OTHELLO.

EDITED BY

J. PAYNE COLLIER.

DESDEMONA, Daughter to Brabantio, and Wife to Othello.
EMILIA, Wife to lago, attending upon Desdemona.

BIANCA, Mistress to Cassio.

Officers, Gentlemen, Messengers, Musicians, Attendants, etc.

SCENE, for Act I, in Venice ; during the rest of the Play, at a Seaport in Cyprus.

1 This tragedy, founded upon an Italian novel (by Giraldi Cinthio, of which no contemporary translation is known), was first printed in 4to. in 1622, and again in 1630. It is contained in all the folios, occupying the same place in each.

OTHELL O,

THE MOOR OF VENICE.

ACT I.

SCENE I-Venice. A Street.

Enter RODERIGO and IAGO.

Rod. 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.

Rod. 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,

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,
Evades them, with a bombast circumstance
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;

And, in conclusion,

Nonsuits my mediators; for Certes, says he,

TUSH! never tell me,] The interjection, "Tush", may have been formed from hush; while Tut (often used) was probably an abbreviation of Tell you what.

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 ;3

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 th' 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.
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 t' the first.-Now, sir, be judge yourself,

Whether I in any just term am affin'd

To love the Moor.

Rod.

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

3 - almost damn'd in a fair WIFE;] It appears by a subsequent part of the play (act iv, sc. 1) that the belief then was that Cassio was soon to be married to Bianca.