Mon. Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger; Your officer, lago, can inform you While I spare speech, which something now offends me ;- By me that's said or done amiss this night, Oth. Now, by heaven, My blood begins my safer guides to rue; Mon. If partially affin'd, or leagu'd in office, lago. Touch me not so near: I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth, There comes a fellow, crying out for help; [3] To colly anciently signified to besmut, to blacken with coal. Othello-anean that passion has discoloured his judgment. STEEVENS. [4] He that is convicted by proof of having been engaged in this offence. STEEVENS. (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 :-- From him that fled, some strange indignity, Oth. I know, Iago, Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter, Enter DESDEMONA, attended. Look, if my gentle love be not rais'd up ; I'll make thee an example. Des. What's the matter, dear? 247 Oth. All's well now, sweeting: Come away to bed: ---Sir, for your hurts, Myself will be your surgeon: Lead him off. [To MONTANO, who is led off. Iago, look with care about the town; And silence those whom this vile brawl distracted. To have their balmy slumbers wak'd with strife. [Exeunt all but IAGO and CASSIO. Jago. What, are you hurt, lieutenant ? Cas. Ay, past all surgery. lago. Marry, heaven forbid! Cas. Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part, sir, 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 offence 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. 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 ? 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! lago. What was he that you followed with your sword? What had he done to you? Cas. I know not. 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! lago. 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! lago. 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 [5] A phrase signifying to act foolishly and childishly. WARBURTON. 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. Cas. You advise me well. [ness. Iago. I protest, in the sincerity of love, and honest kindCas. 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." And then for her To win the Moor,-were't to renounce his baptism, His soul is so enfetter'd to her love, That she may make, unmake, do what she list, With his weak function. How am I then a villain, And out of her own goodness make the net, That shall enmesh them all.-How now, Roderigo ? Rod. I do follow here in the chase, not like a hound [6] Thus the old editions. There may be such a contraction of the word probable, but I have not met with it. STEEVENS. [7] Inclining here signifies compliant. MALONE. [8] Liberal, bountiful as the elements, out of which all things are produced. A course level, and even with his design. JOHNSON. 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; Does't not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee, Away, I say; thou shalt know more hereafter : My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress I'll set her on; Myself, the while, to draw the Moor apart, [Exit. ACT III. SCENE I.-Before the Castle. Musicians. Enter CASSIO, and some 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 Jegular progress, and the fruits grow fair against the sun JOHNSON |