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

Cas. I know not.

Iago. Is it possible?

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!

Iago. Why, but you are now well enough: How camé 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 approv'd 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 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 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.

Iago. I protest, in the sincerity of love, and honest kindness.

Cas. 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 vil

lain?

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, to 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 while this honest fool
Plies Desdemona to repair his fortunes,
And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor,

lay-i.e. Wager.

P Probal-] There may be such a contraction of the word probable, but I have not met with it in any other book. Yet abbreviations as violent occur in our ancient writers, and especially in the works of Churchyard.-STEEVENS.

inclining—] i. e. Compliant.

-as fruitful

As the free elements.] Liberal, bountiful, as the elements, out of which all things are produced.-JOHNSON.

JOHNSON.

parallel course,] i. e. Course level and even with his design.-

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 chace, 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 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.

Does't not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee,
And thou, by that small hurt, hast cashier'd Cassio:
Though other things grow fair against the sun,
Yet fruits, that blossom first, will first be ripe :
Content thyself a while.-By the mass, 'tis morning;
Pleasure, and action, make the hours seem short.—
Retire thee go where thou art billeted:

Away, I say, thou shalt know more hereafter:

Nay, get thee gone. [Exit ROD.] Two things are to be done,

My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress;

I'll set her on;

Myself, the while, to draw the Moor apart,

And bring him jump when he may Cassio find
Soliciting his wife :-Ay, that's the way;
Dull not device by coldness and delay.

x repeals-] That is, recalls.

[Exit.

y Yet fruits, that blossom first, will first be ripe ;] The blossoming or fair appearance of things to which Iago alludes, is the removal of Cassio; as their plan had already blossomed, so there was good ground for expecting that it would soon be ripe.-MALONE.

11

bring him jump-] i. e. Just at the time when.-STEEVENS,

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."

Enter Clown.

[Musick.

Clo. Why, masters, have your instruments been at Naples, that they speak i'the nose thus ?b

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 tail, 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 musick, that he desires you, of all loves, to make no more noise with it.

1 Mus. Well, sir, we will not.

Clo. If you have any musick that may not be heard, to't again but, as they say, to hear musick, 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, my honest friend?

Clo. No, I hear not your honest friend; I hear you. Cas. Pr'ythee, keep up thy quillets. There's a poor

and bid-good-morrow, general.] It is the usual practice of the waits, or nocturnal minstrels, in several towns in the north of England, after playing a tune or two, to cry, Good-morrow, maister Such-a-one, good-morrow, dame," adding the hour, and state of the weather. It should seem to have prevailed at Stratford-upon-Avon. They formerly used hautboys, which are the wind-instruments here meant.-RITSON.

b

been at Naples, that they speak i'the nose thus?] The venereal disease first appeared at the siege of Naples.-JOHNSON.

of all loves,] This was frequently used as a kind and tender adjuration, instead of the commoner form, by all means.-NARES.

quillets.] i. e. Sly tricks, turns in argument.—NARES.

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.

Cas. Do, good my friend.-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.

[Exit.

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.

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,

[Exit.

He might not but refuse you: but, he protests, he loves And needs no other suitor, but his likings,

To take the saf'st occasion by the front,

To bring you in again.

Cas.

[you;

Yet, I beseech you,

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

A Florentine more kind and honest.] Iago was a Venetian, Cassio a Florentine: he means to say, I never experienced more honesty and kindness even in my own countrymen, than in this man.-MALONE.

f your displeasure ;] The displeasure you have incurred.-STEEVENS.