Re-enter CASSIO, driving in RODERIGO. What's the matter, lieutenant? Cas. You rogue! you rascal! [They fight. Or I'll knock you o'er the mazzard. Cas. Drunk! Iago. Away, I say! go out, and cry-A mutiny. Nay, good lieutenant,-alas, gentlemen,- [Bell rings. Who's that that rings the bell?-Diablo, ho! Oth. Enter OTHELLO and Attendants. What is the matter here? Mon. I bleed still; I am hurt to the death;- he dies. Oth. Hold, for your lives. Iago. Hold, hold, lieutenant, sir, Montano,-gentlemen,— Have you forgot all sense of place and duty? Hold, hold! the general speaks to you; hold, for shame! Oth. Why, how now, ho! from whence ariseth this? Are we turned Turks; and to ourselves do that, Which Heaven hath forbid the Ottomites? For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl. He that stirs next to carve for his own rage, Holds his soul light; he dies upon his motion.Silence that dreadful bell; it frights the isle From her propriety.-What is the matter, masters? Honest Iago, that look'st dead with grieving, Speak, who began this? on thy love, I charge thee. Iago. I do not know;-friends all but now, even now, In quarter, and in terms like bride and groom Divesting them for bed; and then, but now, (As if some planet had unwitted men,) Oth. How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot? And spend your rich opinion, for the name Your officer, Iago, can inform you While I spare speech, (which something now offends me)- By me that's said or done amiss this night; And to defend ourselves it be a sin, When violence assails us. Oth. Now, by Heaven, Yet wild, the people's hearts brimful of fear, In night, and on the court of guard and safety! Mon. If partially affined, or leagued in office, Thou dost deliver more or less than truth, Thou art no soldier. Iago. Touch me not so near. I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth, There comes a fellow, crying out for help; More of this matter can I not report; But men are men; the best sometimes forget.— As men in rage strike those that wish them best,— From him that fled, some strange indignity, Which patience could not pass. I know, Iago, Oth. Enter DESDEMONA, attended. Look, if my gentle love be not raised up; I'll make thee an example. Des. What's the matter, dear? Oth. All's well now, sweeting; come away to bed. Sir, for your hurts, Myself will be your surgeon:-Lead him off. [To MONTANO, who is led off. Iago, look with care about the town; And silence those whom this vile brawl distracted. Come, Desdemona; 'tis the soldiers' life, To have their balmy slumbers waked with strife. [Exeunt all but IAGO and CASSIO. Iago. What, are you hurt, lieutenant? Cas. Ay, past all surgery. Iago. Marry, heaven forbid! Cas. Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part, sir, of myself, and what remains is bestial.- My reputation, Iago, my reputation. Iago. As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some bodily wound; there is more offence in that, than in reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving. You have lost no reputation at all, unless you repute yourself such a loser. What, man! there are ways to recover the general again. You are but now cast in his mood, a punishment more in policy than in malice; even so as one would beat his offenceless dog, to affright an imperious lion. Sue to him again, and he's yours. Cas. I will rather sue to be despised, than to deceive so good a commander, with so slight, so drunken, and 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! Iago. What was he that you followed with your sword? What had he done to you? Cas. I know not. 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 came 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 familiar good 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 approved it, 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 VOL. IV.-39 - drunk! 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 villain? 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 framed as fruitful As the free elements. And then for her To win the Moor,-were't to renounce his baptism, His soul is so enfettered to her love, That she may make, unmake, do what she list, With his weak function. How am I then a villain, So will I turn her virtue into pitch; And out of her own goodness make the net |