
Within door ; " speak w. d.," i.e.
" not so loud as to be heard
outside the house " ; IV. ii.
144.
Womand, accompanied by a
vv^oman ; III. iv. 195.
Worser, worse ; I. i. 95.
Wrench, wrest (Quarto i,
"Wring")] V. ii. 288.
Wretch, a term of endearment;
(Theobald, "wench"); III.
iii. 90.
Wrought, worked upon ; V. ii.
345.
Yerk'd, thrust ; I. ii. 5.
Yet, as yet, till now; III. iii.
432.
163
TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
Critical Notes.
BY ISRAEL GOLLANCZ.
I. i. 15. Omitted in Folios and Quartos 2, 3.
I. i. 21. 'A fellow almost danui'd in a fair wife' ; if this alludes
to Bianca, the phrase may possibly mean ' very near being married
to a most fair wife.' Some explain " A fellow whose ignorance of
war would be condemned in a fair woman." The emendations
proposed 2 re unsatisfactory, and probably unnecessary.
I. i. 72. 'changes' ; Folios read 'chances.'
I. ii. 72-77; iii. 16; 36; 63; 118; 123; 194; omitted in Quarto i.
I. ii. 7S. ' weaken motion'; Rowe's emendation; Folios, and
Quartos 2, 3, ' weakens motion' ; Pope (Ed, 2, Theobald) ' weaken
notion'; Hanmer, 'waken motion'; Keightley, 'wakens motion';
Anon. conj. in Furness, 'wake emotion,' etc.
I. iii. 67. 'bloody book of law'; "By the Venetian law the
giving of love-potions was highly criminal" (Clarke).
I. iii. 87. 'feats of broil' ; Capell's emendation; Quarto i, ' feate
of broile'; Folio i, 'Feats of Broiles,' etc.
I. iii. 107. ' Certain ' ; so Quartos ; Folios? ' wider.'
I. iii. 139. ' portance in my'; so Folios and Quarto 2; Quarto
3, ' portence in my'; Quarto i, 'with it all my'; Johnson conj.
'portance in't; my'; etc.; 'travels"; the reading of Modern
Edd. (Globe Ed.); Quartos, 'trauells'; Pope, 'travel's'; Folio
I, ' Trauellours ' ; Folios 2, 3, ' Travellers ' ; Folio 4, ' Traveller s ' ;
Richardson conj. ' travellous' or ' travailous.'
I. iii. isg.' sighs' ; Folios, 'kisses'; Southern MS., 'thanks.'
I. iii. 250. 'and storm of fortunes'; Quarto i, 'and scorne of
Fortunes,' etc.
I. iii. 261. 'Let her have your voices'; Dyce's correction;
Folios, ' Let her have your voice ' ; Quartos read —
" Your voyccs Lords; beseech you let her will
Haue a free way."
I. iii. 264-265. 'the young affects In mc defunct'; Quartos,
'the young affects In my defunct'; so Folio i; Folios 2, 3, 4,
' effects' The reading of the text is the simplest and most plau-
164
THE MOOR or VENICE Notes
sible emendation of the many proposed, the words meaning ' the
passions of youth which I have now outlived': 'proper satisfac-
tion ' = ' my own gratification.'
I. iii. 330. 'balance' ; Folios, 'brain' and 'braine'; Theobald,
' beam.'
I. iii. 354. ' luscious as locusts ' ; " perhaps so mentioned from
being placed together with wild honey in St. Matthew iii. 4 "
(Schmidt).
I. iii. 358. Omitted in Folios.
I. iii. 384-388. The reading in the text is that of the second
and third Quartos ; Quarto i, adds after the words ' / am
cliang'd '' —
" Goe to farezi'cll, put money enough in your purse"',
omitting ' I'll go sell all my land.'
II. i. 39-40; 158; 260 {'didst not mark that?'); omitted in
Quarto i.
II. i. 65. 'tire the ingener'; Knight, Steevens conj.; Folio i,
'tyre the Ingeniuer' ; Folios 2, 3, 4, ' tire the Ingeniver' ; Quarto
I, ' beare all Excellency ' — ; Quartos 2, 3, ' beare an excelency ' : —
Johnson conj. 'tire the ingenious verse'; Pope, 'beare all excel-
lency — '
II. i. 82. 'And . . . Cyprus'; omitted in Folios.
II. i. 249. ' a devilish knave ' ; omitted in Quartos.
II. i. 258. 'blest pudding'; Folios, ' Bless' d pudding'; omitted
in Quartos.
II. i. 267-268. ' comes the master and main ' ; so Folios ; Quarto
I reads 'comes the maine'; Quartos 2, 3, 'comes Roderigo, the
master and the maine.'
11. i. 279. 'haply may'; Quartos read 'haply with his Trunchen
may.'
II. i. 31T. 'poor trash of J^enice, whom I trasJi'; Steevens'
emendation ; Quarto i, ' poor trash . . . I crush ' ; Folios,
Quartos 2. 3, 'poor Trash . . . I trace'; Theobald. Warbnr-
ton conj. 'poor brach . . . I trace'; Warburton (later conj.)
' poor brach . . . I cherish.'
II. iii. 42. 'here' i.e. in my head.
II. iii. 92-99, These lines are from an old song called ' Take thy
old cloak about thee,' to be found in Percy's Reliques.
II. iii. 167. 'sense of place'; Hanmer's emendation of Quar-
tos: Folios, 'place of sense.'
II. iii. 292. ' transform ourselves into beasts.' "This trans-
163
Notfes
TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
formation was irequently depicted in old satirical prints ; as in
the woodcut here copied from the Mtisarum Deliciae 1657, repre-
senting ' the drunken humors '
imparling to men the feeling and
manners of the tiger, the ass, the
fox, the dog. the ape and the
swine."
II. iii. 318. 'some time'; so
Quartos ; Folios, ' a time ' ; Grant
White, ' one time.'
III. i. 13. 'for love's sake'',
Quarto i, ' of all tones.'
III. i. 43. ' F I o r e n t i n c' i.e.
' even a Florentine ' ; lago was a
Venetian.
III. i. 52. Omitted in Folios,
III. iii. 23. ' zuatch him tame,'
i.e. tame him by keeping him from sleep (as was done with
hawks).
III. iii. 106. 'By heaven, he echoes me'; Quarto i, 'By Jieauen
he eccJioes me'; Folios 'Alas, thou ecchos't me'; Quartos 2, 3,
' 7vhy dost tJiou ecchoe me.'
III. iii. 132. 'thy worst of thoughts' ; so Folios, Quarto 2;
Quarto i reads 'the worst of thougJits' ; Quarto 3, 'thy
thoughts'; perhaps we should read: —
"As thou dost rum'nate, give tJiy worst of thoughts."
III. iii.
' fondly.'
III. iii.
170. 'strongly ' ; so Quartos; Folios, 'soundly ' \ Knight,
so Quartos ; Folios read
iv. 8-10; 195-196. Omitted in
277. ' Desdemona comes
' Looke where she comes.'
III. iii. 325; 383-390; 453-460
Quarto i.
III. iii. 440. 'any that was hers' ; Malone's emendation; Quar-
tos, 'any, it zvas hers'; Folio i, ' avty, it zcas hers'; Folios 2, 3. 4.
'any, if't zvas hers'; Anon. conj. 'any 'it' ivas hers.'
III. iii. 447. 'thy hollozv cell'; so Quartos; Folios read 'the
hollozv hell'; Warburton, ' fh' u)iJiallozv'd cell.'
III. iii. 456. Steevens compares the following passage in Hol-
land's Pliny : — " And the sea Pontus ever more floweth and run-
neth out from Propontes, but the sea never retireth back again
within Pontus."
166'
THE MOOR OF VENICE Notes
III. iii. 469. 'business ever'; Quartos, ' worke so euer'\ Col-
lier, ' work soe'er,' etc.
III. iv. 47. 'our new heraldry' (vide Preface).
III. iv. 65. 'her' i.e. to my wife (implied in 'wive').
III. iv. 121. ' shut myself up in,' etc., i.e. ' Confine myself to
some other course of life, awaiting fortune's charity ' ; Quarto i,
' shoote my selfe up in ' ; Capell, ' shoot myself upon ' ; Rann,
' sliape myself upon'; Collier MS., 'shift myself upon.'
III. iv. 151. 'warrior'; Hanmer, ' ivrangler' ; cp. ' O my fair
zuarrior' ; (II. i. 184).
IV. i. 77. 'here o'erwhelmed' ; Quarto i, 'here ere while, mad.'
IV. i. 122. C What, a customer!') ; ii. 7y7^) i"- 60-63, 87-104;
omitted in Quarto i.
IV. i. 137-138. 'and, by this hand, she falls me'; so Collier;
Quarto i, reads 'by this hand she fals'; Folios, 'and falls me';
Quartos 2, 3, ' fals me.'
IV. i. 268. 'This the nature,' Pope's reading; Quartos, 'This
the noble nature ' ; Folios, ' Is this the nature.'
IV. ii. 109. ' least misuse' ; Quarto i,' greatest abuse' ; Collier
MS., ' least misdeed e.'
IV. ii. 170. 'The messengers of Venice stay the meat';
Knight's reading; Folio i, ' The Messengers of Venice staies the
meate'; Folios 2, 3, 4, 'The Messenger of Venice staies the
meate'; Quarto i, 'And the great Messengers of Venice stay';
Quartos 2, 3, ' The meate, great Messengers of Venice stay.'
IV. iii. 23. 'All's one. Good faith'; Quarto i, 'All's one
good faith'; Quartos 2, 3, 'All's one; good father'; Folios,
'All's one: good Father.'
IV. iii. 26. 'Barbara' ; Quartos read' Barbary ' ; Folio i, 'Bar-
baric.'
IV. iii. 41, etc. ; the original of Desdemona's song is to be
found in Percy's Reliques under the title of 'A Lover's Com-
''iaint, being forsaken of Jiis Love ' ; where the plaintive lover is
man.
IV. iii. 41. 'sighing'; Folios, 'singing'; Quarto 3, ' singhing' ;
Folio I, (Dev.) ' sining.'
V. i. 82-83; ii. 82, 185-193, 266-272; omitted in Quarto i.
V. i. 105. 'gentlemen,' the reading of Folios; Quartos, 'Gen-
tlewoman.'
V. i. 107. 'if you stare'; so Folios; Quartos i, 2, 'an you
stirre ' ; Quarto 3, ' an you stirr ' ; Anon. conj. ' if you stay.'
V. ii. 7. 'Put out the light, and then put out the light'; i.e,
it;
Notes TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
'put out the light, and then put out the light of life." The Cam-
bridge Editors give some dozen variant methods of punctuating
and reading the line, but it is perfectly clear as it stands.
V. ii. 151. 'made mocks with love'; "taken advantage to play
upon the weakness of passion " (Johnson).
V. ii. 172. 'Disprove this villain'; Capell^ 'Disprove it, villain.'
V. ii. ZZJ. 'bring aivay'; Quartos, 'bring him away'; Collier
MS., ■' bring them away.'
V. ii. 347. 'Indian'; Folio i, ' ludcan'; Theobald proposed
'Indian,' adding, " I am satisfied in his Indian he is alluding to
Herod, who, in a fit of blind jealosie, threw away such a jewel of
a wife as Mariamne was to him." This interpretation was War-
burton's. " This it is," as Coleridge put it, " for no-poets to com-
ment on the greatest of poets ! To make Othello say that he, who
had killed his wife, was like Herod who had killed Mariamne ! "
Boswell aptly quotes from Habington's Castara : —
"So the unskilful Indian those bright gems
Which might add majesty to diadems,
'Mong the waves scatters."
168
THE MOOR OF VENICE
Explanatory Notes.
The Explanatory Xotes in this edition have been specially selected and
adapted, with emendations after the latest and best authorities, from the
most eminent Shakespearian scholars and commentators, including Johnson,
Malone, Steevens, Singer, Dyce, Hudson, White, Furness, Dowden, and
others. This method, here introduced for the first time, provides the best
annotation of Shakespeare ever embraced in a single edition.
ACT FIRST.
Scene I.
3. shotildst know of this: — Of the intended elopement. Rod-
erigo has been suing for Desdemona's hand, employing lago to
aid him in his suit, and paying his service in advance. The play
opens pat upon her elopement with the Moor, and Roderigo pre-
sumes lago to have been in the secret of their intention.
10. Off-capp'd: — To cap was often used for a salutation of re-
spect, made by taking off the cap. " Three great ones of the city,"
says Knight, " wait upon Othello ; they off-capp'd — they took cap
in hand — in personal suit that he should make lago his lieutenant."
31. By debitor and creditor: — By a mere accoimtant, a keeper
of debt and credit. lago means that Cassio, though knowing no
more of war than men of the gown, as distinguished from men of
the sword, has yet outsailed him in military advancement. Again,
he calls Cassio "this counter-caster,'' in allusion to the counters
formerly used in reckoning up accounts.
33. ancient: — This old corruption of ensign was used both for
a standard and a standard-bearer. For both uses see i Henry IV.,
IV. ii. 25 and 33 respectively. But that ensign was in use in
Shakespeare's day is abundantly proved, as in Drayton's Barons'
Warres : —
" Ensigne beards Ensigne, Sword 'gainst Sword doth shake."
39. Whether I stand within any such terms of affinity to the
Moor, as that I am bound to love him.
169
Notes TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
45. knee-crooking knave: — We have here a notable example of
the use of knazr in the transition stage between its second and its
third or present meaning. It first meant a child; then, because
children served their elders, a servant ; and finall}-, because of the
dishonesty and loose morals of servants, a rogue. In Roderigo's
account of the elopement, farther on in this scene, the word occurs
in its secondary sense, " a knave of common hire, a gondolier."
The opprobrious sense of the word seems to have become lixed
early in the second quarter of the seventeenth century. " For
whosoeuer should in these present times say in England to some
English men knaue, which formerly was taken for a man seruant,
and on which word the law takes no hold, it would not take well,
for that knaue and a base fellow signifieth the selfe sarrte thing."
65. / am not zvhat I am: — A misprint, perhaps, for "I am not
what I seem." This, at all events, is probably the meaning of
lago.
66. full fortune, etc. : — So both the Quartos : the Folio has fall
instead of full. The meaning is, how fortunate he is, or how
strong in fortune, if he can hold out against such practice. Simi-
lar language occurs in Cymbeline : " Our pleasure his full fortune
doth confine." And in Antony and Cleopatra: "The imperious
show of the full-fortuned Csesar." Of course owe is used in the
old sense of ozvn or possess.
75,76. In the time of night and negligence; a very common
form of expression. Timorous was sometimes used, as fearful
still is. for that which frightens. Old dictionaries explain it,
" fearful, horridus, formidolosus."
106. My house is not a grange: — Mine is not a lone house,
where a robbery might easily be committed. Grange is, strictly,
the farm of a monastery ; but, provincially, any lone house or soli-
tary farm is called a grange. So in Measure for Measure, III. i.
274, 275: "There, at the moated grange, resides this dejected
Mariana."
114. A gennct is a horse; strictly a Spanish horse of the breed
called barbs, introduced into Spain by the Moors from Barbary.
Germans, meaning brothers, sisters, or cousins, is here used for
any near relations.
126. gondolier: — A writer in the Pictorial Shakspere tells us.
"that the gondoliers are the only conveyors of persons, and of a
large proportion of property, in Venice; that they are thus
cognizant of all intrigues, and the fittest agents in them, and are
under perpetual and strong temptations to make profit of the
170
THE MOOR OF VENICE Notes
secrets of society. Brabantio might well be in horror at his
daughter having, in ' the dull watch o' the night, no worse nor
better guard.' "
132. from : — Against or opposed to.
137. In an extravagant and wheeling stranger: — A stranger who
has no fixed abode, whose life is irregular. So in Markham's
English Housewife, " The Sewer upon the placing them [certain
dishes] upon the table shall not set them down as he received
them, but setting the Sallets extravagantly about the table," etc.,
Ed. 1653; and in Hamlet, I. i. 154. 155, "The extravagant and
erring spirit hies to his confine." So lago, Sc. iii., 362, 363, of
this Act calls Othello an " erring barbarian."
143. not unlike my dream: — "The careful old senator," says
Coleridge, " being caught careless, transfers his caution to his
dreaming-power at least."
159. The Sagittary is supposed by some commentators to have
been some public house or inn with a figure of the Archer, after
Sagittarius, ninth sign of the zodiac, for the sign of the house
itself. Perhaps Shakespeare knew at Venice an inn so called.
182. at most: — That is, at most of the houses.
Scene II.
2. stiiif 0' the conscience: — A point or matter of conscience,
8. lago is speaking of Roderigo, and pretending to relate what
he has done and said against Othello.
22. men of royal siege: — Men who have sat on kingly thrones.
Siege was often thus used for seat.
22,23. ffiy demerits may speak unhonneted, etc.: — Shakespeare
and his contemporaries use demerits to express both the presence
and the absence of merit. See an instance of the former in Mac-
beth, IV. iii., and of the latter in Coriolanus, I. i. Unhonneted
can only mean without the bonnet ; which sense, as the uncovering
of the head is a sign of deference, seems at variance with the
manifest purpose of Othello's speech. Yet there does not appear
to be sufficient reason for us to assume that there is corruption.
Theobald would have read, " may speak and bonneted."
28. tJie sea's worth : — Pliny, the naturalist, has a chapter on the
riches of the sea. The expression seems to have been proverbial.
59. There seems to be a sort of playful, good-humoured irony
expressed in the very rhythm of this line. Throughout this Scene,
171
Notes TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
Othello appears at all points " the noble nature, whose solid virtue
the shot of accident, nor dart of chance, could neither graze, nor
pierce " ; his calmness and intrepidity of soul, his heroic modesty,
his manly frankness and considerative firmness of disposition are
all displayed at great advantage, marking his character as one
made up of the most solid and gentle qualities. Though he has
nowise wronged Brabantio, he knows that he seems to have done
so : his feelings therefore take the old man's part, and he respects
his age and sorrow too much to resent his violence ; hears his
charges with a kind of reverential defiance, and answers them as
knowing them false, yet sensible of their reasonableness, and hon-
ouring him the more for making them.
68. In Shakespeare's time it was the fashion for lusty gallants
to wear " a curled bush of frizzled hair." In King Lear, Edgar,
when he was "proud in heart and mind." curled Ins hair. The
Poet has other allusions to the custom among people of rank and
fashion.
99. Pagan was a word of contempt ; and the reason will appear
from its etymology: " Paganus, villanus vel incultus. Et deriva-
tur a pagiis, quod est villa. Et quictuique habitat in villa est
paganiis. Prsetera quicunque est extra civitatem Dei. i. e., eccle-
siam, dicitur paganus. Anglice, a paynijn." — Ortus Vocahulorum,
1528.
Scene IH.
23. That he may capture it with an easier conflict.
48, 49. employ you, etc. : — It was part of the policy of the Vene-
tian state to employ strangers, and even Moors, in their wars.
" By lande they are served of straungers, both for generals, for
capitaines, and for all other men of warre, because theyr lawe
permitteth not any Venetian to be capitaine over an armie by
lande; fearing, I thinke, Caesar's example." — Thomas's History of
Italye.
67. bloody hook of law : — By the Venetian law the giving love-
potions was highly criminal, as appears in the Code Delia Promis-
sion del Maleiico.
96. herself'. — Shakespeare, like other writers of his age, fre-
quently uses the personal instead of the neutral pronoun.
1^0. antres: — Caverns; irom. antrum, 1.2.1. Warburton observes
that Rymer ridicules this whole circumstance ; and Shaftesbury
obliquely sneers at it. " Whoever," says Johnson, " ridicules this
172
THE MOOR OF VENICE Notes
account of the progress of love, shows his ignorance not only of
history, but of nature and manners. It is no wonder that, in any
age, or in any nation, a lady, recluse, timorous, and delicate,
should desire to hear of events and scenes which she could never
see, and should admire the man who had endured dangers, and
performed actions, which, however great, were magnified by her
timidity."
144, 145. Nothing excited more universal attention than the ac-
count brought by Sir Walter Raleigh, on his return from his cele-
brated voyage to Guiana in 1595, of the cannibals, amazons, and
especially of the nation, " whose heads do grow beneath their
shoulders." A short extract of the more wonderful passages was
also published in Latin and in several other languages in 1599,
adorned with copper-plates, representing these cannibals, ama-
zons, and headless people, etc. These extraordinary reports were
universally credited; and Othello therefore assumes no other
character but what was very common among the celebrated com-
manders of the Poet's time.
155. not intentifcly: — Intention and attention were once synony-
mous. " Intentive, which listeneth well and is earnestly bent to a
thing," says Bullokar, in his Expositor, 1616.
163. such a man : — A question has been raised whether the
meaning here is, that Desdemona wished such a man had been
made for her, or that she herself had been made such a man ;
and several have insisted on the latter, lest the lady's delicacy
should be impeached. Her delicacy stands in need of no such
critical guardianship.
199. Let me speak as you yourself have spoken ; referring to
Brabantio's words, " I here do give thee that," etc.
202. This is expressed in a common proverbial form in Lore's
Labour's Lost: " Past cure is still past care."
219. pierced through the ear: — The wounded heart was healed
with words, pierced bemg used simply in the sense of reached or
penetrated. So in The Faerie Quecne, vi. 9, 26: —
"Whyl'st thus he talkt, the Knight with greedy eare
Hong still upon his melting mouth attent ;
Whose sensefull words empierst his hart so neare.
That he was wrapt with double ravishment."
Dyce quotes the First Part of Marlowe's Tambiirlaine, 1. 2: —
" Nor thee nor them, thrice-noble Tamburlame,
Shall want my heart to be with gladness pierc'd."
173
Notes TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
249-251. That I did love . . . world: — So the Folio and the
Quarto of 1630: the Quarto of 1622 has scorn instead of storm.
Scorn will not cohere with violence, unless by making it express
a quality of Desdemona herself, not of her fortunes ; the sense in
that case being, " my downright violence of behaviour, and scorn
of fortune." She evidently means the violence and storm of for-
tunes which she has braved or encountered in marrying the Moor,
and not anything of a violent or scornful temper in herself.
293-295. Look to Iter . . . her faith : — " In real life," says
Coleridge, " how do we look back to little speeches as presenti-
mental of, or contrasted with, an affecting event ! Even so Shake-
speare, as secure of being read over and over, of becoming a fam-
ily friend, provides this passage for his readers, and leaves it to
them."
313. four times seven years: — This clearly ascertains the age
of lago to be twenty-eight years; though the general impres-
sion of him is that of a much older man. The Poet, no doubt,
had a wise purpose in making him so young, as it infers his viru-
lence of mind to be something innate and spontaneous, and not
superinduced by harsh experience of the world. Verplanck re-
marks upon it thus : " An old soldier of acknowledged merit, who,
after years of service, sees a young man like Cassio placed over
his head, has not a little to plead in justification of deep resent-
ment, and in excuse, though not in defence, of his revenge: such
a man may well brood over imaginary wrongs. The caustic sar-
casm and contemptuous estimate of mankind are at least pardon-
able in a soured and disappointed veteran. But in a young man
the revenge is more purely gratuitous, the hypocrisy, the knowl-
edge, the dexterous management of the worst and weakest parts
of human nature, the recklessness of moral feeling, — even the
stern, bitter wit, intellectual and contemptuous, without any of the
gaiety of youth, — are all precocious and peculiar; separating
lago from the ordinary sympathies of our nature, and investing
him with higher talent and blacker guilt."
336, 337. A sect is what the gardeners call a cutting. " This
speech," observes Coleridge, " comprises the passionless character
of lago. It is all will in intellect ; and therefore he is here a bold
partisan of a truth, but yet of a truth converted into a falsehood
by the absence of all the necessary modifications caused by the
frail nature of man."
354, 355. Alluding, probably, to the ceratonia or caroh, an ever-
green growing in the south of Europe, and bearing sweet black
174
THE MOOR OF VENICE Notes
pods. Commerce had made the fruit well known in London, and
locust was the popular name for it.
396. Will do . . . well: — That is, I will act as if I were cer-
tain of the fact. He holds me well is, he entertains a good opinion
of me.
ACT SECOND.
Scene I.
[A sea-port in Cyprus.] The principal seaport town of Cyprus
is Famagiista ; where there was formerly a strong fort and com-
modious haven, " neare which," says Knolles, " standeth an old
castle, with four towers after the ancient manner of building."
To this castle we find that Othello presently repairs.
13. There is implied a comparison of the " wind-shaked surge "
to the war-horse ; the Poet probably having in mind the passage
of Job: "Hast Thou given the horse strength? Hast Thou
clothed his neck with thunder?" Knight remarks upon the place
thus : " The horse of Job is the war-horse, ' who swalloweth the
ground with fierceness and rage ' ; and when Shakespeare pictured
to himself his mane wildly streaming, * when the quiver rattleth
against him, the glittering spear, and the shield,' he saw an image
of the fury of the ' wind-shaked surge,' and of its very form ;
and he painted it 'with high and monstrous mane.' "
14. bear: — The constellation near the pole star. The next line
alludes to the star Arctophylax, which literally signifies the guard
of the bear.
26. Veronesa: — This refers to the ship. It is true, the same
speaker has just called the ship "a noble ship of Venice'': but
Verona was tributary to the Venetian state ; so that there is no
reason why she might not belong to Venice, and still take her
name from Verona.
39, 40. till we make the main . . . regard : — Till sea and
sky blend and become indistinguishable to sight. On this passage
Coleridge remarks: "Observe in how many ways Othello is
made, first, our acquaintance, then our friend, then the object of
our anxiety, before the deeper interest is to be approached."
49. Of allowed and approved expertness.
64, 65. By the essential vesture of creation the Poet seems to
mean her outzvard form, which in the Merchant of Venice (V. i.
175
Notes TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
64) he calls " this muddy vesture of decay." The meaning would
appear to be, " She is one who exceeds all description, and in real
beauty, or outward form, goes beyond the power of the inventive
pencil of the artist. Ben Jonson, in his Sejanus, I. i., says:
"No, Silius, we are no good inginers; we want their fine arts."
Flecknoe, in 1664, speaking of painting, mentions " the stupendous
works of your great ingeniers."
70. Ensteep'd here means simply hjd in the water, submerged ;
a frequent use of the word. Thus in The Faerie Queene,
i. II : —
" Now gan the golden Phoebus for to steepe
His fierie face in billows of the west."
112. Saints in your injuries: — "When you have a mind to do
injuries, you put on an air of sanctity."
144-148. "The sense," says Warburton, "is this: One that was
so conscious of her own merit, and of the authority her character
had with every one, that she durst call upon malice itself to vouch
for her. This was strong commendation. And the character only
of clearest virtue ; which could force malice, even against its
nature, to do justice."
156. To exchange a delicacy for coarser fare, the head being
the best part of the cod, the tail the worst of the salmon.
161. That is, to suckle children and keep the accounts of the
household.
184. fair warrior: — Perhaps Othello intends a playful allusion
to the unwillingness Desdemona has expressed to he left behind,
a moth of peace, and lie go to tJie war. Steevens, however, thinks
it was a term of endearment derived from the old French poets ;
as Ronsard, in his Sonnets, often calls the ladies guerrieres.
201-203. [Aside.] Coleridge pronounces lago " a being next to
devil, and only not quite devil." It is worth noting that Milton's
Satan relents at the prospect of ruining the happiness before him,
and prefaces the deed with a gush of pity for the victims ; whereas
the same thought puts lago in a transport of jubilant ferocity. Is
our idea of Satan's wickedness enhanced by his thus indulging
such feelings, and then acting in defiance of them, or as if he
had them not? or is lago more devilish than he?
208. out of fashion : — Out of method, without any setttled or-
der of discourse.
223, Lay thy finger thus: — On thy mouth to stop it, while thou
art listening to a wiser man.
176
THE MOOR OF VENICE Notes
262, 263. index . . . prologue : — Indexes were formerly pre-
iixed to books.
314, in the rank garb: — In the right-dozvn, or straight-forward
fashion. In King Lear, Cornwall says of Kent in disguise, that
he *' doth affect a saucy roughness,' and constrains the garb quite
from his nature." Gower says of Fluellen, in King Henry V.,
" You thought, because he could not speak English in the native
garb, he could not therefore handle an English cudgel."
320. "An honest man," says Johnson, "acts upon a plan, and
forecasts his designs ; but a knave depends upon temporary and
local opportunities, and never knows his own purpose, but at the
time of execution."
Scene III.
57. elements: — As quarrelsome as the discordia semina rerum;
as quick in opposition as fire and water.
62. Every scheme subsisting only in the imagination may be
termed a dream.
80-83. In The Captain of Beaumont and Fletcher, one of the
persons asks, " Are the Englishmen such stubborn drinkers ? "
and another answers thus : " Not a leak at sea can suck more
liquor: you shall have their children christened in mull'd sack,
and at five years old able to knock a Dane down." And in Henry
Peacham's Complcat Gentleman, 1622, we have the following:
" Within these fiftie or threescore yeares it was a rare thing with
us to see a drunken man. But since we had to doe in the quarrel!
of the Netherlands, the custom of drinking and pledging healthes
was brought over into England ; wherein let the Dutch be their
owne judges, if we equall them not; yea, I think, rather excell
them."
85. I'll do you justice: — That is, drink as much as you do:
old pot-house slang.
87-94. These stanzas are copied, with a few slight variations,
from an old ballad entitled " Take thy old Cloak about thee,"
which is reprinted entire in Percy's Reliques.
122, 123. How differently the liar speaks of Cassio's soldiership
to Mcntano and to Roderigo ! He is now talking where he is
liable to be called to account for his words.
130. If he have no drink, he will keep awake while the clock
strikes two rounds, or four-and-twenty hours. The word horo-
loge is familiar to most of our ancient writers: Chaucer often
uses it.
177
Notes TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
252. Lead Jiim off: — Malone thought that these words were a
stage direction which had crept into the text, because " in our old
plays all the stage directions were couched in imperative terms."
" Such," says White, " is my opinion, and such it was before I
saw Malone's note, but for a different reason. If Othello had or-
dered the removal of Montano, he would have said, not ' Lead
him off,' but ' Lead him azuay.' We speak of a man's being or
having been led off, or on, in the sense of away, or onward ; but
when we direct a man to be taken from where we are, we say
' away,' unless we are upon a staging, or some place of that kind,
which, for Shakespeare's purposes, Othello was not. The rhythm
of this command, too, is not like that of Shakespeare's hemistichs.
But as Folio and Quartos unite in the reading in question, I do
not venture to change it upon mere opinion." Rolfe retains this
reading. Hudson (Harvard ed.) omits it.
354. 355- Parallel course : — Course parallel to or agreeing with
his good ; coinciding with his wish or design.
356. When devils will instigate to their blackest sins, they
tempt, etc. We repeatedly meet with the same use of put on, and
of suggests and its cognates for tempt.
382, 383. Though other things, etc. : — Clarke's explanation is,
" Although our other plans are growing to maturity, yet the
fruits of our scheme for the removal of Cassio, as it first bore
promising blossom, will naturally first ripen. lago is trying to
inspire Roderigo with patience for the ripening of his plan against
Desdemona by bidding him remember* that meanwhile his plan
against Cassio is succeeding." Johnson explains the passage thus:
" Of many different things, all planned with the same art and
promoted with the same diligence, some must succeed sooner than
others, by the order of nature. Everything cannot be done at
once; we must proceed by the necessary gradation. We are not
to despair of slow events any more than of tardy fruits, while the
causes are in regular progress, and the fruits grow fair against
the sun."
ACT THIRD.
Scene L
2. It was usual for friends to serenade a new-married couple
on the morning after the celebration of the marriage, or to greet
them with a morning song to bid them good morrow.
178
THE MOOR OF VENICE Notes
42. In consequence of this line a doubt has been entertained con-
cerning the country of lago. Cassio was undoubtedly a Floren-
tine, as appears by the first Scene of the play, where he is ex-
pressly called one. That lago was a Venetian is proved by a
speech in the third Scene of this Act, and by what he says in the
fifth Act, after having stabbed Roderigo, All that Cassio means
to say in the present passage is. " I never experienced more hon-
esty and kindness, even in one of my own countrymen."
44. your displeasure : — The displeasure you have incurred from
Othello.
Scene III.
14 et seq. That policy, etc. : — Johnson explains this as fol-
lows : He may either of himself think it politic to keep me out
of office so long, or he may be satisfied with such slight reasons,
or so many accidents may make him think my readmission at that
time improper, that I may be quite forgotten.
23. / // zi.'atch him tame: — Hawks and other birds are tamed
by keeping them from sleep. To this Shakespeare alludes.
90. The word wretcli was a term of the fondest tenderness and
endearment. Shakespeare often uses it so.
91, 92. The meaning is, " Ere I cease to love thee, the world
itself shall be reduced to its primitive chaos." But is used in its
exceptive sense; hut that, or "if I do not love thee."
96. He did, etc. : — In Act I. Sc. ii., when lago, speaking of the
Moor to Cassio, says, " He 's married," Cassio asks, " To whom? "
Yet here he seems to have known all about it. Of course the ex-
planation is, that Cassio there feigned ignorance, in order to keep
his friend's secret till it should be publicly known.
123. close delations: — "Close delations" are secret accusings,
intimations. So in Ben Jonson's Volpone, II. iii. : " Yet, if I do
it not, they may delate my slackness to my patron." It should be
noted, that in all this part of the dialogue the doubts started in
Othello by the villain's artful insinuations have reference only to
Cassio. There is not the least sign that the Moor's thoughts any-
wise touch his wife; and lago seeems perplexed that his sus-
picions have lighted elsewhere than he had intended.
136 et seq. Utter my thoughts, etc.: — Who has so virtuous a
breast that some impure conceptions and uncharitable surmises
will not sometimes enter into it; hold a session there, as in a
regular court, and " bench by the side " of authorized and lawful
179
Notes TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
thoughts? A leet is also called a law-day. " This court, in whose
manor soever kept, was accounted the king's court, and commonly
held every half year " : it was a meeting of the hundred " to cer-
tify the king of the good manners and government of the in-
habitants."
i66, 167. the green-eyed monster, etc.: — Hanmer changed mock
to make, and the change has been frequently adopted, among
other commentators, by Hudson. Schmidt conjectures that make
may be correct. Furness and Rolfe adhere to mock, the former
remarking: "The meat that jealousy feeds on is the victim of
jealousy, the jealous man, who is mocked with trifles light as
air." White says that jealousy " is fed by the objects of its open
scorn and derision. For we all know, as well as lago, that
the green-eyed monster is like Pistol, and if it ' can mock a leek,'
it ' can eat a leek.' Had the original text read make there could
have been no question as to its soundness. But both Folio and
Quarto have, which doth mocke. The curious reader will find
five pages of comment upon this passage in the Variorum of 1821."
173. riches fineless, etc. : — JFineless is endless, unbounded. War-
burton observes that this is finely expressed — winter producing
no fruits.
1 82. exsuMicate : — This is the only known instance of exsuf-
Hicatc. Phillips interprets sufHation " a puffing up, a making to
swell with blowing." In Platus we have " suiHavit nescio quid
uxore " ; which Cooper renders. " He hath whispered something
in his wifes eare whatsoever it be." Richardson's explanation is,
" Exsiifiiicate, in Shakespeare, is not improbably a misprint for
exsutHate, that is, etflate or eMatcd, puffed out, and, consequently
exaggerated, extravagant ; to which blown is added, not so much
for the sake of a second epithet, with a new meaning, as of giving
emphasis to the first."
249. You shall discover whether he thinks his best means, his
most powerful interest, is by the solicitation of your lady.
259,260. And knows . . . dealings: — "He knows with a
learned spirit all qualities of human dealings."
260. Haggard is wild, unreclaimed; commonly used of a hawk.
So in Sir Thomas Browne's Religio Medici : " Thus I teach my
haggard and unreclaimed reason to stoop to the lure of faith."
A passage in The White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona, 1612,
shows that the term was sometimes applied to a wanton : " Is this
your perch, you haggard? fly to the stews."
292. hundred : — Here used for an indefinite number ; still it
180
THE MOOR OF VENICE Notes
'^Iiows that the unity of time is much less observed in this play
ihan some hate supposed. Thus far only one night since that of
the marriage has been expressly accounted for; and this was the
night when the nuptials were celebrated, and Cassio cashiered;
though several must have passed during the sea-voyage. From
lago's soliloquy at the close of Act I., it is clear he had his plot
even then so far matured, that he might often woo his wife to
steal the handkerchief while at sea. Moreover, we may well
enough suppose a considerable interval of time between the first
and third Scenes of the present Act ; since Cassio may not have
had the interview with Desdemona immediately after he engaged
Emilia to solicit it for him.
296. ta'en out : — Meaning that she will have it copied. Her
first thoughts are to have a copy made of it for her husband, and
restore the original to Desdemona ; but the sudden coming in of
lago, in a surly humour, makes her alter her resolution.
330. Look, ivhere he comes! — "That is," explains Steevens,
" I knew the least touch of such a passion would not permit the
Moor a moment of repose; I have just said that jealousy is a
restless commotion of the mind; and look, where Othello ap-
proaches, to confirm my observation."
350 et scq. There is some resemblance between this speech and
the following lines in Peek's Farewell to the Famous and For-
tunate Generals of our English Forces, 1589: —
"Change love for armes ; gyrt to your blades, my boyes;
Your rests and muskets take, take helme and targe,
And let god Mars his trumpet make you mirth,
The roaring cannon, and the brazen trumpe.
The angry-sounding drum, the whistling fife,
The shriekes of men, the princelie courser's ncy."
352. In mentioning the £fe joined to the drum, Shakespeare, as
usual, paints from life ; those instruments, accompanying each
other, being used in his age by the English soldiery. The fife,
however, as a martial instrument, was afterwards discontinued
for many years, but at length revived by the British guards under
the Duke of Cumberland, when they were encamped before
Maestricht in 1747, and thence adopted into other English regi-
ments of infantry.
449,450. Swell . . . tongues! — Szvell, because the freight
thou art charged with is that of poison, as from the deadly bites
of asps.
181
Notes TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
467-469. The meaning here, as explained by Mr. Joseph Crosby,
is : " Let him command whatever bloody work he may, to per-
form it shall be with me a matter of conscience."
Scene IV.
24. / know not: — Objection has been made to the conduct of
Emilia in this scene, as inconsistent with the spirit she afterwards
shows. But it is not easy to discover any such inconsistency.
Want of principle and strength of attachment are often thus seen
imited. Emilia loves her mistress deeply ; but she has no moral
repugnance to theft and falsehood, apprehends no fatal conse-
quences from the Moor's passion, and has no soul to conceive
the agony her mistress must suffer by the charge of infidelity ; and
it is but natural that when the result comes she should be the
more spirited for the very remembrance of her own guilty part
in the process. It is the seeing of the end that rouses such people,
and rouses them all the more that they themselves have served
as means.
26. crusadoes : — It appears from Rider's Dictionary that there
were three sorts of crusadoes ; one with a long cross, one with a
short cross, and the great crusado of Portugal. They were of
gold, and differed in value from six shillings and eight pence to
nine shillings.
47. nezv heraldry: — This "new heraldry" appears to be an al-
lusion to the bloody hand borne on the arms of the new order of
baronets, created by James I. in 161 1. Malone, with much prob-
ability, quotes, in illustration of the text, the following from the
Essays of Sir William Cornwallis, 1601 : " We of these later
times, full of a nice curiositie, mislike all the performances of
our forefathers; we say they were honest plaine men, but they
want the capering wits of this ripe age. They had wont to give
their hands and hearts together, hutzve think it a finer grace to
looke asquint, our hand looking one way and our heart another.'"
57. a charmer: — Used for an enchanter in the Psalms. So in
Perkins's Discourse of the damned Art of Witchcraft, 1610: "By
witches we understand not only those which kill and torment, but
all charmers, jugglers, all wizards, commonly called wise men
and wise women."
65. To give it her: — Of course her refers to the noun implied
in wive. In the last scene of the play, Othello speaks of the hand-
kerchief as " an antique token my father gave my mother." This
182
THE MOOR OF VENICE Notes
has been thought an oversight ; Steevens regards it as a fresh
proof of the Poet's art. " The first account," says he, " was pur-
posely ostentatious, in order to alarm his wife the more. When
he again mentions it, the truth was sufficient."
74. dyed in mummy : — The balsamic liquor running from
mummies was formerly celebrated for its anti-epileptic virtues.
It was much coveted by painters, as a transparent brown colour
that threw a warmth into the shadows of a picture.
i6g. "What are you doing away from home? " We repeatedly
meet with the same phraseology in Shakespeare.
173. A week away : — It would seem, by this, that seven days
at least have elapsed since Cassio was cashiered ; perhaps much
more, as the " leaden thoughts " may have been kept off for some
time by the hopes built upon Desdemona's promise of intercession,
and brought on again by the unexpected delay.
180. Take me this zvork out: — Copy this work in another hand-
kerchief. So in Middleton's Women beware Women : " She in-
tends to take out other works in a new sampler." Again, in the
Preface to Holland's Pliny, 1601 : " Nicophanes gave his mind
wholly to antique pictures, partly to exemplify and take out pat-
terns, after that in long continuance of time they were decayed."
ACT FOURTH.
Scene I.
I. We must suppose that lago had been applying cases of false
comfort to Othello; as that, though the parties had been even
found exchanging endearments, there might be no harm done : it
might be only for trial of their virtue. In these pretended excu-
sings lago seeks only to intensify the sufferings which he pro-
fesses to allay.
8. The devil tempts their virtue by stirring up their passions,
and they tempt heaven by placing themselves in a situation which
makes it scarcely possible to avoid falling by the gratification of
them. Perhaps the story of St. Adhelm. related in Bale's Actes
of Englysh Votaries, is referred to: "This Adhelmus never re-
fused women, but wold have them commonly both at borde and
bedde, to mocke the Devyll with."
21,22. The raven was thought to be a bird of ill omen, given
to hovering about houses infected with the plague,
183
Notes TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
28. Convinced: — Having either conquered her reluctance or
comphed with her wish. The proper meaning of convince is con-
quer or overcome.
41-43. Nature . . . instruction : — This passage has called
forth much critical discussion. As suggested by Johnson, Othello
seems to say, " This passion, which spreads its clouds over me,
is the effect of some agency more than the operation of words :
it is one of those notices which men have of unseen calamities."
Or the sense may be given, as by Sir J. Reynolds, something thus :
" Nature would not in Cassio clothe herself in such shadowing
passion, or would not give out such adumbrations of passion,
without some former experience, or the instruction of some fore-
going fact."
45. "The starts," says Warburton, "and broken reflections in
this speech have something in them very terrible, and show the
mind of the speaker to be in inexpressible agonies." The trance
is thus justified by Sir J. Reynolds: "Othello, in broken sen-
tences and single words, all of which have a reference to the
cause of his jealousy, shows that all the proofs are present at
once to his mind, which so overpower it that he falls into a
trance — the natural consequence."
69. Beds which really do not pertain to themselves alone ; beds
which are not peculiarly or specially their own, but are shared in
common with others.
121. Othello calls Cassio Roman ironically, probably in allusion
to his apparent elation, calling to Othello's mind the triumphs
or triumphant career of the Romans.
247, 248. If that the earth . . . crocodile: — By the doctrine
of equivocal generation new animals were supposed producible
by new combinations of matter. Shakespeare here alludes to the
fabulous accounts which make the crocodile the most deceitful
of animals. In Bullokar's Expositor, 1616, occurs the following:
" It is written that he will weep over a man's head when he hath
devoured the body, and will then eat up the head too." Where-
fore in Latin there is a proverb, " Crocodili lachrymae, crocodiles
teares, to signifie such teares as are feigned, and spent only with
intent to deceive or do harm."
265. Goats and monkeys! — In this exclamation Shakespeare has
shown great art. lago in Act III. Sc. iii., being urged to give
some ocular proof of the guilt of Cassio and Desdemona, tells
the Moor it were impossible to have ocular demonstration of it,
" were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys." These words
184
THE MOOR OF VENICE Notes
still ring in the ears of Othello, who, being now fully convinced
of his wife's infidelity, explodes with this involuntary exclamation.
Scene II.
54,55. A fixed figure . . . finger at! — Much has been writ-
ten upon this famous passage, and various changes proposed.
" The time of scorn " probably means, as Knight says, the age of
scorn, that is, the whole period during which scorn may be said
to live. The "fixed figure" is simply the speaker himself, and
not, as been so much supposed, a figure on a dial. As to " slow
unmoving," the sense of it can be better felt than expressed : we
can see the sneer darting from the inexorable finger, ever slowly
moving zvitli the object, never moving from it; but we cannot
speak it in any words but Shakespeare's, as they stand in the text.
74. make very forges of my cheeks : — Othello has already, when
with lago, spoken Desdemona's imputed deeds very plainly; and
would Shakespeare have forgotten that Othello's cheeks were too
dark to show a blush? or still more, would he have referred the
blush in such a case to the countenance of the man when the
woman was present? In Titus Andronicus, IV. ii., Aaron, the
Moor, when Chiron says, " I blush to think upon this ignomy "
(of his mother's having a mulatto child), replies: —
'*Why, there's the privilege your beauty bears:
Fie, treacherous hue, that will betray with blushing
The close enacts and counsels of the heart !
Here 's a young lad framed of another leer"
88. / cry you mercy : — That is, " I ask your pardon."
91. The office opposed to Saint Peter; alluding, evidently, to
" the power of the keys," which was given to the Apostles gen-
erally, and especially to Saint Peter as representing them. So
that the opposition is between Emilia as keeper of the gate of
Hell and Saint Peter as keeper of the gate of Heaven. The sense,
therefore, requires that the special emphasis, if there be any,
should be laid on opposite.
104. go by water: — Be expressed by tears. A similar conceit is
found in Hamlet, IV, vii. 186, 187 : —
" Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
And therefore I forbid my tears."
185
Notes TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
144. speak within door : — Do not clamour so as to be heard be-
yond the house.
167. he does chide with you : — This was the phraseology of the
time. So Baret : " To complaine, to make a quarrel, to chide
zL'ith one for a thing. Expostulare et queri." So too in the Poet's
CXIth Sonnet: " O, for my sake do you zvith fortune cJiide."
212, 213. I grant . , . judgement: — " Shakespeare," says Ma-
lone, " knew well that most men like to be flattered on account
of those endowments in which they are most deficient. Hence
lago's compliment to this snipe on his sagacity and shrewdness."
226. goes into Mauritania: — This passage proves, so far as any-
thing said by lago may be believed, that Othello was not meant
to be a negro, as has been represented, both on the stage and off.
but a veritable Moor. His kindred, the Mauritanians — from
whose " men of royal siege he fetched his life and being." and
among whom he was about to retire — though apt enough to be
confounded with the negroes, were as different from them, ex
ternally, as brown is from black; internally, in mind and char-
acter, the difference was far greater.
236. He sups to-night with a harlotry: — See "a peevish self-
will'd harlotry," i King Henry IV., HI. i., and the very same
phrase in Romeo and Juliet, IV. ii.
Scene IH.
II. Hazlitt calls this "one of those side intimations of the fluc-
tuations of passion, which we seldom meet with but in Shake-
speare. He has here put into half a line what some authors would
have spun out into ten set speeches."
55-57- [Singing.'] These lines sung by Desdemona are from an
old ballad, entitled A Lover's Complaint, being forsaken of his
Love. The ballad may be found entire in Percy's Reliqucs. It is
there the lament of a man : Shakespeare adapted it to the sex of
"poor Barbara." Subjoined are the stanzas from which he bor-
rowed: —
A poore soule sat sighing under a sicamore tree ;
O willow, willow, willow !
With his hand on his bosom, his head on his knee :
O willow, willow, willow !
Sing, O the greene willow shall be my garland,
186
THE MOOR OF VENICE Notes
The cold streams ran by him, his eyes wept apace ;
O willow, willow, willow !
The salt tears fell from him, which drowned his face:
O willow, willow, willow !
Sing, O the greene willow shall be my garland.
The mute birds sat by him, made tame by his mones ;
O willow, willow, willow !
The salt tears fell from him, which soften'd the stones :
O willow, willow, willow !
Sing, O the greene willow shall be my garland.
Let nobody blame me, her scorns I do prove ;
O willow, willow, willow !
She was borne to be faire; I to die for her love:
O willow, willow, willow !
Sing, O the greene willow shall be my garland.
"JZ- A joint-ring was anciently a token of troth-plight between
lovers, like the piece of broken gold in the Bride of Lanimermoor.
Dryden has a minute description of it in his Don Sebastian : —
" A curious artist wrought them
With joints so close as not to be perceiv'd ;
Yet are they both each other's counterpart :
Her part had Juan inscrib'd, and his had Zayda,
(You know these names are theirs,) and in the midst
A heart divided in two halves was plac'd.
Now, if the rivets of those rings enclos'd
Fit not each other, I have forg'd this lie ;
But, if they join, you must for ever part."
ACT FIFTH.
Scene I.
II. A quat, in provincial usage, was a pimple, which by rubbing
could be made to smart. Roderigo is called a quat in the same
manner that a low fellow was vulgarly termed a scab. To rub to
the sense is to rub to the quick.
187
Notes TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
Scene IL
1. Othello's act is caused b}' her supposed crime. Herein alone
he finds his self-justification.
2. Steevens declares that there is " no classical authority " for
chaste stars. But Othello has authority as good, perhaps, as
classical, in the supposed unchastity of his wife, which is tJic '
cause of his present purpose, and which the purity of the stars
withholds him from naming in their presence. No classical au-
thority ! The phrase itself is classical now.
21. this sorrow's heavenly: — Is of heavenward tendency.
65, A murder, etc. : — Some editors have managed to stumble
at this passage. The language is indeed compressed, but the
meaning seems clear enough. Othello goes about the killing of
his wife as an act of religion, and he fears lest her perjury may
excite his anger, and so corrupt the deed into an act of revenge.
This is Johnson's explanation: "Thou hardenest my heart, and
makest me kill thee with the rage of a murderer, when I thought
to have sacrificed thee to justice with the calmness of a priest
striking a victim."
82. Being done, etc. : — Othello regards the act as done, wlici
the conflict between his love and honour is fully over, his resolu-
tion finally taken, and his hand raised to strike. To admit any
pause in such a case, were but to prolong the suffering of the
victim.
88. So, so : — At these words, the Othello of the stage is made to
stab Desdemona. There is no such direction in any of the old
copies ; but still the stage-custom may be right ; as, in the agony
of the moment, and in his desire " not to have her linger in her
pain," Othello's resolution not to shed her blood might be over-
come. It seems more natural, too, that Desdemona should speak
after being stabbed than after being smothered to death.
183. charm your tongue : — To charm is to still or hush as with
a charm. Pliny informs us that favete Unguis was the constant
exclamation before any cJiarm was applied. From this circum-
stance the phrase to charm a tongue, may have originated.
192. / thought so then : — That is, when she gave Desdemona's
handkerchief to lago ; for even tJien Emilia appears to have sus-
pected it was sought after for no honest purpose.
212. A thousand times: — An indefinite number. See a hundred
times, III. iii. 2r2.
239. Strictly speaking, lago cannot be called a notorious vil-
188
THE MOOR OF VENICE Notes
Iain, as his villainy was not kiiozvn. The meaning is egregious,
as in IV. ii. 140.
253. The way of tempering steel is by plunging it red-hot into
cold water; and the colder the water, the higher the temper at-
tained. Steevens has shown from Martial and Justin that in
Spain the waters of the Salo and the Chalybes, being remarkable
for coldness, were used in tempering swords. As Toledo blades
were famous all over Europe in the Poet's time, he might easily
learn that they were of the ice-brook's temper without going to
classical authorities.
286. / look dozvii toivards his feet : — Alluding to the devil's
fabled cloven foot. Othello looks down towards lago's feet to
see if he has that sign of being a devil, but then concludes that
he may be just as much a devil without it.
347. Coleridge remarks upon this passage : " Othello wishes to
excuse himself on the score of ignorance, and yet not excuse him-
self — to excuse himself by accusing. This struggle of feeling is
finely conveyed in the word base, which is applied to the rude
Indian, not in his own character, but as the momentary represen-
tative of Othello's." Whether Shakespeare meant an allusion to
any particular story of an Indian, or to the Indians as generally
described, is not quite clear ; probably, the latter. Thus in Dray-
ton's Legend of Matilda : " The wretched Indian spumes the
golden ore.'' So again in The Woman's Conquest, by Sir Ed-
ward Howard : " Behold my queen, who with no more concern
He cast away then Indians do a pearl, that ne'er did know its
value."
352. Aleppo : — It is said to have been immediate death for a
Christian to strike a Turk in Aleppo.
361. Spartan dog: — The dogs of Spartan breed were among the
most fierce and savage.
TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.
Questions on Othello,
1. What is known of the early editions of Othello; of the date
of its composition?
2. What can you say of the original stage Othello ; of the
sources of the plot ?
3. What is the duration of action in this play?
ACT FIRST.
4. How was Venice ruled at the time of the play; what was
the office of Duke of Venice; that of Senator?
5. What was the Council of State; why had it been convened?
6. What of the Cyprus ivars to which lago refers ; what was the
Sagittary? (About 1470 Cyprus, the scene of the entire action of
Othello, was annexed to Venice, and it continued under Venetian
rule until about 1571.)
7. Where does lago first make known his hatred of Othello ;
what cause was there for that hatred, as shown by lago?
8. What impression is made by lago's estimate of himself?
9. How account for Othello's influence over Desdemona ; for
Brabantio's reference of Desdemona's submission to Othello to
witchcraft?
10. Describe Shakespeare's general treatment of witchcraft ;
how far does it reflect the superstitious mind of his age?
11. Does the character of Roderigo include the sense of honour;
what led him to hate Othello?
12. Why should Othello speak in the same passage of the Can-
nibals and the Anthropophagi?
13. With a timorous disposition, as appears later, how does
Desdemona in this Act speak for herself so boldly?
14. Was Othello a negro? What answer to this is suggested by
his calling himself (HI. iii. 263, 387) black? What do we know
of the Moors of that day ?
15. Give a brief summary of the characters and action of Act I.
190
THE MOOR OF VENICE Questions
ACT SECOND.
i6. What are the conditions under which this Act opens?
17. What purpose is served by introducing the Turkish fleet
and its destruction?
18. At first impression, what sort of a man is Cassio?
19. When lago, in -the soHloquy which ends Sc. iii., declares
Othello to be of a constant, loving, noble nature, does lago show
that he is capable of compunction?
20. Interpret this soliloquy as a whole,
21. What does Cassio think of drunkenness? Relate his expe-
rience of it. How are we affected by his repentance?
22. How do you regard lago's account to Othello of the in-
cidents following Cassio's indiscretion?
23. What part does lago wish Cassio to play ; what part Ro-
derigo ?
24. How in this Act does lago treat Roderigo ; why ?
25. Analyze the closing lines of Sc. iii.
26. What performance follows the purpose here outlined by
lago?
27. How does Desdemona impress Cassio?
28. Give a brief summary of Act H.
ACT THIRD.
29. Interpret the opening of the Act — Clown, musicians, etc.
30. What does the Clown mean by his question about the in-
struments having been in Naples?
31. What tragic sequence does this light action prelude?
2,2. Outline the character of Emilia.
33. Did she understand her husband?
34. Do you gain any definite idea from lago's speech to Othello
(Sc. iii. 144-154) ; what does Othello understand from it?
35. What is the meaning of this (Sc. iii. 165-167) ? —
" O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock
The meat it feeds on."
26. Was Othello justified in attaching such weight to the words
of lago beginning, Slic did deceive her father, marrying you?
Was Desdemona's conduct in the matter cited reprehensible?
191
Questions TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
Zy. Upon what does Othello base his opinion of lago's honesty?
38. How does lago so completely befool Othello?
39. What wrong directions does Othello's revenge take?
40. How does Desdemona apprehend the feeling of jealousy;
how does she regard the jealousy of Othello?
41. What of Desdemona's behaviour under Othello's suspicion?
42. Does Emilia's obedience to her husband after he has
snatched the handkerchief from her seem out of keeping with
her character?
43. Up to the end of this Act, how does the character of Des-
demona impress you; that of Emilia?
44. What new influence appears with the introduction of
Bianca; how does she show the effect of jealousy? What new
light does her appearance throw upon Cassio?
45. How much does Act HI. advance the action of the play?
ACT FOURTH.
46. Describe the increased efforts of lago to work upon the
jealousy and anger of Othello.
47. Does lago here exhibit any trace of human pity or feeling?
48. Does any other great character of Shakespeare approach
lago in heartlessness and diabolic spirit?
49. How are the sorrow and compassion of Othello portrayed
in Sc. i.?
50. How is shown the lowest depth of lago's devilish perfidy?
51. Explain (Sc. i. 248) Each drop she falls would prove a
crocodile.
52. Does Emilia betray any suspicion of her husband when she
says (Sc. ii. 130-133), / will be hanged, etc.?
53. Is Desdemona's song essential to the action of the drama;
what is its artistic or dramatic purpose; what similar incident in
Shakespeare does it recall?
54. How does Othello at first intend to kill Desdemona; what
other means does lago suggest, and why?
55. How does Desdemona receive Othello's accusation against
her ; how does Emilia treat it ?
56. Does lago deceive others as completely as he does Othello?
57. What relation does Act IV. bear to the main action of the
play?
192
THE MOOR OF VENICE Questions
ACT FIFTH.
58. How would the death of Cassio or Roderigo further the
ends of lago?
59. What does Roderigo's confession in view of death show as
to his character?
60. By what means does lago still forward his schemes?
61. What is Othello's mental condition during most of this Act?
How does he justify himself in killing Desdemona?
62. Does Desdemona at last see that she and Othello have both
been betrayed?
63. How does Desdemona face Othello's final determination to
kill her; why does she beg for half an hour of grace?
64. How account for the fact that Desdemona died with a false-
hood on her lips; was it an intentional falsehood, a mistake, or
the result of a confused mind?
65. When Othello learns that Desdemona was innocent, how
does he act?
66. Explain (Sc. ii. 7) Put out the light, and then put out the
light.
67. What is the allusion in line 347: Like the base Indian,
threw a pearl away?
68. Explain lago's last speech in the play.
69. What is shown by comparing Desdemona and Emilia?
70. Is this play marked by Shakespeare's usual breadth of
treatment?
71. What is the purpose of soliloquy in the modern drama; has
it any relation to the chorus of ancient drama?
72. Describe the purpose and effect of lago's soliloquy at the
end of Act I. , ,., .
73. Does any other character of Shakespeare s soliloquize as
much as lago?
74. Could the subtle and wicked spirit and purposes of lago so
well be made known in any other manner?
75. How were love and marriage regarded by Othello ; by Des-
demona ; by lago; by Emilia?
76. Compare these characters in any respect to others m Shake-
speare.
77. Interpret Shakespeare's contrasting of humour and tragedy,
as in Act III., at its beginning, and at the opening of Sc. iv.;
193
Questions
with what scene of Hamlet may it be compared in respect of
dramatic purpose?
78. In view of his character, what value has lago's estimate of
good name'?
79. In the mouth of villainy has the praise of virtue any ethical
significance?
80. What is the secret power by which a man like lago makes
even innocent persons, as well as circumstances, conspire to
serve his evil purposes?
81. Is the source of lago's influence over Othello more to be
seen in lago's own complex and diabolical genius or in Othello's
simplicity of nature?
82. What is the ethical import of this play as dealing with love,
jealousy, hate, revenge, etc.?
83. Does good here seem to be vanquished and evil prospered ;
is the influence of the play on the side of pessimism or of opti-
mism?
84. Indicate the usual contrasts between the jealousies of noble
souls and those of base.
85. Is there anywhere a better portrayal of such contrasts as
appear between Othello and lago than in this play?
86. What is to be said of the art whereby Shakespeare makes
the Moor so admirable, notwithstanding his limitations, and even
renders lago fascinating in spite of all his "inscrutable de-
pravity " ?
194
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