have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part, sir, of myself, and what remains is bestial.My reputation, Iago, my reputation.

Iago. As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some bodily wound; there is more offence 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 25, a punishment more in policy than in malice; even so as one would beat his offenceless dog, to affright an imperious lion: sue to him again, and he's yours.

Cas. 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 26? and squabble? swagger? swear? and discourse fustian with one's own shadow?-0 thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee-devil!

Iago. What was he that you followed with your sword? What had he done to you? Cas. I know not.

Iago. Is it possible?

Cas. I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a quarrel, but nothing wherefore. -О, that men should put an enemy in their mouths, to steal away their brains! that we should, with joy, revel, pleasure, and applause, transform ourselves nto beasts!

25 Thrown off, dismissed in his anger.

26 i. e. talk idly, utter all you know. From Drunk, &c. to shadow, inclusively, is wanting in the quarto 1622.

002

Iago. Why, but you are now well enough: How came you thus recovered?

Cas. It hath pleased the devil drunkenness, to give place to the devil, wrath: one unperfectness shows me another, to make me frankly despise my

self.

Iago. 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.

Cas. 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! O strange!-Every inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is a devil.

Iago. Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used; exclaim no more against it. And, good lieutenant, I think, you think I love you.

Cas. I have well approved it, sir,-I drunk! Iago. You, or any man living, may be drunk at some time, man. I'll 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 27 of her parts and graces:-confess yourself freely to her; importune her; she'll help to put you in your place again; she is of so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition, that she holds it a vice in her goodness, not to do more than she is requested; This broken joint 28 between you

27 The old copies read-devotement, an error arising from a single letter being turned upside down. Theobald made the correction.

28 Thus the folio. The quarto 1622 reads-this brawl.

and her husband, entreat her to splinter; and, my fortunes against any lay 29 worth naming, this crack of your love shall grow stronger than it was before. Cas. You advise me well.

Iago. I protest, in the sincerity of love, and honest kindness.

Cas. I think it freely; and, betimes in the morning, I will beseech the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me: I am desperate of my fortunes, if they check me here.

Iago. You are in the right. Good night, lieutenant; I must to the watch.

Cas. Good night, honest Iago. [Exit CASSIO. Iago. And what's he then, that says, -I play the

villain?

When this advice is free 30, I give, and honest,
Probal to thinking, and (indeed) the course
To win the Moor again? For, 'tis most easy
The inclining 31 Desdemona to subdue

In any honest suit: she's fram'd as fruitful 32
As the free elements. And then for her

To win the Moor, were't to renounce his baptism,
All seals and symbols of redeemed sin,-
His soul is so enfetter'd 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 33,
Directly to his good? Divinity of hell!

When devils will their blackest sins put on,
They do suggest at first with heavenly shows 34,
As I do now: For while this honest fool
Plies Desdemona to repair his fortunes,
And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor,
I'll pour this pestilence 35 into his ear,-
That she repeals 36 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. -How now, Roderigo?

Enter RODERIGO.

Rod. 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 to-night exceedingly well cudgelled; 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 to Venice.

Iago. 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 cashier'd Cassio; Though other things grow fair against the sun, Yet fruits, that blossom first, will first be ripe 37:

Content thyself awhile. - By the mass 38, '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. [Exit ROD.] Two things are

to be done,一

My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress;
I'll set her on;

Myself, the while, to draw 39 the Moor apart,
And bring him jump 40 when he may Cassio find
Soliciting his wife; Ay, that's the way;
Dull not device by coldness and delay.

[Exit.

ACT III.

SCENE I. Before the Castle.

Enter CASSIO and some Musicians.

Cas. Masters, play here, I will content your pains, Something that's brief; and bid-good morrow, [Musick.

general 1.

Enter Clown.

Clo. Why, masters, have your instruments been at Naples, that they speak i'the nose thus??

38 The folio reads-In troth, an alteration made in the playhouse copy by the interference of the master of the revels.

39 Some modern editions read- Myself the while will draw.' But the old copies are undoubtedly right. An imperfect sentence was intended. Iago is ruminating upon his plan. 40 i. e. just at the time. So in Hamlet:

Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour.' 1 It was usual for friends to serenade a new married couple on the morning after the celebration of the marriage, or to greet them with a morning song to bid them good morrow. See Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. Sc. 5. Ritson's note about the waits is nothing to the purpose.

2 So in The Merchant of Venice: - The bagpipe sings i'the