<p>[Venice,a street. Enter RODERIGO and IAGO]</p>
<p>RODERIGO</p>
<p>Tush!never tell me; Itake it much unkindly</p>
<p>That thou,Iago, who hast had my purse</p>
<p>As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.</p>
<p>IAGO</p>
<p>‘Sblood, but you will not hear me;</p>
<p>If everI did dream of such a matter,abhorme.</p>
<p>RODERIGO</p>
<p>Thou told’stme thou didsthold him in thy hate.</p>
<p>IAGO</p>
<p>Despise me, ifI do not.Three great onesof the city,</p>
<p>In personalsuit to make me his lieutenant,</p>
<p>Off-capp’ d to him: and, by the faithof man,</p>
<p>I know my price,Iam worth no worse a place:</p>
<p>But he; as loving his own pride and purposes,</p>
<p>Evades them,witha bombast circumstance</p>
<p>Horribly stuff’dwith epithets of war;</p>
<p>And, in conclusion,</p>
<p>Nonsuits my mediators; for,(Certes), says he,</p>
<p>‘I have already chosemy office r’.</p>
<p>And what was he?</p>
<p>Forsooth, a great arithmetician,</p>
<p>One MichaelCassio, a Florentine,</p>
<p>A fellow almost damn’din a fair wife;</p>
<p>That never set a squadronin the field,</p>
<p>Nor the divisionof a battle knows</p>
<p>More than a spinster; unlessthe bookish theoric,</p>
<p>Wherein the toged consulscan propose</p>
<p>As masterly as he:mere prattle,without practise,</p>
<p>Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election:</p>
<p>And I,of whom his eyes had seen the proof</p>
<p>At Rhodes,at Cyprus and on other grounds</p>
<p>Christian and heathen,must be be-lee’ d and calm’d</p>
<p>By debitor and creditor: thiscounter-caster.</p>
<p>He,in good time, must his lieutenant be,</p>
<p>And I—God blessthe mark!—his Moorship’s ancient.</p>
<p>RODERIGO</p>
<p>By heaven,Iratherwould have been his hangman.</p>
<p>IAGO</p>
<p>Why, there’s no remedy;’tis thecurse of service</p>
<p>Preferment goes by letter and affection,</p>
<p>And not by old gradation, where each second</p>
<p>Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself,</p>
<p>Wheth Iinany just termam affined</p>
<p>To love the Moor.</p>
<p>RODERIGO</p>
<p>I would not follow him then.</p>
<p>IAGO</p>
<p>O, sir, content you;</p>
<p>I follow him to serve my turn upon him:</p>
<p>We cannot all be masters, nor all masters</p>
<p>Cannot be truly follow’d. You shall mark</p>
<p>Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,</p>
<p>That,doting on his own obsequious bondage,</p>
<p>Wears out his time, much like his master’s ass,</p>
<p>Fornoughtbutprovender, andwhenhe’sold,cashier’d:</p>
<p>Whip me suchhonest knaves.Others there are</p>
<p>Who, trimm’d in forms and visage of duty,</p>
<p>Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves,</p>
<p>And,throwing butshowsof service on their lords,</p>
<p>Do well thriveby them and when they have lined their coats</p>
<p>Dothemselveshomage:these fellows have some soul;</p>
<p>And such a one doI profess myself For, sir,</p>
<p>It is as sure as you are Roderigo,</p>
<p>Were I the Moox,I would not be Iago:</p>
<p>In following him,I follow but myself;</p>
<p>Heaven is my judge, notI for love and duty,</p>
<p>But seeming so,for my peculiar end:</p>
<p>For when my outward action doth demonstrate</p>
<p>The native act and figure ofmy heart</p>
<p>In compliment extern,’tisnot long after</p>
<p>ButI will wear myheart upon my sleeve</p>
<p>For daws to peck at:Iam not whatI am.</p>
<p>RODERIGO</p>
<p>What a full fortune does the thicklips owe</p>
<p>If he can carry’t thus!</p>
<p>IAGO</p>
<p>Call up her father,</p>
<p>Rouse him:make after him,poison his delight,</p>
<p>Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,</p>
<p>And,though he in a fertile climate dwell,</p>
<p>Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,</p>
<p>Yet throw such change so fvexationon’t,</p>
<p>As itmay lose some colour.</p>
<p>RODERIGO</p>
<p>Here is her father’s house; I’llcall aloud.</p>
<p>IAGO</p>
<p>Do, with like timorous accent and dire yell</p>
<p>As when, by night and negligence, the fire</p>
<p>Is spied in populous cities.</p>
<p>RODERIGO</p>
<p>What,ho,Brabantio!Signior Brabantio,ho!</p>
<p>IAGO</p>
<p>Awake!what,ho,Brabantio!thieves!thieves!tjoeves!</p>
<p>Look toyour house, your daughter and your bags!</p>
<p>Thieves! thieves!</p>
<p>[BRABANTIO appears above,at a window]</p>
<p>BRABANTIO</p>
<p>What is the reason of this terrible summons?</p>
<p>What is the matter there?</p>
<p>RODERIGO</p>
<p>Signior,is all your family within?</p>
<p>IAGO</p>
<p>Are your doors lock’d?</p>
<p>BRABANTIO</p>
<p>Why, whereforeask you this?</p>
<p>IAGO</p>
<p>‘Zounds,sir, you’re robb’d; forshame,puton</p>
<p>your gown;</p>
<p>Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;</p>
<p>Even now, now, very now, an old black ram</p>
<p>Is toppingyour white ewe.Arise,arise;</p>
<p>Awake the snorting citizenswith thebell,</p>
<p>Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:</p>
<p>Arise, Isay.</p>
<p>BRABANTIO</p>
<p>What,have you lost your wits?</p>
<p>RODERIGO</p>
<p>Most reverendsignior,do you know my voice?</p>
<p>BRABANTIO</p>
<p>What are you?</p>
<p>RODERIGO</p>
<p>My name isRoderigo.</p>
<p>BRABANTIO</p>
<p>The worser Welcome:</p>
<p>I have charged theenot tohauntabout my doors:</p>
<p>In honest plainnessthou hast heard mesay</p>
<p>My daughter isnot forthee;and now,inmadness,</p>
<p>Being fullof supper and distemperingdraughts,</p>
<p>Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come</p>
<p>To start my quiet.</p>
<p>RODERIGO</p>
<p>Sir, sir, sir,——</p>
<p>BRABANTIO</p>
<p>But thou must needsbesure</p>
<p>My spirit and my place have in them power</p>
<p>To make this bitter to thee.</p>
<p>RODERIGO</p>
<p>Patience, good sir.</p>
<p>BRABANTIO</p>
<p>What tell’st thou me of robbing? This is Venice;</p>
<p>My house is not a grange.</p>
<p>RODERIGO</p>
<p>Most graveBrabantio,</p>
<p>In simple and pure soul I come to you.</p>
<p>IAGO</p>
<p>‘Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will</p>
<p>not serve God, if the devil bid you.Because we come to</p>
<p>do you service and you think we are ruffians, you’ll</p>
<p>have your daughter covered with a Barbaty horse;</p>
<p>you’ll have your nephews neigh to you;you’ll have</p>
<p>coursersfor cousinsand gennetsforgermanstimorous.</p>
<p>BRABANTIO</p>
<p>What profane wretch art thou?</p>
<p>IAGO</p>
<p>Iam one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter</p>
<p>and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.</p>
<p>BRABANTIO</p>
<p>Thou art a villain.</p>
<p>IAGO</p>
<p>You are——a senator.</p>
<p>BRABANTIO</p>
<p>This thou shaltanswer;I know thee, Roderigo</p>
<p>RODERIGO</p>
<p>Sir,I will answer any thing. But, Ibeseech you,</p>
<p>If’t be your pleasure and most wise consent,</p>
<p>As partly I find it is, that your fair daughter,</p>
<p>At this odd-even and dull watcho’ the night,</p>
<p>Transported,with now or senor better guard</p>
<p>But with aknave of common hire, a gondolier,</p>
<p>To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor——</p>
<p>If this be known to you and your allowance,</p>
<p>We thenhave doneyou bolk and saucy wrongs;</p>
<p>But if you know not this, my manners tell me</p>
<p>We have your wrong rebuke Do not believe</p>
<p>That, from the sense of all civility,</p>
<p>I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:</p>
<p>Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,</p>
<p>I say again, hathmade a gross revolt;</p>
<p>Tying her duty, beauty, wit and fortunes</p>
<p>In an extravagant and wheeling stranger</p>
<p>Of here and every where.Straight satisfy yourself:</p>
<p>If she be in her chamber or your house,</p>
<p>Let looseon me the justice of the state</p>
<p>For thus deludingyou</p>
<p>BRABANTIO</p>
<p>Strike on the tinder, ho!</p>
<p>Give me a taper! cal up all my people!</p>
<p>This accident is not unlike my dream:</p>
<p>Belief of it oppresses me already</p>
<p>Light, Isay! light!</p>
<p>[Exit above]</p>
<p>IAGO</p>
<p>Farewell; forI must leave you:</p>
<p>It seems not meet,nor wholesome to my place,</p>
<p>To be produced——as, ifI stay,I shall——</p>
<p>Against the Moor:for,Ido know,the state,</p>
<p>Howeverthismaygall him withsomecheque,</p>
<p>Cannot with safety cast him, for he’s embark’d</p>
<p>With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars,</p>
<p>Which even now stand in act,that,for their souls,</p>
<p>Another of his fathom they have none,</p>
<p>Toleadtheirbusiness:inwhichregard,</p>
<p>ThoughI do hate him asI do hell-pains.</p>
<p>Yet, for necessity of prasent life,</p>
<p>I must show out a flag and sign of love,</p>
<p>Which isindeed but sign. That you shall surely find him,</p>
<p>Lead to the Sagittary the raised search;</p>
<p>And there will Ibe with him.So,farewell.</p>
<p>〔Exit〕</p>
<p>[Enter,below, BRABANTIO, and Servants with torches.]</p>
<p>BRABANTIO</p>
<p>It is too true an evil:gone she is;</p>
<p>And what’s to come ofmy despised time</p>
<p>Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo,</p>
<p>Where didst thou see her? O unhappy girl!</p>
<p>With the Moor, say’st thou? Who would be a father!</p>
<p>How didstthouknow’twasshe?Oshedeceives me</p>
<p>Pastthought!What saidshetoyou?Get more tapers:</p>
<p>Raise all my kindred Are they married,think you?</p>
<p>RODERIGO</p>
<p>Truly, Ithink tney are.</p>
<p>BRABANTIO</p>
<p>O heaven! How gotshe out? O treasonof the blood!</p>
<p>Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters’ minds</p>
<p>By what you see them act. Is there not charms</p>
<p>By which the property of youth and maidhood</p>
<p>May be abused? Have you not read, Roderigo,</p>
<p>Of some such thing?</p>
<p>RODERIGO</p>
<p>Yes, sir, Ihave indeed</p>
<p>BRABANTIO</p>
<p>Call up my brother. O, would you had had her!</p>
<p>Some one way,some another.Do you know</p>
<p>Where we may apprehend her and theMoor?</p>
<p>RODERIGO</p>
<p>I think Ican discoverhim,ifyou please,</p>
<p>Togetgood guard and go alongwith me.</p>
<p>BRABANTIO</p>
<p>Pray you, lead on. At every houseI’ll call;</p>
<p>I may commandatmost.Getweapons,ho!</p>
<p>And raise sime special officers of night.</p>
<p>On, good Roderigo: I’ll deserve your pains.</p>
<p>[Exeunt]</p>