TPTT The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice: ACT I
Introduction
ACT I
SCENE I. Venice. A street.
SCENE II. Another street.
SCENE III. A council-chamber.
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE I. Venice. A street.
Enter RODERIGO and IAGO
RODERIGO
      Tush! never tell me; I take it much unkindly
      That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse
      As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.
IAGO
      'Sblood, but you will not hear me:
5     If ever I did dream of such a matter, Abhor me.
RODERIGO
      Thou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy hate.
IAGO
      Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city,
      In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
      Off-capp'd to him: and, by the faith of man,
10    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,
15    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;
      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
25    As masterly as he: mere prattle, without practise,
      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
30    By debitor and creditor: this counter-caster,
      He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,
      And I--God bless the mark!--his Moorship's ancient.
RODERIGO
      By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman.
IAGO
      Why, there's no remedy; 'tis the curse of service,
35    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.
RODERIGO
40    I would not follow him then.
IAGO
      O, sir, content you;
      I follow him to serve my turn upon him:
      We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
      Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
45    Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
      That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
      Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
      For nought but provender, and when he's old, cashier'd:
      Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are
50    Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty,
      Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves,
      And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
      Do well thrive by them and when they have lined
      their coats
55    Do themselves homage: these fellows have some soul;
      And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,
      It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
      Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
      In following him, I follow but myself;
60    Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
      But seeming so, for my peculiar end:
      For when my outward action doth demonstrate
      The native act and figure of my heart
      In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
65    But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
      For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.
RODERIGO
      What a full fortune does the thicklips owe
      If he can carry't thus!
IAGO
      Call up her father,
70    Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight,
      Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,
      And, though he in a fertile climate dwell,
      Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,
      Yet throw such changes of vexation on't,
75    As it may lose some colour.
RODERIGO
      Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud.
IAGO
      Do, with like timorous accent and dire yell
      As when, by night and negligence, the fire
      Is spied in populous cities.
RODERIGO
80    What, ho, Brabantio! Signior Brabantio, ho!
IAGO
      Awake! what, ho, Brabantio! thieves! thieves! thieves!
      Look to your house, your daughter and your bags!
      Thieves! thieves!
BRABANTIO appears above, at a window
BRABANTIO
      What is the reason of this terrible summons?
85    What is the matter there?
RODERIGO
      Signior, is all your family within?
IAGO
      Are your doors lock'd?
BRABANTIO
      Why, wherefore ask you this?
IAGO
      'Zounds, sir, you're robb'd; for shame, put on
90    your gown;
      Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;
      Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
      Is topping your white ewe. Arise, arise;
      Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
95    Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:
      Arise, I say.
BRABANTIO
      What, have you lost your wits?
RODERIGO
      Most reverend signior, do you know my voice?
BRABANTIO
      Not I what are you?
RODERIGO
100   My name is Roderigo.
BRABANTIO
      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,
105   Being full of supper and distempering draughts,
      Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come
      To start my quiet.
RODERIGO
      Sir, sir, sir,--
BRABANTIO
      But thou must needs be sure
110   My spirit and my place have in them power
      To make this bitter to thee.
RODERIGO
      Patience, good sir.
BRABANTIO
      What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is Venice;
      My house is not a grange.
RODERIGO
115   Most grave Brabantio,
      In simple and pure soul I come to you.
IAGO
      '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 ruffians, you'll
120   have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse;
      you'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have
      coursers for cousins and gennets for germans.
BRABANTIO
      What profane wretch art thou?
IAGO
      I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter
125   and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.
BRABANTIO
      Thou art a villain.
IAGO
      You are--a senator.
BRABANTIO
      This thou shalt answer; I know thee, Roderigo.
RODERIGO
      Sir, I will answer any thing. But, I beseech you,
130   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,
135   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
      We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe
140   That, from the sense of all civility,
      I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:
      Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,
      I say again, hath made a gross revolt;
      Tying her duty, beauty, wit and fortunes
145   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
      For thus deluding you.
BRABANTIO
150   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 say! light!
Exit above
IAGO
155   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 cheque,
160   Cannot with safety cast him, for he's embark'd
      With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars,
      Which even now stand in act, that, for their souls,
      Another of his fathom they have none,
      To lead their business: in which regard,
165   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;
170   And there will I be with him. So, farewell.
Exit
Enter, below, BRABANTIO, and Servants with torches
BRABANTIO
      It is too true an evil: gone she is;
      And what's to come of my despised time
      Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo,
      Where didst thou see her? O unhappy girl!
175   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?
RODERIGO
      Truly, I think they are.
BRABANTIO
180   O heaven! How got she out? O treason of the blood!
      Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds
      By what you see them act. Is there not charms
      By which the property of youth and maidhood
      May be abused? Have you not read, Roderigo,
185   Of some such thing?
RODERIGO
      Yes, sir, I have indeed.
BRABANTIO
      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?
RODERIGO
190   I think I can discover him, if you please,
      To get good guard and go along with me.
BRABANTIO
      Pray you, lead on. At every house I'll call;
      I may command at most. Get weapons, ho!
      And raise some special officers of night.
195   On, good Roderigo: I'll deserve your pains.
Exeunt
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