A soldier's a man;

A life's but a span;

Why then let a soldier drink.

Some wine, boys!

[Wine brought in. Cas. 'Fore heaven, an excellent song. Iago. I learned it in England, where (indeed) they are most potent in potting; your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied Hollander,Drink, ho!-are nothing to your English.

Cas. Is your Englishman so exquisite in his drinking?

Iago. Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead drunk; he sweats not to overthrow your Almain; he gives your Hollander a vomit, ere the next pottle can be filled.

Cas. To the health of our general.

Mon. I am for it, lieutenant; and I'll do you justice.

Iago. O sweet England!

King Stephen was a worthy peer,

His breeches cost him but a crown,
He held them sixpence all too dear,
With that he called the tailor-lown.

He was a wight of high renown,

And thou art but of low degree:
'Tis pride that pulls the country down,
Then take thine auld cloak about thee.

Iago. Will you hear it again?

Cas. No; for I hold him to be unworthy of his place, that does those things.-Well, heaven's above all; and there be souls must be saved, and there be souls must not be saved.

Iago. It is true, good lieutenant.

Cas. For mine own part,-no offence to the general, nor any man of quality,-I hope to be saved.

Iago. And so do I too, lieutenant.

Cas. Ay; but, by your leave, not before me: the lieutenant is to be saved before the ancient. Let's have no more of this; let's to our affairs.Forgive us our sins!-Gentlemen, let's look to our business. Do not think, gentlemen, I am drunk: this is my ancient;-this is my right hand, and this is my left hand.—I am not drunk now; I can stand well enough, and speak well enough.

Or I'll knock you o'er the mazzard.
Mon.

Come, come; you're drunk.
[They fight.

Cas. Drunk!
Iago. Away, I say! [Aside to ROD.] go out, and
[Exit ROD.

cry-a mutiny.

Nay, good lieutenant,-alas, gentlemen!-
Help ho!-Lieutenant,-sir,-Montano, sir;-
Help, masters!-Here's a goodly watch, indeed!
[Bell rings.

Who's that that rings the bell?-Diabolo, ho!
The town will rise: God's will! lieutenant, hold!
You will be sham'd for ever.

Enter OTHELLO, and Attendants, with weapons. Oth. What is the matter here? Mon. 'Zounds! I bleed still; I am hurt to the death. [He faints. Oth. Hold, for your lives!

Iago. Hold, hold, lieutenant!-sir, Montano,

gentlemen!

Have you forgot all sense of place and duty? Hold, hold! the general speaks to you: hold, for shame!

Oth. Why, how now, ho! from whence ariseth this?

Are we turn'd Turks, and to ourselves do that,
Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites ?
For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl:
He that stirs next to carve for his own rage,
Holds his soul light; he dies upon his motion.-
Silence that dreadful bell! it frights the isle

From her propriety.-What is the matter, masters?

Honest lago, that look'st dead with grieving, Speak, who began this? on thy love, I charge thee. Iago. I do not know: friends all but now, even

now

In quarter, and in terms like bride and groom
Divesting them for bed; and then, but now,
(As if some planet had unwitted men)
Swords out, and tilting one at other's breast,
In opposition bloody. I cannot speak
Any beginning to this peevish odds:
And would in action glorious I had lost
Those legs, that brought me to a part of it.
Oth. How came it, Michael, you were thus for-
got?
Cas. I pray you, pardon me; I cannot speak.

Oth. Worthy Montano, you were wont to be civil;

The gravity and stillness of your youth
The world hath noted, and your name is great
In mouths of wisest censure: what's the matter,
That you unlace your reputation thus,
And spend your rich opinion, for the name
Of a night-brawler? give me answer to it.

Mon. Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger:
Your officer, lago, can inform you,
While I spare speech, which something now of
fends me,

Of all that I do know; nor know I aught
By me that's said or done amiss this night,
Unless self-charity be sometime a vice,
And to defend ourselves it be a sin,
When violence assails us.

Oth.

Now, by heaven, My blood begins my safer guides to rule; And passion, having my best judgment collied, Assays to lead the way. If I once stir, Or do but lift this arm, the best of you Shall sink in my rebuke. Give me to know How this foul rout began, who set it on; And he that is approv'd in this offence, Though he had twinn'd with me, both at a birth, Shall lose me.-What! in a town of war, Yet wild, the people's hearts brimful of fear, To manage private and domestic quarrel,

In night, and on the court and guard of safety! 'Tis monstrous.-Iago, who began it?

I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth,
Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio;
Yet, I persuade myself, to speak the truth
Shall nothing wrong him.-Thus it is, general.
Montano and myself being in speech,
There comes a fellow, crying out for help,
And Cassio following him with determin'd sword
To execute upon him. Sir, this gentleman
Steps in to Cassio, and entreats his pause:
Myself the crying fellow did pursue,

Lest by his clamour (as it so fell out)
The town might fall in fright: he, swift of foot,
Outran my purpose: and I return'd, the rather
For that I heard the clink and fall of swords,
And Cassio high in oath, which till to-night
I ne'er might say before. When I came back,
(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 :-
Though Cassio did some little wrong to him,
As men in rage strike those that wish them best,
Yet, surely, Cassio, I believe, received
From him that fled some strange indignity,
Which patience could not pass.

Oth.
I know, Iago,
Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter,
Making it light to Cassio.-Cassio, I love thee;
But never more be officer of mine.-

Enter DESDEMONA, attended.

Look, if my gentle love be not rais'd up!— I'll make thee an example.

Des.

What's the matter? Oth. All's well now, sweeting; come away to bed.

Sir, for your hurts, myself will be your surgeon.-
Lead him off.
[MONTANO is led off.
Iago, look with care about the town,
And silence those whom this vile brawl distracted.-
Come, Desdemona; 'tis the soldier's life,

To have their balmy slumbers wak'd with strife.
[Exeunt all but IAGO and CASSIO.
Iago. What, are you hurt, lieutenant?
Cas. Ay, past all surgery.
Iago. Marry, heaven forbid!

Cas. Reputation, reputation, reputation! O! I have lost my reputation. I have lost the immortal part 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 light, 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.

Iago. What was he that you followed with your sword? What had he done to you?

Cas. I know not.

Iago. Is't possible?

Cas. I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a quarrel, but nothing wherefore.-Ŏ God! 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 hath 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 devotement 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 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.

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,
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,
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 whiles 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 again 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.

Clo. Why, masters, have your instruments been in 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. 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, for love's sake, 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.

Clo. Then put up your pipes in your bag, for I'll away. Go; vanish into air; away!

[Exeunt Musicians.

Cas. Do, good my friend.-In happy time, Jago.
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.

[Exit.

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

Enter EMILIA.

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 you,

And needs no other suitor but his likings,
To take the safest occasion by the front,
To bring you in again.

Cas.

Yet, I beseech you,

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

I am much bound to you.
[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-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 wait upon your lordship.

SCENE III.-Before the Castle.

[Exeunt.

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,
My general will forget my love and service.