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?

Cas.

[Speaking lower.

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 you triumph 14? [Aside.

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

scored me you

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.

15 A 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.'

when she hath sung

20

The tiger would be tame.'

Venus and Adonis.

Why then give sin a passport to offend?"

Tragedy of King Edward III. 1596.

Oth. I will chop her into messes!- Cuckold me! Iago. O, 'tis foul in her.

Oth. With mine officer! · Iago. That's fouler.

Oth. Get me some poison, Iago; this night:I'll not expostulate with her, lest her body and beauty unprovide my mind again: this night, Iago. Tago. Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated.

Oth. Good, good: the justice of it pleases; very good.

Iago. And, for Cassio,-let me be his undertaker: You shall hear more by midnight.

[A Trumpet within. Oth. Excellent good.-What trumpet is that same: Iago. Something from Venice, sure. "Tis Lodo

vico,

Come from the duke: and, see, your wife is with him.

Enter LODOVICO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants. Lod. 'Save you, worthy general 22 !

Oth.

With all my heart, sir.

Lod. The duke and senators of Venice greet you.

[Gives him a Packet.

Oth. I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.

[Opens the Packet and reads.

22 The quarto reads God save the worthy general.' Malone says that the reply of Othello does not relate to what Lodovico has just said, but is spoken by Othello while he salutes him. Steevens, on the contrary, thinks that The distracted Othello, considering his happiness in this world at an end, readily catches at the idea of future felicity suggested by the words Save you, general!' He adds, 'If it be urged that the words only mean preserve you in this world, my sense of the passage will not be much weakened; as our protection, even here, depends on the Almighty.'-In Measure for Measure (Act ii. Sc. 2) two replies of Angelo to similar salutations from Isabel are equally equivocal.