ROD. What say you?

your purse.

IAGO. No more of drowning, do you hear? ROD. I am changed: I'll go sell all my land.a IAGO. Go to; farewell! put money enough in [Exit RODERIGO. Thus do I ever make my fool my purse; For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane, If I would time expend with such a snipe, But for my sport and profit.-I hate the Moor; And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets He has done my office: I know not if 't be true; But I, for mere suspicion in that kind, Will do as if for surety. He holds me well; The better shall my purpose work on him.

(*) First folio, She.

a I'll go sell all my land.] The folio abbreviates the foregoing dialogue thus,

Cassio's a proper man: let me see now ;-
To get his place, and to plume up my will,
A* double knavery,-How, how?-Let's see :-
After some time, to abuse Othello's ear +
That he is too familiar with his wife :-
He hath a person, and a smooth dispose,
To be suspected; fram'd to make women false.
The Moor is of a free and open nature,
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so;
And will as tenderly be led by the nose
As asses are.

I have 't;-it is engender'd :--hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's
[Exit.

light.

Hath seen a grievous wreck and sufferance

On most part of their fleet.

MON. How is this true? 3 GENT.

The ship is here put in ; A Veronessa, Michael Cassio,

Lieutenant to the warlike Moor Othello,

Is come on shore: the Moor himself at sea, And is in full commission here for Cyprus. MON. I am glad on 't; 't is a worthy governor. 3 GENT. But this same Cassio,-though he speak of comfort

Touching the Turkish loss,-yet he looks sadly, And prays the Moor be safe; for they were parted

With foul and violent tempest.

MON. Pray heavens he be; For I have serv'd him, and the man commands Like a full soldier. Let's to the sea-side,-ho! As well to see the vessel that's come in, As to throw out our eyes for brave Othello, Even till we make the main and the aerial blue, An indistinct regard.a

3 GENT.

Come, let's do so;

For every minute is expectancy

Of more arrivance.*

a

(*) First folio, Arrivancie.

Even till we make the main and the aerial blue,
An indistinct regard.]
Omitted in the earlier quarto.

b Thanks, you the valiant of this warlike isle, &c.] The first quarto has, "Thankes to the valiant of this worthy Isle," &c.; the second quarto, "Thanks to the valiant of this isle." &c.; the folio, "Thankes you, the valiant of the warlike Isle," &c.

e Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death,-] "Hopes." here, are expectations or presentiments. See note (b), page 540. And in the essential vesture of creation

d

Does tire the ingener.-]

The quartos read, "Does beare all excellency [and excellence];"

MON.
CAS. She that I spake of, our great captain's
captain,

Left in the conduct of the bold Iago;
Whose footing here anticipates our thoughts
A se'nnight's speed.-Great Jove, Othello guard,
And swell his sail with thine own powerful breath,
That he may bless this bay with his tall ship,
Make love's quick pants in Desdemona's arms,
Give renew'd fire to our extincted spirits,
And bring all Cyprus comfort!-Ö, behold,

Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, IAGO, RODERIGO, and Attendants.

The riches of the ship is come on shore !
Ye men of Cyprus, let her have your knees.—
Hail to thee, lady! and the grace of heaven,

(*) First folio, enclog.

the folio has, "Do's tyre the Inginiver." By "ingener" is meant, perhaps, the painter or artist. Flecknoe, as Mr. Singer has remarked, in his Discourse on the English Stage, 1664, speaking of painting, mentions "the stupendous works of your great inginiers." Ingenier, or ingener, was, however, a term for any ingenious person; and from a passage in "Certain Edicts from a Parliament in Eutopia, written by the Lady Southwell: "-"Item, that no Lady shall court her looking-glasse, past one houre in a day, unlesse she professe to be an Ingenir," it might be thought in the present instance to signify what is now called a modiste, or deviser of new fashions in female apparel.

e And bring all Cyprus comfort!] These words are omitted in the folio.

Before, behind thee, and on every hand,

Enwheel thee round!

DES. I thank you. valiant Cassio. What tidings can you tell me of my lord? CAS. He is not yet arriv'd; nor know I aught But that he's well, and will be shortly here. DES. O, but I fear,-How lost you company? CAS. The great contention of the† sea and skies Parted our fellowship :-but hark! a sail! [Cry without, A sail! a sail! Then guns heard. 2 GENT. They give their greeting to the citadel; This likewise is a friend.

Let it not gall your patience, good Iago,
That I extend my manners; 't is my breeding
That gives me this bold show of courtesy.

[Kissing her. IAGO. Sir, would she give you so much of her lips

As of her tongue she oft bestows on me,
You'd have enough.

DES.

Alas, she has no speech.
IAGO. In faith, too much;
I find it still, when I have list § to sleep:
Marry, before your ladyship, I grant,
She puts her tongue a little in her heart,
And chides with thinking.

EMIL.
You have little cause to say so.
IAGO. Come on, come on; you are pictures out
of doors,||

Bells in your parlours, wild cats in your kitchens,
Saints in your injuries, devils being offended,
Players in your housewifery, and housewives in
your beds.

DES. O, fye upon thee, slanderer!

IAGO. Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk, You rise to play, and go to bed to work. EMIL. You shall not write my praise. IAGO. DES. What wouldst thou write of me, if thou shouldst praise me?

No, let me not.

IAGO. O, gentle lady, do not put me to 't; For I am nothing, if not critical."

DES. Come on, assay-There's one gone to the harbour?

(*) First folio omits, me. (1) First folio, For.

(+) First folio omits, the. (§) First folio, leave. (1) First folio, doore.

a and housewives, &c.] Puttenham, in "The Arte of English Poesie," has something resembling this; "we limit the comely part of a woman to consist in foure points, that is to be a shrewe in the kitchen, a saint in the church, an angell at the bourd, and an ape in the bed," &c.

bcritical.] Cynical, censorious.

c - her blackness fit.] The quarto 1622 reads,-"her blackness hit," perhaps for the better. See note (c), p. 70, Vol. I.

d did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself?] Did confidently provoke the accusation of malice itself. on" in the sense of to incite, to provoke, occurs also in "Macbeth,"

To

put

IAGO. Ay, madam.

DES. I am not merry; but I do beguile The thing I am, by seeming otherwise.Come, how wouldst thou praise me?

IAGO. I am about it; but, indeed, my invention Comes from my pate as birdlime does from frize.-It plucks out brains and all: but my Muse labours,

And thus she is deliver'd.

If she be fair and wise,-fairness and wit,
The one's for use, the other useth it.

DES. Well prais'd! How if she be black and witty?

IAGO. If she be black, and thereto have a wit, She'll find a white that shall her blackness fit. DES. Worse and worse.

EMIL. How if fair and foolish?

IAGO. She never yet was foolish that was fair; For even her folly help'd her to an heir.

DES. These are old fond paradoxes, to make fools laugh i' the alehouse. What miserable praise hast thou for her that's foul and foolish?

IAGO. There's none so foul, and foolish thereunto,

But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do. DES. O, heavy ignorance-thou praisest the worst best. But what praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving woman indeed,-one that, in the authority of her merit, did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself?

d

IAGO. She that was ever fair, and never proud; Had tongue at will, and yet was never loud; Never lack'd gold, and yet went never gay; Fled from her wish, and yet said,-Now I may; She that, being anger'd, her revenge being nigh, Bade her wrong stay, and her displeasure fly; She that in wisdom never was so frail,

e

To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail; She that could think, and ne'er disclose her mind;

See suitors following, and not look behind;
She was a wight, if ever such wights were,—
DES. To do what?

IAGO. To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer. DES. O, most lame and impotent conclusion!— Do not learn of him, Emilia, though he be thy husband. How say you, Cassio? is he not a most profane and liberal counsellor ? h

CAS. He speaks home, madam; you may relish him more in the soldier than in the scholar.

IAGO. [Aside.] He takes her by the palm: ay, well said,-whisper: with as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. Ay, smile upon her, do; I will gyve thee in thine own courtship. You say true; 't is so, indeed: if such tricks as these strip you out of your lieutenantry, it had been better you had not kissed your three

agyve-] Shackle, felter.