SCENE I. Venice. A street. Othello, the Moore of Venice  Shakespeare homepage  |  Othello  | Act 1, Scene 1 

 Next scene  SCENE I. Venice. A street. 

 Enter RODERIGO and IAGO  RODERIGO  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. 

 RODERIGO  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, 

 Off-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, 

 '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 practise, 

 Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the 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. 

 RODERIGO  By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman. 

 IAGO  Why, there's no remedy; 'tis the curse of service, 

 Preferment goes by letter and affection, 

 And not by old gradation, where each second 

 Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself, 

 Whether I in any just term am affined 

 To love the Moor. 

 RODERIGO  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 

 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 on their lords, 

 Do well thrive by them and when they have lined 

 their coats 

 Do themselves homage: these fellows have some 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 Iago: 

 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. 

 RODERIGO  What a full fortune does the thicklips owe 

 If he can carry't thus! 

 IAGO  Call up her father, 

 Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight, 

 Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen, 

 And, though he in a fertile climate dwell, 

 Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy, 

 Yet throw such changes of vexation on't, 

 As it may lose some colour. 

 RODERIGO  Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud. 

 IAGO  Do, with like timorous accent and dire yell 

 As when, by night and negligence, the fire 

 Is spied in populous cities. 

 RODERIGO  What, ho, Brabantio! Signior Brabantio, ho! 

 IAGO  Awake! what, ho, Brabantio! thieves! thieves! thieves! 

 Look to your house, your daughter and your bags! 

 Thieves! thieves! 



 BRABANTIO appears above, at a window  BRABANTIO  What is the reason of this terrible summons? 

 What is the matter there? 

 RODERIGO  Signior, is all your family within? 

 IAGO  Are your doors lock'd? 

 BRABANTIO  Why, wherefore ask you this? 

 IAGO  'Zounds, sir, you're robb'd; for shame, put on 

 your gown; 

 Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul; 

 Even now, now, very now, an old black ram 

 Is topping your white ewe. Arise, arise; 

 Awake the snorting citizens with the bell, 

 Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you: 

 Arise, I say. 

 BRABANTIO  What, have you lost your wits? 

 RODERIGO  Most reverend signior, do you know my voice? 

 BRABANTIO  Not I	what are you? 

 RODERIGO  My name is Roderigo. 

 BRABANTIO  The worser welcome: 

 I have charged thee not to haunt about my doors: 

 In honest plainness thou hast heard me say 

 My daughter is not for thee; and now, in madness, 

 Being full of supper and distempering draughts, 

 Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come 

 To start my quiet. 

 RODERIGO  Sir, sir, sir,-- 

 BRABANTIO  But thou must needs be sure 

 My spirit and my place have in them power 

 To make this bitter to thee. 

 RODERIGO  Patience, good sir. 

 BRABANTIO  What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is Venice; 

 My house is not a grange. 

 RODERIGO  Most grave Brabantio, 

 In simple and pure soul I come to you. 

 IAGO  'Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will not 

 serve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to 

 do you service and you think we are ruffians, you'll 

 have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse; 

 you'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have 

 coursers for cousins and gennets for germans. 

 BRABANTIO  What profane wretch art thou? 

 IAGO  I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter 

 and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs. 

 BRABANTIO  Thou art a villain. 

 IAGO  You are--a senator. 

 BRABANTIO  This thou shalt answer; I know thee, Roderigo. 

 RODERIGO  Sir, I will answer any thing. But, I beseech you, 

 If't be your pleasure and most wise consent, 

 As partly I find it is, that your fair daughter, 

 At this odd-even and dull watch o' the night, 

 Transported, with no worse nor better guard 

 But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier, 

 To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor-- 

 If this be known to you and your allowance, 

 We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs; 

 But if you know not this, my manners tell me 

 We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe 

 That, from the sense of all civility, 

 I thus would play and trifle with your reverence: 

 Your daughter, if you have not given her leave, 

 I say again, hath made a gross revolt; 

 Tying her duty, beauty, wit and fortunes 

 In an extravagant and wheeling stranger 

 Of here and every where. Straight satisfy yourself: 

 If she be in her chamber or your house, 

 Let loose on me the justice of the state 

 For thus deluding you. 

 BRABANTIO  Strike on the tinder, ho! 

 Give me a taper! call up all my people! 

 This accident is not unlike my dream: 

 Belief of it oppresses me already. 

 Light, I say! light! 



 Exit above  IAGO  Farewell; for I must leave you: 

 It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place, 

 To be produced--as, if I stay, I shall-- 

 Against the Moor: for, I do know, the state, 

 However this may gall him with some cheque, 

 Cannot with safety cast him, for he's embark'd 

 With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars, 

 Which even now stand in act, that, for their souls, 

 Another of his fathom they have none, 

 To lead their business: in which regard, 

 Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains. 

 Yet, for necessity of present life, 

 I must show out a flag and sign of love, 

 Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely find him, 

 Lead to the Sagittary the raised search; 

 And there will I be with him. So, farewell. 



 Exit 

 Enter, below, BRABANTIO, and Servants with torches  BRABANTIO  It is too true an evil: gone she is; 

 And what's to come of my despised time 

 Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo, 

 Where didst thou see her? O unhappy girl! 

 With the Moor, say'st thou? Who would be a father! 

 How didst thou know 'twas she? O she deceives me 

 Past thought! What said she to you? Get more tapers: 

 Raise all my kindred. Are they married, think you? 

 RODERIGO  Truly, I think they are. 

 BRABANTIO  O heaven! How got she out? O treason of the blood! 

 Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds 

 By what you see them act. Is there not charms 

 By which the property of youth and maidhood 

 May be abused? Have you not read, Roderigo, 

 Of some such thing? 

 RODERIGO  Yes, sir, I have indeed. 

 BRABANTIO  Call up my brother. O, would you had had her! 

 Some one way, some another. Do you know 

 Where we may apprehend her and the Moor? 

 RODERIGO  I think I can discover him, if you please, 

 To get good guard and go along with me. 

 BRABANTIO  Pray you, lead on. At every house I'll call; 

 I may command at most. Get weapons, ho! 

 And raise some special officers of night. 

 On, good Roderigo: I'll deserve your pains. 



 Exeunt  Shakespeare homepage  |  Othello  | Act 1, Scene 1 

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