Othello, the Moor of Venice. William Shakespeare

for my peculiar end.

       For when my outward action doth demonstrate

       The native act and figure of my heart

       In complement extern, ’tis not long after

       But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve

       For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.

      RODERIGO.

       What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe,

       If he can carry’t thus!

      IAGO.

       Call up her father,

       Rouse him, make after him, poison his delight,

       Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,

       And though he in a fertile climate dwell,

       Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,

       Yet throw such changes of vexation on’t,

       As it may lose some color.

      RODERIGO.

       Here is her father’s house, I’ll call aloud.

      IAGO.

       Do, with like timorous accent and dire yell

       As when, by night and negligence, the fire

       Is spied in populous cities.

      RODERIGO.

       What ho, Brabantio! Signior Brabantio, ho!

      IAGO.

       Awake! what ho, Brabantio! Thieves, thieves!

       Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags!

       Thieves, thieves!

      Brabantio appears above at a window.

      BRABANTIO.

       What is the reason of this terrible summons?

       What is the matter there?

      RODERIGO.

       Signior, is all your family within?

      IAGO.

       Are your doors locked?

      BRABANTIO.

       Why, wherefore ask you this?

      IAGO.

       Zounds, sir, you’re robb’d, for shame put on your gown,

       Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;

       Even now, now, very now, an old black ram

       Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise,

       Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,

       Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:

       Arise, I say.

      BRABANTIO.

       What, have you lost your wits?

      RODERIGO.

       Most reverend signior, do you know my voice?

      BRABANTIO.

       Not I. What are you?

      RODERIGO.

       My name is Roderigo.

      BRABANTIO.

       The worser welcome.

       I have charg’d thee not to haunt about my doors;

       In honest plainness thou hast heard me say

       My daughter is not for thee; and now in madness,

       Being full of supper and distempering draughts,

       Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come

       To start my quiet.

      RODERIGO.

       Sir, sir, sir—

      BRABANTIO.

       But thou must needs be sure

       My spirit and my place have in them power

       To make this bitter to thee.

      RODERIGO.

       Patience, good sir.

      BRABANTIO.

       What tell’st thou me of robbing?

       This is Venice. My house is not a grange.

      RODERIGO.

       Most grave Brabantio,

       In simple and pure soul I come to you.

      IAGO.

       Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will not serve God if the devil bid you. Because we come to do you service, and you think we are ruffians, you’ll have your daughter cover’d with a Barbary horse; you’ll have your nephews neigh to you; you’ll have coursers for cousins and gennets for germans.

      BRABANTIO.

       What profane wretch art thou?

      IAGO.

       I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.

      BRABANTIO.

       Thou art a villain.

      IAGO.

       You are a senator.

      BRABANTIO.

       This thou shalt answer. I know thee, Roderigo.

      RODERIGO.

       Sir, I will answer anything. But I beseech you,

       If ’t be your pleasure, and most wise consent,

       (As partly I find it is) that your fair daughter,

       At this odd-even and dull watch o’ the night,

       Transported with no worse nor better guard,

       But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,

       To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor:

       If this be known to you, and your allowance,

       We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs.

       But if you know not this, my manners tell me,

       We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe

       That from the sense of all civility,

       I thus would play and trifle with your reverence.

       Your daughter (if you have not given her leave)

       I say again, hath made a gross revolt,

       Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes

       In an extravagant and wheeling stranger

       Of here and everywhere. Straight satisfy yourself:

       If she be in her chamber or your house,

       Let loose on me the justice of the state

       For thus deluding you.

      BRABANTIO.

       Strike on the tinder, ho!

       Give me a taper! Call up all my people!

       This accident is not unlike my dream,

       Belief of it oppresses me already.

       Light, I say, light!

      [Exit from above.]

      IAGO.

       Farewell; for I must leave you:

       It seems not meet nor wholesome to my place

       To be produc’d, as if I stay I shall,

       Against the Moor. For I do know the state,

       However this may gall him with some check,

       Cannot with safety cast him, for he’s embark’d

       With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars,

       Which even now stand in act, that, for their souls,