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Othello: Act II, Scene 1

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Othello
Act II, Scene 1

Scene 1

A sea port in Cyprus.

  1. Enter Montano and two Gentlemen.

Montano

1
  1. What from the cape can you discern at sea?

First Gentleman

2 - 4
  1. Nothing at all, it is a high-wrought flood.
  2. I cannot, ’twixt the heaven and the main,
  3. Descry a sail.

Montano

5 - 9
  1. Methinks the wind hath spoke aloud at land,
  2. A fuller blast ne’er shook our battlements.
  3. If it hath ruffian’d so upon the sea,
  4. What ribs of oak, when mountains melt on them,
  5. Can hold the mortise? What shall we hear of this?

Second Gentleman

10 - 17
  1. A segregation of the Turkish fleet:
  2. For do but stand upon the foaming shore,
  3. The chidden billow seems to pelt the clouds,
  4. The wind-shak’d surge, with high and monstrous mane,
  5. Seems to cast water on the burning Bear,
  6. And quench the guards of th’ ever-fixed Pole;
  7. I never did like molestation view
  8. On the enchafed flood.

Montano

18 - 20
  1.                        If that the Turkish fleet
  2. Be not enshelter’d and embay’d, they are drown’d;
  3. It is impossible to bear it out.
  1. Enter a Third Gentleman.

Third Gentleman

21 - 25
  1. News, lads! Our wars are done.
  2. The desperate tempest hath so bang’d the Turks,
  3. That their designment halts. A noble ship of Venice
  4. Hath seen a grievous wrack and sufferance
  5. On most part of their fleet.

Montano

26
  1. How? Is this true?

Third Gentleman

27 - 31
  1.                    The ship is here put in,
  2. A Veronesa; Michael Cassio,
  3. Lieutenant to the warlike Moor Othello,
  4. Is come on shore; the Moor himself at sea,
  5. And is in full commission here for Cyprus.

Montano

32
  1. I am glad on’t; ’tis a worthy governor.

Third Gentleman

33 - 36
  1. But this same Cassio, though he speak of comfort
  2. Touching the Turkish loss, yet he looks sadly,
  3. And prays the Moor be safe; for they were parted
  4. With foul and violent tempest.

Montano

37 - 43
  1.                                Pray heaven he be;
  2. For I have serv’d him, and the man commands
  3. Like a full soldier. Let’s to the sea-side, ho!
  4. As well to see the vessel that’s come in
  5. As to throw out our eyes for brave Othello,
  6. Even till we make the main and th’ aerial blue
  7. An indistinct regard.

Third Gentleman

44 - 46
  1.                       Come, let’s do so;
  2. For every minute is expectancy
  3. Of more arrivance.
  1. Enter Cassio.

Cassio

47 - 50
  1. Thanks you, the valiant of this warlike isle,
  2. That so approve the Moor! O, let the heavens
  3. Give him defense against the elements,
  4. For I have lost him on a dangerous sea.

Montano

51
  1. Is he well shipp’d?

Cassio

52 - 56
  1. His bark is stoutly timber’d, and his pilot
  2. Of very expert and approv’d allowance;
  3. Therefore my hopes (not surfeited to death)
  4. Stand in bold cure.
  5. Within,
  6.                     “A sail, a sail, a sail!”
  1. Enter the Second Messenger.

Cassio

57
  1. What noise?

Second Messenger

58 - 59
  1. The town is empty; on the brow o’ th’ sea
  2. Stand ranks of people, and they cry, “A sail!”

Cassio

60
  1. My hopes do shape him for the governor.
  1. A shot.

Second Gentleman

61 - 62
  1. They do discharge their shot of courtesy;
  2. Our friends at least.

Cassio

63 - 64
  1.                       I pray you, sir, go forth,
  2. And give us truth who ’tis that is arriv’d.

Second Gentleman

65
  1. I shall.
  1. Exit.

Montano

66
  1. But, good lieutenant, is your general wiv’d?

Cassio

67 - 72
  1. Most fortunately: he hath achiev’d a maid
  2. That paragons description and wild fame;
  3. One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens,
  4. And in th’ essential vesture of creation
  5. Does tire the ingener.
  6. Enter Second Gentleman.
  7.                        How now? Who has put in?
Othello scenery: port & citadel of Famagusta, Isle of Cyprus

Othello scenery: port & citadel of Famagusta, Isle of Cyprus

Second Gentleman

73
  1. ’Tis one Iago, ancient to the general.

Cassio

74 - 80
  1. H’as had most favorable and happy speed:
  2. Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds,
  3. The gutter’d rocks and congregated sands,
  4. Traitors ensteep’d to enclog the guiltless keel,
  5. As having sense of beauty, do omit
  6. Their mortal natures, letting go safely by
  7. The divine Desdemona.

Montano

81
  1.                       What is she?

Cassio

82 - 96
  1. She that I spake of, our great captain’s captain,
  2. Left in the conduct of the bold Iago,
  3. Whose footing here anticipates our thoughts
  4. A se’nnight’s speed. Great Jove, Othello guard,
  5. And swell his sail with thine own pow’rful breath,
  6. That he may bless this bay with his tall ship,
  7. Make love’s quick pants in Desdemona’s arms,
  8. Give renew’d fire to our extincted spirits,
  9. And bring all Cyprus comfort!
  10. Enter Desdemona, Iago, Roderigo, and Emilia, with
  11. Attendants.
  12.                               O, behold,
  13. The riches of the ship is come on shore!
  14. You men of Cyprus, let her have your knees.
  15. Hail to thee, lady! And the grace of heaven,
  16. Before, behind thee, and on every hand,
  17. Enwheel thee round!

Desdemona

97 - 98
  1.                     I thank you, valiant Cassio.
  2. What tidings can you tell me of my lord?

Cassio

99 - 100
  1. He is not yet arriv’d, nor know I aught
  2. But that he’s well and will be shortly here.

Desdemona

101
  1. O, but I fear—How lost you company?

Cassio

102 - 105
  1. The great contention of the sea and skies
  2. Parted our fellowship.
  3. Within,
  4.                        “A sail, a sail!”
  5. A shot.
  6.                   But hark! A sail.

Second Gentleman

106 - 107
  1. They give their greeting to the citadel.
  2. This likewise is a friend.

Cassio

108 - 113
  1.                            See for the news.
  2. Exit Second Gentleman.
  3. Good ancient, you are welcome.
  4. To Emilia.
  5.                                Welcome, mistress.
  6. Let it not gall your patience, good Iago,
  7. That I extend my manners; ’tis my breeding
  8. That gives me this bold show of courtesy.
  1. Kissing her.

Iago

114 - 116
  1. Sir, would she give you so much of her lips
  2. As of her tongue she oft bestows on me,
  3. You would have enough.

Desdemona

117
  1.                        Alas! She has no speech.

Iago

118 - 122
  1. In faith, too much;
  2. I find it still, when I have list to sleep.
  3. Marry, before your ladyship, I grant,
  4. She puts her tongue a little in her heart,
  5. And chides with thinking.

Emilia

123
  1. You have little cause to say so.

Iago

124 - 127
  1. Come on, come on; you are pictures out a’ doors,
  2. Bells in your parlors, wild-cats in your kitchens,
  3. Saints in your injuries, devils being offended,
  4. Players in your huswifery, and huswives in your beds.

Desdemona

128
  1. O, fie upon thee, slanderer!

Iago

129 - 130
  1. Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk:
  2. You rise to play, and go to bed to work.

Emilia

131
  1. You shall not write my praise.

Iago

132
  1.                                No, let me not.

Desdemona

133
  1. What wouldst write of me, if thou shouldst praise me?

Iago

134 - 135
  1. O gentle lady, do not put me to’t,
  2. For I am nothing if not critical.

A sail, a sail, a sail!

L. Marchetti, circa 1900

Desdemona

136
  1. Come on, assay.—There’s one gone to the harbor?

Iago

137
  1. Ay, madam.

Desdemona

138 - 140
  1. I am not merry; but I do beguile
  2. The thing I am by seeming otherwise.—
  3. Come, how wouldst thou praise me?

Iago

141 - 146
  1. I am about it, but indeed my invention
  2. Comes from my pate as birdlime does from frieze,
  3. It plucks out brains and all. But my Muse labors,
  4. And thus she is deliver’d:
  5. If she be fair and wise, fairness and wit,
  6. The one’s for use, the other useth it.

Desdemona

147
  1. Well prais’d! How if she be black and witty?

Iago

148 - 149
  1. If she be black, and thereto have a wit,
  2. She’ll find a white that shall her blackness hit.

Desdemona

150
  1. Worse and worse.

Emilia

151
  1. How if fair and foolish?

Iago

152 - 153
  1. She never yet was foolish that was fair,
  2. For even her folly help’d her to an heir.

Desdemona

154 - 156
  1. These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i’ th’
  2. alehouse. What miserable praise hast thou for her that’s
  3. foul and foolish?

Iago

157 - 158
  1. There’s none so foul and foolish thereunto,
  2. But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do.

Desdemona

159 - 162
  1. O heavy ignorance! Thou praisest the worst best. But what
  2. praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving woman indeed—one
  3. that in the authority of her merit, did justly put on the
  4. vouch of very malice itself?

Iago

163 - 173
  1. She that was ever fair, and never proud,
  2. Had tongue at will, and yet was never loud,
  3. Never lack’d gold, and yet went never gay,
  4. Fled from her wish, and yet said, “Now I may”;
  5. She that being ang’red, her revenge being nigh,
  6. Bade her wrong stay, and her displeasure fly;
  7. She that in wisdom never was so frail
  8. To change the cod’s head for the salmon’s tail;
  9. She that could think, and nev’r disclose her mind,
  10. See suitors following, and not look behind:
  11. She was a wight (if ever such wight were)—

Desdemona

174
  1. To do what?

Iago

175
  1. To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.

Desdemona

176 - 178
  1. O most lame and impotent conclusion! Do not learn of him,
  2. Emilia, though he be thy husband. How say you, Cassio? Is he
  3. not a most profane and liberal counsellor?

Cassio

179
  1. He speaks home, madam. You may relish him more in the soldier than in the scholar.

Iago

180 - 190
  1. Aside.
  2. He takes her by the palm; ay, well said, whisper. With as
  3. little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as
  4. Cassio. Ay, smile upon her, do; I will gyve thee in thine
  5. own courtship. You say true, ’tis so indeed. If such tricks
  6. as these strip you out of your lieutenantry, it had been
  7. better you had not kiss’d your three fingers so oft, which
  8. now again you are most apt to play the sir in. Very good;
  9. well kiss’d! An excellent courtesy! ’Tis so indeed. Yet
  10. again, your fingers to your lips? Would they were
  11. clyster-pipes for your sake!
  12. Trumpets within.
  13. —The Moor! I know his trumpet.

Cassio

191
  1. ’Tis truly so.

Desdemona

192
  1. Let’s meet him and receive him.

Cassio

193
  1. Lo, where he comes!
  1. Enter Othello and Attendants.

Othello

194
  1. O my fair warrior!

Desdemona

195
  1.                    My dear Othello!

Othello

196 - 206
  1. It gives me wonder great as my content
  2. To see you here before me. O my soul’s joy!
  3. If after every tempest come such calms,
  4. May the winds blow till they have waken’d death!
  5. And let the laboring bark climb hills of seas
  6. Olympus-high, and duck again as low
  7. As hell’s from heaven! If it were now to die,
  8. ’Twere now to be most happy; for I fear
  9. My soul hath her content so absolute
  10. That not another comfort like to this
  11. Succeeds in unknown fate.

News, friends: our wars are done; the Turks are drown’d.

Alexandre Bida, 19th century

Desdemona

207 - 209
  1.                           The heavens forbid
  2. But that our loves and comforts should increase
  3. Even as our days do grow!

Othello

210 - 214
  1.                           Amen to that, sweet powers!
  2. I cannot speak enough of this content,
  3. It stops me here; it is too much of joy.
  4. And this, and this, the greatest discords be
  5. They kiss.
  6. That e’er our hearts shall make!

Iago

215 - 217
  1. Aside.
  2.                                  O, you are well tun’d now!
  3. But I’ll set down the pegs that make this music,
  4. As honest as I am.

Othello

218 - 229
  1.                    Come; let us to the castle.
  2. News, friends: our wars are done; the Turks are drown’d.
  3. How does my old acquaintance of this isle?
  4. Honey, you shall be well desir’d in Cyprus,
  5. I have found great love amongst them. O my sweet,
  6. I prattle out of fashion, and I dote
  7. In mine own comforts. I prithee, good Iago,
  8. Go to the bay and disembark my coffers.
  9. Bring thou the master to the citadel;
  10. He is a good one, and his worthiness
  11. Does challenge much respect. Come, Desdemona,
  12. Once more, well met at Cyprus.
  1. Exeunt Othello and Desdemona with all but Iago and Roderigo.

Iago

230 - 235
  1. To an Attendant, as he is going out.
  2. Do thou meet me presently at the harbor.—Come hither. If
  3. thou be’st valiant (as they say base men being in love have
  4. then a nobility in their natures more than is native to
  5. them), list me. The lieutenant tonight watches on the court
  6. of guard. First, I must tell thee this: Desdemona is
  7. directly in love with him.

Roderigo

236
  1. With him? Why, ’tis not possible.

Iago

237 - 261
  1. Lay thy finger thus; and let thy soul be instructed. Mark me
  2. with what violence she first lov’d the Moor, but for
  3. bragging and telling her fantastical lies. To love him still
  4. for prating—let not thy discreet heart think it. Her eye
  5. must be fed; and what delight shall she have to look on the
  6. devil? When the blood is made dull with the act of sport,
  7. there should be, again to inflame it and to give satiety a
  8. fresh appetite, loveliness in favor, sympathy in years,
  9. manners, and beauties—all which the Moor is defective in.
  10. Now for want of these requir’d conveniences, her delicate
  11. tenderness will find itself abus’d, begin to heave the
  12. gorge, disrelish and abhor the Moor; very nature will
  13. instruct her in it and compel her to some second choice.
  14. Now, sir, this granted (as it is a most pregnant and
  15. unforc’d position), who stands so eminent in the degree of
  16. this fortune as Cassio does? A knave very voluble; no
  17. further conscionable than in putting on the mere form of
  18. civil and humane seeming, for the better compass of his salt
  19. and most hidden loose affection? Why, none, why, none—a
  20. slipper and subtle knave, a finder-out of occasion; that has
  21. an eye can stamp and counterfeit advantages, though true
  22. advantage never present itself; a devilish knave. Besides,
  23. the knave is handsome, young, and hath all those requisites
  24. in him that folly and green minds look after; a pestilent
  25. complete knave, and the woman hath found him already.

Roderigo

262 - 263
  1. I cannot believe that in her, she’s full of most bless’d
  2. condition.

Iago

264 - 267
  1. Bless’d fig’s-end! The wine she drinks is made of grapes. If
  2. she had been bless’d, she would never have lov’d the Moor.
  3. Bless’d pudding! Didst thou not see her paddle with the palm
  4. of his hand? Didst not mark that?

Roderigo

268
  1. Yes, that I did; but that was but courtesy.

Iago

269 - 280
  1. Lechery, by this hand; an index and obscure prologue to the
  2. history of lust and foul thoughts. They met so near with
  3. their lips that their breaths embrac’d together. Villainous
  4. thoughts, Roderigo! When these mutualities so marshal the
  5. way, hard at hand comes the master and main exercise, th’
  6. incorporate conclusion. Pish! But, sir, be you rul’d by me.
  7. I have brought you from Venice. Watch you tonight; for the
  8. command, I’ll lay’t upon you. Cassio knows you not. I’ll not
  9. be far from you. Do you find some occasion to anger Cassio,
  10. either by speaking too loud, or tainting his discipline, or
  11. from what other course you please, which the time shall more
  12. favorably minister.

It gives me wonder great as my content to see you here before me.

L. Marchetti, circa 1900

Roderigo

281
  1. Well.

Iago

282
  1. Sir, he’s rash and very sudden in choler, and happily may strike at you—provoke him that he may; for even out of that will I cause these of Cyprus to mutiny, whose qualification shall come into no true taste again but by the displanting of Cassio. So shall you have a shorter journey to your desires by the means I shall then have to prefer them; and the impediment most profitably remov’d, without the which there were no expectation of our prosperity.

Roderigo

283
  1. I will do this, if you can bring it to any opportunity.

Iago

284 - 285
  1. I warrant thee. Meet me by and by at the citadel. I must
  2. fetch his necessaries ashore. Farewell.

Roderigo

286
  1. Adieu.
  1. Exit.

Iago

287 - 313
  1. That Cassio loves her, I do well believe’t;
  2. That she loves him, ’tis apt and of great credit.
  3. The Moor (howbeit that I endure him not)
  4. Is of a constant, loving, noble nature,
  5. And I dare think he’ll prove to Desdemona
  6. A most dear husband. Now I do love her too,
  7. Not out of absolute lust (though peradventure
  8. I stand accomptant for as great a sin),
  9. But partly led to diet my revenge,
  10. For that I do suspect the lusty Moor
  11. Hath leap’d into my seat; the thought whereof
  12. Doth (like a poisonous mineral) gnaw my inwards;
  13. And nothing can or shall content my soul
  14. Till I am even’d with him, wife for wife;
  15. Or failing so, yet that I put the Moor
  16. At least into a jealousy so strong
  17. That judgment cannot cure. Which thing to do,
  18. If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trace
  19. For his quick hunting, stand the putting on,
  20. I’ll have our Michael Cassio on the hip,
  21. Abuse him to the Moor in the rank garb
  22. (For I fear Cassio with my night-cap too),
  23. Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me,
  24. For making him egregiously an ass,
  25. And practicing upon his peace and quiet
  26. Even to madness. ’Tis here; but yet confus’d,
  27. Knavery’s plain face is never seen till us’d.
  1. Exit.
Costume design for Kote Marjanishvili's staging of Othello

Costume design for Kote Marjanishvili's staging of Othello

Petre Otskheli, 1933

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