That neither service past, nor present sorrows,
Nor purposed merit in futurity,

Can ransom me into his love again,

But to know so must be my benefit;
So shall I clothe me in a forced content,
And shut myself up in some other course,
To fortune's alms.

Des.

Alas! thrice gentle Cassio,

My advocation is not now in tune;

My lord is not my lord; nor should I know him,
Were he in favor,2 as in humor, altered.

So help me, every spirit sanctified,

As I have spoken for you all my best;

And stood within the blank 3 of his displeasure,

For my free speech! You must awhile be patient;
What I can do, I will; and more I will,

Than for myself I dare: let that suffice you.
Iago. Is my lord angry?

Emil.

He went hence but now,

And, certainly, in strange unquietness.

Iago. Can he be angry? I have seen the cannon, When it hath blown his ranks into the air;

And, like the devil, from his very arm

Puffed his own brother;-And can he be angry?
Something of moment, then. I will go meet him;
There's matter in't indeed, if he be angry.

Des. I pr'ythee, do so.-Something, sure, of state,-
[Exit IAGO.
Either from Venice; or some unhatched practice,*
Made démonstrable here in Cyprus to him,-
Hath puddled his clear spirit; and, in such cases,
Men's natures wrangle with inferior things,
Though great ones are their object. 'Tis even so;

1 Shut myself up evidently signifies no more than "confine myself." One of the old quartos reading "shoot myself up," by mistake, Mason contends for that reading.-"To fortune's alms" means waiting patiently for whatever bounty fortune, or chance, may bestow upon me.

2 i. e. in countenance.

3 To stand within the blank is to stand in the direct range or in the immediate course; to have his displeasure directed toward her.

4 Some undeveloped treason.

For let our finger ache, and it indues 1

Our other healthful members even to that sense
Of pain. Nay, we must think men are not gods;
Nor of them look for such observances

As fit the bridal.2-Beshrew me much, Emilia,
I was (unhandsome warrior3 as I am)
Arraigning his unkindness with my soul;
But now I find I had suborned the witness,
And he's indicted falsely

Emil. Pray Heaven it be state matters, as you

think;

And no conception, nor no jealous toy,

Concerning you.

Des. Alas, the day! I never gave him cause. Emil. But jealous souls will not be answered so; They are not ever jealous for the cause,

But jealous for they are jealous.

Begot upon itself, born on itself.

'Tis a monster,

Des. Heaven keep that monster from Othello's mind!

Emil. Lady, amen.

Des. I will go seek him.-Cassio, walk here about; If I do find him fit, I'll move your suit,

And seek to effect it to my uttermost.
Cas. I humbly thank your ladyship.

[Exeunt DESDEMONA and EMILIA.
Enter BIANCA.

Bian. Save you, friend Cassio!

Cas.

What make you from home?

How is it with you, my most fair Bianca ?

I'faith, sweet love, I was coming to your house.
Bian. And I was going to your lodging, Cassio.
What! keep a week away? seven days and nights?
Eightscore hours? and lovers' absent hours,
More tedious than the dial eightscore times?

O weary reckoning!

1 Indue was used formerly where we now use imbue.

2 i. e. the nuptial feast.

3 Unfair assailant.

Cas.

Pardon me, Bianca ;

I have this while with leaden thoughts been pressed; But I shall, in a more continuate time,

Strike off this score of absence.

Sweet Bianca,

[Giving her DESDEMONA's handkerchief.

Take me this work out.1

Bian.

O Cassio, whence came this?

This is some token from a newer friend.
To the felt absence now I feel a cause.
Is it come to this? Well, well.

Cas.

Go to! woman,

Throw your vile guesses in the devil's teeth,

From whence you have them. You are jealous, now, That this is from some mistress, some remembrance. No, in good troth, Bianca.

Bian.

Why, whose is it?

Cas. I know not, sweet; I found it in my chamber.

I like the work well; ere it be demanded,

(As like enough it will,) I'd have it copied.

Take it, and do't; and leave me for this time.
Bian. Leave you! wherefore?

Cas. I do attend here on the general;

And think it no addition, nor my wish,
To have him see me womaned.

Bian.

Cas. Not that I love you not.
Bian.

Why, I pray you? 2

But that you do not love me.

I pray you, bring me on the way a little ;
And say if I shall see you soon at night.

Cas. 'Tis but a little way that I can bring you,
For I attend here; but I'll see you soon.

Bian. 'Tis very good; I must be circumstanced.

1 i. e. copy this work in another handkerchief.

[Exeunt.

2 This and the following speech are wanting in the first quarto.

Iago. Or to be naked with her friend abed, An hour, or more, not meaning any harm?

Oth. Naked abed, Iago, and not mean harm?

It is hypocrisy against the devil.

They that mean virtuously, and yet do so,

The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt Heaven. Iago. So they do nothing, 'tis a venial slip;

But if I give my wife a handkerchief,

Oth. What then?

Iago. Why then, 'tis hers, my lord; and, being

hers,

She may, I think, bestow't on any man.

Oth. She is protectress of her honor too;

May she give that?

Iago. Her honor is an essence that's not seen; They have it very oft, that have it not.

But, for the handkerchief,

Oth. By Heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it.

Thou said'st,-O, it comes o'er my memory,

As doth the raven o'er the infected house,
Boding to all,' he had my handkerchief.
Iago. Ay, what of that?

Oth.

That's not so good, now.

1 The raven was thought to be a constant attendant on a house infected with the plague.

Iago. What if I had said I had seen him do you

wrong?

Or heard him say,—as knaves be such abroad,
Who having, by their own importunate suit,
Or voluntary dotage of some mistress,

Convinced or supplied1 them, cannot choose
But they must blab-

Oth.

Hath he said any thing?

Iago. He hath, my lord; but be you well assured, No more than he'll unswear.

Oth.

What hath he said?

Iago. 'Faith, that he did,-I know not what he did. Oth. What? what?

Iago. Lie

Oth.

Iago.

With her?

With her, on her; what you will. Oth. Lie with her! lie on her!-We say lie on her, when they belie her. Lie with her! that's fulsome. -Handkerchief, confessions, handkerchief. -To confess, and be hanged for his labor.2-First to be hanged, and then to confess :-I tremble at it. Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion, without some instruction.3 It is not words that shake me thus.—Pish!-Noses, ears, and lips.-Is it possible?-Confess!-Handkerchief!-O devil!—

Iago. Work on,

[Falls in a trance.

My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught;

1 For supplied, Theobald would here read suppled, i. e. softened, subdued. Steevens thinks that supplied is the true reading, and with a sense that may be collected from the following passage in Measure for Measure:

"And did supply thee at the summer-house."

2 What remains of this speech, from to confess, is wanting in the 4to. 3 "The starts and broken reflections in this speech (says Warburton) have something in them very terrible, and show the mind of the speaker to be in inexpressible agonies."

There is a difference of opinion between the commentators; some thinking, with Warburton, that the words "Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion, without some instruction," allude to his own feelings; others, that they advert to the story about Cassio's dream, which had been invented and told him by Iago.