ACT III. SCENE I.

Before the Castle.

Enter CASSIO, and some Musicians.

Cas. Masters, play here, I will content your pains: Something that's brief; and bid good-morrow, general. [Music.

Enter Clown.

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. Dost thou hear, mine honest friend?

2 CALLED wind instruments ?] The folio alone omits "called."

3 for love's sake,] So the folio, 1623, and the quarto, 1630: the quarto, 1622, "of all loves," which unquestionably was an expression of the time, and it is used by Shakespeare in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," A. ii. sc. 2.

4 - into air ;] These words are not in the quarto, 1622, but in the other old authorities.

Clo. No, I hear not your honest friend; I hear you. Cas. Pr'ythee, keep up thy quillets. There's a poor piece of gold for thee. If the gentlewoman that attends the general's wife be stirring, tell her there's one Cassio entreats her a little favour of speech: wilt thou do this?

Clo. She is stirring, sir: if she will stir hither, I shall seem to notify unto her.

Enter IAGO.

[Exit.

Cas. Do, good my friend3.—In happy time, Iago.
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.

Cas. I humbly thank you for't. I never knew
A Florentine more kind and honest 6.

Enter EMILIA.

[Exit.

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,

5 Do, good my friend.] These words are in both quartos, but were left out in the folio. The speeches which immediately follow are somewhat differently regulated in the old copies.

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I never knew

A Florentine more kind and honest.] Cassio does not mean to call Iago a Florentine, because he was a Venetian, as is evident from several parts of this tragedy, but merely to say that he, Cassio, never knew even one of his own countrymen more kind and honest.

7- all will soon be well.] "All will sure be well," in the folio only.

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 fronts,
To bring you in again.

Cas.

Yet, I beseech you,

If you think fit, or that it may be done,-
Give me advantage of some brief discourse
With Desdemona alone".

Emil.

Pray you, come in: 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 state2:
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.

[Exeunt.

To take the safest occasion by the front,] This line is excluded from the folio, but is found in the two quartos.

9 With DESDEMONA alone.] The folio here, as in some other places, perhaps for the sake of the verse, prints the name Desdemon. The abbreviation is, in fact, not at all necessary here, for one vowel melts into another, and the line can hardly be read otherwise than in the time of ten syllables. Elsewhere the case is sometimes different in this respect, but Desdemon seems never absolutely required by the measure.

I am much bound to you.] This speech is wanting in the quarto, 1622. 2 to the state;] The folio alone reads "to the Senate."

SCENE III.

Before the Castle.

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 his3.

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 farther 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.

Des. Do not doubt that: before Emilia here,
I give thee warrant of thy place. Assure thee,
If I do vow a friendship, I'll perform it

To the last article: my lord shall never rest;
I'll watch him tame, and talk him out of patience;

3 As if the CASE were his :] So the quartos: the folio has warrant for "know," and cause for "case." In Desdemona's next speech, the folio alone reads "I know't, I thank you."

His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift;
I'll intermingle every thing he does

With Cassio's suit. Therefore, be merry, Cassio;
For thy solicitor shall rather die,

Than give thy cause away.

Enter OTHELLO and IAGO, at a distance.

Emil. Madam, here comes my lord.
Cas. Madam, I'll take my leave.
Des. Why, stay, and hear me speak.

Cas. Madam, not now: I am very ill at ease,

Unfit for mine own purpose.

Des. Well, do your discretion*.

Iago. Ha! I like not that.

Oth.

[Exit CASSIO.

What dost thou say?

Iago. Nothing, my lord: or if-I know not what. Oth. Was not that Cassio, parted from my wife? Iago. Cassio, my lord? No, sure; I cannot think it, That he would steal away" so guilty-like,

Seeing you coming.

Oth.

I do believe 'twas he.

Des. How, now, my lord!

I have been talking with a suitor here,

A man that languishes in your displeasure.

Oth. Who is't you mean?

Des. Why, your lieutenant Cassio. Good, my lord, If I have any grace, or power to move you,

His present reconciliation take;

For if he be not one that truly loves you,
That errs in ignorance, and not in cunning,

Well, do your discretion.] Malone and Steevens, "for the sake of the measure," inserted another monosyllable here, "Well, well, do your discretion." Every old copy is without it, and surely we have no pretence for attempting to amend Shakespeare's versification. It is quite out of the province of a commentator, to say nothing of the boldness of the undertaking. Besides, the insertion of a monosyllable would not be sufficient, according to the reading of the two quartos, which have "for mine own purpose," and not purposes, as in the folio. would STEAL away] "Sneak away," in the quarto, 1622, only.

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