Othello by William Shakespeare
Act 1 - Scene 1
Venice. A street.
Roderigo : Tush! never tell me; I take it much unkindly
[p]That thou, Iago, who
hast had my purse
[p]As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of
this.
Iago : 'Sblood, but you will not hear me:
[p]If ever I did dream of such a
matter, Abhor me.
Roderigo : Thou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy hate.
Iago : Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city,
[p]In personal
suit to make me his lieutenant,
[p]Off-capp'd to him: and, by the
faith of man,
[p]I know my price, I am worth no worse a place:
[p]But
he; as loving his own pride and purposes,
[p]Evades them, with a
bombast circumstance
[p]Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;
[p]And,
in conclusion,
[p]Nonsuits my mediators; for, 'Certes,' says he,
[p]'I
have already chose my officer.'
[p]And what was he?
[p]Forsooth, a
great arithmetician,
[p]One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
[p]A fellow
almost damn'd in a fair wife;
[p]That never set a squadron in the
field,
[p]Nor the division of a battle knows
[p]More than a spinster;
unless the bookish theoric,
[p]Wherein the toged consuls can
propose
[p]As masterly as he: mere prattle, without practise,
[p]Is
all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election:
[p]And I, of whom
his eyes had seen the proof
[p]At Rhodes, at Cyprus and on other
grounds
[p]Christian and heathen, must be be-lee'd and calm'd
[p]By
debitor and creditor: this counter-caster,
[p]He, in good time, must
his lieutenant be,
[p]And I--God bless the mark!--his Moorship's
ancient.
Roderigo : By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman.
Iago : Why, there's no remedy; 'tis the curse of service,
[p]Preferment goes
by letter and affection,
[p]And not by old gradation, where each
second
[p]Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge
yourself,
[p]Whether I in any just term am affined
[p]To love the
Moor.
Roderigo : I would not follow him then.
Iago : O, sir, content you;
[p]I follow him to serve my turn upon him:
[p]We
cannot all be masters, nor all masters
[p]Cannot be truly follow'd.
You shall mark
[p]Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
[p]That,
doting on his own obsequious bondage,
[p]Wears out his time, much like
his master's ass,
[p]For nought but provender, and when he's old,
cashier'd:
[p]Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are
[p]Who,
trimm'd in forms and visages of duty,
[p]Keep yet their hearts
attending on themselves,
[p]And, throwing but shows of service on
their lords,
[p]Do well thrive by them and when they have
lined
[p]their coats
[p]Do themselves homage: these fellows have some
soul;
[p]And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,
[p]It is as
sure as you are Roderigo,
[p]Were I the Moor, I would not be
Iago:
[p]In following him, I follow but myself;
[p]Heaven is my judge,
not I for love and duty,
[p]But seeming so, for my peculiar
end:
[p]For when my outward action doth demonstrate
[p]The native act
and figure of my heart
[p]In compliment extern, 'tis not long
after
[p]But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
[p]For daws to peck
at: I am not what I am.
Roderigo : What a full fortune does the thicklips owe
[p]If he can carry't thus!
Iago : Call up her father,
[p]Rouse him: make after him, poison his
delight,
[p]Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,
[p]And,
though he in a fertile climate dwell,
[p]Plague him with flies: though
that his joy be joy,
[p]Yet throw such changes of vexation on't,
[p]As
it may lose some colour.
Roderigo : Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud.
Iago : Do, with like timorous accent and dire yell
[p]As when, by night and
negligence, the fire
[p]Is spied in populous cities.
Roderigo : What, ho, Brabantio! Signior Brabantio, ho!
Iago : Awake! what, ho, Brabantio! thieves! thieves! thieves!
[p]Look to your
house, your daughter and your bags!
[p]Thieves! thieves!
Brabantio : What is the reason of this terrible summons?
[p]What is the matter
there?
Roderigo : Signior, is all your family within?
Iago : Are your doors lock'd?
Brabantio : Why, wherefore ask you this?
Iago : 'Zounds, sir, you're robb'd; for shame, put on
[p]your gown;
[p]Your
heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;
[p]Even now, now, very
now, an old black ram
[p]Is topping your white ewe. Arise,
arise;
[p]Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
[p]Or else the
devil will make a grandsire of you:
[p]Arise, I say.
Brabantio : What, have you lost your wits?
Roderigo : Most reverend signior, do you know my voice?
Brabantio : Not I. what are you?
Roderigo : My name is Roderigo.
Brabantio : The worser welcome:
[p]I have charged thee not to haunt about my
doors:
[p]In honest plainness thou hast heard me say
[p]My daughter is
not for thee; and now, in madness,
[p]Being full of supper and
distempering draughts,
[p]Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come
[p]To
start my quiet.
Roderigo : Sir, sir, sir,--
Brabantio : But thou must needs be sure
[p]My spirit and my place have in them
power
[p]To make this bitter to thee.
Roderigo : Patience, good sir.
Brabantio : What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is Venice;
[p]My house is not a
grange.
Roderigo : Most grave Brabantio,
[p]In simple and pure soul I come to you.
Iago : 'Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will not
[p]serve God, if the
devil bid you. Because we come to
[p]do you service and you think we
are ruffians, you'll
[p]have your daughter covered with a Barbary
horse;
[p]you'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll
have
[p]coursers for cousins and gennets for germans.
Brabantio : What profane wretch art thou?
Iago : I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter
[p]and the Moor
are now making the beast with two backs.
Brabantio : Thou art a villain.
Iago : You are--a senator.
Brabantio : This thou shalt answer; I know thee, Roderigo.
Roderigo : Sir, I will answer any thing. But, I beseech you,
[p]If't be your
pleasure and most wise consent,
[p]As partly I find it is, that your
fair daughter,
[p]At this odd-even and dull watch o' the
night,
[p]Transported, with no worse nor better guard
[p]But with a
knave of common hire, a gondolier,
[p]To the gross clasps of a
lascivious Moor--
[p]If this be known to you and your allowance,
[p]We
then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;
[p]But if you know not this,
my manners tell me
[p]We have your wrong rebuke. Do not
believe
[p]That, from the sense of all civility,
[p]I thus would play
and trifle with your reverence:
[p]Your daughter, if you have not
given her leave,
[p]I say again, hath made a gross revolt;
[p]Tying
her duty, beauty, wit and fortunes
[p]In an extravagant and wheeling
stranger
[p]Of here and every where. Straight satisfy yourself:
[p]If
she be in her chamber or your house,
[p]Let loose on me the justice of
the state
[p]For thus deluding you.
Brabantio : Strike on the tinder, ho!
[p]Give me a taper! call up all my
people!
[p]This accident is not unlike my dream:
[p]Belief of it
oppresses me already.
[p]Light, I say! light!
Iago : Farewell; for I must leave you:
[p]It seems not meet, nor wholesome to
my place,
[p]To be produced--as, if I stay, I shall--
[p]Against the
Moor: for, I do know, the state,
[p]However this may gall him with
some cheque,
[p]Cannot with safety cast him, for he's embark'd
[p]With
such loud reason to the Cyprus wars,
[p]Which even now stand in act,
that, for their souls,
[p]Another of his fathom they have none,
[p]To
lead their business: in which regard,
[p]Though I do hate him as I do
hell-pains.
[p]Yet, for necessity of present life,
[p]I must show out
a flag and sign of love,
[p]Which is indeed but sign. That you shall
surely find him,
[p]Lead to the Sagittary the raised search;
[p]And
there will I be with him. So, farewell.
Brabantio : It is too true an evil: gone she is;
[p]And what's to come of my
despised time
[p]Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo,
[p]Where
didst thou see her? O unhappy girl!
[p]With the Moor, say'st thou? Who
would be a father!
[p]How didst thou know 'twas she? O she deceives
me
[p]Past thought! What said she to you? Get more tapers:
[p]Raise
all my kindred. Are they married, think you?
Roderigo : Truly, I think they are.
Brabantio : O heaven! How got she out? O treason of the blood!
[p]Fathers, from
hence trust not your daughters' minds
[p]By what you see them act. Is
there not charms
[p]By which the property of youth and maidhood
[p]May
be abused? Have you not read, Roderigo,
[p]Of some such thing?
Roderigo : Yes, sir, I have indeed.
Brabantio : Call up my brother. O, would you had had her!
[p]Some one way, some
another. Do you know
[p]Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?
Roderigo : I think I can discover him, if you please,
[p]To get good guard and go
along with me.
Brabantio : Pray you, lead on. At every house I'll call;
[p]I may command at most.
Get weapons, ho!
[p]And raise some special officers of night.
[p]On,
good Roderigo: I'll deserve your pains.
Next: Act 1 - Scene 2
