TPTT The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice: ACT II
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
SCENE I. A Sea-port in Cyprus. An open place near the quay.
SCENE II. A street.
SCENE III. A hall in the castle.
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE I. A Sea-port in Cyprus. An open place near the quay.
Enter MONTANO and two Gentlemen
MONTANO
      What from the cape can you discern at sea?
First Gentleman
      Nothing at all: it is a highwrought flood;
      I cannot, 'twixt the heaven and the main,
      Descry a sail.
MONTANO
5     Methinks 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?
Second Gentleman
10    A segregation of the Turkish fleet:
      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,
15    And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole:
      I never did like molestation view
      On the enchafed flood.
MONTANO
      If that the Turkish fleet
      Be not enshelter'd and embay'd, they are drown'd:
20    It is impossible they bear it out.
Enter a third Gentleman
Third Gentleman
      News, lads! our wars are done.
      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
25    On most part of their fleet.
MONTANO
      How! is this true?
Third Gentleman
      The ship is here put in,
      A Veronesa; Michael Cassio,
      Lieutenant to the warlike Moor Othello,
30    Is come on shore: the Moor himself at sea,
      And is in full commission here for Cyprus.
MONTANO
      I am glad on't; 'tis a worthy governor.
Third Gentleman
      But this same Cassio, though he speak of comfort
      Touching the Turkish loss, yet he looks sadly,
35    And prays the Moor be safe; for they were parted
      With foul and violent tempest.
MONTANO
      Pray heavens he be;
      For I have served him, and the man commands
      Like a full soldier. Let's to the seaside, ho!
40    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 Gentleman
      Come, let's do so:
45    For every minute is expectancy
      Of more arrivance.
Enter CASSIO
CASSIO
      Thanks, you the valiant of this warlike isle,
      That so approve the Moor! O, let the heavens
      Give him defence against the elements,
50    For I have lost us him on a dangerous sea.
MONTANO
      Is he well shipp'd?
CASSIO
      His bark is stoutly timber'd, his pilot
      Of very expert and approved allowance;
      Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death,
55    Stand in bold cure.
A cry within 'A sail, a sail, a sail!'
Enter a fourth Gentleman
CASSIO
      What noise?
Fourth Gentleman
      The town is empty; on the brow o' the sea
      Stand ranks of people, and they cry 'A sail!'
CASSIO
      My hopes do shape him for the governor.
Guns heard
Second Gentlemen
60    They do discharge their shot of courtesy:
      Our friends at least.
CASSIO
      I pray you, sir, go forth,
      And give us truth who 'tis that is arrived.
Second Gentleman
      I shall.
Exit
MONTANO
65    But, good lieutenant, is your general wived?
CASSIO
      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
70    Does tire the ingener.

Re-enter second Gentleman

      How now! who has put in?
Second Gentleman
      'Tis one Iago, ancient to the general.
CASSIO
      Has had most favourable and happy speed:
      Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds,
75    The gutter'd rocks and congregated sands--
      Traitors ensteep'd to clog the guiltless keel,--
      As having sense of beauty, do omit
      Their mortal natures, letting go safely by
      The divine Desdemona.
MONTANO
80    What is she?
CASSIO
      She that I spake of, our great captain's captain,
      Left in the conduct of the bold Iago,
      Whose footing here anticipates our thoughts
      A se'nnight's speed. Great Jove, Othello guard,
85    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,
      Give renew'd fire to our extincted spirits
      And bring all Cyprus comfort!

Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, IAGO, RODERIGO, and Attendants

90    O, behold,
      The riches of the ship is come on shore!
      Ye men of Cyprus, let her have your knees.
      Hail to thee, lady! and the grace of heaven,
      Before, behind thee, and on every hand,
95    Enwheel thee round!
DESDEMONA
      I thank you, valiant Cassio.
      What tidings can you tell me of my lord?
CASSIO
      He is not yet arrived: nor know I aught
      But that he's well and will be shortly here.
DESDEMONA
100   O, but I fear--How lost you company?
CASSIO
      The great contention of the sea and skies
      Parted our fellowship--But, hark! a sail.
Within 'A sail, a sail!' Guns heard
Second Gentleman
      They give their greeting to the citadel;
      This likewise is a friend.
CASSIO
105   See for the news.

Exit Gentleman

      Good ancient, you are welcome.

To EMILIA

      Welcome, mistress.
      Let it not gall your patience, good Iago,
      That I extend my manners; 'tis my breeding
110   That gives me this bold show of courtesy.
Kissing her
IAGO
      Sir, would she give you so much of her lips
      As of her tongue she oft bestows on me,
      You'll have enough.
DESDEMONA
      Alas, she has no speech.
IAGO
115   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.
EMILIA
120   You have little cause to say so.
IAGO
      Come on, come on; you are pictures out of doors,
      Bells in your parlors, wild-cats in your kitchens,
      Saints m your injuries, devils being offended,
      Players in your housewifery, and housewives' in your beds.
DESDEMONA
125   O, fie upon thee, slanderer!
IAGO
      Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk:
      You rise to play and go to bed to work.
EMILIA
      You shall not write my praise.
IAGO
      No, let me not.
DESDEMONA
130   What wouldst thou write of me, if thou shouldst
      praise me?
IAGO
      O gentle lady, do not put me to't;
      For I am nothing, if not critical.
DESDEMONA
      Come on assay. There's one gone to the harbour?
IAGO
135   Ay, madam.
DESDEMONA
      I am not merry; but I do beguile
      The thing I am, by seeming otherwise.
      Come, how wouldst thou praise me?
IAGO
      I am about it; but indeed my invention
140   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,
      The one's for use, the other useth it.
DESDEMONA
145   Well praised! How if she be black and witty?
IAGO
      If she be black, and thereto have a wit,
      She'll find a white that shall her blackness fit.
DESDEMONA
      Worse and worse.
EMILIA
      How if fair and foolish?
IAGO
150   She never yet was foolish that was fair;
      For even her folly help'd her to an heir.
DESDEMONA
      These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i'
      the alehouse. What miserable praise hast thou for
      her that's foul and foolish?
IAGO
155   There's none so foul and foolish thereunto,
      But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do.
DESDEMONA
      O heavy ignorance! thou praisest the worst best.
      But what praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving
      woman indeed, one that, in the authority of her
160   merit, did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself?
IAGO
      She that was ever fair and never proud,
      Had tongue at will and yet was never loud,
      Never lack'd gold and yet went never gay,
      Fled from her wish and yet said 'Now I may,'
165   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,
170   See suitors following and not look behind,
      She was a wight, if ever such wight were,--
DESDEMONA
      To do what?
IAGO
      To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.
DESDEMONA
      O most lame and impotent conclusion! Do not learn
175   of him, Emilia, though he be thy husband. How say
      you, Cassio? is he not a most profane and liberal
      counsellor?
CASSIO
      He speaks home, madam: You may relish him more in
      the soldier than in the scholar.
IAGO
180   (Aside) 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
      her, do; I will gyve thee in thine own courtship.
      You say true; 'tis so, indeed: if such tricks as
185   these strip you out of your lieutenantry, it had
      been better you had not kissed your three fingers 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
190   to your lips? would they were clyster-pipes for your sake!

Trumpet within

      The Moor! I know his trumpet.
CASSIO
      'Tis truly so.
DESDEMONA
      Let's meet him and receive him.
CASSIO
      Lo, where he comes!
Enter OTHELLO and Attendants
OTHELLO
195   O my fair warrior!
DESDEMONA
      My dear Othello!
OTHELLO
      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,
200   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
      As hell's from heaven! If it were now to die,
      'Twere now to be most happy; for, I fear,
205   My soul hath her content so absolute
      That not another comfort like to this
      Succeeds in unknown fate.
DESDEMONA
      The heavens forbid
      But that our loves and comforts should increase,
210   Even as our days do grow!
OTHELLO
      Amen to that, sweet powers!
      I cannot speak enough of this content;
      It stops me here; it is too much of joy:
      And this, and this, the greatest discords be

Kissing her

215   That e'er our hearts shall make!
IAGO
      (Aside) O, you are well tuned now!
      But I'll set down the pegs that make this music,
      As honest as I am.
OTHELLO
      Come, let us to the castle.
220   News, friends; our wars are done, the Turks
      are drown'd.
      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,
225   I prattle out of fashion, and I dote
      In mine own comforts. I prithee, good Iago,
      Go to the bay and disembark my coffers:
      Bring thou the master to the citadel;
      He is a good one, and his worthiness
230   Does challenge much respect. Come, Desdemona,
      Once more, well met at Cyprus.
Exeunt OTHELLO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants
IAGO
      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
235   natures more than is native to them--list me. The
      lieutenant tonight watches on the court of
      guard:--first, I must tell thee this--Desdemona is
      directly in love with him.
RODERIGO
      With him! why, 'tis not possible.
IAGO
240   Lay thy finger thus, and let thy soul be instructed.
      Mark me with what violence she first loved the Moor,
      but for bragging and telling her fantastical lies:
      and will she love him still for prating? let not
      thy discreet heart think it. Her eye must be fed;
245   and what delight shall she have to look on the
      devil? When the blood is made dull with the act of
      sport, there should be, again to inflame it and to
      give satiety a fresh appetite, loveliness in favour,
      sympathy in years, manners and beauties; all which
250   the Moor is defective in: now, for want of these
      required conveniences, her delicate tenderness will
      find itself abused, begin to heave the gorge,
      disrelish and abhor the Moor; very nature will
      instruct her in it and compel her to some second
255   choice. Now, sir, this granted,--as it is a most
      pregnant and unforced position--who stands so
      eminent in the degree of this fortune as Cassio
      does? a knave very voluble; no further
      conscionable than in putting on the mere form of
260   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 of occasions, that has an eye can stamp and
      counterfeit advantages, though true advantage never
265   present itself; a devilish knave. Besides, the
      knave is handsome, young, and hath all those
      requisites in him that folly and green minds look
      after: a pestilent complete knave; and the woman
      hath found him already.
RODERIGO
270   I cannot believe that in her; she's full of
      most blessed condition.
IAGO
      Blessed fig's-end! the wine she drinks is made of
      grapes: if she had been blessed, she would never
      have loved the Moor. Blessed pudding! Didst thou
275   not see her paddle with the palm of his hand? didst
      not mark that?
RODERIGO
      Yes, that I did; but that was but courtesy.
IAGO
      Lechery, by this hand; an index and obscure prologue
      to the history of lust and foul thoughts. They met
280   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 main exercise, the incorporate
      conclusion, Pish! But, sir, be you ruled by me: I
285   have brought you from Venice. Watch you to-night;
      for the command, I'll lay't upon you. Cassio knows
      you not. I'll 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
290   other course you please, which the time shall more
      favourably minister.
RODERIGO
      Well.
IAGO
      Sir, he is rash and very sudden in choler, and haply
      may strike at you: provoke him, that he may; for
295   even out of that will I cause these of Cyprus to
      mutiny; whose qualification shall come into no true
      taste again but by the displanting of Cassio. So
      shall you have a shorter journey to your desires by
      the means I shall then have to prefer them; and the
300   impediment most profitably removed, without the
      which there were no expectation of our prosperity.
RODERIGO
      I will do this, if I can bring it to any
      opportunity.
IAGO
      I warrant thee. Meet me by and by at the citadel:
305   I must fetch his necessaries ashore. Farewell.
RODERIGO
      Adieu.
Exit
IAGO
      That Cassio loves her, I do well believe it;
      That she loves him, 'tis apt and of great credit:
      The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not,
310   Is of a constant, loving, noble nature,
      And I dare think he'll prove to Desdemona
      A most dear husband. Now, I do love her too;
      Not out of absolute lust, though peradventure
      I stand accountant for as great a sin,
315   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
320   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 judgment cannot cure. Which thing to do,
      If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trash
325   For his quick hunting, stand the putting on,
      I'll 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.
330   For making him egregiously an ass
      And practising upon his peace and quiet
      Even to madness. 'Tis here, but yet confused:
      Knavery's plain face is never seen tin used.
Exit
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