Othello Page #7

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than to deceive so good a commander...

...with so slight, so drunken,

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.

What was he that you

followed with your sword?

- What had he done to you?

- I know not.

Is it possible?

I remember a mass of things,

but nothing distinctly.

A quarrel, but nothing wherefore.

O, 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!

Come, come. Good wine is

a good familiar creature...

...if it be well used.

And, good lieutenant, I

think you think I love you.

I have well approved it, sir.

I drunk.

You or any man living

may be drunk at some time.

I'll tell you what you shall do.

Our general's wife is now the general.

Confess yourself freely

to her, importune her.

She'll help to put you in your place again.

This broken joint between

you and her husband...

...entreat her to splinter and my

fortunes against any lay worth naming...

...this crack in your love shall

grow stronger than it was before.

You advise me well.

I protest in the sincerity

of love and honest kindness.

I think it freely.

And betimes in the morning will

I beseech the virtuous Desdemona...

...to undertake for me.

I am desperate of my fortunes

if they check me here.

You are in the right.

Good night, lieutenant.

I must to the watch.

Night...

...honest lago.

IAGo:
How now, Roderigo?

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 tonight exceedingly well

- cudgeled.

And I think the issue will be, I shall

have so much experience for my pains...

...and so, with a little more

wit and no money at all...

...return again to venice.

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 it not go well?

Cassio hath beaten thee.

But thou by that small

hurt hath cashiered Cassio.

Though other things grow

fair against the sun...

...yet fruits that blossom

first will first be ripe.

Content thyself a while.

By th'mass, 'tis morning.

Pleasure and action makes

the hours seem short.

Retire thee. Go where thou art billeted.

Away, I say. Thou shalt hear more hereafter.

Nay, get thee gone.

Two things are to be done:

My wife must move for Cassio to

her mistress. I'll set her on it.

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.

CASSlo:
Masters?

Play here.

I will content your pains,

something that's brief...

...and bid, "Good morrow, general."

Sirrah, if the gentlewoman that attends

the general's wife be stirring...

...tell her there is one Cassio

entreats her a small favor of speech.

- Wilt thou do this?

- I shall do it, sir.

In happy time, lago.

- You have not been abed, then?

- Why, no.

The day had broke before we parted.

I have made bold, good lago,

to send in to your wife.

My suit to her is that she will to

virtuous Desdemona procure me some access.

I'll send her to you presently.

And I'll devise a mean to

draw the Moor out of the way...

...so that your converse and

business may be more free.

I humbly thank you for it.

I never knew a Florentine

more kind and honest.

Lo, the happiness.

Good morrow, good lieutenant.

I am sorry for your displeasure,

but all will sure 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.

Yet I beseech you, if you think

it fit, or that it may be done...

...give me advantage of some brief

discourse with Desdemona alone.

I pray you, come in.

I will bestow you where you shall

have time to speak your bosom freely.

I am much bound to you.

These letters give, lago, to the pilot

and by him do my duties to the senate.

That done, I will be walking on

the works. Repair there to me.

Well, my good lord, I'll do it.

OTHELLo:
This fortification,

gentlemen, shall we see't?

We'll wait upon your lordship.

Be thou assured, good Cassio, I will

do all my abilities in thy behalf.

Good madam, do, I know it grieves

my husband as if the case were his.

DESDEMoNA:
O, that's an honest fellow.

Do not doubt, Cassio...

...I will have my lord and you

again as friendly as you were.

Madam, whatever shall

become of Michael Cassio...

...he's never anything but your true servant.

O, sir, I thank you.

You do love my lord.

You have known him long

and be you well assured...

...he shall in strangeness stand no

further off than in a politic distance.

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.

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.

His bed shall seem a

school, his board a shrift.

I'll intermingle everything

he does with Cassio's suit.

Therefore be merry, Cassio...

...for thy solicitor shall rather

die than give thy cause away.

Madam, here comes my lord.

DESDEMoNA:
Why, stay and hear me speak.

CASSlo:
Not now, I am very ill at ease,

- Unfit for mine own purposes.

DESDEMoNA:
Well, do your discretion.

Ha! I like not that.

What dost thou say?

Nothing, my lord, or if, I know not what.

Was that not Cassio parted from my wife?

Cassio, my lord?

No, sure, I cannot think it...

...that he would sneak away so

guilty-like, seeing you coming.

- I do believe 'twas he.

- How now, my lord?

I have been talking with a suitor here,

a man that languishes in your displeasure.

- Who is't you mean?

- 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...

...I have no judgment in an honest face.

- I prithee, call him back.

- Went he hence now?

Ay, sooth, so humbled he hath

left part of his grief with me.

I suffer with him.

Good love, call him back.

Not now, sweet Desdemon. Some other time.

But shall't be shortly?

- The sooner, sweet, for you.

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