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ACT I BRA. So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile;
Sc. III 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;1
But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow
That to pay Grief must of poor Patience borrow.
These sentences, to sugar, or to gall,
Being strong on both sides, are equivocal :
But words are words; I never yet did hear
That the bruis'd heart was pierced through the

ear.

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230

I humbly beseech you, proceed to the affairs of

State.
Duke. The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes

for Cyprus. Othello, the fortitude of the place is best
known to you; and though we have there a substitute
of most allow'd 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

boisterous expedition.
OTH. The tyrant Custom, most grave Senators,

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,
Be't at her father's.
BRA.

I'll not have it so.
OTH. Nor I.
DES.

Nor I; I would not there reside,
To put my father in impatient thoughts
By being in his eye. Most gracious Duke,
To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear ;

ii.e. Othello easily bears the sentence which gives Desdemona to him.
18

240

ACT I
Sc. III

250

260

And let me find a charter in your voice, ,

To assist my simpleness.
DUKE. What would you, Desdemona ?
DES. That I did love the Moor to live with him,

My downright violence and storm of fortunes
May trumpet to the world: my heart's subdued
Even to the very quality of my Lord :
I saw 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.
OTH. 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 my 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
My speculative and offic'd instrument,
That my disports corrupt and taint my business,
Let housewives make a skillet of my 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 affair cries

haste,
And speed must answer it.
FIRST SEN. You must away to-night.
Отн.

With all

my

heart. DUKE. At nine i’ the morning here we'll meet again.

Othello, leave some officer behind,
And he shall our commission bring to you ;
> used in the Latin sense of fulfilled— 'in the fulfilment of my private satisfaction.'
3 i.e. my mind and body-myself.

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270

280

2 blind.

ACT I
Sc. III

290

With such things else of quality and respect

As doth import you.
Отн. .

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.
Good night to every one. [to BRABANTIO.] And, noble

Signior,
If virtue no delighted beauty lack,

Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.
FIRST SEN. Adieu, brave Moor; use Desdemona well.
BRA. Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:
She has deceiv'd her father, and may thee.

[Exeunt DUKE, Senators, Officers, etc. Oth. My life upon her faith! Honest Iago,

My Desdemona must I leave to thee:
I pr’ythee, 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,
To spend with thee: we must obey the time.

[Exeunt OTHELLO and DESDEMONA.
Rod. Iago
Iago. What say'st thou, noble Heart?
ROD. What will I do, think'st thou?
Iago. Why, go to bed, and sleep.
Rod. I will incontinently drown myself.
Iago. If thou dost, I shall never love thee after. Why,

thou silly Gentleman !
Rod. It is silliness to live when to live is torment; and

then have we a prescription to die when Death is our

physician. Iago. O villainous ! I have look'd 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.

1 rich in delights. Cf. 'talented.'

300

310

318

332

Rod. What should I do? I confess it is my shame to be ACT I so fond; but it is not in my virtue to amend it.

Sc. III Iago. Virtuel a fig! 'tis in ourselves that we are thus or

thus. Our bodies are our 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 manur'd with
industry; why, the power and corrigible authority of
this lies in our wills. If the balance of our lives had
not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality,
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.
Iago. It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of

the will. Come, be a man: drown thyself? drown cats
and blind puppies. I have profess'd me thy friend, and
I confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of
perdurable toughness; I could never better stead thee

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 thou shalt see an answerable sequestration;' put but money in thy purse. These Moors 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 in thy purse. If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a more

way than drowning. Make all the money thou canst: if sanctimony and a frail vow betwixt an erring barbarian and a supersubtle Venetian be not too hard my wits and all the tribe of Hell, thou shalt enjoy I used to suggest ‘a parting in the sequel.'

21

than now.

delicate

for

ACT I
Sc. III

360

371

her; therefore make money. A pox of drowning
thyself I it is clean out of the way: seek thou rather to
be hang'd in compassing thy joy than to be drown'd
and
go

without her.
Rod. Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on the

issue?
Iago. Thou art sure of me;—go, make money. I have

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 deliverd. Traverse;
go, provide thy money. We will have more of this

to-morrow. Adieu.
Rod. Where shall we meet i’ the morning?
Iago. At my lodging.
ROD. I'll be with thee betimes.
Iago. Go to; farewell. Do you hear, Roderigo ?
Rod. What say you?
Iago. No more of drowning, do you hear?
Rod. I am chang'd: I'll go

sell all

[exit.
IAGO. 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,
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 that 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 :
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; fram'd to make women false.
The Moor is of a free and open nature,
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so;

my land.

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390