Othello: Act 1, Scene 1
Enter RODERIGO and IAGO.
RODERIGO
1. never tell me: don't talk to me.
1
Tush! never tell me; I take it much unkindly
2
That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse
3. this: i.e., Othello's marriage to Desdemona.
3
As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.
IAGO
4. 'Sblood: by God's (Christ's) blood.
4
'Sblood, but you will not hear me:
5
If ever I did dream of such a matter,
6. abhor me: i.e., loathe and abominate me.
6
Abhor me.
RODERIGO
7
Thou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy hate.
IAGO
8
Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city,
9
In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
10. Off-capp'd to him: Took off their caps to him, i.e., Othello
10
Off-capp'd to him: and, by the faith of man,
11
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place.
12
But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
13. bombast circumstance: wordy rigmarole. Bombast was cotton stuffing used in padded clothing. 14. epithets of war: military jargon.
13
Evades them, with a bombast circumstance
14
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;
15
And, in conclusion,
16. Nonsuits: rejects, refuses. Certes: certainly.
16
Nonsuits my mediators; for, "Certes," says he,
17
"I have already chose my officer."
18
And what was he?
19. arithmetician: i.e., one adept at figures, not at fighting; implying that Cassio's knowledge of war is purely theoretical, based on books of tactics. 21. almost damn'd in a fair wife: We never hear another mention of Cassio's wife, and when the scene . . . more 23. division: arrangement. battle: battalion. 24. spinster: i.e., housewife (one of whose duties was spinning). theoric: theory. 25. toged: wearing togas (dressed for the council-chamber, not the battlefield). consuls: senators. propose: discuss, talk.
19
Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
20
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
21
A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife,
22
That never set a squadron in the field,
23
Nor the division of a battle knows
24
More than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric,
25
Wherein the toged consuls can propose
26
As masterly as he. Mere prattle, without practise,
27
Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election:
28. his eyes: i.e., Othello's eyes.
28
And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof
29
At Rhodes, at Cyprus and on other grounds
30. be be-lee'd and calm'd: have the wind taken out of my sails and be left becalmed. 31. debitor and creditor: i.e., bookkeeper. counter-caster: accountant; . . . more 32. in good time: Ironic, i.e., forsooth. 33. ancient: ensign, standard-bearer.
30
Christian and heathen, must be be-lee'd and calm'd
31
By debitor and creditor this counter-caster,
32
He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,
33
And I God bless the mark! his Moorship's ancient.
RODERIGO
34. his hangman: the one to hang him.
34
By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman.
IAGO
35
Why, there's no remedy; 'tis the curse of service,
36. Preferment: advancement. letter and affection: private recommendation and favoritism. 37. old gradation: seniority, as in the good old days.
36
Preferment goes by letter and affection,
37
And not by old gradation, where each second
38
Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself,
39. term: respect. affined: bound.
39
Whether I in any just term am affined
40
To love the Moor.
RODERIGO
40
I would not follow him then.
IAGO
41. content you: calm yourself.
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. cashier'd: dismissed from service.
48
For nought but provender, and when he's old, cashier'd:
49
Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are
50. trimm'd in forms and visages of duty: wearing the manners and countenance of humble service.
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 lin'd their coats
54
Do themselves homage. These fellows have some soul;
55
And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,
56
It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
57
Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago.
58
In following him, I follow but myself;
59
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
60. peculiar: particular, personal, private.
60
But seeming so, for my peculiar end:
61
For when my outward action doth demonstrate
62. figure: shape.
62
The native act and figure of my heart
63. compliment extern: external show corresponding to these hidden motives.
63
In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
64
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
65
For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.
RODERIGO
66. thick-lips: i.e., Othello (Elizabethans often applied the term "Moor" to Blacks). owe: own. 67. carry't thus: carry this off.
66
What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe
67
If he can carry't thus!
IAGO
67
Call up her father,
68
Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight,
69
Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,
70. though he in a fertile climate dwell: i.e., though his general situation is a fortunate one. Climate = region, country. 71. flies: i.e., petty annoyances. . . . more 72. changes of vexation: vexatious changes. 73. may lose some color: i.e., may lose some of its fresh gloss or appearance (of happiness).
70
And, though he in a fertile climate dwell,
71
Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,
72
Yet throw such changes of vexation on't,
73
As it may lose some color.
RODERIGO
74
Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud.
IAGO
75. timorous: terrifying.
75
Do, with like timorous accent and dire yell
76. by night and negligence: at night and as the result of negligence.
76
As when, by night and negligence, the fire
77
Is spied in populous cities.
RODERIGO
78
What, ho, Brabantio! Signior Brabantio, ho!
IAGO
79
Awake! what, ho, Brabantio! thieves! thieves! thieves!
80
Look to your house, your daughter and your bags!
81
Thieves! thieves!
[Enter BRABANTIO] above [at a window].
BRABANTIO
82
What is the reason of this terrible summons?
83
What is the matter there?
RODERIGO
84
Signior, is all your family within?
IAGO
85
Are your doors lock'd?
BRABANTIO
85
Why, wherefore ask you this?
IAGO
86. 'Zounds: by God's (Christ's) wounds.
86
'Zounds, sir, you're robb'd; for shame, put on your gown;
87
Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;
88
Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
89. tupping: copulating with (said of sheep).
89
Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise;
90. snorting: snoring.
90
Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
91
Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:
92
Arise, I say.
BRABANTIO
92
What, have you lost your wits?
RODERIGO
93
Most reverend signior, do you know my voice?
BRABANTIO
94
Not I; what are you?
RODERIGO
95
My name is Roderigo.
BRABANTIO
95
The worser welcome:
96
I have charged thee not to haunt about my doors:
97
In honest plainness thou hast heard me say
98
My daughter is not for thee; and now, in madness,
99. distempering: disordering, intoxicating.
99
Being full of supper and distempering draughts,
100. Upon malicious bravery: with hostile intent to defy me. 101. start: disrupt, startle.
100
Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come
101
To start my quiet.
RODERIGO
102
Sir, sir, sir,
BRABANTIO
102
But thou must needs be sure
103
My spirit and my place have in them power
104
To make this bitter to thee.
RODERIGO
104
Patience, good sir.
BRABANTIO
105
What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is Venice;
106. a grange: an isolated farmhouse.
106
My house is not a grange.
RODERIGO
106
Most grave Brabantio,
107. simple: sincere.
107
In simple and pure soul I come to you.
IAGO
108
'Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will not
109
serve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to
110
do you service and you think we are ruffians, you'll
111
have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse;
112. nephews: i.e., grandsons.
112
you'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have
113. coursers: powerful horses. cousins: kinsmen. gennets: small Spanish horses. germans: close relatives.
113
coursers for cousins and gennets for germans.
BRABANTIO
114
What profane wretch art thou?
IAGO
115
I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter
116
and the Moor are now making the beast with two
117
backs.
BRABANTIO
118. villain: base fellow.
118
Thou art a villain.
IAGO
118
You are a senator.
BRABANTIO
119. answer: be held answerable for.
119
This thou shalt answer; I know thee, Roderigo.
RODERIGO
120
Sir, I will answer any thing. But, I beseech you,
121
If't be your pleasure and most wise consent,
122
As partly I find it is, that your fair daughter,
123. odd-even: i.e., about midnight, when there is scarcely any distinction . . . more 124. with: by.
123
At this odd-even and dull watch o' the night,
124
Transported, with no worse nor better guard
125. but: than.
125
But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,
126
To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor
127. allowance: permission, approval.
127
If this be known to you and your allowance,
128. saucy: insolent.
128
We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;
129
But if you know not this, my manners tell me
130
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe
131. from the sense of all civility: contrary to all sense of decency.
131
That, from the sense of all civility,
132
I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:
133
Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,
134
I say again, hath made a gross revolt;
135
Tying her duty, beauty, wit and fortunes
136. extravagant: expatriate; literally, wandering beyond his limits. wheeling: roving. stranger: foreigner. 137. Straight: straightway.
136
In an extravagant and wheeling stranger
137
Of here and every where. Straight satisfy yourself:
138
If she be in her chamber or your house,
139
Let loose on me the justice of the state
140
For thus deluding you.
BRABANTIO
140. tinder: charred linen ignited by a spark from flint and steel, used to light torches.
140
Strike on the tinder, ho!
141
Give me a taper! call up all my people!
142. accident: occurrence, event.
142
This accident is not unlike my dream:
143
Belief of it oppresses me already.
144
Light, I say! light!
Exit [above].
IAGO
144
Farewell; for I must leave you:
145
It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place,
146. producted: produced, brought forward (to give evidence).
146
To be produced as, if I stay, I shall
147
Against the Moor: for, I do know, the state,
148. gall him with some check: bring on him some irritating rebuke (gall = rub sore, check = rebuke). 149. cast: dismiss. 150. loud reason: i.e., evident rightness of choice.
148
How ever this may gall him with some check,
149
Cannot with safety cast him, for he's embark'd
150
With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars,
151. stands in act: are under way.
151
Which even now stand in act, that, for their souls,
152. fathom: i.e., capability, depth of experience.
152
Another of his fathom they have none,
153. in which regard: because of which consideration.
153
To lead their business; in which regard,
154
Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains,
155
Yet, for necessity of present life,
156
I must show out a flag and sign of love,
157
Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely find him,
158. Sagittary: an inn where Othello and Desdemona are staying (so called because its sign bore the conventional figure of Sagittarius, the Archera Centaur shooting an arrow). raised search: party of searchers who have been roused from their beds.
158
Lead to the Sagittary the raised search;
159
And there will I be with him. So, farewell.
Exit.
Enter [below] BRABANTIO,
with SERVANTS and torches.
BRABANTIO
160
It is too true an evil: gone she is;
161. what's to come of my despised time: the hateful remainder of my life.
161
And what's to come of my despised time
162
Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo,
163
Where didst thou see her? O unhappy girl!
164
With the Moor, say'st thou? Who would be a father!
165
How didst thou know 'twas she? O she deceives me
166. moe: more.
166
Past thought! What said she to you? Get moe tapers:
167
Raise all my kindred. Are they married, think you?
RODERIGO
168
Truly, I think they are.
BRABANTIO
169. of the blood: within the family.
169
O heaven! How got she out? O treason of the blood!
170
Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds
171. charms: magic spells.
171
By what you see them act. Is there not charms
172. property: special quality, nature.
s172
By which the property of youth and maidhood
173. abused: deceived.
173
May be abused? Have you not read, Roderigo,
174
Of some such thing?
RODERIGO
174
Yes, sir, I have indeed.
BRABANTIO
175
Call up my brother. O, would you had had her!
176
Some one way, some another. Do you know
177
Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?
RODERIGO
178. discover: uncover, bring to light.
178
I think I can discover him, if you please,
179
To get good guard and go along with me.
BRABANTIO
180
Pray you, lead on. At every house I'll call;
181. I may command at most: i.e., I can be sure of help from most of them.
181
I may command at most. Get weapons, ho!
182
And raise some special officers of night.
183. deserve: i.e., show gratitude for, reward.
183
On, good Roderigo: I'll deserve your pains.
Exeunt.