Cyprus. A Hall in the Castle.
 Enter OTHELLO, DESDEMONA, CASSIO, and ATTENDANTS.

Othello	Good Michael, look you to the guard tonight.
	Let's teach ourselves that honourable stop,
	Not to outsport discretion.

Cassio	Iago hath direction what to do;
	But, notwithstanding, with my personal eye
	Will I look to't.

Othello							Iago is most honest.
	Michael, good night; tomorrow 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.
	Good night.
					  [Exeunt OTHELLO, DESDEMONA and ATTENDANTS.

                               Enter IAGO.

Cassio	Welcome, Iago; we must to the watch.

Iago	Not this hour, lieutenant; 'tis not yet ten o'th' clock. 
	Our general cast us thus early for the love of his 
	Desdemona, who let us not therefore blame. He hath not yet 
	made wanton the night with her; and she is sport for Jove.

Cassio	She's a most exquisite lady.

Iago	And, I'll warrant her, full of game.

Cassio	Indeed, she's a most fresh and delicate creature.

Iago	What an eye she has! Methinks it sounds a parley of 
	provocation.

Cassio	An inviting eye; and yet methinks right modest.

Iago	And when she speaks, is it not an alarum to love.

Cassio	She is indeed perfection.

Iago	Well, happiness to their sheets! Come, lieutenant, I have a 
	stoup of wine, and here without are a brace of Cyprus 
	gallants that would fain have a measure to the health of 
	black Othello.

Cassio	Not tonight, good Iago; I have very poor and unhappy brains 
	for drinking: I could well wish courtesy would invent some 
	other custom of entertainment.

Iago	O, they are our friends - but one cup; I'll drink for you.

Cassio	I have drunk but one cup tonight, and that was craftily 
	qualified too, and behold what innovation it makes here. I 
	am unfortunate in the infirmity, and dare not task my 
	weakness with any more.

Iago	What, man! 'Tis a night of revels; the gallants desire it.

Cassio	Where are they?

Iago	Here at the door. I pray you, call them in.

Cassio	I'll do't, but it dislikes me.
												[Exit.
Iago	If I can fasten but one cup upon him
	With that which he hath drunk tonight already,
	He'll be as full of quarrel and offence
	As my young mistress' dog. Now my sick fool Roderigo,
	Whom love has turned almost the wrong side out,
	To Desdemona hath tonight caroused
	Potations pottle-deep; and he's to watch.
	Three else of Cyprus - noble swelling spirits,
	That hold their honours in a wary distance,
	The very elements of this warlike isle-
	Have I tonight flustered with flowing cups,
	And they watch too. Now 'mongst this flock of drunkards
	Am I to put our Cassio in some action
	That may offend the isle.

                  Enter CASSIO, MONTANO, and GENTLEMEN.

								But here they come.
	If consequence do but approve my dream,
	My boat sails freely, both with wind and stream.

Cassio	'Fore God, they have given me a rouse already.

Montano	Good faith, a little one; not past a pint,
	As I am a soldier.

Iago							Some wine, ho!

	[Sings.]	And let me the cannikin clink, clink;
			And let me the cannikin clink, clink.
				A soldier's a man,
				Oh, man's life's but a span;
			Why, then let a soldier drink.

	Some wine, boys!

Cassio	'Fore God, an excellent song.

Iago	I learned it in England, where indeed they are most potent 
	in potting. Your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied 
	Hollander - drink, ho! - are nothing to your English.

Cassio	Is your Englishman so exquisite in his drinking?

Iago	Why, he drinks you with facility your Dane dead drunk; he 
	sweats not to overthrow your Almain; he gives your 
	Hollander a vomit ere the next pottle can be filled.

Cassio	To the health of our general!

Montano	I am for it, lieutenant, and I'll do you justice.

Iago	O sweet England!

	[Sings.]	King Stephen was and a worthy peer,
				His breeches cost him but a crown;
			He held them sixpence all too dear,
				With that he called the tailor lown.

			He was a wight of high renown,
				And thou art but of low degree;
			'Tis pride that pulls the country down,
				Then take thy auld cloak about thee.

	Some wine, ho!

Cassio	'Fore God, this is a more exquisite song than the other.

Iago	Will you hear't again?

Cassio	No, for I hold him unworthy of his place that does those 
	things. Well, God's above all, and there be souls must be 
	saved, and there be souls must not be saved.

Iago	It's true, good lieutenant.

Cassio	For mine own part - no offence to the general nor any man 
	of quality - I hope to be saved.

Iago	And so do I too, lieutenant.

Cassio	Ay, but, by your leave, not before me; the lieutenant is to 
	be saved before the ensign. Let's have no more of this; 
	let's to our affairs. God forgive us our sins! Gentlemen, 
	let's look to our business. Do not think, gentlemen, I am 
	drunk: this is my ensign, 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.

Cassio	Why, very well then; you must not think then that I am 
	drunk.
												[Exit.
Montano	To th' platform, masters. Come, let's set the watch.

Iago	You see this fellow that is gone before:
	He's 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 th' other. 'Tis pity of him.
	I fear the trust Othello put him in,
	On some odd time of his infirmity,
	Will shake this island.

Montano							But is he often thus?

Iago	'Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep.
	He'll watch the horologe a double set
	If drink rock not his cradle.

Montano									It were well
	The general were 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?

                             Enter RODERIGO.

Iago	[Aside to RODERIGO.] How now, Roderigo!
	I pray you, after the lieutenant; go.
												[Exit RODERIGO.
Montano	And 'tis great pity that the noble Moor
	Should hazard such a place as his own second
	With one of an ingraft infirmity;
	It were an honest action to say so
	To the Moor.

Iago					Not I, for this fair island!
	I do love Cassio well, and would do much
	To cure him of this evil-

Cry within	"Help, help!"
								But hark, what noise?

                   Re-enter CASSIO, pursuing RODERIGO.

Cassio	Zounds, you rogue, you rascal!

Montano							What's the matter, lieutenant?

Cassio	A knave teach me my duty? I'll beat the knave into a 
	twiggen-bottle.

Roderigo	Beat me?

Cassio	Dost thou prate, rogue?
												[Striking RODERIGO.

Montano	Nay, good lieutenant, I pray you, sir, hold your hand.

Cassio	Let me go, sir, or I'll knock you o'er the mazzard.

Montano	Come, come, you're drunk.

Cassio	Drunk?
												[They fight.

Iago	[Aside to RODERIGO.] Away I say. Go out and cry a mutiny.
												[Exit RODERIGO.
	Nay, good lieutenant. God's will, gentlemen!
	Help, ho! Lieutenant! Sir! Montano! Sir!
	Help, masters! Here's a goodly watch indeed!
												[A bell rung.
	Who's that which rings the bell? Diablo, ho!
	The town will rise. God's will, lieutenant, hold!
	You'll be ashamed for ever.

                Enter OTHELLO and GENTLEMEN with weapons.

Othello	What is the matter here?

Montano							Zounds, I bleed still.
	I am hurt to th' death.

Othello								Hold, for your lives!

Iago	Hold, ho! Lieutenant, sir; Montano, gentlemen,
	Have you forgot all place of sense and duty?
	Hold, the general speaks to you. Hold, for shame!

Othello	Why, how now, ho! From whence ariseth this?
	Are we turned Turks, and to ourselves do that
	Which heaven has forbid the Ottomites?
	For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl.
	He that stirs next to carve for his own rage
	Holds his soul light: he dies upon his motion.
	Silence that dreadful bell; it frights the isle
	From her propriety. What's the matter, masters?
	Honest Iago, that looks dead with grieving,
	Speak - who began this? On thy love I charge thee.

Iago	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-
	Swords out, and tilting one at other's breasts
	In opposition bloody. I cannot speak
	Any beginning to this peevish odds;
	And would in action glorious I had lost
	These legs that brought me to a part of it.

Othello	How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot?

Cassio	I pray you pardon me; I cannot speak.

Othello	Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil;
	The gravity and stillness of your youth
	The world hath noted, and your name is great
	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.

Montano	Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger.
	Your officer, Iago, can inform you,
	While I spare speech, which something now offends 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,
	And to defend ourselves it be a sin
	When violence assails us.

Othello								Now, by heaven,
	My blood begins my safer guides to rule,
	And passion having my best judgement collied,
	Assays to lead the way. Zounds, if I stir,
	Or do but lift 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 offence,
	Though he had twinned with me, both at a birth,
	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. Iago, who began't?

Montano	If, partially affined or leagued in office,
	Thou dost deliver more or less than truth,
	Thou art no soldier.

Iago							Touch me not so near;
	I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth
	Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio;
	Yet, I persuade myself, to speak the truth
	Shall nothing wrong him. This 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,
	The town might fall in fright. He, swift of foot,
	Outran my purpose, and I returned the rather
	For that I heard the clink and fall of swords,
	And Cassio high in oath, which till tonight
	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 can I not report;
	But men are men: the best sometimes forget.
	Though Cassio did some little wrong to him,
	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.

Othello										I know, Iago,
	Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter,
	Making it light to Cassio. Cassio, I love thee,
	But never more be officer of mine.

                        Enter DESDEMONA, attended.

	Look if my gentle love be not raised up!
	I'll make thee an example.

Desdemona	What is the matter, dear?

Othello								All's well, sweeting.
	Come away to bed. Sir, for your hurts
	Myself will be your surgeon. Lead him off.
												[MONTANO is led off.
	Iago, look with care about the town,
	And silence those whom this vile brawl distracted.
	Come, Desdemona, 'tis the soldiers' life
	To have their balmy slumbers waked with strife.
								[Exeunt all but IAGO and CASSIO.

Iago	What, are you hurt, lieutenant?

Cassio	Ay, past all surgery.

Iago	Marry, God forbid!

Cassio	Reputation, reputation, reputation! - O, I have lost my 
	reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and 
	what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my 
	reputation!

Iago	As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some 
	bodily wound: there is more of sense in that than in 
	reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false 
	imposition, oft got without merit and lost without 
	deserving. You have lost no reputation at all, unless you 
	repute yourself such a loser. What, man, there are ways 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.

Cassio	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 thou 
	invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known 
	by, let us call thee devil!

Iago	What was he that you followed with your sword? What had he 
	done to you?

Cassio	I know not.

Iago	Is't possible?

Cassio	I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a 
	quarrel, but nothing wherefore. O God, that men should put 
	an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! That 
	we should with joy, pleasance, revel and applause transform 
	ourselves into beasts!

Iago	Why, but you are now well enough. How came you thus 
	recovered?

Cassio	It hath pleased the devil drunkenness to give place to the 
	devil wrath: one unperfectness shows me another, to make me 
	frankly despise myself.

Iago	Come, you are too severe a moraler. As the time, the place, 
	and the condition of this country stands, I could heartily 
	wish this had not befallen; but since it is as it is, mend 
	it for your own good.

Cassio	I will ask him for my place again - he shall tell me I am a 
	drunkard. Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer 
	would stop them all. To be now a sensible man, by and by a 
	fool, and presently a beast! O strange! Every inordinate 
	cup is unblest, and the ingredient is a devil.

Iago	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.

Cassio	I have well approved it, sir. I, drunk?

Iago	You or any man living may be drunk at some time, man. I'll 
	tell you what you shall do. Our general's wife is now the 
	general. I may say so in this respect, for that he hath 
	devoted and given up himself to the contemplation, mark, 
	and denotement of her parts and graces. Confess yourself 
	freely to her; importune her help to put you in your place 
	again. She is so free, so kind, so apt, so blest 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.

Cassio	You advise me well.

Iago	I protest, in the sincerity of love and honest kindness.

Cassio	I think it freely; and betimes in the morning I will 
	beseech the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me. I am 
	desperate of my fortunes if they check me here.

Iago	You are in the right. Good night, lieutenant; I must to the 
	watch.

Cassio	Good night, honest Iago.
												[Exit.
Iago	And what's he then that says I play the villain,
	When this advice is free I give, and honest,
	Probal to thinking, and indeed the course
	To win the Moor again? For 'tis most easy
	Th' inclining Desdemona to subdue
	In any honest suit. She's framed as fruitful
	As the free elements; and then for her
	To win the Moor - were't to renounce his baptism,
	All seals and symbols of redeemd sin-
	His soul is so enfettered to her love
	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 their 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,
	I'll 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 'em all.

                             Enter RODERIGO.

									How now, Roderigo?

Roderigo	I do follow here in the chase, not like a hound that hunts, 
	but one that fills up the cry. My money is almost spent; I 
	have been tonight exceedingly well cudgelled; and I think 
	the issue will be, I shall have so much experience for my 
	pains; and so, with no money at all, and a little more wit, 
	return again to Venice.

Iago	How poor are they that have not patience!
	What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
	Thou know'st we work by wit, and not by witchcraft;
	And wit depends on dilatory time.
	Does't not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee,
	And thou, by that small hurt, hast cashiered Cassio.
	Though other things grow fair against the sun,
	Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe.
	Content thyself awhile. By th' 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 RODERIGO.
							Two things are to be done:
	My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress-
	I'll set her on-
	Myself awhile 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.
