1    Tush! never tell me; I take it much unkindly
2    That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse
3    As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.

4    'Sblood, but you will not hear me:
5    If ever I did dream of such a matter, Abhor me.

6    Thou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy hate.

7    Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city,
8    In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
9    Off-capp'd to him: and, by the faith of man,
10   I know my price, I am worth no worse a place:
11   But he; as loving his own pride and purposes,
12   Evades them, with a bombast circumstance
13   Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;
14   And, in conclusion,
15   Nonsuits my mediators; for, 'Certes,' says he,
16   'I have already chose my officer.'
17   And what was he?
18   Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
19   One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
20   A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;
21   That never set a squadron in the field,
22   Nor the division of a battle knows
23   More than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric,
24   Wherein the toged consuls can propose
25   As masterly as he: mere prattle, without practise,
26   Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election:
27   And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof
28   At Rhodes, at Cyprus and on other grounds
29   Christian and heathen, must be be-lee'd and calm'd
30   By debitor and creditor: this counter-caster,
31   He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,
32   And I--God bless the mark!--his Moorship's ancient.

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

34   Why, there's no remedy; 'tis the curse of service,
35   Preferment goes by letter and affection,
36   And not by old gradation, where each second
37   Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself,
38   Whether I in any just term am affined
39   To love the Moor.

40   I would not follow him then.

41   O, sir, content you;
42   I follow him to serve my turn upon him:
43   We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
44   Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
45   Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
46   That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
47   Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
48   For nought but provender, and when he's old, cashier'd:
49   Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are
50   Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty,
51   Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves,
52   And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
53   Do well thrive by them and when they have lined
54   their coats
55   Do themselves homage: these fellows have some soul;
56   And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,
57   It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
58   Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
59   In following him, I follow but myself;
60   Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
61   But seeming so, for my peculiar end:
62   For when my outward action doth demonstrate
63   The native act and figure of my heart
64   In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
65   But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
66   For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.

67   What a full fortune does the thicklips owe
68   If he can carry't thus!

69   Call up her father,
70   Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight,
71   Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,
72   And, though he in a fertile climate dwell,
73   Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,
74   Yet throw such changes of vexation on't,
75   As it may lose some colour.

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

77   Do, with like timorous accent and dire yell
78   As when, by night and negligence, the fire
79   Is spied in populous cities.

80   What, ho, Brabantio! Signior Brabantio, ho!

81   Awake! what, ho, Brabantio! thieves! thieves! thieves!
82   Look to your house, your daughter and your bags!
83   Thieves! thieves!

84   What is the reason of this terrible summons?
85   What is the matter there?

86   Signior, is all your family within?

87   Are your doors lock'd?

88   Why, wherefore ask you this?

89   'Zounds, sir, you're robb'd; for shame, put on
90   your gown;
91   Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;
92   Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
93   Is topping your white ewe. Arise, arise;
94   Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
95   Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:
96   Arise, I say.

97   What, have you lost your wits?

98   Most reverend signior, do you know my voice?

99   Not I what are you?

100  My name is Roderigo.

101  The worser welcome:
102  I have charged thee not to haunt about my doors:
103  In honest plainness thou hast heard me say
104  My daughter is not for thee; and now, in madness,
105  Being full of supper and distempering draughts,
106  Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come
107  To start my quiet.

108  Sir, sir, sir,--

109  But thou must needs be sure
110  My spirit and my place have in them power
111  To make this bitter to thee.

112  Patience, good sir.

113  What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is Venice;
114  My house is not a grange.

115  Most grave Brabantio,
116  In simple and pure soul I come to you.

117  'Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will not
118  serve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to
119  do you service and you think we are ruffians, you'll
120  have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse;
121  you'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have
122  coursers for cousins and gennets for germans.

123  What profane wretch art thou?

124  I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter
125  and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.

126  Thou art a villain.

127  You are--a senator.

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

129  Sir, I will answer any thing. But, I beseech you,
130  If't be your pleasure and most wise consent,
131  As partly I find it is, that your fair daughter,
132  At this odd-even and dull watch o' the night,
133  Transported, with no worse nor better guard
134  But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,
135  To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor--
136  If this be known to you and your allowance,
137  We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;
138  But if you know not this, my manners tell me
139  We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe
140  That, from the sense of all civility,
141  I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:
142  Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,
143  I say again, hath made a gross revolt;
144  Tying her duty, beauty, wit and fortunes
145  In an extravagant and wheeling stranger
146  Of here and every where. Straight satisfy yourself:
147  If she be in her chamber or your house,
148  Let loose on me the justice of the state
149  For thus deluding you.

150  Strike on the tinder, ho!
151  Give me a taper! call up all my people!
152  This accident is not unlike my dream:
153  Belief of it oppresses me already.
154  Light, I say! light!

155  Farewell; for I must leave you:
156  It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place,
157  To be produced--as, if I stay, I shall--
158  Against the Moor: for, I do know, the state,
159  However this may gall him with some cheque,
160  Cannot with safety cast him, for he's embark'd
161  With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars,
162  Which even now stand in act, that, for their souls,
163  Another of his fathom they have none,
164  To lead their business: in which regard,
165  Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains.
166  Yet, for necessity of present life,
167  I must show out a flag and sign of love,
168  Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely find him,
169  Lead to the Sagittary the raised search;
170  And there will I be with him. So, farewell.

171  It is too true an evil: gone she is;
172  And what's to come of my despised time
173  Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo,
174  Where didst thou see her? O unhappy girl!
175  With the Moor, say'st thou? Who would be a father!
176  How didst thou know 'twas she? O she deceives me
177  Past thought! What said she to you? Get more tapers:
178  Raise all my kindred. Are they married, think you?

179  Truly, I think they are.

180  O heaven! How got she out? O treason of the blood!
181  Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds
182  By what you see them act. Is there not charms
183  By which the property of youth and maidhood
184  May be abused? Have you not read, Roderigo,
185  Of some such thing?

186  Yes, sir, I have indeed.

187  Call up my brother. O, would you had had her!
188  Some one way, some another. Do you know
189  Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?

190  I think I can discover him, if you please,
191  To get good guard and go along with me.

192  Pray you, lead on. At every house I'll call;
193  I may command at most. Get weapons, ho!
194  And raise some special officers of night.
195  On, good Roderigo: I'll deserve your pains.