Which they dare swear peculiar; your case is better.
O, 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock,
To lip a wanton in a secure couch3,

And to suppose her chaste! No, let me know;
And, knowing what I am, I know what she shall be.
Oth. O, thou art wise; 'tis certain.

Iago.

Stand you awhile apart;
Confine yourself but in a patient list9.
Whilst you were here, ere while mad 10 with your
grief

(A passion most unsuiting such a man),
Cassio came hither: I shifted him away,
And laid good 'scuse upon your ecstasy;
Bade him anon return, and here speak with me;
The which he promis'd. Do but encave
11 yourself,
And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns,
That dwell in every region of his face 12
12;
For I will make him tell the tale anew,-
Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when
He hath, and is again to cope your wife:

I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience;
Or I shall say, you are all in all in spleen,
And nothing of a man.

Oth.
I will be found most cunning in my patience;
But (dost thou hear?) most bloody.

Dost thou hear, Iago?

Iago. That's not amiss; But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw? [OTHELLO withdraws.

8 In a couch in which he is lulled into a false security and confidence in his wife's virtue: a Latin sense. So in The Merry Wives of Windsor:-Though Page be a secure fool, and stands so firmly on his wife's frailty,' &c. See vol, vii. p. 421, note 9. 9 i. e. within the bounds of patience.

10 The folio reads o'erwhelmed with your grief.'

11 Hide yourself in a private place.

12 Congreve might have had this passage in his memory when he made Lady Touchwood say to Maskwell, Ten thousand meanings lurk in each corner of that various face.'

Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,

A housewife, that, by selling her desires,

Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature,
That dotes on Cassio,—as 'tis the strumpet's plague,
To beguile many, and be beguil❜d by one;
He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain
From the excess of laughter!-Here he comes:-
Re-enter CASSIO.

As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;
And his unbookish 13 jealousy must construe
Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures, and light behaviour
Quite in the wrong.- How do you now, lieutenant?
Cas. The worser, that you give me the addition,
Whose want even kills me.

Iago. Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure of't. Now, if this suit lay in Bianca's power,

How quickly should you speed?

[Speaking lower.

Cas.
Alas, poor caitiff!
Oth. Look, how he laughs already! [Aside.
Iago. I never knew a woman love man so.
Cas. Alas, poor rogue! I think i'faith she loves me.
Oth. Now he denies it faintly, and laughs it out.

Iago. Do you hear, Cassio?

[Aside.

Oth. Now he importunes him To tell it o'er: Go to; well said, well said. [Aside. Iago. She gives it out, that you shall marry her: Do you intend it?

Cas.

Ha, ha, ha!

Oth. Do you triumph, Roman? do

13 Unbookish for ignorant.

14 Othello calls him Roman ironically. Triumph brought Roman into his thoughts. What (says he) you are triumphing as great as a Roman?'

Cas. I marry her!-what? a customer 15! I pr'ythee, bear some charity to my wit; do not think it so unwholesome. Ha, ha, ha!

Oth. So, so, so, so: They laugh that win.

[Aside. Iago. 'Faith, the cry goes, that you shall marry

her.

Cas. Pr'ythee, say true.

Iago. I am a very villain else.

Oth. Have you scored me 16? Well.

[Aside.

Cas. This is the monkey's own giving out: she is persuaded I will marry her, out of her own love and flattery, not out of my promise.

Oth. Iago beckons me; now he begins the story.

[Aside. Cas. She was here even now: she haunts me in every place. I was, the other day, talking on the seabank with certain Venetians; and thither comes this bauble; by this hand 17, she falls thus about my neck;

Oth. Crying, O dear Cassio! as it were: his gesture imports it. [Aside. Cas. So hangs, and lolls, and weeps upon me; so hales, and pulls me: ha, ha, ha!—

Oth. Now he tells, how she pluck'd him to my chamber: O, I see that nose of yours, but not that dog I shall throw it to.

Cas. Well, I must leave her company.

Iago. Before me! look where she comes.

[Aside.

15A common woman, with whom any one may be familiar. See vol. iv. p. 182, note 6.

16 i. e. have you numbered my days?' To score is to tale or tell, to number, or mark as on a tally. But perhaps it only means, have you marked me?' as beasts are scored or marked when purchased for slaughter. The old quarto reads have you stored me?'

17 The folio omits by this hand;' and reads 'thither comes the bauble and falls me thus,' &c.

Enter BIANCA.

Cas. "Tis such another fitchew 18! marry, a perfumed one. What do you mean by this haunting of me?

Bian. Let the devil and his dam haunt you! What did you mean by that same handkerchief, you gave me even now? I was a fine fool to take it. I must take out the whole work?-A likely piece of work, that you should find it in your chamber, and not know who left it there! This is some minx's token, and I must take out the work! There, give it your hobby-horse: wheresoever you had it, I'll take out no work on't.

Cas. How now, my sweet Bianca? how now? how now?

Oth. By heaven, that should be my handkerchief.

[Aside. Bian. An you'll come to supper to-night, you may: an you will not, come when you are next prepared for.

Iago. After her, after her.

[Exit.

Cas. 'Faith, I must, she'll rail in the street else. Iago. Will you sup there?

Cas. 'Faith, I intend so.

Iago. Well, I may chance to see you; for I

would very fain speak with you.

Cas. Pr'ythee, come; Will you?

Iago. Go to: say no more.

[Exit CASSIO.

Oth. How shall I murder him, Iago?

Iago. Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice?

Oth. O, Iago!

18 Shakspeare has alluded to the lust of this animal in King Lear. He tells Iago that Bianca is as lewd, but of a better scent, the polecat being a very stinking animal.

Iago. And did you see the handkerchief?
Oth. Was that mine?

Iago. Yours, by this hand: and to see how he prizes the foolish woman, your wife! she gave it him, and he hath given it his whore.

Oth. I would have him nine years a killing:-A fine woman! a fair woman! a sweet woman! Iago. Nay, you must forget that.

Oth. Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be damned to-night; for she shall not live: No, my heart is turned to stone; I strike it, and it hurts my hand 19. O, the world hath not a sweeter creature: she might lie by an emperor's side, and command him tasks. Iago. Nay, that's not your way. Oth. Hang her! I do but say what she is:-So delicate with her needle!-An admirable musician! O, she will sing the savageness out of a bear 20 !. Of so high and plenteous wit and invention !Tago. She's the worse for all this.

Oth. O, a thousand, a thousand times:-And then, of so gentle a condition!

Iago. Ay, too gentle.

Oth. Nay, that's certain: But yet the pity of it, Iago!-O, Iago, the pity of it, Iago!

Iago. If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her patent to offend 21; for, if it touch not you, it comes near nobody.

19 This thought, which counteracts the pathos, occurs again in Antony and Cleopatra, Act iv. Sc. 8:

throw my heart

Against the flint and hardness of my fault,

Which being dried with grief will break to powder,
And finish all foul thoughts.'

Venus and Adonis.

Why then give sin a passport to offend?"

Tragedy of King Edward III. 1596.