1

ACT I.

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,-should'st know of this.

Iago. '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.
Iago. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of

the city,

In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
Oft capp'd to him; and, by the faith of man,
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, 2
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,
A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife ; 3
That never yet 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,

[1] To cap is to salute by taking off the cap. It is still an academic phrase. M. MASON.

[2] Circumstance here signifies circumlocution.

[3] See Illustrations.

REED.

[4] Venice was originally governed by consuls: and consuls seems to have been commonly used for counsellors, as afterwards in this play. By toged perhaps is meant peaceable, in opposition to the warlike qualifications • which he had been speaking. MALONE.

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 ;5
He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,

And I, (God bless the mark!) his Moor-ship's ancient.
Rod. By heaven, I rather would have been his hang-

man.

Iago. But there's no remedy, 'tis the curse of service; Preferment goes by letter, and affection, Not by the old gradation, where each second Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself, Whether I in any just term am affin'd

To love the Moor ?7

Rod. 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
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
That, doating 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,
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 lin'd 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 Iago :
In following him, I follow but myself;

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

[5] It was anciently the practice to reckon up sums with counters. So in The Winter's Tale, "Fifteen hundred shorn-What comes the wool to?I cannot do't without counters." MALONE.

[6] By recommendation from powerful friends.

JOHNSON.

JOHNSON.

[7] The meaning is, Do I stand within any such terms of propinquity or relation to the Moor, as that it is my duty to love him?

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 !

Iago. 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,
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'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.

Rod. 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 above, at a window.

Bra. What is the reason of this terrible summons ?

What is the matter there?

Rod. Signior, is all your family within ?

Iago. Are your doors lock'd ?

Bra. Why? Wherefore ask you this?

Iago. Zounds, sir, you are robb'd; for shame, put on

your gown;

Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;

Even now, very now, an old black ram

Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise;

Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,

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 1; What are you ?

Rod. My name is Roderigo.

Bra. The worse welcome:

I have charg'd 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,

[8]. In that which I do only for an outward show of civility. JOHNSON

Being full of supper, and distempering draughts,
Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come

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;

My house is not a grange.9

Rod. 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, you think we are ruffians: You'll 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."

Bra. What profane wretch art thou ?

Iago. I am one, sir, that comes to tell you, your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.

Bra. Thou art a villain.

Iago. You are-a senator.

Bra. This thou shalt 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,
(At partly, I find it it is 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,
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe,
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;

[9] In Lincolnshire, and in other northern counties, they call every lone house, or farm which stands solitary a grange. So in Measure for Measure, "-at the moated grange resides this dejected Mariana." T. WARTΟΝ.

[1] Nephew, in this instance has the power of the Latin word nepos, and signifies a grandson, or any lineal descendant. The alliteration in this passage caused Shakspeare to have recourse to it. A jennet is a Spanish horse.

STEEVENS,

[2] This odd-even is the interval between twelve at night, and, one in the morning.

HENLEY.

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

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 say! light!

[Exit, from above.

Iago. Farewell; for I must leave you :
It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place,
To be produc'd (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,
(Which even now stand in act,) that, for their souls,
Another of his fathom they have not,
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 may surely find him,
Lead to the Sagittary the rais'd search;

And there will I be with him. So, farewell.

[Exit.

Enter, below, BRABANTIO and Servants with torches.

Bra. It is too true an evil: gone she is ; And what's to come of my despised time, 3 Is naught 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?-), thou deceiv'st 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! - treason of the

blood!

Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds
By what you see them act. - Are there not charms,

[3] Despised time, is, time of no value time in which
"There's nothing serious in mortality,
"The wine of life is drawn, and the mere dregs
"Are left this vault to brag of." Macbeth.

JOHNSON.