Othello

Please see the bottom of this page for full explanatory notes.

ACT I SCENE I	Venice. A street.
	Enter RODERIGO and IAGO.
RODERIGO	Tush! never tell me; I take it much unkindly
	That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse
	As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.
IAGO	'Sblood, but you will not hear me:
	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,
	In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
	Off-capp'd to him: and, by the faith of man,		10
	I know my price, I am worth no worse a place:
	But he; as loving his own pride and purposes,
	Evades them, with a bombast circumstance
	Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;
	And, in conclusion,
	Nonsuits my mediators; for, 'Certes,' says he,
	'I have already chose my officer.'
	And what was he?
	Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
	One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,		20
	A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;
	That never set a squadron in the field,
	Nor the division of a battle knows
	More than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric,
	Wherein the toged consuls can propose
	As masterly as he: mere prattle, without practise,
	Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election:
	And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof
	At Rhodes, at Cyprus and on other grounds
	Christian and heathen, must be be-lee'd and calm'd		30
	By debitor and creditor: this counter-caster,
	He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,
	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,
	Preferment goes by letter and affection,
	And not by old gradation, where each second
	Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself,
	Whether I in any just term am affined
	To love the Moor.
RODERIGO	I would not follow him then.		40
IAGO	O, sir, content you;
	I follow him to serve my turn upon him:
	We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
	Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
	Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
	That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
	Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
	For nought but provender, and when he's old, cashier'd:
	Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are
	Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty,		50
	Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves,
	And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
	Do well thrive by them and when they have lined
	their coats
	Do themselves homage: these fellows have some soul;
	And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,
	It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
	Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
	In following him, I follow but myself;
	Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
	But seeming so, for my peculiar end:		60
	For when my outward action doth demonstrate
	The native act and figure of my heart
	In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
	But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
	For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.
RODERIGO	What a full fortune does the thicklips owe
	If he can carry't thus!
IAGO	Call up her father,
	Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight,
	Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,
	And, though he in a fertile climate dwell,		70
	Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,
	Yet throw such changes of vexation on't,
	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
	As when, by night and negligence, the fire
	Is spied in populous cities.
RODERIGO	What, ho, Brabantio! Signior Brabantio, ho!
IAGO	Awake! what, ho, Brabantio! thieves! thieves! thieves!
	Look to your house, your daughter and your bags!		80
	Thieves! thieves!
	BRABANTIO appears above, at a window.
BRABANTIO	What is the reason of this terrible summons?
	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
	your gown;
	Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;
	Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
	Is topping your white ewe. Arise, arise;
	Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
	Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:
	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?		90
RODERIGO	My name is Roderigo.
BRABANTIO	The worser welcome:
	I have charged thee not to haunt about my doors:
	In honest plainness thou hast heard me say
	My daughter is not for thee; and now, in madness,
	Being full of supper and distempering draughts,
	Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come
	To start my quiet.
RODERIGO	Sir, sir, sir,--
BRABANTIO	But thou must needs be sure
	My spirit and my place have in them power
	To make this bitter to thee.
RODERIGO	Patience, good sir.		100
BRABANTIO	What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is Venice;
	My house is not a grange.
RODERIGO	Most grave Brabantio,
	In simple and pure soul I come to you.
IAGO	'Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will not
	serve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to
	do you service and you think we are ruffians, you'll
	have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse;
	you'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have
	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
	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,
	If't be your pleasure and most wise consent,
	As partly I find it is, that your fair daughter,		110
	At this odd-even and dull watch o' the night,
	Transported, with no worse nor better guard
	But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,
	To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor--
	If this be known to you and your allowance,
	We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;
	But if you know not this, my manners tell me
	We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe
	That, from the sense of all civility,
	I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:		120
	Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,
	I say again, hath made a gross revolt;
	Tying her duty, beauty, wit and fortunes
	In an extravagant and wheeling stranger
	Of here and every where. Straight satisfy yourself:
	If she be in her chamber or your house,
	Let loose on me the justice of the state
	For thus deluding you.
BRABANTIO	Strike on the tinder, ho!
	Give me a taper! call up all my people!
	This accident is not unlike my dream:		130
	Belief of it oppresses me already.
	Light, I say! light!
	Exit above.
IAGO	Farewell; for I must leave you:
	It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place,
	To be produced--as, if I stay, I shall--
	Against the Moor: for, I do know, the state,
	However this may gall him with some cheque,
	Cannot with safety cast him, for he's embark'd
	With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars,
	Which even now stand in act, that, for their souls,
	Another of his fathom they have none,		140
	To lead their business: in which regard,
	Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains.
	Yet, for necessity of present life,
	I must show out a flag and sign of love,
	Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely find him,
	Lead to the Sagittary the raised search;
	And there will I be with him. So, farewell.
	Exit
	Enter, below, BRABANTIO, and Servants with torches.
BRABANTIO	It is too true an evil: gone she is;
	And what's to come of my despised time
	Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo,		150
	Where didst thou see her? O unhappy girl!
	With the Moor, say'st thou? Who would be a father!
	How didst thou know 'twas she? O she deceives me
	Past thought! What said she to you? Get more tapers:
	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!
	Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds
	By what you see them act. Is there not charms
	By which the property of youth and maidhood		160
	May be abused? Have you not read, Roderigo,
	Of some such thing?
RODERIGO	Yes, sir, I have indeed.
BRABANTIO	Call up my brother. O, would you had had her!
	Some one way, some another. Do you know
	Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?
RODERIGO	I think I can discover him, if you please,
	To get good guard and go along with me.
BRABANTIO	Pray you, lead on. At every house I'll call;
	I may command at most. Get weapons, ho!
	And raise some special officers of night.		170
	On, good Roderigo: I'll deserve your pains.
	Exeunt

Othello, Act 1, Scene 2

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Explanatory Notes for Act 1, Scene 1

From Othello. Ed. Brainerd Kellogg. New York: Clark & Maynard.

Abbreviations. — A.-S. = Anglo-Saxon: M.E. = Middle English (from the 13th to the 15th century) ; Fr. = French ; Ger. = German ; Gr. = Greek ; Cf. = compare (Lat. confer) ; Abbott refers to the excellent Shakespearean Grammar of Dr. Abbott; Schmidt, to Dr. Schmidt's invaluable Shakespeare Lexicon.

____

4. 'Sblood, for God's blood, as 'swounds, or zounds, for God's wounds. In 1606 the use of bad language on the stage was checked by Act of Parliament.

10. Off-capped, took off their cap to him.

11. I am qualified to be at least lieutenant,

13. Them, lago's supporters. Bombast, cotton padding, hence affected language. Circumstance, the opposite of a straightforward answer.

14. The hemistich (half-line), as in line 18, enables the actor to make a more effective pause.

20. The commercial tone of Florence is contrasted with warlike Venice.

21. Cassio has almost decided to ruin himself by marrying Bianca, a courtezan.

23. Battle, battalion.

24. Bookish theoric, object of knows. The theory of war, learnt from reading treatises, opposed to practice.

25. Toged; the toga is symbolic of peace. Propose, speak.

27. He was chosen.

30. Be-le'd, having the wind taken out of the sails.

31. By a mere book-keeper, who adds up counters; i.e., money.

33. God bless the mark, used to avert the evil omen in using strong language. Ancient, corruption of ensign, a flag-bearer.

35. sq. We cannot help it. Promotion goes not, as in former times, by seniority, but by influence and partiality.

39. In any reasonable way. Affin'd, related, so well disposed to.

41. lago would not serve Othello, but that he sees a chance of revenge.

45. Knave, German Knabe, boy.

46. Doting on, growing foolish over.

49. Me. Ethic dative. More common in French. But cf. sc. 2, 72; Hamlet, ii. 2, 601, "Who does me this?"

50. Visages. Like Latin visus, looks.

60. So, loving and duteous.

61, sq. For lago to give the key-note to his real character is a touch of genius.

66. Owe, own.

68. The second him refers to Othello.

69. Proclaim him as an offender against the public peace.

71. Allusion to one of the plagues of Egypt.

72. Metaphor from the artist's mixmg colors.

73. As, for that.

91. Worser, the double comparative — common in Shakespeare. Three double superlatives — most unkindest, most worst, and most boldest — are also found.

96. Upon, for the purpose of.

99. I am annoyed at your joke, and have power to make you regret it.

102. Grange, a farm-house.

111. Odd-even and dull watch. Odd-even is interpreted to mean the interval between midnight and one a.m. The hyphen not in earliest copies.

113. But, than or except.

115. Allowance, approval.

116. Saucy, insolent, outrageous. "Full of sauce, pungent." — Skeat.

117. I am sure you are wrong in abusing us.

119. From, away from.

137. Cast, dismiss.

141. In which regard, on account of which,

146. The name of the inn.

169. I am sure of aid almost everywhere.

How to cite the explanatory notes:

Shakespeare, William. Othello. Ed. Brainerd Kellogg. New York: Clark & Maynard, 1892. Shakespeare Online. 20 Feb. 2010. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/othello_1_1.html >.

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