Othello, a great success in Shakespeare’s time, was one of the first plays to be acted after the reopening of the theatres in 1660, and since that time has remained one of the most popular plays on the English stage.
THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY
OTHELLO, the Moor of Venice
DESDEMONA, his wife
Michael CASSIO, his lieutenant
BIANCA, a courtesan, in love with Cassio
IAGO, the Moor’s ensign
EMILIA, Iago’s wife
A CLOWN, a servant of Othello
The DUKE of Venice
BRABANZIO, Desdemona’s father, a Senator of Venice
GRAZIANO, Brabanzio’s brother
LODOVICO, kinsman of Brabanzio
SENATORS of Venice
RODERIGO, a Venetian gentleman, in love with Desdemona
MONTANO, Governor of Cyprus
A HERALD
A MESSENGER
Attendants, officers, sailors, gentlemen of Cyprus, musicians
The Tragedy of Othello the Moor of Venice
1.1 Enter Iago and Roderigo
RODERIGO
Tush, never tell me! I take it much unkindly
That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse
As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.
IAGO ’Sblood, but you’ll not hear me!
If ever I did dream of such a matter, abhor me.
RODERIGO
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,
Off-capped 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
Horribly stuffed with epithets of war,
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 damned in a fair wife,
That never set a squadron in the field
Nor the division of a battle knows
More than a spinster—unless the bookish theoric,
Wherein the togaed consuls can propose
As masterly as he. Mere prattle without practice
Is all his soldiership; but he, sir, had th’election,
And I—of whom his eyes had seen the proof
At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds
Christened and heathen—must be beleed and calmed
By debitor and creditor. This counter-caster,
He in good time must his lieutenant be,
And I—God bless the mark!—his Moorship’s ensign.
RODERIGO
By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman.
IAGO
Why, there’s no remedy. ’Tis the curse of service.
Preferment goes by letter and affection,
And not by old gradation, where each second
Stood heir to th’ first. Now, sir, be judge yourself
Whether I in any just term am affined
To love the Moor.
RODERIGO 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 followed. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave
That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
Wears out his time much like his master’s ass
For naught but provender, and when he’s old,
cashiered.
Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are
Who, trimmed 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 ‘em, and when they have lined 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
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.
RODERIGO
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 chances of vexation on’t
As it may lose some colour.
RODERIGO
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.
RODERIGO (calling)
What ho, Brabanzio, Signor Brabanzio, ho!
IAGO (calling)
Awake, what ho, Brabanzio, thieves, thieves, thieves!
Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags.
Thieves, thieves!
Enter Brabanzio in his nightgown at a window above
BRABANZIO
What is the reason of this terrible summons?
What is the matter there?
RODERIGO
Signor, is all your family within?
IAGO
Are your doors locked?
BRABANZIO
Why, wherefore ask you this?
IAGO
’Swounds, sir, you’re robbed. For shame, put on your
gown.
Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul.
Even now, 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.
BRABANZIO What, have you lost your wits?
RODERIGO
Most reverend signor, do you know my voice?
BRABANZIO Not I. What are you?
RODERIGO My name is Roderigo.
BRABANZIO The worser welcome.
I have charged 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,
Being full of supper and distempering draughts,
Upon malicious bravery dost thou come
To start my quiet.
RODERIGO Sir, sir, sir.
BRABANZIO But thou must needs be sure
My spirits and my place have in their power
To make this bitter to thee.
RODERIGO
Patience, good sir.
BRABANZIO
What tell’st thou me of robbing? This is Venice.
My house is not a grange.
RODERIGO Most grave Brabanzio,
In simple and pure soul I come to you.
IAGO (to Brabanzio) ’Swounds, sir, you are one of those that will not serve God if the devil bid you. Because we come to do you service and 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 jennets
for germans.
BRABANZIO 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.
BRABANZIO
Thou art a villain.
IAGO
You are a senator.
BRABANZIO
This thou shalt answer. I know thee, Roderigo.
RODERIGO
Sir, I will answer anything. But I beseech you,
If’t be your pleasure and most wise consent—
As partly I find it is—that your fair daughter,
At this odd-even and dull watch o’th’ 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,
Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes
In an extravagant and wheeling stranger
Of here and everywhere. 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.
BRABANZIO (calling)
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
IAGO Farewell,
for I must leave you.
It seems not meet nor wholesome to my place
To be producted—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 embarked
With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars,
Which even now stands in act, that, for their souls,
Another of his fathom they have none
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 shall surely find
him,
Lead to the Sagittary the raised search,
And there will I be with him. So farewell. Exit
Enter below Brabanzio in his nightgown, and
servants with torches
BRABANZIO
It is too true an evil. Gone she is,
And what’s to come of my despised time
Is naught but bitterness. Now, Roderigo,
Where didst thou see her?—O unhappy girl!—
With the Moor, sayst thou?—Who would be a
father?—
How didst thou know ’twas she?—O, she deceives me
Past thought!—What said she to you? (To servants)
Get more tapers,
Raise all my kindred.
⌈Exit one or more⌉
(To Roderigo) Are they married, think you?
RODERIGO Truly, I think they are.
BRABANZIO
O heaven, how got she out? O, treason of the blood!
Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters’ minds
By what you see them act. Is there not charms
By which the property of youth and maidhood
May be abused? Have you not read, Roderigo,
Of some such thing?
RODERIGO
Yes, sir, I have indeed.
BRABANZIO (to servants)
Call up my brother. (To Roderigo) O, would you had
had her.
(To servants) Some one way, some another.
⌈Exit one or more⌉
(To Roderigo) Do you know
Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?
RODERIGO
I think I can discover him, if you please
To get good guard and go along with me.
BRABANZIO
Pray you lead on. At every house I’ll call;
I may command at most. (Calling) Get weapons, ho,
And raise some special officers of night.
On, good Roderigo. I will deserve your pains. Exeunt
1.2 Enter Othello, Iago, and attendants with torches
IAGO
Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
Yet do I hold it very stuff o’th’ conscience
To do no contrived murder. I lack iniquity,
Sometime, to do me service. Nine or ten times
I had thought to’ve yerked him here, under the ribs.
OTHELLO
’Tis better as it is.
IAGO
Nay, but he prated,
And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
Against your honour
That, with the little godliness I have,
I did full hard forbear him. But I pray you, sir,
Are you fast married? Be assured of this:
That the magnifico is much beloved,
And hath in his effect a voice potential
As double as the Duke’s. He will divorce you,
Or put upon you what restraint or grievance
The law, with all his might to enforce it on,
Will give him cable.
OTHELLO
Let him do his spite.
My services which I have done the signory
Shall out-tongue his complaints. ’Tis yet to know—
Which, when I know that boasting is an honour,
I shall promu]gate—I fetch my life and being
From men of royal siege, and my demerits
May speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reached. For know, Iago,
But that I love the gentle Desdemona
I would not my unhousèd free condition
Put into circumscription and confine
For the seas’ worth.
Enter Cassio and officers, with torches
But look, what lights come yond?
IAGO
Those are the raised father and his friends.
You were best go in.
OTHELLO Not I. I must be found.
My parts, my title, and my perfect soul
Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?
IAGO By Janus, I think no.
OTHELLO
The servants of the Duke, and my lieutenant!
The goodness of the night upon you, friends.
What is the news?
CASSIO
The Duke does greet you, general,
And he requires your haste-post-haste appearance
Even on the instant.
OTHELLO
What is the matter, think you?
CASSIO
Something from Cyprus, as I may divine;
It is a business of some heat. The galleys
Have sent a dozen sequent messengers
This very night at one another’s heels,
And many of the consuls, raised and met,
Are at the Duke’s already. You have been hotly called
for,
When, being not at your lodging to be found,
The senate sent about three several quests
To search you out.
OTHELLO
’Tis well I am found by you.
I will but spend a word here in the house
And go with you. Exit
CASSIO
Ensign, what makes he here?
IAGO
Faith, he tonight hath boar
ded a land-carrack.
If it prove lawful prize, he’s made for ever.
CASSIO
I do not understand.
IAGO
He’s married.
CASSIO
To who?
Enter Brabanzio, Roderigo, and officers, with lights
and weapons
IAGO
Marry, to—
Enter Othello
(To Othello) Come, captain, will you go?
OTHELLO Have with you.
CASSIO
Here comes another troop to seek for you.
IAGO
It is Brabanzio. General, be advised.
He comes to bad intent.
OTHELLO
Holla, stand, there!
RODERIGO (to Brabanzio)
Signor, it is the Moor.
BRABANZIO
Down with him, thief!
IAGO (drawing his sword)
You, Roderigo? Come, sir, I am for you.
OTHELLO
Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust ’em.
(To Brabanzio) Good signor, you shall more command
with years
Than with your weapons.
BRABANZIO
O thou foul thief, where hast thou stowed my
daughter?
Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her,
For I’ll refer me to all things of sense,
If she in chains of magic were not bound,
Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy,
So opposite to marriage that she shunned
The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works Page 283
