Cas. 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 ?5 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?
Cas. I know not.

Iago. Is it possible ?

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

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

Cas. It has 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.

Cas. 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 unblessed, 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. Cas. 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; she'll help to put you in your place again: She is of so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition, that she holds it a vice in her goodness, not to do more than she is requested: This broken joint between you and her

15] A phrase signifying to act foolishly and childishly. WARBURTON.

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.

Cas. You advise me well.

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

Cas. 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.

Cas. Good-night, honest Iago.

[Exit CASSIO.

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
The inclining Desdemona to subdue
In any honest suit; she's fram'd as fruitful
As the free elements. 8 And then for her
To win the Moor, were't to renounce his baptism,
All seals and symbols of redeemed sin,-
His soul is so enfetter'd 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.9
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 while 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 them all. -How now, Roderigo ?

Enter RODERIGO.

Rod. 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 to-night 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 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 cashier'd Cassio :
Though other things grow fair against the sun,
Yet fruits, that blossom first, will first be ripe.
Content thyself a while. By the 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. [Ex. ROD.) Two things are to

be done,

My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress;
I'll set her on;

Myself, the while, 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.

АСТ II.

[Exit.

SCENE I.-Before the Castle. Enter CASSIO, and some Mu

sicians.

Cas. Masters, play here, I will content your pains, Something that's brief; and bid-good-morrow, general.

Enter Clown.

[Music.

Clo. Why, masters, have your instruments been at Naples, that they speak i'the nose thus ?

1 Mus. How, sir, how !

Clo. Are these, I pray you, called wind instruments? 1 Mus. Ay, marry, are they, sir.

[1] Of many different things, all planned with the same art, and promoted with the same diligence, some must succeed sooner than others, by the order of nature. Every thing cannot be done at once; we must proceed by the necessary gradation. We are not to despair of slow events any more than of tardy fruits, while the causes are in regular progress, and the fruits grow fair against the sun. JOHNSON.

Clo. O, thereby hangs a tail.

1 Mus. Whereby hangs a tale, sir?

Clo. Marry, sir, by many a wind instrument that I know. But, masters, here's money for you: and the general so likes your music, that he desires you, of all loves, to make no more noise with it.

1 Mus. Well, sir, we will not.

Clo. If you have any music that may not be heard, to't again: but, as they say, to hear music, the general does not greatly care.

1 Mus. We have none such, sir.

C'lo. Then put up your pipes in your bag, for I'll away: [Exe. Musicians.

Go; vanish into air; away.

Cas. Dost thou hear, my honest friend?

Clo. No, I hear not your honest friend; I hear you. Cas. Pr'ythee, keep up thy quillets. There's a poor piece of gold for thee: if the gentlewoman, that attends the general's wife, be stirring, tell her, there's one Cassio entreats her a little favour of speech: Wilt thou do this? Clo. She is stirring, sir; if she will stir hither, I shall seem to notify unto her. [Exit.

Enter IAGO.

Cas. Do, good my friend. In happy time, Iago.
Iago. You have not been a-bed then?
Cas. Why, no; the day had broke
Before we parted. I have made bold, Iago,
To send in to your wife: my suit to her
Is, that she will to virtuous Desdemona
Procure me some access.

Iago. I'll send her to you presently;
And I'll devise a mean to draw the Moor
Out of the way, that your converse and business
May be more free.

Cas. I humbly thank you for't. I never knew
A Florentine more kind and honest.2

Enter EMILIA.

[Exit.

Emil. Good-morrow, good lieutenant: I am sorry For your displeasure; but all will soon be well. The general, and his wife, are talking of it; And she speaks for you stoutly: The Moor replies, That he, you hurt, is of great fame in Cyprus, And great affinity; and that, in wholesome wisdom, He might not but refuse you: but, he protests, he loves

And needs no other suitor, bat his likings,
To take the saf'st occasion by the front,
To bring you in again.

Cas. Yet, I beseech you,

If you think fit, or that it may be done,-
Give me advantage of some brief discourse
With Desdemona alone.

Emil. Pray you, come in;

I will bestow you where you shall have time
To speak your bosom freely.

Cas. I am much bound to you.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

A Room in the Castle. Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Gentlemen.

Oth. These letters give, Iago, to the pilot;

And, by him, do my duties to the state :

That done, I will be walking on the works,

Repair there to me.

Iago. Well, my good lord, I'll do't.

Oth. This fortification, gentlemen,-shall we see't?

Gent. We'll wait upon your lordship.

SCENE III.

[Exeunt.

Before the Castle. Enter DESDEMONA, CASSIO, and EMILIA. Des. Be thou assur'd, good Cassio, I will do

All my abilities in thy behalf.

Emil.Good madam, do. I know it grieves my husband, As if the case were his.

Des. O, that's an honest fellow.-do not doubt, Cassio, But I will have my lord and you again As friendly as you were.

Cas. Bounteous madam,

Whatever shall become of Michael Cassio,
He's never any thing but your true servant.

Des. O, sir, I thank you: You do love my lord :
You have known him long; and be you well assur'd,
He shall in strangeness stand no further off
Than in a politic distance.

Cas. Ay, but, lady,

That policy may either last so long,
Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet,
Or breed itself so out of circumstance,
That, I being absent, and my place supplied,