Othello - Act 1, scene 3
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Othello - Act 1, scene 3Act 1, scene 3
Synopsis:
The duke and the senators discuss the movements of the Turkish fleet and conclude that its target is, indeed, Cyprus. When Brabantio and Othello arrive, the duke insists on evidence to support the old man’s charge that Othello has bewitched Desdemona. At Othello’s suggestion, the duke sends for Desdemona. Othello describes his courtship of Desdemona, who, when she enters, tells her father and the senators that she has married Othello because she loves him. She thereby vindicates Othello before the senate. The duke orders Othello immediately to Cyprus and grants Desdemona her wish to join him there. Othello gives Iago the duty of conveying Desdemona to Cyprus. Alone with Iago, Roderigo, now in despair of winning Desdemona’s love, threatens suicide, but Iago persuades him instead to sell his lands for ready cash and to pursue Desdemona to Cyprus. Iago begins to plot to himself how he may use Othello’s marriage to get back at Othello and to get Cassio’s place as lieutenant.
Enter Duke, Senators, and Officers.DUKE, ⌜reading a paper⌝
0330 There’s no composition in ⟨these⟩ news
0331 That gives them credit.
FIRST SENATOR, ⌜reading a paper⌝
0332 Indeed, they are disproportioned.
0333 My letters say a hundred and seven galleys.
DUKE
0334 5 And mine, a hundred forty.
SECOND SENATOR, ⌜reading a paper⌝
0335 And mine, two hundred.
0336 But though they jump not on a just account
0337 (As in these cases, where the aim reports
0338 ’Tis oft with difference), yet do they all confirm
0339 10 A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus.
DUKE
0340 Nay, it is possible enough to judgment.
0341 I do not so secure me in the error,
0342 But the main article I do approve
0343 In fearful sense.
SAILOR, within 0344 15 What ho, what ho, what ho!
Enter Sailor.
OFFICER 0345 A messenger from the galleys.
DUKE 0346 Now, what’s the business?
SAILOR
0347 The Turkish preparation makes for Rhodes.
0348 So was I bid report here to the state
0349 20 By Signior Angelo.⌜He exits.⌝
DUKE
0350 How say you by this change?
FIRST SENATOR 0351 This cannot be,
0352 By no assay of reason. ’Tis a pageant
0353 To keep us in false gaze. When we consider
0354 25 Th’ importancy of Cyprus to the Turk,
0356 That, as it more concerns the Turk than Rhodes,
0357 So may he with more facile question bear it,
0358 [For that it stands not in such warlike brace,
0359 30 But altogether lacks th’ abilities
0360 That Rhodes is dressed in—if we make thought of
0361 this,
0362 We must not think the Turk is so unskillful
0363 To leave that latest which concerns him first,
0364 35 Neglecting an attempt of ease and gain
0365 To wake and wage a danger profitless.]
DUKE
0366 Nay, in all confidence, he’s not for Rhodes.
OFFICER 0367 Here is more news.
Enter a Messenger.
MESSENGER
0368 The Ottomites, Reverend and Gracious,
0369 40 Steering with due course toward the isle of Rhodes,
0370 Have there injointed them with an after fleet.
[FIRST SENATOR
0371 Ay, so I thought. How many, as you guess?]
MESSENGER
0372 Of thirty sail; and now they do restem
0373 Their backward course, bearing with frank
0374 45 appearance
0375 Their purposes toward Cyprus. Signior Montano,
0376 Your trusty and most valiant servitor,
0377 With his free duty recommends you thus,
0378 And prays you to believe him.⌜He exits.⌝
DUKE 0379 50’Tis certain, then, for Cyprus.
0380 Marcus Luccicos, is not he in town?
FIRST SENATOR
0381 He’s now in Florence.
DUKE 0382 Write from us to him.
0383 Post-post-haste. Dispatch.
0384 55 Here comes Brabantio and the valiant Moor.
Enter Brabantio, Othello, Cassio, Iago, Roderigo, and
Officers.
DUKE
0385 Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you
0386 Against the general enemy Ottoman.
0387 ⌜To Brabantio.⌝ I did not see you. Welcome, gentle
0388 signior.
0389 60 We lacked your counsel and your help tonight.
BRABANTIO
0390 So did I yours. Good your Grace, pardon me.
0391 Neither my place nor aught I heard of business
0392 Hath raised me from my bed, nor doth the general
0393 care
0394 65 Take hold on me, for my particular grief
0395 Is of so floodgate and o’erbearing nature
0396 That it engluts and swallows other sorrows
0397 And it is still itself.
DUKE 0398 Why, what’s the matter?
BRABANTIO
0399 70 My daughter! O, my daughter!
⌜FIRST SENATOR⌝ 0400 Dead?
BRABANTIO 0401 Ay, to me.
0402 She is abused, stol’n from me, and corrupted
0403 By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks;
0404 75 For nature so prepost’rously to err—
0405 Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense—
0406 Sans witchcraft could not.
DUKE
0407 Whoe’er he be that in this foul proceeding
0408 Hath thus beguiled your daughter of herself
0409 80 And you of her, the bloody book of law
0410 You shall yourself read in the bitter letter,
0411 After your own sense, yea, though our proper son
0412 Stood in your action.
0414 85 Here is the man—this Moor, whom now it seems
0415 Your special mandate for the state affairs
0416 Hath hither brought.
ALL 0417 We are very sorry for ’t.
DUKE, ⌜to Othello⌝
0418 What, in your own part, can you say to this?
BRABANTIO 0419 90Nothing, but this is so.
OTHELLO
0420 Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
0421 My very noble and approved good masters:
0422 That I have ta’en away this old man’s daughter,
0423 It is most true; true I have married her.
0424 95 The very head and front of my offending
0425 Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech,
0426 And little blessed with the soft phrase of peace;
0427 For since these arms of mine had seven years’ pith,
0428 Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used
0429 100 Their dearest action in the tented field,
0430 And little of this great world can I speak
0431 More than pertains to feats of ⟨broil⟩ and battle.
0432 And therefore little shall I grace my cause
0433 In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious
0434 105 patience,
0435 I will a round unvarnished tale deliver
0436 Of my whole course of love—what drugs, what
0437 charms,
0438 What conjuration, and what mighty magic
0439 110 (For such proceeding I am charged withal)
0440 I won his daughter.
BRABANTIO 0441 A maiden never bold,
0442 Of spirit so still and quiet that her motion
0443 Blushed at herself. And she, in spite of nature,
0444 115 Of years, of country, credit, everything,
0445 To fall in love with what she feared to look on!
0446 It is a judgment maimed and most imperfect
0448 Against all rules of nature, and must be driven
0449 120 To find out practices of cunning hell
0450 Why this should be. I therefore vouch again
0451 That with some mixtures powerful o’er the blood,
0452 Or with some dram conjured to this effect,
0453 He wrought upon her.
⟨DUKE⟩ 0454 125 To vouch this is no proof
0455 Without more wider and more ⟨overt⟩ test
0456 Than these thin habits and poor likelihoods
0457 Of modern seeming do prefer against him.
⟨FIRST SENATOR⟩ 0458 But, Othello, speak:
0459 130 Did you by indirect and forcèd courses
0460 Subdue and poison this young maid’s affections?
0461 Or came it by request, and such fair question
0462 As soul to soul affordeth?
OTHELLO 0463 I do beseech you,
0464 135 Send for the lady to the Sagittary
0465 And let her speak of me before her father.
0466 If you do find me foul in her report,
0467 [The trust, the office I do hold of you,]
0468 Not only take away, but let your sentence
0469 140 Even fall upon my life.
DUKE 0470 Fetch Desdemona hither.
OTHELLO
0471 Ancient, conduct them. You best know the place.
⌜Iago and Attendants exit.⌝
0472 And ⟨till⟩ she come, as truly as to heaven
0473 [I do confess the vices of my blood,]
0474 145 So justly to your grave ears I’ll present
0475 How I did thrive in this fair lady’s love,
0476 And she in mine.
DUKE 0477 Say it, Othello.
OTHELLO
0478 Her father loved me, oft invited me,
0479 150 Still questioned me the story of my life
0481 That I have passed.
0482 I ran it through, even from my boyish days
0483 To th’ very moment that he bade me tell it,
0484 155 Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances:
0485 Of moving accidents by flood and field,
0486 Of hairbreadth ’scapes i’ th’ imminent deadly
0487 breach,
0488 Of being taken by the insolent foe
0489 160 And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence,
0490 And portance in my traveler’s history,
0491 Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
0492 Rough quarries, rocks, ⟨and⟩ hills whose ⟨heads⟩
0493 touch heaven,
0494 165 It was my hint to speak—such was my process—
0495 And of the cannibals that each ⟨other⟩ eat,
0496 The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
0497 ⟨Do grow⟩ beneath their shoulders. These things to
0498 hear
0499 170 Would Desdemona seriously incline.
0500 But still the house affairs would draw her ⟨thence,⟩
0501 Which ever as she could with haste dispatch
0502 She’d come again, and with a greedy ear
0503 Devour up my discourse. Which I, observing,
0504 175 Took once a pliant hour, and found good means
0505 To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart
0506 That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
0507 Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
0508 But not ⟨intentively.⟩ I did consent,
0509 180 And often did beguile her of her tears
0510 When I did speak of some distressful stroke
0511 That my youth suffered. My story being done,
0512 She gave me for my pains a world of ⟨sighs.⟩
0513 She swore, in faith, ’twas strange, ’twas passing
0514 185 strange,
0515 ’Twas pitiful, ’twas wondrous pitiful.
0517 That heaven had made her such a man. She thanked
0518 me,
0519 190 And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
0520 I should but teach him how to tell my story,
0521 And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake.
0522 She loved me for the dangers I had passed,
0523 And I loved her that she did pity them.
0524 195 This only is the witchcraft I have used.
0525 Here comes the lady. Let her witness it.
Enter Desdemona, Iago, Attendants.
DUKE
0526 I think this tale would win my daughter, too.
0527 Good Brabantio,
0528 Take up this mangled matter at the best.
0529 200 Men do their broken weapons rather use
0530 Than their bare hands.
BRABANTIO 0531 I pray you hear her speak.
0532 If she confess that she was half the wooer,
0533 Destruction on my head if my bad blame
0534 205 Light on the man.—Come hither, gentle mistress.
0535 Do you perceive in all this noble company
0536 Where most you owe obedience?
DESDEMONA 0537 My noble father,
0538 I do perceive here a divided duty.
0539 210 To you I am bound for life and education.
0540 My life and education both do learn me
0541 How to respect you. You are the lord of duty.
0542 I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my
0543 husband.
0544 215 And so much duty as my mother showed
0545 To you, preferring you before her father,
0546 So much I challenge that I may profess
0547 Due to the Moor my lord.
BRABANTIO 0548 God be with you! I have done.
0550 I had rather to adopt a child than get it.—
0551 Come hither, Moor.
0552 I here do give thee that with all my heart
0553 [Which, but thou hast already, with all my heart]
0554 225 I would keep from thee.—For your sake, jewel,
0555 I am glad at soul I have no other child,
0556 For thy escape would teach me tyranny,
0557 To hang clogs on them.—I have done, my lord.
DUKE
0558 Let me speak like yourself and lay a sentence,
0559 230 Which as a grise or step may help these lovers
0560 ⟨Into your favor.⟩
0561 When remedies are past, the griefs are ended
0562 By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended.
0563 To mourn a mischief that is past and gone
0564 235 Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
0565 What cannot be preserved when fortune takes,
0566 Patience her injury a mock’ry makes.
0567 The robbed that smiles steals something from the
0568 thief;
0569 240 He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.
BRABANTIO
0570 So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile,
0571 We lose it not so long as we can smile.
0572 He bears the sentence well that nothing bears
0573 But the free comfort which from thence he hears;
0574 245 But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow
0575 That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow.
0576 These sentences to sugar or to gall,
0577 Being strong on both sides, are equivocal.
0578 But words are words. I never yet did hear
0579 250 That the bruised heart was piercèd through the
0580 ⟨ear.⟩
0581 I humbly beseech you, proceed to th’ affairs of
0582 state.
0584 255 for Cyprus. Othello, the fortitude of the place is
0585 best known to you. And though we have there a
0586 substitute of most allowed sufficiency, yet opinion, a
0587 sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer
0588 voice on you. You must therefore be content to
0589 260 slubber the gloss of your new fortunes with this
0590 more stubborn and boist’rous expedition.
OTHELLO
0591 The tyrant custom, most grave senators,
0592 Hath made the flinty and steel ⌜couch⌝ of war
0593 My thrice-driven bed of down. I do agnize
0594 265 A natural and prompt alacrity
0595 I find in hardness, and do undertake
0596 This present wars against the Ottomites.
0597 Most humbly, therefore, bending to your state,
0598 I crave fit disposition for my wife,
0599 270 Due reference of place and exhibition,
0600 With such accommodation and besort
0601 As levels with her breeding.
DUKE
0602 Why, at her father’s.
BRABANTIO 0603 I will not have it so.
OTHELLO 0604 275Nor I.
DESDEMONA 0605 Nor would I there reside
0606 To put my father in impatient thoughts
0607 By being in his eye. Most gracious duke,
0608 To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear
0609 280 And let me find a charter in your voice
0610 T’ assist my simpleness.
DUKE 0611 What would you, Desdemona?
DESDEMONA
0612 That I love the Moor to live with him
0613 My downright violence and storm of fortunes
0614 285 May trumpet to the world. My heart’s subdued
0615 Even to the very quality of my lord.
0617 And to his honors and his valiant parts
0618 Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.
0619 290 So that, dear lords, if I be left behind,
0620 A moth of peace, and he go to the war,
0621 The rites for why I love him are bereft me
0622 And I a heavy interim shall support
0623 By his dear absence. Let me go with him.
OTHELLO 0624 295Let her have your voice.
0625 Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not
0626 To please the palate of my appetite,
0627 Nor to comply with heat (the young affects
0628 In ⌜me⌝ defunct) and proper satisfaction,
0629 300 But to be free and bounteous to her mind.
0630 And heaven defend your good souls that you think
0631 I will your serious and great business scant
0632 ⟨For⟩ she is with me. No, when light-winged toys
0633 Of feathered Cupid seel with wanton dullness
0634 305 My speculative and officed ⟨instruments,⟩
0635 That my disports corrupt and taint my business,
0636 Let housewives make a skillet of my helm,
0637 And all indign and base adversities
0638 Make head against my estimation.
DUKE
0639 310 Be it as you shall privately determine,
0640 Either for her stay or going. Th’ affair cries haste,
0641 And speed must answer it.
⌜FIRST⌝ SENATOR
0642 You must away tonight.
OTHELLO 0643 With all my
0644 315 heart.
DUKE
0645 At nine i’ th’ morning here we’ll meet again.
0646 Othello, leave some officer behind
0647 And he shall our commission bring to you,
0648 ⟨With⟩ such things else of quality and respect
0649 320 As doth import you.
0651 ancient.
0652 A man he is of honesty and trust.
0653 To his conveyance I assign my wife,
0654 325 With what else needful your good Grace shall think
0655 To be sent after me.
DUKE 0656 Let it be so.
0657 Good night to everyone. ⌜To Brabantio.⌝ And, noble
0658 signior,
0659 330 If virtue no delighted beauty lack,
0660 Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.
⟨FIRST⟩ SENATOR
0661 Adieu, brave Moor, use Desdemona well.
BRABANTIO
0662 Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see.
0663 She has deceived her father, and may thee.He exits.
OTHELLO
0664 335 My life upon her faith!
⌜The Duke, the Senators, Cassio, and Officers exit.⌝
0665 Honest Iago,
0666 My Desdemona must I leave to thee.
0667 I prithee let thy wife attend on her,
0668 And bring them after in the best advantage.—
0669 340 Come, Desdemona, I have but an hour
0670 Of love, of ⟨worldly matters,⟩ and direction
0671 To spend with thee. We must obey the time.
⟨Othello and Desdemona⟩ exit.
RODERIGO 0672 Iago—
IAGO 0673 What sayst thou, noble heart?
RODERIGO 0674 345What will I do, think’st thou?
IAGO 0675 Why, go to bed and sleep.
RODERIGO 0676 I will incontinently drown myself.
IAGO 0677 If thou dost, I shall never love thee after. Why,
0678 thou silly gentleman!
RODERIGO 0679 350It is silliness to live, when to live is torment,
0680 and then have we a prescription to die when death is
0681 our physician.
0683 four times seven years, and since I could distinguish
0684 355 betwixt a benefit and an injury, I never found
0685 man that knew how to love himself. Ere I would say
0686 I would drown myself for the love of a guinea hen, I
0687 would change my humanity with a baboon.
RODERIGO 0688 What should I do? I confess it is my shame
0689 360 to be so fond, but it is not in my virtue to amend it.
IAGO 0690 Virtue? A fig! ’Tis in ourselves that we are thus or
0691 thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our
0692 wills are gardeners. So that if we will plant nettles
0693 or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme,
0694 365 supply it with one gender of herbs or distract it
0695 with many, either to have it sterile with idleness or
0696 manured with industry, why the power and corrigible
0697 authority of this lies in our wills. If the ⟨balance⟩
0698 of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise
0699 370 another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our
0700 natures would conduct us to most prepost’rous
0701 conclusions. But we have reason to cool our raging
0702 motions, our carnal stings, ⟨our⟩ unbitted lusts—
0703 whereof I take this that you call love to be a sect, or
0704 375 scion.
RODERIGO 0705 It cannot be.
IAGO 0706 It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission
0707 of the will. Come, be a man! Drown thyself? Drown
0708 cats and blind puppies. I have professed me thy
0709 380 friend, and I confess me knit to thy deserving
0710 with cables of perdurable toughness. I could never
0711 better stead thee than now. Put money in thy purse.
0712 Follow thou the wars; defeat thy favor with an
0713 usurped beard. I say, put money in thy purse. It
0714 385 cannot be that Desdemona should ⟨long⟩ continue
0715 her love to the Moor—put money in thy purse—
0716 nor he his to her. It was a violent commencement in
0717 her, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration
0719 390 changeable in their wills. Fill thy purse with money.
0720 The food that to him now is as luscious as locusts
0721 shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida.
0722 She must change for youth. When she is sated
0723 with his body she will find the ⟨error⟩ of her choice.
0724 395 Therefore, put money in thy purse. If thou wilt
0725 needs damn thyself, do it a more delicate way than
0726 drowning. Make all the money thou canst. If sanctimony
0727 and a frail vow betwixt an erring barbarian
0728 and ⟨a⟩ supersubtle Venetian be not too hard for my
0729 400 wits and all the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her.
0730 Therefore make money. A pox of drowning thyself!
0731 It is clean out of the way. Seek thou rather to be
0732 hanged in compassing thy joy than to be drowned
0733 and go without her.
RODERIGO 0734 405Wilt thou be fast to my hopes if I depend on
0735 the issue?
IAGO 0736 Thou art sure of me. Go, make money. I have
0737 told thee often, and I retell thee again and again, I
0738 hate the Moor. My cause is hearted; thine hath no
0739 410 less reason. Let us be conjunctive in our revenge
0740 against him. If thou canst cuckold him, thou dost
0741 thyself a pleasure, me a sport. There are many
0742 events in the womb of time which will be delivered.
0743 Traverse, go, provide thy money. We will have more
0744 415 of this tomorrow. Adieu.
RODERIGO 0745 Where shall we meet i’ th’ morning?
IAGO 0746 At my lodging.
RODERIGO 0747 I’ll be with thee betimes.
IAGO 0748 Go to, farewell. Do you hear, Roderigo?
⟨RODERIGO 0749 420What say you?
IAGO 0750 No more of drowning, do you hear?
RODERIGO 0751 I am changed.
IAGO 0752 Go to, farewell. Put money enough in your
0753 purse.⟩
IAGO
0755 Thus do I ever make my fool my purse.
0756 For I mine own gained knowledge should profane
0757 If I would time expend with such ⟨a⟩ snipe
0758 But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor,
0759 430 And it is thought abroad that ’twixt my sheets
0760 ’Has done my office. I know not if ’t be true,
0761 But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
0762 Will do as if for surety. He holds me well.
0763 The better shall my purpose work on him.
0764 435 Cassio’s a proper man. Let me see now:
0765 To get his place and to plume up my will
0766 In double knavery—How? how?—Let’s see.
0767 After some time, to abuse Othello’s ⟨ear⟩
0768 That he is too familiar with his wife.
0769 440 He hath a person and a smooth dispose
0770 To be suspected, framed to make women false.
0771 The Moor is of a free and open nature
0772 That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,
0773 And will as tenderly be led by th’ nose
0774 445 As asses are.
0775 I have ’t. It is engendered. Hell and night
0776 Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light.
⟨He exits.⟩