TUSH, never tell me, I take it much unkindly,
That thou, lago,-who hast had my purse,
As if the strings were thine,-should'st know of this.
Jago. 'Sblood, but you will not hear me :-
If ever I did dream of such a matter,

Abhor me.

Rod. Thou told'st me, thou didst hold him in thy

hate.

lago. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city,

In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
Oft 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,
Erades them, with a bombast circumstance,2
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 1,-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,

(1) Saluted.

(2) Circumlocution. (3) Certainly.

Herald.

Desdemona, daughter to Brabantio, and wife so Othello.

Emilia, wife to lago.

Bianca, a courtezan, mistress to Cassio.

Officers, Gentlemen, Messengers, Musicians, Sailors, Attendants, &c.

Scene, for the first Act, in Venice; during the rest of the play, at a sea-port in Cyprus.

And I, (God bless the mark!) his Moorship's an cient.

Rod. By heaven I rather would have been his hangman.

Iago. But there's no remedy, 'tis the curse of service;

Preferment goes by letter, and affection,
Not by the old gradation, where each second
Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge youself,
Whether I in any just term am affin'd
To love the Moor.

I

Rod.

I would not follow him then. lago. O, sir, content you; 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 or their lords,
Do well thrive by them, and, when they have lin'd

their coats,

Do themselves homage: these fellows have suma 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 lago:
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 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.
(6) Rulers of the state.
(7) it was anciently the practice to reckon up

(5) Theory.

(8) Related.

(9) Outward show of civility.