English Othello Act 2 Quiz
In faith, too much. I find it still, when I have leave to sleep. Marry, before your ladyship, I grant, She puts her tongue a little in her heart And chides with thinking.
Iago to Desdemona
Blessed fig's-end! The wine she drinks is made of grapes. If she had been blessed, she would never have loved the Moor. Blessed pudding! Didst thou not see her paddle with the palm of his hand? Didst not mark that?
Iago to Roderigo about Desdemona
Come, let us to the castle. News, friends! Our wars are done, the Turks are drowned. How does my old acquaintance of this isle?— Honey, you shall be well desired in Cyprus, I have found great love amongst them. O my sweet, I prattle out of fashion, and I dote In mine own comforts.—I prithee, good Iago, Go to the bay and disembark my coffers. Bring thou the master to the citadel. He is a good one, and his worthiness Does challenge much respect.—Come, Desdemona, Once more, well met at Cyprus.
Othello to everyone
Good ancient, you are welcome.—Welcome, mistress. (kisses EMILIA) Let it not gall your patience, good Iago, That I extend my manners. 'Tis my breeding That gives me this bold show of courtesy.
Cassio to Iago
I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly. A quarrel, but nothing wherefore. Oh, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! That we should, with joy, pleasance revel and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!
Cassio to Iago
I will ask him for my place again, he shall tell me I am a drunkard. Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would stop them all. To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast! Oh, strange! Every inordinate cup is unblessed and the ingredient is a devil.v
Cassio to Iago
I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a commander with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet an officer. Drunk? And speak parrot? And squabble? Swagger? Swear? And discourse fustian with one's own shadow? O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil!
Cassio to Iago
Not tonight, good Iago. I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking. I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of entertainment.
Cassio to Iago
Reputation, reputation, reputation! Oh, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation!
Cassio to Iago
He's had most favorable and happy speed. Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds, The guttered rocks and congregated sands, Traitors ensteeped to enclog the guiltless keel, As having sense of beauty, do omit Their mortal natures, letting go safely by The divine Desdemona.
Cassio to Montano
His bark is stoutly timbered and his pilot Of very expert and approved allowance Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death, Stand in bold cure.
Cassio to Montano
Most fortunately. He hath achieved a maid That paragons description and wild fame, One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens, And in th' essential vesture of creation Does tire the ingener.
Cassio to Montano
Thanks, you the valiant of this warlike isle That so approve the Moor. Oh, let the heavens Give him defense against the elements, For I have lost him on a dangerous sea.
Cassio to Montano
She that I spake of, our great captain's captain, Left in the conduct of the bold Iago, Whose footing here anticipates our thoughts A se'nnight's speed. Great Jove, Othello guard, And swell his sail with thine own powerful breath, That he may bless this bay with his tall ship, Make love's quick pants in Desdemona's arms, Give renewed fire to our extincted spirits And bring all Cyprus comfort! Oh, behold, The riches of the ship is come on shore! You men of Cyprus, let her have your knees. Hail to thee, lady, and the grace of heaven, Before, behind thee, and on every hand, Enwheel thee round!
Cassio to Montano/Everyone
Oh, most lame and impotent conclusion! Do not learn of him, Emilia, though he be thy husband. How say you, Cassio? Is he not a most profane and liberal counselor?
Desdemona to Emilia
Oh, heavy ignorance! Thou praisest the worst best. But what praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving woman indeed, one that in the authority of her merit did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself?
Desdemona to Iago
As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some bodily wound. There is more sense in that than in reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false imposition, oft got without merit and lost without deserving. You have lost no reputation at all unless you repute yourself such a loser. What, man, there are ways to recover the general again. You are but now cast in his mood, a punishment more in policy than in malice, even so as one would beat his offenseless dog to affright an imperious lion. Sue to him again and he's yours.
Iago to Cassio
Come, you are too severe a moraler. As the time, the place, and the condition of this country stands, I could heartily wish this had not befallen. But since it is as it is, mend it for your own good.
Iago to Cassio
Sir, would she give you so much of her lips As of her tongue she oft bestows on me, You'll have enough.
Iago to Cassio
Well, happiness to their sheets! Come, lieutenant, I have a stoup of wine, and here without are a brace of Cyprus gallants that would fain have a measure to the health of black Othello.
Iago to Cassio
You or any man living may be drunk at a time, man. I tell you what you shall do. Our general's wife is now the general. I may say so in this respect, for that he hath devoted and given up himself to the contemplation, mark, and denotement of her parts and graces. Confess yourself freely to her, importune her help to put you in your place again. She is of so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition, she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more than she is requested. This broken joint between you and her husband entreat her to splinter, and, my fortunes against any lay worth naming, this crack of your love shall grow stronger than it was before.
Iago to Cassio
Come on, come on. You are pictures out of door, bells in your parlors, wild-cats in your kitchens, saints in your injuries, devils being offended, players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds.
Iago to Desdemona
I am about it, but indeed my invention Comes from my pate as birdlime does from frieze, It plucks out brains and all. But my Muse labors And thus she is delivered: If she be fair and wise, fairness and wit, The one's for use, the other useth it.
Iago to Desdemona
She that was ever fair and never proud, Had tongue at will and yet was never loud, Never lacked gold and yet went never gay, Fled from her wish and yet said "Now I may," She that being angered, her revenge being nigh, Bade her wrong stay and her displeasure fly, She that in wisdom never was so frail To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail, She that could think and ne'er disclose her mind, See suitors following and not look behind, She was a wight, if ever such wights were—
Iago to Desdemona
'Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep. He'll watch the horologe a double set If drink rock not his cradle.
Iago to Montano
You see this fellow that is gone before, He is a soldier fit to stand by Caesar And give direction. And do but see his vice, 'Tis to his virtue a just equinox, The one as long as th' other. 'Tis pity of him. I fear the trust Othello puts him in On some odd time of his infirmity Will shake this island.
Iago to Montano
I do not know. Friends all but now, even now, In quarter, and in terms like bride and groom Divesting them for bed. And then, but now, As if some planet had unwitted men, Swords out, and tilting one at other's breasts In opposition bloody. I cannot speak Any beginning to this peevish odds, And would in action glorious I had lost Those legs that brought me to a part of it.
Iago to Othello
Touch me not so near. I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio. Yet I persuade myself to speak the truth Shall nothing wrong him. This it is, general: Montano and myself being in speech, There comes a fellow crying out for help And Cassio following him with determined sword To execute upon him. Sir, this gentleman Steps in to Cassio and entreats his pause, Myself the crying fellow did pursue, Lest by his clamor—as it so fell out— The town might fall in fright. He, swift of foot, Outran my purpose, and I returned then rather For that I heard the clink and fall of swords And Cassio high in oath, which till tonight I ne'er might say before. When I came back— For this was brief— I found them close together At blow and thrust, even as again they were When you yourself did part them. More of this matter cannot I report.
Iago to Othello
Do thou meet me presently at the harbor.—Come hither. If thou be'st valiant, as they say base men being in love have then a nobility in their natures more than is native to them, list me. The lieutenant tonight watches on the court of guard. First, I must tell thee this: Desdemona is directly in love with him.
Iago to Roderigo
How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees? Thou know'st we work by wit and not by witchcraft, And wit depends on dilatory time. Does't not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee. And thou, by that small hurt, hath cashiered Cassio. Though other things grow fair against the sun, Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe. Content thyself awhile. In troth, 'tis morning. Pleasure and action make the hours seem short. Retire thee, go where thou art billeted. Away, I say, thou shalt know more hereafter. Nay, get thee gone.
Iago to Roderigo
Lechery, by this hand, an index and obscure prologue to the history of lust and foul thoughts. They met so near with their lips that their breaths embraced together. Villainous thoughts, Roderigo! When these mutabilities so marshal the way, hard at hand comes the master and main exercise, th' incorporate conclusion. Pish! But, sir, be you ruled by me. I have brought you from Venice. Watch you tonight for the command, I'll lay 't upon you. Cassio knows you not. I'll not be far from you. Do you find some occasion to anger Cassio, either by speaking too loud, or tainting his discipline, or from what other course you please, which the time shall more favorably minister.
Iago to Roderigo
Not this hour, lieutenant, 'tis not yet ten o' the clock. Our general cast us thus early for the love of his Desdemona—who let us not therefore blame. He hath not yet made wanton the night with her, and she is sport for Jove.
Iago to Roderigo
Sir, he's rash and very sudden in choler, and haply may strike at you. Provoke him that he may. For even out of that will I cause these of Cyprus to mutiny, whose qualification shall come into no true taste again but by the displanting of Cassio. So shall you have a shorter journey to your desires by the means I shall then have to prefer them, and the impediment most profitably removed, without the which there were no expectation of our prosperity.
Iago to Roderigo
Lay thy finger thus, and let thy soul be instructed. Mark me with what violence she first loved the Moor, but for bragging and telling her fantastical lies. To love him still for prating? Let not thy discreet heart think it. Her eye must be fed, and what delight shall she have to look on the devil? When the blood is made dull with the act of sport, there should be a game to inflame it and to give satiety a fresh appetite, loveliness in favor, sympathy in years, manners and beauties. All which the Moor is defective in. Now for want of these required conveniences, her delicate tenderness will find itself abused, begin to heave the gorge, disrelish and abhor the Moor. Very nature will instruct her in it and compel her to some second choice. Now sir, this granted—as it is a most pregnant and unforced position—who stands so eminent in the degree of this fortune as Cassio does? A knave very voluble, no further conscionable than in putting on the mere form of civil and humane seeming, for the better compassing of his salt and most hidden loose affection. Why, none, why, none! A slipper and subtle knave, a finder of occasions that has an eye, can stamp and counterfeit advantages, though true advantage never present itself. A devilish knave. Besides, the knave is handsome, young, and hath all those requisites in him that folly and green minds look after. A pestilent complete knave, and the woman hath found him already.
Iago to Roderigo about Dedemona
And what's he then that says I play the villain? When this advice is free I give and honest, Probal to thinking and indeed the course To win the Moor again? For 'tis most easy Th' inclining Desdemona to subdue In any honest suit. She's framed as fruitful As the free elements. And then for her To win the Moor, were to renounce his baptism, All seals and symbols of redeemèd sin, His soul is so enfettered to her love, That she may make, unmake, do what she list, Even as her appetite shall play the god With his weak function. How am I then a villain To counsel Cassio to this parallel course, Directly to his good? Divinity of hell! When devils will the blackest sins put on They do suggest at first with heavenly shows As I do now. For whiles this honest fool Plies Desdemona to repair his fortune And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor, I'll pour this pestilence into his ear: That she repeals him for her body's lust. And by how much she strives to do him good She shall undo her credit with the Moor. So will I turn her virtue into pitch And out of her own goodness make the net That shall enmesh them all.
Iago to himself
Two things are to be done: My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress. I'll set her on. Myself, the while, to draw the Moor apart And bring him jump when he may Cassio find Soliciting his wife. Ay, that's the way. Dull not device by coldness and delay.
Iago to himself
If I can fasten but one cup upon him, With that which he hath drunk tonight already, He'll be as full of quarrel and offense As my young mistress' dog. Now my sick fool Roderigo, Whom love hath turned almost the wrong side out, To Desdemona hath tonight caroused Potations pottle-deep, and he's to watch. Three lads of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits (That hold their honors in a wary distance, The very elements of this warlike isle) Have I tonight flustered with flowing cups, And they watch too. Now 'mongst this flock of drunkards Am I to put our Cassio in some action That may offend the isle. But here they come. If consequence do but approve my dream My boat sails freely, both with wind and stream
Iago to himself/audience
That Cassio loves her, I do well believe 't. That she loves him, 'tis apt and of great credit. The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not, Is of a constant, loving, noble nature, And I dare think he'll prove to Desdemona A most dear husband. Now, I do love her too, Not out of absolute lust—though peradventure I stand accountant for as great a sin— But partly led to diet my revenge, For that I do suspect the lusty Moor Hath leaped into my seat. The thought whereof Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards, And nothing can or shall content my soul Till I am evened with him, wife for wife. Or, failing so, yet that I put the Moor At least into a jealousy so strong That judgment cannot cure. Which thing to do, If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trace For his quick hunting, stand the putting on, I'll have our Michael Cassio on the hip, Abuse him to the Moor in the right garb (For I fear Cassio with my night-cape too) Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me For making him egregiously an ass And practicing upon his peace and quiet Even to madness. 'Tis here, but yet confused. Knavery's plain face is never seen till used
Iago to himself/audience
And 'tis great pity that the noble Moor Should hazard such a place as his own second With one of an ingraft infirmity. It were an honest action to say So to the Moor.
Montano to Iago
t were well The general were put in mind of it. Perhaps he sees it not, or his good nature Prizes the virtue that appears in Cassio And looks not on his evils. Is not this true?
Montano to Iago
If partially affined or leagued in office Thou dost deliver more or less than truth Thou art no soldier.
Montano to Othello
Iago is most honest. Michael, good night. Tomorrow with your earliest Let me have speech with you.— Come, my dear love, The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue: That profit's yet to come 'tween me and you. Good night.
Othello to Cassio
It gives me wonder great as my content To see you here before me. Oh, my soul's joy! If after every tempest come such calms, May the winds blow till they have wakened death, And let the laboring bark climb hills of seas Olympus-high, and duck again as low As hell's from heaven! If it were now to die, 'Twere now to be most happy, for I fear My soul hath her content so absolute That not another comfort like to this Succeeds in unknown fate.
Othello to Desdemona
I know, Iago, Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter, Making it light to Cassio. Cassio, I love thee But never more be officer of mine.—
Othello to Iago
Why, how now, ho! From whence ariseth this? Are we turned Turks? And to ourselves do that Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites? For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl. He that stirs next to carve for his own rage Holds his soul light, he dies upon his motion. Silence that dreadful bell, it frights the isle From her propriety. What is the matter, masters?— Honest Iago, that looks dead with grieving, Speak, who began this? On thy love, I charge thee.
Othello to Iago
Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil. The gravity and stillness of your youth The world hath noted, and your name is great In mouths of wisest censure. What's the matter That you unlace your reputation thus And spend your rich opinion for the name Of a night-brawler? Give me answer to it.
Othello to Montano
Now, by heaven, My blood begins my safer guides to rule, And passion, having my best judgment collied, Assays to lead the way. If I once stir, Or do but lift this arm, the best of you Shall sink in my rebuke. Give me to know How this foul rout began, who set it on, And he that is approved in this offence, Though he had twinned with me, both at a birth, Shall lose me. What, in a town of war Yet wild, the people's hearts brimful of fear, To manage private and domestic quarrel? In night, and on the court and guard of safety? 'Tis monstrous. Iago, who began 't?
Othello to Montano and Iago
I do follow here in the chase not like a hound that hunts, but one that fills up the cry. My money is almost spent, I have been tonight exceedingly well cudgeled, and I think the issue will be I shall have so much experience for my pains. And so, with no money at all and a little more wit, return again to Venice.
Roderigo to Iago
(aside) He takes her by the palm. Ay, well said, whisper! With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. Ay, smile upon her, do, I will gyve thee in thine own courtship. You say true, 'Tis so, indeed. If such tricks as these strip you out of your lieutenantry, it had been better you had not kissed your three fingers so oft, which now again you are most apt to play the sir in. Very good, well kissed, and excellent courtesy! 'tis so, indeed. Yet again your fingers to your lips? Would they were clyster-pipes for your sake!—
To himself about Cassio and Emilia
