IAGO
No, forbear;
The lethargy must have his quiet course:
If not, he foams at mouth, and by and by
Breaks out to savage madness. Look, he stirs:
Do you withdraw yourself a little while,
He will recover straight: when he is gone,
I would on great occasion speak with you.
[Exit Cassio.]
How is it, general? have you not hurt your head?
OTHELLO
Dost thou mock me?
IAGO
I mock you! no, by heaven.
Would you would bear your fortune like a man!
OTHELLO
A hornèd man’s a monster and a beast.
IAGO
There’s many a beast, then, in a populous city,
And many a civil monster.
OTHELLO
Did he confess it?
IAGO
Good sir, be a man;
Think every bearded fellow that’s but yok’d
May draw with you: there’s millions now alive
That nightly lie in those unproper beds
Which they dare swear peculiar: your case is better.
O, ‘tis the spite of hell, the fiend’s arch-mock,
To lip a wanton in a secure couch,
And to suppose her chaste! No, let me know;
And knowing what I am, I know what she shall be.
OTHELLO
O, thou art wise; ‘tis certain.
IAGO
Stand you awhile apart;
Confine yourself but in a patient list.
Whilst you were here o’erwhelmed with your grief,—
A passion most unsuiting such a man,—
Cassio came hither: I shifted him away,
And laid good ‘scuse upon your ecstasy;
Bade him anon return, and here speak with me;
The which he promis’d. Do but encave yourself,
And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns,
That dwell in every region of his face;
For I will make him tell the tale anew,—
Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when
He hath, and is again to cope your wife:
I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience;
Or I shall say you are all in all in spleen,
And nothing of a man.
OTHELLO
Dost thou hear, Iago?
I will be found most cunning in my patience;
But,—dost thou hear?—most bloody.
IAGO
That’s not amiss;
But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw?
[Othello withdraws.]
Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,
A housewife that, by selling her desires,
Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature
That dotes on Cassio,—as ‘tis the strumpet’s plague
To beguile many and be beguil’d by one:—
He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain
From the excess of laughter:—here he comes:—
As he shall smile Othello shall go mad;
And his unbookish jealousy must construe
Poor Cassio’s smiles, gestures, and light behavior
Quite in the wrong.
SCENE III
[Re-enter Cassio.]
IAGO
How do you now, lieutenant?
CASSIO
The worser that you give me the addition
Whose want even kills me.
IAGO
Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on’t.
[Speaking lower.] Now, if this suit lay in Bianca’s power,
How quickly should you speed!
CASSIO
Alas, poor caitiff!
OTHELLO
[Aside.] Look, how he laughs already!
IAGO
I never knew a woman love man so.
CASSIO
Alas, poor rogue! I think, i’faith, she loves me.
OTHELLO
[Aside.] Now he denies it faintly and laughs it out.
IAGO
Do you hear, Cassio?
OTHELLO
Now he impórtunes him
To tell it o’er: go to; well said, well said.
IAGO
She gives it out that you shall marry her:
Do you intend it?
CASSIO
Ha, ha, ha!
OTHELLO
Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?
CASSIO
I marry her!—what? A customer! I pr’ythee, bear some charity to my wit; do not think it so unwholesome:—ha, ha, ha!
OTHELLO
So, so, so, so: they laugh that win.
IAGO
Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her.
CASSIO
Pr’ythee, say true.
IAGO
I am a very villain else.
OTHELLO
Have you scored me? Well.
CASSIO
This is the monkey’s own giving out: she is persuaded I will marry her, out of her own love and flattery, not out of my promise.
OTHELLO
Iago beckons me; now he begins the story.
CASSIO
She was