Speeches (Lines) for Cassio in "The Tragedy of Othello; or, The Moor of Venice"

Othello. The servants of the duke, and my lieutenant.
The goodness of the night upon you, friends!
What is the news?

Cassio. The duke does greet you, general,
And he requires your haste-post-haste appearance,
Even on the instant.

Othello. What is the matter, think you?

Cassio. Something from Cyprus as I may divine:
It is a business of some heat: the galleys
Have sent a dozen sequent messengers
This very night at one another's heels,
And many of the consuls, raised and met,
Are at the duke's already: you have been
hotly call'd for;
When, being not at your lodging to be found,
The senate hath sent about three several guests
To search you out.

Othello. 'Tis well I am found by you.
I will but spend a word here in the house,
And go with you.

Cassio. Ancient, what makes he here?

Iago. 'Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land carack:
If it prove lawful prize, he's made for ever.

Cassio. I do not understand.

Iago. He's married.

Cassio. To who?

Othello. Have with you.

Cassio. Here comes another troop to seek for you.

Third Gentleman. Come, let's do so:
For every minute is expectancy
Of more arrivance.

Cassio. Thanks, you the valiant of this warlike isle,
That so approve the Moor! O, let the heavens
Give him defence against the elements,
For I have lost us him on a dangerous sea.

Montano. Is he well shipp'd?

Cassio. His bark is stoutly timber'd, his pilot
Of very expert and approved allowance;
Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death,
Stand in bold cure.

Cassio. His bark is stoutly timber'd, his pilot
Of very expert and approved allowance;
Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death,
Stand in bold cure.

Cassio. What noise?

Fourth Gentleman. The town is empty; on the brow o' the sea
Stand ranks of people, and they cry 'A sail!'

Cassio. My hopes do shape him for the governor.

Second Gentleman. They do discharge their shot of courtesy:
Our friends at least.

Cassio. I pray you, sir, go forth,
And give us truth who 'tis that is arrived.

Montano. But, good lieutenant, is your general wived?

Cassio. Most fortunately: he hath achieved a maid
That paragons description and wild fame;
One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens,
And in the essential vesture of creation
Does tire the ingener.
[Re-enter second Gentleman]
How now! who has put in?

Second Gentleman. 'Tis one Iago, ancient to the general.

Cassio. Has had most favourable and happy speed:
Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds,
The gutter'd rocks and congregated sands--
Traitors ensteep'd to clog the guiltless keel,--
As having sense of beauty, do omit
Their mortal natures, letting go safely by
The divine Desdemona.

Montano. What is she?

Cassio. 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 renew'd fire to our extincted spirits
And bring all Cyprus comfort!
[Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, IAGO, RODERIGO, and Attendants]
O, behold,
The riches of the ship is come on shore!
Ye 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!

Desdemona. I thank you, valiant Cassio.
What tidings can you tell me of my lord?

Cassio. He is not yet arrived: nor know I aught
But that he's well and will be shortly here.

Desdemona. O, but I fear--How lost you company?

Cassio. The great contention of the sea and skies
Parted our fellowship--But, hark! a sail.

Second Gentleman. They give their greeting to the citadel;
This likewise is a friend.

Cassio. See for the news.
[Exit Gentleman]
Good ancient, you are welcome.
[To EMILIA]
Welcome, mistress.
Let it not gall your patience, good Iago,
That I extend my manners; 'tis my breeding
That gives me this bold show of courtesy.

Desdemona. O 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
counsellor?

Cassio. He speaks home, madam: You may relish him more in
the soldier than in the scholar.

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! an excellent
courtesy! 'tis so, indeed. Yet again your fingers
to your lips? would they were clyster-pipes for your sake!
[Trumpet within]
The Moor! I know his trumpet.

Cassio. 'Tis truly so.

Desdemona. Let's meet him and receive him.

Cassio. Lo, where he comes!

Othello. Good Michael, look you to the guard to-night:
Let's teach ourselves that honourable stop,
Not to outsport discretion.

Cassio. Iago hath direction what to do;
But, notwithstanding, with my personal eye
Will I look to't.

Othello. Iago is most honest.
Michael, good night: to-morrow with your earliest
Let me have speech with you.
[To DESDEMONA]
Come, my dear love,
The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue;
That profit's yet to come 'tween me and you.
Good night.

Cassio. Welcome, Iago; we must to the watch.

Iago. 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.

Cassio. She's a most exquisite lady.

Iago. And, I'll warrant her, fun of game.

Cassio. Indeed, she's a most fresh and delicate creature.

Iago. What an eye she has! methinks it sounds a parley of
provocation.

Cassio. An inviting eye; and yet methinks right modest.

Iago. And when she speaks, is it not an alarum to love?

Cassio. She is indeed perfection.

Iago. 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.

Cassio. Not to-night, good Iago: I have very poor and
unhappy brains for drinking: I could well wish
courtesy would invent some other custom of
entertainment.

Iago. O, they are our friends; but one cup: I'll drink for
you.

Cassio. I have drunk but one cup to-night, and that was
craftily qualified too, and, behold, what innovation
it makes here: I am unfortunate in the infirmity,
and dare not task my weakness with any more.

Iago. What, man! 'tis a night of revels: the gallants
desire it.

Cassio. Where are they?

Iago. Here at the door; I pray you, call them in.

Cassio. I'll do't; but it dislikes me.

Iago. If I can fasten but one cup upon him,
With that which he hath drunk to-night already,
He'll be as full of quarrel and offence
As my young mistress' dog. Now, my sick fool Roderigo,
Whom love hath turn'd almost the wrong side out,
To Desdemona hath to-night caroused
Potations pottle-deep; and he's to watch:
Three lads of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits,
That hold their honours in a wary distance,
The very elements of this warlike isle,
Have I to-night fluster'd 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.

Cassio. 'Fore God, they have given me a rouse already.

Iago. Some wine, ho!
[Sings]
And let me the canakin clink, clink;
And let me the canakin clink
A soldier's a man;
A life's but a span;
Why, then, let a soldier drink.
Some wine, boys!

Cassio. 'Fore God, an excellent song.

Iago. I learned it in England, where, indeed, they are
most potent in potting: your Dane, your German, and
your swag-bellied Hollander--Drink, ho!--are nothing
to your English.

Cassio. Is your Englishman so expert in his drinking?

Iago. Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead
drunk; he sweats not to overthrow your Almain; he
gives your Hollander a vomit, ere the next pottle
can be filled.

Cassio. To the health of our general!

Iago. O sweet England!
King Stephen was a worthy peer,
His breeches cost him but a crown;
He held them sixpence all too dear,
With that he call'd the tailor lown.
He was a wight of high renown,
And thou art but of low degree:
'Tis pride that pulls the country down;
Then take thine auld cloak about thee.
Some wine, ho!

Cassio. Why, this is a more exquisite song than the other.

Iago. Will you hear't again?

Cassio. No; for I hold him to be unworthy of his place that
does those things. Well, God's above all; and there
be souls must be saved, and there be souls must not be saved.

Iago. It's true, good lieutenant.

Cassio. For mine own part,--no offence to the general, nor
any man of quality,--I hope to be saved.

Iago. And so do I too, lieutenant.

Cassio. Ay, but, by your leave, not before me; the
lieutenant is to be saved before the ancient. Let's
have no more of this; let's to our affairs.--Forgive
us our sins!--Gentlemen, let's look to our business.
Do not think, gentlemen. I am drunk: this is my
ancient; this is my right hand, and this is my left:
I am not drunk now; I can stand well enough, and
speak well enough.

All. Excellent well.

Cassio. Why, very well then; you must not think then that I am drunk.

Iago. Not I, for this fair island:
I do love Cassio well; and would do much
To cure him of this evil--But, hark! what noise?

Cassio. You rogue! you rascal!

Montano. What's the matter, lieutenant?

Cassio. A knave teach me my duty!
I'll beat the knave into a twiggen bottle.

Roderigo. Beat me!

Cassio. Dost thou prate, rogue?

Montano. Nay, good lieutenant;
[Staying him]
I pray you, sir, hold your hand.

Cassio. Let me go, sir,
Or I'll knock you o'er the mazzard.

Montano. Come, come,
you're drunk.

Cassio. Drunk!

Othello. How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot?

Cassio. I pray you, pardon me; I cannot speak.

Iago. What, are you hurt, lieutenant?

Cassio. Ay, past all surgery.

Iago. Marry, heaven forbid!

Cassio. Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost
my reputation! I have lost the immortal part 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 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
offenceless dog to affright an imperious lion: sue
to him again, and he's yours.

Cassio. 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!

Iago. What was he that you followed with your sword? What
had he done to you?

Cassio. I know not.

Iago. Is't possible?

Cassio. I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly;
a quarrel, but nothing wherefore. O God, 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!

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

Cassio. It hath pleased the devil drunkenness to give place
to the devil wrath; one unperfectness shows me
another, to make me frankly despise myself.

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.

Cassio. 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.

Cassio. I have well approved it, sir. I drunk!

Iago. You or any man living may be drunk! at a time, man.
I'll tell you what you shall do. Our general's wife
is now the general: 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.

Cassio. You advise me well.

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

Cassio. 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 cheque me here.

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, hast cashier'd Cassio:
Though other things grow fair against the sun,
Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe:
Content thyself awhile. By the mass, '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 RODERIGO]
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.

Cassio. Masters, play here; I will content your pains;
Something that's brief; and bid 'Good morrow, general.'

Clown. Then put up your pipes in your bag, for I'll away:
go; vanish into air; away!

Cassio. Dost thou hear, my honest friend?

Clown. No, I hear not your honest friend; I hear you.

Cassio. Prithee, keep up thy quillets. There's a poor piece
of gold for thee: if the gentlewoman that attends
the general's wife be stirring, tell her there's
one Cassio entreats her a little favour of speech:
wilt thou do this?

Clown. She is stirring, sir: if she will stir hither, I
shall seem to notify unto her.

Cassio. Do, good my friend.
[Exit Clown]
[Enter IAGO]
In happy time, Iago.

Iago. You have not been a-bed, then?

Cassio. Why, no; the day had broke
Before we parted. I have made bold, Iago,
To send in to your wife: my suit to her
Is, that she will to virtuous Desdemona
Procure me some access.

Iago. I'll send her to you presently;
And I'll devise a mean to draw the Moor
Out of the way, that your converse and business
May be more free.

Cassio. I humbly thank you for't.
[Exit IAGO]
I never knew
A Florentine more kind and honest.

Emilia. Good morrow, good Lieutenant: I am sorry
For your displeasure; but all will sure be well.
The general and his wife are talking of it;
And she speaks for you stoutly: the Moor replies,
That he you hurt is of great fame in Cyprus,
And great affinity, and that in wholesome wisdom
He might not but refuse you; but he protests he loves you
And needs no other suitor but his likings
To take the safest occasion by the front
To bring you in again.

Cassio. Yet, I beseech you,
If you think fit, or that it may be done,
Give me advantage of some brief discourse
With Desdemona alone.

Emilia. Pray you, come in;
I will bestow you where you shall have time
To speak your bosom freely.

Cassio. I am much bound to you.

Desdemona. O, that's an honest fellow. Do not doubt, Cassio,
But I will have my lord and you again
As friendly as you were.

Cassio. Bounteous madam,
Whatever shall become of Michael Cassio,
He's never any thing but your true servant.

Desdemona. I know't; I thank you. You do love my lord:
You have known him long; and be you well assured
He shall in strangeness stand no further off
Than in a polite distance.

Cassio. Ay, but, lady,
That policy may either last so long,
Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet,
Or breed itself so out of circumstance,
That, I being absent and my place supplied,
My general will forget my love and service.

Emilia. Madam, here comes my lord.

Cassio. Madam, I'll take my leave.

Desdemona. Why, stay, and hear me speak.

Cassio. Madam, not now: I am very ill at ease,
Unfit for mine own purposes.

Desdemona. How now, good Cassio! what's the news with you?

Cassio. Madam, my former suit: I do beseech you
That by your virtuous means I may again
Exist, and be a member of his love
Whom I with all the office of my heart
Entirely honour: I would not be delay'd.
If my offence be of such mortal kind
That nor my service past, nor present sorrows,
Nor purposed merit in futurity,
Can ransom me into his love again,
But to know so must be my benefit;
So shall I clothe me in a forced content,
And shut myself up in some other course,
To fortune's alms.

Desdemona. I will go seek him. Cassio, walk hereabout:
If I do find him fit, I'll move your suit
And seek to effect it to my uttermost.

Cassio. I humbly thank your ladyship.

Bianca. Save you, friend Cassio!

Cassio. What make you from home?
How is it with you, my most fair Bianca?
I' faith, sweet love, I was coming to your house.

Bianca. And I was going to your lodging, Cassio.
What, keep a week away? seven days and nights?
Eight score eight hours? and lovers' absent hours,
More tedious than the dial eight score times?
O weary reckoning!

Cassio. Pardon me, Bianca:
I have this while with leaden thoughts been press'd:
But I shall, in a more continuate time,
Strike off this score of absence. Sweet Bianca,
[Giving her DESDEMONA's handkerchief]
Take me this work out.

Bianca. O Cassio, whence came this?
This is some token from a newer friend:
To the felt absence now I feel a cause:
Is't come to this? Well, well.

Cassio. Go to, woman!
Throw your vile guesses in the devil's teeth,
From whence you have them. You are jealous now
That this is from some mistress, some remembrance:
No, in good troth, Bianca.

Bianca. Why, whose is it?

Cassio. I know not, sweet: I found it in my chamber.
I like the work well: ere it be demanded--
As like enough it will--I'ld have it copied:
Take it, and do't; and leave me for this time.

Bianca. Leave you! wherefore?

Cassio. I do attend here on the general;
And think it no addition, nor my wish,
To have him see me woman'd.

Bianca. Why, I pray you?

Cassio. Not that I love you not.

Bianca. But that you do not love me.
I pray you, bring me on the way a little,
And say if I shall see you soon at night.

Cassio. 'Tis but a little way that I can bring you;
For I attend here: but I'll see you soon.

Iago. Work on,
My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught;
And many worthy and chaste dames even thus,
All guiltless, meet reproach. What, ho! my lord!
My lord, I say! Othello!
[Enter CASSIO]
How now, Cassio!

Cassio. What's the matter?

Iago. My lord is fall'n into an epilepsy:
This is his second fit; he had one yesterday.

Cassio. Rub him about the temples.

Iago. That's not amiss;
But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw?
[OTHELLO retires]
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 beguiled 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 jealousy must construe
Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures and light behavior,
Quite in the wrong. How do you now, lieutenant?

Cassio. The worser that you give me the addition
Whose want even kills me.

Iago. Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on't.
[Speaking lower]
Now, if this suit lay in Bianco's power,
How quickly should you speed!

Cassio. Alas, poor caitiff!

Iago. I never knew woman love man so.

Cassio. Alas, poor rogue! I think, i' faith, she loves me.

Iago. She gives it out that you shall marry hey:
Do you intend it?

Cassio. Ha, ha, ha!

Othello. Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?

Cassio. I marry her! what? a customer! Prithee, bear some
charity to my wit: do not think it so unwholesome.
Ha, ha, ha!

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

Cassio. Prithee, say true.

Othello. Have you scored me? Well.

Cassio. 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.

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

Cassio. She was here even now; she haunts me in every place.
I was the other day talking on the sea-bank with
certain Venetians; and thither comes the bauble,
and, by this hand, she falls me thus about my neck--

Othello. Crying 'O dear Cassio!' as it were: his gesture
imports it.

Cassio. So hangs, and lolls, and weeps upon me; so hales,
and pulls me: ha, ha, ha!

Othello. Now he tells how she plucked him to my chamber. O,
I see that nose of yours, but not that dog I shall
throw it to.

Cassio. Well, I must leave her company.

Iago. Before me! look, where she comes.

Cassio. 'Tis such another fitchew! marry a perfumed one.
[Enter BIANCA]
What do you mean by this haunting of me?

Bianca. 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
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.

Cassio. How now, my sweet Bianca! how now! how now!

Iago. After her, after her.

Cassio. 'Faith, I must; she'll rail in the street else.

Iago. Will you sup there?

Cassio. 'Faith, I intend so.

Iago. Well, I may chance to see you; for I would very fain
speak with you.

Cassio. Prithee, come; will you?

Roderigo. I know his gait, 'tis he.--Villain, thou diest!

Cassio. That thrust had been mine enemy indeed,
But that my coat is better than thou know'st
I will make proof of thine.

Roderigo. O, I am slain!

Cassio. I am maim'd for ever. Help, ho! murder! murder!

Othello. It is even so.

Cassio. O, help, ho! light! a surgeon!

Othello. 'Tis he:--O brave Iago, honest and just,
That hast such noble sense of thy friend's wrong!
Thou teachest me. Minion, your dear lies dead,
And your unblest fate hies: strumpet, I come.
Forth of my heart those charms, thine eyes, are blotted;
Thy bed, lust-stain'd, shall with lust's blood be spotted.

Cassio. What, ho! no watch? no passage? murder! murder!

Gratiano. 'Tis some mischance; the cry is very direful.

Cassio. O, help!

Iago. Did not you hear a cry?

Cassio. Here, here! for heaven's sake, help me!

Iago. What are you here that cry so grievously?

Cassio. Iago? O, I am spoil'd, undone by villains!
Give me some help.

Iago. O me, lieutenant! what villains have done this?

Cassio. I think that one of them is hereabout,
And cannot make away.

Roderigo. O, help me here!

Cassio. That's one of them.

Iago. How is't, brother!

Cassio. My leg is cut in two.

Iago. O notable strumpet! Cassio, may you suspect
Who they should be that have thus many led you?

Cassio. No.

Gratiano. Some good man bear him carefully from hence;
I'll fetch the general's surgeon.
[To BIANCA]
For you, mistress,
Save you your labour. He that lies slain
here, Cassio,
Was my dear friend: what malice was between you?

Cassio. None in the world; nor do I know the man.

Othello. Ay.

Cassio. Dear general, I never gave you cause.

Othello. O villain!

Cassio. Most heathenish and most gross!

Othello. O the pernicious caitiff!
How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief
That was my wife's?

Cassio. I found it in my chamber:
And he himself confess'd but even now
That there he dropp'd it for a special purpose
Which wrought to his desire.

Othello. O fool! fool! fool!

Cassio. There is besides in Roderigo's letter,
How he upbraids Iago, that he made him
Brave me upon the watch; whereon it came
That I was cast: and even but now he spake,
After long seeming dead, Iago hurt him,
Iago set him on.

Othello. I kiss'd thee ere I kill'd thee: no way but this;
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.

Cassio. This did I fear, but thought he had no weapon;
For he was great of heart.