Act 2

Scene I

A Sea-port in Cyprus. An open place near the quay.

	Enter Montano and two Gentlemen.
Montano	What from the cape can you discern at sea?
First Gentleman	Nothing at all: it is a highwrought flood; I cannot, ’twixt the heaven and the main, Descry a sail.
Montano	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	A segregation of the Turkish fleet: For do but stand upon the foaming shore, The chidden billow seems to pelt the clouds; The wind-shaked surge, with high and monstrous mane, Seems to cast water on the burning bear, And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole: I never did like molestation view On the enchafed flood.
Montano	If that the Turkish fleet Be not enshelter’d and embay’d, they are drown’d: It is impossible they bear it out.
	Enter a third Gentleman.
Third Gentleman	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 wreck and sufferance On most part of their fleet.
Montano	How! is this true?
Third Gentleman	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	I am glad on’t; ’tis a worthy governor.
Third Gentleman	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	Pray heavens he be; For I have served him, and the man commands Like a full soldier. Let’s to the seaside, 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 the aerial blue An indistinct regard.
Third Gentleman	Come, let’s do so: For every minute is expectancy Of more arrivance.
	Enter Cassio.
Cassio	Thanks, you the valiant of this warlike isle, That so approve the Moor! O, let the heavens Give him defence against the elements, For I have lost us him on a dangerous sea.
Montano	Is he well shipp’d?
Cassio	His bark is stoutly timber’d, his pilot Of very expert and approved allowance; Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death, Stand in bold cure. A cry within “A sail, a sail, a sail!”
	Enter a fourth Gentleman.
Cassio	What noise?
Fourth Gentleman	The town is empty; on the brow o’ the sea Stand ranks of people, and they cry “A sail!”
Cassio	My hopes do shape him for the governor. Guns heard.
Second Gentlemen	They do discharge their shot of courtesy: Our friends at least.
Cassio	I pray you, sir, go forth, And give us truth who ’tis that is arrived.
Second Gentleman	I shall. Exit.
Montano	But, good lieutenant, is your general wived?
Cassio	Most fortunately: he hath achieved a maid That paragons description and wild fame; One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens, And in the essential vesture of creation Does tire the ingener.
	Reenter second Gentleman.
	How now! who has put in?
Second Gentleman	’Tis one Iago, ancient to the general.
Cassio	Has had most favourable and happy speed: Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds, The gutter’d rocks and congregated sands⁠— Traitors ensteep’d to clog the guiltless keel⁠— As having sense of beauty, do omit Their mortal natures, letting go safely by The divine Desdemona.
Montano	What is she?
Cassio	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 sennight’s speed. Great Jove, Othello guard, And swell his sail with thine own powerful 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, Emilia, Iago, Roderigo, and Attendants.
	O, behold, The riches of the ship is come on shore! Ye 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	I thank you, valiant Cassio. What tidings can you tell me of my lord?
Cassio	He is not yet arrived: nor know I aught But that he’s well and will be shortly here.
Desdemona	O, but I fear⁠—How lost you company?
Cassio	The great contention of the sea and skies Parted our fellowship⁠—But, hark! a sail. Within “A sail, a sail!” Guns heard.
Second Gentleman	They give their greeting to the citadel; This likewise is a friend.
Cassio	See for the news. Exit 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	Sir, would she give you so much of her lips As of her tongue she oft bestows on me, You’ll have enough.
Desdemona	Alas, she has no speech.
Iago	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	You have little cause to say so.
Iago	Come on, come on; you are pictures out of doors, Bells in your parlors, wild-cats in your kitchens, Saints in your injuries, devils being offended, Players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds.
Desdemona	O, fie upon thee, slanderer!
Iago	Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk: You rise to play and go to bed to work.
Emilia	You shall not write my praise.
Iago	No, let me not.
Desdemona	What wouldst thou write of me, if thou shouldst praise me?
Iago	O gentle lady, do not put me to’t; For I am nothing, if not critical.
Desdemona	Come on, assay. There’s one gone to the harbour?
Iago	Ay, madam.
Desdemona	I am not merry; but I do beguile The thing I am, by seeming otherwise. Come, how wouldst thou praise me?
Iago	I am about it; but indeed my invention Comes from my pate as birdlime does from frize; It plucks out brains and all: but my Muse labours, 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	Well praised! How if she be black and witty?
Iago	If she be black, and thereto have a wit, She’ll find a white that shall her blackness fit.
Desdemona	Worse and worse.
Emilia	How if fair and foolish?
Iago	She never yet was foolish that was fair; For even her folly help’d her to an heir.
Desdemona	These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i’ the alehouse. What miserable praise hast thou for her that’s foul and foolish?
Iago	There’s none so foul and foolish thereunto, But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do.
Desdemona	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	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 anger’d, 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 ne’er disclose her mind, See suitors following and not look behind, She was a wight, if ever such wight were⁠—
Desdemona	To do what?
Iago	To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.
Desdemona	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	He speaks home, madam: You may relish him more in the soldier than in the scholar.
Iago	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 kissed your three fingers so oft, which now again you are most apt to play the sir in. Very good; well kissed! an excellent courtesy! ’tis so, indeed. Yet again your fingers to your lips? would they were clyster-pipes for your sake! Trumpet within. The Moor! I know his trumpet.
Cassio	’Tis truly so.
Desdemona	Let’s meet him and receive him.
Cassio	Lo, where he comes!
	Enter Othello* and Attendants.*
Othello	O my fair warrior!
Desdemona	My dear Othello!
Othello	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 labouring 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	The heavens forbid But that our loves and comforts should increase, Even as our days do grow!
Othello	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 Kissing her. That e’er our hearts shall make!
Iago	Aside. O, you are well tuned now! But I’ll set down the pegs that make this music, As honest as I am.
Othello	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 desired 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, Desdemona, and Attendants.
Iago	Do thou meet me presently at the harbour. 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	With him! why, ’tis not possible.
Iago	Lay thy finger thus, and let thy soul be instructed. Mark me with what violence she first loved the Moor, but for bragging and telling her fantastical lies: and will she 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 favour, sympathy in years, manners and beauties; all which the Moor is defective in: now, for want of these required conveniences, her delicate tenderness will find itself abused, 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 unforced 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 compassing of his salt and most hidden loose affection? why, none; why, none: a slipper and subtle knave, a finder of occasions, 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	I cannot believe that in her; she’s full of most blessed condition.
Iago	Blessed fig’s-end! the wine she drinks is made of grapes: if she had been blessed, she would never have loved the Moor. Blessed pudding! Didst thou not see her paddle with the palm of his hand? didst not mark that?
Roderigo	Yes, that I did; but that was but courtesy.
Iago	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 embraced together. Villainous thoughts, Roderigo! when these mutualities so marshal the way, hard at hand comes the master and main exercise, the incorporate conclusion, Pish! But, sir, be you ruled by me: I have brought you from Venice. Watch you to-night; 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 favourably minister.
Roderigo	Well.
Iago	Sir, he is rash and very sudden in choler, and haply 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 removed, without the which there were no expectation of our prosperity.
Roderigo	I will do this, if I can bring it to any opportunity.
Iago	I warrant thee. Meet me by and by at the citadel: I must fetch his necessaries ashore. Farewell.
Roderigo	Adieu. Exit.
Iago	That Cassio loves her, I do well believe it; 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 accountant 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 trash 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 practising upon his peace and quiet Even to madness. ’Tis here, but yet confused: Knavery’s plain face is never seen till used. Exit.