Othello | Page 3

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This etext was prepared by the PG Shakespeare Team,
a team of
about twenty Project Gutenberg volunteers.
OTHELLO, MOOR OF VENICE
by William Shakespeare
PERSONS REPRESENTED:
DUKE OF VENICE.
BRABANTIO, a Senator.
Other Senators.

GRATIANO, Brother to Brabantio.
LODOVICO, Kinsman to
Brabantio.
OTHELLO, a noble Moor, in the service of Venice.

CASSIO, his Lieutenant.
IAGO, his Ancient.
RODERIGO, a
Venetian Gentleman.
MONTANO, Othello's predecessor in the
government of Cyprus. CLOWN, Servant to Othello.
Herald.
DESDEMONA, Daughter to Brabantio, and Wife to Othello.

EMILIA, Wife to Iago.
BIANCA, Mistress to Cassio.
Officers, Gentlemen, Messenger, Musicians, Herald, Sailor,

Attendants, &c.
SCENE: The First Act in Venice; during the rest of the Play at a
Seaport in Cyprus.
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,
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place:--

But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
Evades them, with a
bumbast 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,
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 practice,
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
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 affin'd
To love the Moor.
RODERIGO.
I would not follow him, then.
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,
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 lin'd 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:
For when my outward action doth demonstrate

The native act and figure of my heart
In complement extern, 'tis not
long after
But