For that I heard the clink and fall of swords,
And Cassio high in oath, which, till to-night,
I ne'er might say before. When I came back,
(For this was brief) I found them close together,
At blow and thrust, even as again they were,
When you yourself did part them.

More of this matter can I not report :

But men are men; the best sometimes forget.
Though Cassio did some little wrong to him,
As men in rage strike those that wish them best,
Yet, surely, Cassio, I believe, received

From him that fled some strange indignity,
Which patience could not pass.

I know, Iago,

Oth.
Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter,
Making it light to Cassio. - Cassio, I love thee;
But never more be officer of mine.-

Enter DESDEMONA, attended.

Look, if my gentle love be not rais'd up!—

I'll make thee an example.

Des.

What's the matter"?"

Oth. All's well now, sweeting; come away to bed.Sir, for your hurts, myself will be your surgeon.Lead him off*.

Iago, look with care about the town,

--

[MONTANO is led off.

And silence those whom this vile brawl distracted.

Come, Desdemona; 'tis the soldiers' life,

To have their balmy slumbers wak'd with strife.

[Exeunt all but IAGO and CASSIO.

Iago. What, are you hurt, lieutenant ?

Cas. Ay, past all surgery.

Iago. Marry, heaven forbid!

Cas. Reputation, reputation, reputation!

Oh! I have

lost my reputation. I have lost the immortal part of myself,

3 What's the matter?] The folio, in opposition to the two 4tos, inserts dear after "matter," to the injury of the line. In the next line it omits "now," necessary to the metre, and found in both the 4tos: it however regulates the lines somewhat differently.

* Lead him off.] Malone was "persuaded" that these words were a stagedirection they are in all the old copies as part of the text, and there is no sufficient reason for not continuing them there.

5

REPUTATION! Oh!] This third "reputation," and the following interjection, are from the folio.

and what remains is bestial.-My reputation, Iago, my reputation!

Iago. As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some bodily wound; there is more offence in that, than in reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving: you have lost no reputation at all, unless you repute yourself such a loser. What, man! there are ways to recover the general again you are but now cast in his mood, a punishment more in policy than in malice; even so as one would beat his offenceless dog, to affright an imperious lion. Sue to him again, and he's your's.

Cas. I will rather sue to be despised, than to deceive so good a commander, with so light, so drunken, and so indiscreet an officer. Drunk? and speak parrot? and squabble? swagger? swear? and discourse fustian with one's own shadow ?-Oh, thou invisible spirit of wine! if thou hast not name to be known by, let us call thee-devil.

Iago. What was he that you followed with your sword? What had he done to you?

Cas. I know not.

Iago. Is't possible?

Cas. I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly ; a quarrel, but nothing wherefore.-Oh God! that men should put an enemy in their mouths, to steal away their brains! that we should, with joy, revel, pleasure, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!

Iago. Why, but you are now well enough: how came you thus recovered?

Cas. It hath pleased the devil, drunkenness, to give place to the devil, wrath: one unperfectness shows me another, to make me frankly despise myself.

Iago. Come, you are too severe a moraler. As the time, the place, and the condition of this country stands, I could heartily wish this had not befallen; but, since it is as it is, mend it for your own good.

6- there is more OFFENCE in that,] So both the 4tos: the folio, "there is more sense in that."

7 - with so LIGHT,] The folio alone has "with so slight.”

Cassio means

"speak

8 Drunk?] From this word to " one's own shadow" is in the folio, and in the 4to, 1630, but not in the 4to, 1622. By "speak parrot like a parrot"-without sense.

9

PLEASURE,] The folio, pleasance, with some other variations of compara. tively little importance.

Cas. I will ask him for my place again: he shall tell me, I am a drunkard. Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would stop them all. To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast! Oh strange!-Every inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is a devil.

Iago. Come, come; good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used: exclaim no more against it. And, good lieutenant, I think, you think I love you.

Cas. I have well approved it, sir.-I drunk!

man.

Iago. You, or any man living, may be drunk at some time, I'll tell you what you shall do. Our general's wife is now the general:-I may say so in this respect, for that he hath devoted and given up himself to the contemplation, mark, and denotement of her parts and graces' :-confess yourself freely to her; importune her, she'll help to put you in your place again. She is of so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition, that she holds it a vice in her goodness, not to do more than she is requested. This broken joint' between you and her husband entreat her to splinter, and my fortunes against any lay worth naming, this crack of your love shall grow stronger than it was before.

Cas. You advise me well.

Iago. I protest, in the sincerity of love, and honest kindness. Cas. I think it freely; and, betimes in the morning, I will beseech the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me. I am desperate of my fortunes, if they check me here.

Iago. You are in the right. Good night, lieutenant; I must to the watch.

Cas. Good night, honest Iago.

[Exit CASSIO.

Iago. And what's he, then, that says I play the villain,
When this advice is free I give, and honest,
Probal to thinking', and, indeed, the course
To win the Moor again? For 'tis most easy

1

and DENOTEMENT of her parts and graces:] It is "deuotement of her parts and graces "in the folios and 4tos, the misprint of the one having been copied into the other. We formerly were disposed to think devotement right, and so printed it even now we consider it a case of much doubt, but we yield to the ⚫ reasons in favour of "denotement," which originated with Theobald.

:

"This brawl," in the 4to, 1622, only.

2 This BROKEN JOINT] PROBAL to thinking,] "Probal" is a colloquial contraction for probable, and although we have not met with it in other writers, words of a corresponding character and form may be pointed out: thus in Painter's "Palace of Pleasure," i. 151, we have "miseral" for miserable, and in B. Rich's "Dialogue between Mercury and a Soldier," 1574, Sign. H b. we have "varial" for variable.

The inclining Desdemona to subdue

In any honest suit: she's fram'd as fruitful
As the free elements. And, then, for her

To win the Moor, were't to renounce his baptism,
All seals and symbols of redeemed sin,—

His soul is so enfetter'd to her love,

That she may make, unmake, do what she list,
Even as her appetite shall play the god

With his weak function.

How am I, then, a villain,

To counsel Cassio to this parallel course,
Directly to his good?

Divinity of hell!

When devils will their blackest sins put on,
They do suggest at first with heavenly shows,
As I do now; for whiles this honest fool
Plies Desdemona to repair his fortunes,
And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor,
I'll pour this pestilence into his ear,—
That she repeals him for her body's lust;
And, by how much she strives to do him good,
She shall undo her credit with the Moor:

So will I turn her virtue into pitch,

And out of her own goodness make the net,

That shall enmesh them all.-How now, Roderigo!

Enter RODERIGO.

Rod. I do follow here in the chase, not like a hound that hunts, but one that fills up the cry. My money is almost spent: I have been to-night exceedingly well cudgelled; and, I think, the issue will be-I shall have so much experience for my pains, and so, with no money at all, and a little more wit, return again to Venice'.

Iago. How poor are they, that have not patience!

4 They do SUGGEST] i. e. Tempt. We have already had the word so frequently in this sense, that it is not necessary to refer to particular passages. To "put on," in the previous line, means, as many times before, to instigate.

5 That she REPEALS him] i. e. Recalls him; its etymological sense. To "repeal a statute is to recall it.

That shall ENMESH them all.] The folio, for "enmesh," has en-mash; but the sense corrects the literal misprint.

and so, with no money at all, and a little more wit, return AGAIN to Venice.] Most modern editors omit "again," with a view, we suppose, of correcting an imaginary pleonasm by Shakespeare. In the 4to, 1622, the passage runs as follows:-" I shall have so much experience for my pains as that comes to, and no money at all, and with that wit return to Venice."

What wound did ever heal, but by degrees?
Thou know'st, we work by wit, and not by witchcraft;
And wit depends on dilatory time.

Does 't not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee,
And thou by that small hurt hast cashier'd Cassio.
Though other things grow fair against the sun,
Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe:
Content thyself a while.-By the mass, 'tis morning;
Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.
Retire thee; go where thou art billeted:

Away, I say; thou shalt know more hereafter:

Nay, get thee gone. [Exit ROD.] Two things are to be done. My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress;

I'll set her on:

Myself, the while, to draw the Moor apart,
And bring him jump' when he may Cassio find
Soliciting his wife.-Ay, that's the way:
Dull not device by coldness and delay.

[Exit.

ACT III. SCENE I.

Before the Castle.

Enter CASSIO, and some Musicians.

Cas. Masters, play here, I will content your pains: Something that's brief; and bid good-morrow, general.

Enter Clown.

[Music.

Clo. Why, masters, have your instruments been in Naples, that they squeak i' the nose thus ??

1 Mus. How, sir, how?

8 BY THE MASS, 'tis morning ;] The folio has In troth for "By the mass." Myself, THE while,] All the old copies read, "a while," but Theobald's

slight alteration was at least judicious, if not necessary.

1 And bring him JUMP] i. e. Exactly, at the precise moment: the corr. fo. 1632 has where for "when," but it is probably wrong, since Iago is adverting more to time, than to place.

2

that they SQUEAK i' the nose thus ?] "Speak in the nose " in the folios and 4tos, and perhaps rightly, but the corr. fo. 1632 has “squeak" for speak; and recollecting that the turning of the letter p would make the chief difference, we