Act 1, Scene 2

Venice. Another street.

[Enter Othello, Iago, and Attendants with torches.]
Iago
194 Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
195 Yet do I hold it very stuff o' the conscience
196 To do no contriv'd murder: I lack iniquity
197 Sometimes to do me service: nine or ten times
198 I had thought to have yerk'd him here under the ribs.
Othello
199 'Tis better as it is.
Iago
200 Nay, but he prated,
201 And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
202 Against your honor,
203 That, with the little godliness I have,
204 I did full hard forbear him. But, I pray you, sir,
205 Are you fast married? Be assured of this,
206 That the magnifico is much beloved;
207 And hath, in his effect, a voice potential
208 As double as the duke's: he will divorce you;
209 Or put upon you what restraint and grievance
210 The law,—with all his might to enforce it on,—
211 Will give him cable.
Othello
212 Let him do his spite:
213 My services which I have done the signiory
214 Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know,—
215 Which, when I know that boasting is an honor,
216 I shall promulgate,—I fetch my life and being
217 From men of royal siege; and my demerits
218 May speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune
219 As this that I have reach'd: for know, Iago,
220 But that I love the gentle Desdemona,
221 I would not my unhoused free condition
222 Put into circumscription and confine
223 For the sea's worth. But, look! what lights come yond?
Iago
224 Those are the raised father and his friends:
225 You were best go in.
Othello
226 Not I; I must be found;
227 My parts, my title, and my perfect soul
228 Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?
Iago
229 By Janus, I think no.
[Enter Cassio and certain Officers with torches.]
Othello
230 The servants of the duke and my lieutenant.—
231 The goodness of the night upon you, friends!
232 What is the news?
Cassio
233 The duke does greet you, general;
234 And he requires your haste-post-haste appearance
235 Even on the instant.
Othello
236 What is the matter, think you?
Cassio
237 Something from Cyprus, as I may divine:
238 It is a business of some heat: the galleys
239 Have sent a dozen sequent messengers
240 This very night at one another's heels;
241 And many of the consuls, rais'd and met,
242 Are at the duke's already: you have been hotly call'd for;
243 When, being not at your lodging to be found,
244 The senate hath sent about three several quests
245 To search you out.
Othello
246 'Tis well I am found by you.
247 I will but spend a word here in the house,
248 And go with you.
[Exit.]
Cassio
249 Ancient, what makes he here?
Iago
250 Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land carack:
251 If it prove lawful prize, he's made forever.
Cassio
252 I do not understand.
Iago
253 He's married.
Cassio
254 To who?
[Re-enter Othello.]
Iago
255 Marry, to—Come, captain, will you go?
Othello
256 Have with you.
Cassio
257 Here comes another troop to seek for you.
Iago
258 It is Brabantio.—General, be advis'd;
259 He comes to bad intent.
[Enter Brabantio, Roderigo, and Officers with torches and weapons.]
Othello
260 Holla! stand there!
Roderigo
261 Signior, it is the Moor.
Brabantio
262 Down with him, thief!
[They draw on both sides.]
Iago
263 You, Roderigo! come, sir, I am for you.
Othello
264 Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.—
265 Good signior, you shall more command with years
266 Than with your weapons.
Brabantio
267 O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my daughter?
268 Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her;
269 For I'll refer me to all things of sense,
270 If she in chains of magic were not bound,
271 Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy,
272 So opposite to marriage that she shunn'd
273 The wealthy curled darlings of our nation,
274 Would ever have, to incur a general mock,
275 Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
276 Of such a thing as thou,—to fear, not to delight.
277 Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense
278 That thou hast practis'd on her with foul charms;
279 Abus'd her delicate youth with drugs or minerals
280 That weaken motion:—I'll have't disputed on;
281 'Tis probable, and palpable to thinking.
282 I therefore apprehend and do attach thee
283 For an abuser of the world, a practiser
284 Of arts inhibited and out of warrant.—
285 Lay hold upon him: if he do resist,
286 Subdue him at his peril.
Othello
287 Hold your hands,
288 Both you of my inclining and the rest:
289 Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it
290 Without a prompter.—Where will you that I go
291 To answer this your charge?
Brabantio
292 To prison; till fit time
293 Of law and course of direct session
294 Call thee to answer.
Othello
295 What if I do obey?
296 How may the duke be therewith satisfied,
297 Whose messengers are here about my side,
298 Upon some present business of the state,
299 To bring me to him?
First Officer
300 'Tis true, most worthy signior;
301 The duke's in council, and your noble self,
302 I am sure, is sent for.
Brabantio
303 How! the duke in council!
304 In this time of the night!—Bring him away:
305 Mine's not an idle cause: the duke himself,
306 Or any of my brothers of the state,
307 Cannot but feel this wrong as 'twere their own;
308 For if such actions may have passage free,
309 Bond slaves and pagans shall our statesmen be.
[Exeunt.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 195archaic vocab
“very stuff o' the conscience To do no contriv'd murder”
'Very stuff o' the conscience' means 'the very substance, the core of what conscience is made of.' Iago is claiming that doing deliberate, premeditated murder ('contriv'd murder') would be a sin too far even for him. The phrase is Iago performing scruples he does not have.
TLN 198archaic vocab
“yerk'd him here under the ribs”
'Yerk'd' means stabbed or thrust sharply. Iago is telling Othello he came close to running his sword into Brabantio's man under the ribs — that is, straight into the vital organs. The casual brutality of the image is typical of how Iago speaks when he drops his courteous mask.
TLN 206historical topical
“the magnifico is much beloved”
'Magnifico' was the title given to a senior member of the Venetian governing class — one of the great patrician senators whose families ran the republic. Iago uses it as a warning: Brabantio is not merely an angry father but a powerful nobleman whose political influence in Venice ('a voice potential / As double as the duke's') could override Othello's military standing.
TLN 213historical topical
“services which I have done the signiory”
The 'signiory' (also spelled 'signory' or 'seigniory') was the governing council of Venice — the Signoria, made up of the Doge and his senior counsellors. Othello is saying that his military record on Venice's behalf will speak louder than Brabantio's complaints. The word signals that he understands his standing is with the state itself, not with any one family.
TLN 217archaic vocab
“my demerits May speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune”
In Othello's usage, 'demerits' means his merits and deserts — the opposite of its modern meaning of failings. 'Speak unbonneted' means to speak with head uncovered, as an equal, without having to remove one's cap in deference. Othello is claiming that his achievements entitle him to stand as an equal to any man alive, including the proud Venetian aristocracy he has married into.
TLN 221archaic vocab
“unhoused free condition Put into circumscription and confine”
'Unhoused' means not settled in a house or home — free-ranging, unsettled, uncommitted. 'Circumscription and confine' means restriction and constraint. Othello is saying that only his love for Desdemona would induce him to give up the roving, unattached soldier's life and accept the domestic limits of marriage. It is a rare, unguarded glimpse of what he is surrendering.
TLN 229classical allusion
“By Janus, I think no”
Janus was the Roman god of doorways, passages, and beginnings — always depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions. Iago's oath 'By Janus' is darkly apt for a character who is himself double-faced, presenting a loyal surface while plotting destruction. Whether Shakespeare intended the irony here or the choice of oath was casual, it fits Iago perfectly.
TLN 264rhetorical device
“Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them”
Othello defuses an armed standoff with a single wry line: the swords are 'bright' (polished, drawn), and leaving them out in the night air will rust them. He addresses Brabantio directly in the next line — 'Good signior, you shall more command with years / Than with your weapons' — making the point that an old man waving a sword looks undignified, not threatening. The calm is deliberate and total: he controls the scene without raising his voice.
TLN 268historical topical
“thou hast enchanted her”
Brabantio's accusation that Othello used 'enchantment,' 'drugs,' or 'minerals' to win Desdemona draws on a real legal category in Elizabethan England: maleficium, the use of witchcraft or love-magic to coerce a person's will. English law and the 1604 Witchcraft Act treated such arts as criminal. The accusation also reflects Brabantio's racist inability to believe his daughter could choose a Black man freely.
historical The 'Moor' on the Elizabethan stage
TLN 275historical topical
“sooty bosom Of such a thing as thou”
Brabantio's language here — 'sooty bosom,' 'such a thing as thou' — expresses contempt by using the language of soot and the negation of personhood ('thing'). This is the play's first racist abuse directed at Othello from a character outside the Iago/Roderigo circle, and it carries the shock of coming from a senator, not a hired schemer. The slur reflects the attitudes that the reference card 'the-moor-on-the-english-stage' documents.
historical The 'Moor' on the Elizabethan stage
TLN 283historical topical
“abuser of the world, a practiser Of arts inhibited and out of warrant”
'Arts inhibited and out of warrant' means practices that are prohibited and have no legal standing — i.e. witchcraft, black magic, and the use of illegal drugs or potions. Brabantio is formally arresting Othello (he 'apprehend[s] and do[es] attach thee') on a charge equivalent to what the law called maleficium. 'Attach' here is a legal term meaning to arrest by warrant.
TLN 309historical topical
“Bond slaves and pagans shall our statesmen be”
Brabantio ends his tirade by threatening that if Othello's marriage goes unchallenged, Venice's rulers will effectively be 'bond slaves' (enslaved persons) and 'pagans' (non-Christians). The line gathers together two of the era's sharpest markers of otherness — slavery and non-Christianity — and flings them as an insult at the man who is both a valued general and, in Brabantio's framing, an outsider who does not fully belong.
historical The 'Moor' on the Elizabethan stage