Othello
Act 2, Scene 1

A sea port in Cyprus.
- Enter Montano and two Gentlemen.
Montano
2- What from the cape can you discern at sea?
First Gentleman
3 - 5- Nothing at all, it is a high-wrought flood.
- I cannot, ’twixt the heaven and the main,
- Descry a sail.
Montano
6 - 10- Methinks the wind hath spoke aloud at land,
- A fuller blast ne’er shook our battlements.
- If it hath ruffian’d so upon the sea,
- What ribs of oak, when mountains melt on them,
- Can hold the mortise? What shall we hear of this?
Second Gentleman
11 - 18- A segregation of the Turkish fleet:
- For do but stand upon the foaming shore,
- The chidden billow seems to pelt the clouds,
- The wind-shak’d surge, with high and monstrous mane,
- Seems to cast water on the burning Bear,
- And quench the guards of th’ ever-fixed Pole;
- I never did like molestation view
- On the enchafed flood.
Montano
19 - 21- If that the Turkish fleet
- Be not enshelter’d and embay’d, they are drown’d;
- It is impossible to bear it out.
- Enter a Third Gentleman.
Third Gentleman
23 - 27- News, lads! Our wars are done.
- The desperate tempest hath so bang’d the Turks,
- That their designment halts. A noble ship of Venice
- Hath seen a grievous wrack and sufferance
- On most part of their fleet.
Montano
28- How? Is this true?
Third Gentleman
29 - 33- The ship is here put in,
- A Veronesa; Michael Cassio,
- Lieutenant to the warlike Moor Othello,
- Is come on shore; the Moor himself at sea,
- And is in full commission here for Cyprus.
Montano
34- I am glad on’t; ’tis a worthy governor.
Third Gentleman
35 - 38- But this same Cassio, though he speak of comfort
- Touching the Turkish loss, yet he looks sadly,
- And prays the Moor be safe; for they were parted
- With foul and violent tempest.
Montano
39 - 45- Pray heaven he be;
- For I have serv’d him, and the man commands
- Like a full soldier. Let’s to the sea-side, ho!
- As well to see the vessel that’s come in
- As to throw out our eyes for brave Othello,
- Even till we make the main and th’ aerial blue
- An indistinct regard.
Third Gentleman
46 - 48- Come, let’s do so;
- For every minute is expectancy
- Of more arrivance.
- Enter Cassio.
Cassio
50 - 53- Thanks you, the valiant of this warlike isle,
- That so approve the Moor! O, let the heavens
- Give him defense against the elements,
- For I have lost him on a dangerous sea.
Montano
54- Is he well shipp’d?
Cassio
55 - 60- His bark is stoutly timber’d, and his pilot
- Of very expert and approv’d allowance;
- Therefore my hopes (not surfeited to death)
- Stand in bold cure.
- Within,
- “A sail, a sail, a sail!”
- Enter the Second Messenger.
Cassio
62- What noise?
Second Messenger
63 - 64- The town is empty; on the brow o’ th’ sea
- Stand ranks of people, and they cry, “A sail!”
Cassio
65- My hopes do shape him for the governor.
- A shot.
Second Gentleman
67 - 68- They do discharge their shot of courtesy;
- Our friends at least.
Cassio
69 - 70- I pray you, sir, go forth,
- And give us truth who ’tis that is arriv’d.
Second Gentleman
71- I shall.
- Exit.
Montano
73- But, good lieutenant, is your general wiv’d?
Cassio
74 - 80- Most fortunately: he hath achiev’d a maid
- That paragons description and wild fame;
- One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens,
- And in th’ essential vesture of creation
- Does tire the ingener.
- Enter Second Gentleman.
- How now? Who has put in?
Second Gentleman
81- ’Tis one Iago, ancient to the general.
Cassio
82 - 88- H’as had most favorable and happy speed:
- Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds,
- The gutter’d rocks and congregated sands,
- Traitors ensteep’d to enclog the guiltless keel,
- As having sense of beauty, do omit
- Their mortal natures, letting go safely by
- The divine Desdemona.
Montano
89- What is she?
Cassio
90 - 106- She that I spake of, our great captain’s captain,
- Left in the conduct of the bold Iago,
- Whose footing here anticipates our thoughts
- A se’nnight’s speed. Great Jove, Othello guard,
- And swell his sail with thine own pow’rful breath,
- That he may bless this bay with his tall ship,
- Make love’s quick pants in Desdemona’s arms,
- Give renew’d fire to our extincted spirits,
- And bring all Cyprus comfort!
- Enter Desdemona, Iago, Roderigo, and Emilia, with
- Attendants.
- O, behold,
- The riches of the ship is come on shore!
- You men of Cyprus, let her have your knees.
- Hail to thee, lady! And the grace of heaven,
- Before, behind thee, and on every hand,
- Enwheel thee round!
Desdemona
107 - 108- I thank you, valiant Cassio.
- What tidings can you tell me of my lord?
Cassio
109 - 110- He is not yet arriv’d, nor know I aught
- But that he’s well and will be shortly here.
Desdemona
111- O, but I fear—How lost you company?
Cassio
112 - 117- The great contention of the sea and skies
- Parted our fellowship.
- Within,
- “A sail, a sail!”
- A shot.
- But hark! A sail.
Second Gentleman
118 - 119- They give their greeting to the citadel.
- This likewise is a friend.
Cassio
120 - 127- See for the news.
- Exit Second Gentleman.
- Good ancient, you are welcome.
- To Emilia.
- Welcome, mistress.
- Let it not gall your patience, good Iago,
- That I extend my manners; ’tis my breeding
- That gives me this bold show of courtesy.
- Kissing her.
Iago
129 - 131- Sir, would she give you so much of her lips
- As of her tongue she oft bestows on me,
- You would have enough.
Desdemona
132- Alas! She has no speech.
Iago
133 - 137- In faith, too much;
- I find it still, when I have list to sleep.
- Marry, before your ladyship, I grant,
- She puts her tongue a little in her heart,
- And chides with thinking.
Emilia
138- You have little cause to say so.
Iago
139 - 142- Come on, come on; you are pictures out a’ doors,
- Bells in your parlors, wild-cats in your kitchens,
- Saints in your injuries, devils being offended,
- Players in your huswifery, and huswives in your beds.
Desdemona
143- O, fie upon thee, slanderer!
Iago
144 - 145- Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk:
- You rise to play, and go to bed to work.
Emilia
146- You shall not write my praise.
Iago
147- No, let me not.
Desdemona
148- What wouldst write of me, if thou shouldst praise me?
Iago
149 - 150- O gentle lady, do not put me to’t,
- For I am nothing if not critical.
Desdemona
151- Come on, assay.—There’s one gone to the harbor?
Iago
152- Ay, madam.
Desdemona
153 - 155- I am not merry; but I do beguile
- The thing I am by seeming otherwise.—
- Come, how wouldst thou praise me?
Iago
156 - 161- I am about it, but indeed my invention
- Comes from my pate as birdlime does from frieze,
- It plucks out brains and all. But my Muse labors,
- And thus she is deliver’d:
- If she be fair and wise, fairness and wit,
- The one’s for use, the other useth it.
Desdemona
162- Well prais’d! How if she be black and witty?
Iago
163 - 164- If she be black, and thereto have a wit,
- She’ll find a white that shall her blackness hit.
Desdemona
165- Worse and worse.
Emilia
166- How if fair and foolish?
Iago
167 - 168- She never yet was foolish that was fair,
- For even her folly help’d her to an heir.
Desdemona
169 - 171- These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i’ th’
- alehouse. What miserable praise hast thou for her that’s
- foul and foolish?
Iago
172 - 173- There’s none so foul and foolish thereunto,
- But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do.
Desdemona
174 - 177- O heavy ignorance! Thou praisest the worst best. But what
- praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving woman indeed—one
- that in the authority of her merit, did justly put on the
- vouch of very malice itself?
Iago
178 - 188- She that was ever fair, and never proud,
- Had tongue at will, and yet was never loud,
- Never lack’d gold, and yet went never gay,
- Fled from her wish, and yet said, “Now I may”;
- She that being ang’red, her revenge being nigh,
- Bade her wrong stay, and her displeasure fly;
- She that in wisdom never was so frail
- To change the cod’s head for the salmon’s tail;
- She that could think, and nev’r disclose her mind,
- See suitors following, and not look behind:
- She was a wight (if ever such wight were)—
Desdemona
189- To do what?
Iago
190- To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.
Desdemona
191 - 193- O most lame and impotent conclusion! Do not learn of him,
- Emilia, though he be thy husband. How say you, Cassio? Is he
- not a most profane and liberal counsellor?
Cassio
194- He speaks home, madam. You may relish him more in the soldier than in the scholar.
Iago
195 - 207- Aside.
- He takes her by the palm; ay, well said, whisper. With as
- little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as
- Cassio. Ay, smile upon her, do; I will gyve thee in thine
- own courtship. You say true, ’tis so indeed. If such tricks
- as these strip you out of your lieutenantry, it had been
- better you had not kiss’d your three fingers so oft, which
- now again you are most apt to play the sir in. Very good;
- well kiss’d! An excellent courtesy! ’Tis so indeed. Yet
- again, your fingers to your lips? Would they were
- clyster-pipes for your sake!
- Trumpets within.
- —The Moor! I know his trumpet.
Cassio
208- ’Tis truly so.
Desdemona
209- Let’s meet him and receive him.
Cassio
210- Lo, where he comes!
- Enter Othello and Attendants.
Othello
212- O my fair warrior!
Desdemona
213- My dear Othello!
Othello
214 - 224- It gives me wonder great as my content
- To see you here before me. O my soul’s joy!
- If after every tempest come such calms,
- May the winds blow till they have waken’d death!
- And let the laboring bark climb hills of seas
- Olympus-high, and duck again as low
- As hell’s from heaven! If it were now to die,
- ’Twere now to be most happy; for I fear
- My soul hath her content so absolute
- That not another comfort like to this
- Succeeds in unknown fate.
Desdemona
225 - 227- The heavens forbid
- But that our loves and comforts should increase
- Even as our days do grow!
Othello
228 - 233- Amen to that, sweet powers!
- I cannot speak enough of this content,
- It stops me here; it is too much of joy.
- And this, and this, the greatest discords be
- They kiss.
- That e’er our hearts shall make!
Iago
234 - 237- Aside.
- O, you are well tun’d now!
- But I’ll set down the pegs that make this music,
- As honest as I am.
Othello
238 - 249- Come; let us to the castle.
- News, friends: our wars are done; the Turks are drown’d.
- How does my old acquaintance of this isle?
- Honey, you shall be well desir’d in Cyprus,
- I have found great love amongst them. O my sweet,
- I prattle out of fashion, and I dote
- In mine own comforts. I prithee, good Iago,
- Go to the bay and disembark my coffers.
- Bring thou the master to the citadel;
- He is a good one, and his worthiness
- Does challenge much respect. Come, Desdemona,
- Once more, well met at Cyprus.
- Exeunt Othello and Desdemona with all but Iago and Roderigo.
Iago
251 - 257- To an Attendant, as he is going out.
- Do thou meet me presently at the harbor.—Come hither. If
- thou be’st valiant (as they say base men being in love have
- then a nobility in their natures more than is native to
- them), list me. The lieutenant tonight watches on the court
- of guard. First, I must tell thee this: Desdemona is
- directly in love with him.
Roderigo
258- With him? Why, ’tis not possible.
Iago
259 - 283- Lay thy finger thus; and let thy soul be instructed. Mark me
- with what violence she first lov’d the Moor, but for
- bragging and telling her fantastical lies. To love him still
- for prating—let not thy discreet heart think it. Her eye
- must be fed; and what delight shall she have to look on the
- devil? When the blood is made dull with the act of sport,
- there should be, again to inflame it and to give satiety a
- fresh appetite, loveliness in favor, sympathy in years,
- manners, and beauties—all which the Moor is defective in.
- Now for want of these requir’d conveniences, her delicate
- tenderness will find itself abus’d, begin to heave the
- gorge, disrelish and abhor the Moor; very nature will
- instruct her in it and compel her to some second choice.
- Now, sir, this granted (as it is a most pregnant and
- unforc’d position), who stands so eminent in the degree of
- this fortune as Cassio does? A knave very voluble; no
- further conscionable than in putting on the mere form of
- civil and humane seeming, for the better compass of his salt
- and most hidden loose affection? Why, none, why, none—a
- slipper and subtle knave, a finder-out of occasion; that has
- an eye can stamp and counterfeit advantages, though true
- advantage never present itself; a devilish knave. Besides,
- the knave is handsome, young, and hath all those requisites
- in him that folly and green minds look after; a pestilent
- complete knave, and the woman hath found him already.
Roderigo
284 - 285- I cannot believe that in her, she’s full of most bless’d
- condition.
Iago
286 - 289- Bless’d fig’s-end! The wine she drinks is made of grapes. If
- she had been bless’d, she would never have lov’d the Moor.
- Bless’d pudding! Didst thou not see her paddle with the palm
- of his hand? Didst not mark that?
Roderigo
290- Yes, that I did; but that was but courtesy.
Iago
291 - 302- Lechery, by this hand; an index and obscure prologue to the
- history of lust and foul thoughts. They met so near with
- their lips that their breaths embrac’d together. Villainous
- thoughts, Roderigo! When these mutualities so marshal the
- way, hard at hand comes the master and main exercise, th’
- incorporate conclusion. Pish! But, sir, be you rul’d by me.
- I have brought you from Venice. Watch you tonight; for the
- command, I’ll lay’t upon you. Cassio knows you not. I’ll not
- be far from you. Do you find some occasion to anger Cassio,
- either by speaking too loud, or tainting his discipline, or
- from what other course you please, which the time shall more
- favorably minister.
Roderigo
303- Well.
Iago
304- 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
305- I will do this, if you can bring it to any opportunity.
Iago
306 - 307- I warrant thee. Meet me by and by at the citadel. I must
- fetch his necessaries ashore. Farewell.
Roderigo
308- Adieu.
- Exit.
Iago
310 - 336- That Cassio loves her, I do well believe’t;
- That she loves him, ’tis apt and of great credit.
- The Moor (howbeit that I endure him not)
- Is of a constant, loving, noble nature,
- And I dare think he’ll prove to Desdemona
- A most dear husband. Now I do love her too,
- Not out of absolute lust (though peradventure
- I stand accomptant for as great a sin),
- But partly led to diet my revenge,
- For that I do suspect the lusty Moor
- Hath leap’d into my seat; the thought whereof
- Doth (like a poisonous mineral) gnaw my inwards;
- And nothing can or shall content my soul
- Till I am even’d with him, wife for wife;
- Or failing so, yet that I put the Moor
- At least into a jealousy so strong
- That judgment cannot cure. Which thing to do,
- If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trace
- For his quick hunting, stand the putting on,
- I’ll have our Michael Cassio on the hip,
- Abuse him to the Moor in the rank garb
- (For I fear Cassio with my night-cap too),
- Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me,
- For making him egregiously an ass,
- And practicing upon his peace and quiet
- Even to madness. ’Tis here; but yet confus’d,
- Knavery’s plain face is never seen till us’d.
- Exit.