Act 2, Scene 3

A Hall in the Castle.

[Enter Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, and Attendants.]
Othello
1047 Good Michael, look you to the guard to-night:
1048 Let's teach ourselves that honourable stop,
1049 Not to out-sport discretion.
Cassio
1050 Iago hath direction what to do;
1051 But, notwithstanding, with my personal eye
1052 Will I look to't.
Othello
1053 Iago is most honest.
1054 Michael, good night: to-morrow with your earliest
1055 Let me have speech with you.—
[To Desdemona]
Othello
1056 Come, my dear love,—
1057 The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue;
1058 That profit's yet to come 'tween me and you.—
1059 Good-night.
[Exeunt Othello, Desdemona, and Attendants.]
[Enter Iago.]
Cassio
1060 Welcome, Iago; we must to the watch.
Iago
1061 Not this hour, lieutenant; 'tis not yet ten o' the clock.
1062 Our general cast us thus early for the love of his Desdemona; who
1063 let us not therefore blame: he hath not yet made wanton the night
1064 with her; and she is sport for Jove.
Cassio
1065 She's a most exquisite lady.
Iago
1066 And, I'll warrant her, full of game.
Cassio
1067 Indeed, she is a most fresh and delicate creature.
Iago
1068 What an eye she has! methinks it sounds a parley to provocation.
Cassio
1069 An inviting eye; and yet methinks right modest.
Iago
1070 And when she speaks, is it not an alarm to love?
Cassio
1071 She is, indeed, perfection.
Iago
1072 Well, happiness to their sheets! Come, lieutenant, I have a
1073 stoup of wine; and here without are a brace of Cyprus gallants
1074 that would fain have a measure to the health of black Othello.
Cassio
1075 Not to-night, good Iago: I have very poor and unhappy
1076 brains for drinking: I could well wish courtesy would invent some
1077 other custom of entertainment.
Iago
1078 O, they are our friends; but one cup: I'll drink for you.
Cassio
1079 I have drunk but one cup to-night, and that was craftily
1080 qualified too, and behold, what innovation it makes here: I am
1081 unfortunate in the infirmity, and dare not task my weakness
1082 with any more.
Iago
1083 What, man! 'tis a night of revels: the gallants desire it.
Cassio
1084 Where are they?
Iago
1085 Here at the door; I pray you, call them in.
Cassio
1086 I'll do't; but it dislikes me.
[Exit.]
Iago
1087 If I can fasten but one cup upon him,
1088 With that which he hath drunk to-night already,
1089 He'll be as full of quarrel and offense
1090 As my young mistress' dog. Now, my sick fool Roderigo,
1091 Whom love hath turn'd almost the wrong side out,
1092 To Desdemona hath to-night carous'd
1093 Potations pottle-deep; and he's to watch:
1094 Three lads of Cyprus,—noble swelling spirits,
1095 That hold their honours in a wary distance,
1096 The very elements of this warlike isle,—
1097 Have I to-night fluster'd with flowing cups,
1098 And they watch too. Now, 'mongst this flock of drunkards,
1099 Am I to put our Cassio in some action
1100 That may offend the isle:—but here they come:
1101 If consequence do but approve my dream,
1102 My boat sails freely, both with wind and stream.
[Re-enter Cassio; with him Montano and Gentlemen; followed by Servant with wine.]
Cassio
1103 'Fore heaven, they have given me a rouse already.
Montano
1104 Good faith, a little one; not past a pint, as I am a soldier.
Iago
1105 Some wine, ho!
[Sings.]
Iago
1106 "And let me the canakin clink, clink;
1107 And let me the canakin clink.
1108 A soldier's a man;
1109 O, man's life's but a span;
1110 Why then let a soldier drink."
Iago
1111 Some wine, boys!
Cassio
1112 'Fore God, an excellent song.
Iago
1113 I learned it in England, where, indeed, they are most
1114 potent in potting: your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied
1115 Hollander,—Drink, ho!—are nothing to your English.
Cassio
1116 Is your Englishman so expert in his drinking?
Iago
1117 Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead drunk; he
1118 sweats not to overthrow your Almain; he gives your Hollander
1119 a vomit ere the next pottle can be filled.
Cassio
1120 To the health of our general!
Montano
1121 I am for it, lieutenant; and I'll do you justice.
Iago
1122 O sweet England!
[Sings.]
Iago
1123 "King Stephen was and a worthy peer,
1124 His breeches cost him but a crown;
1125 He held them sixpence all too dear,
1126 With that he call'd the tailor lown.
1127 He was a wight of high renown,
1128 And thou art but of low degree:
1129 'Tis pride that pulls the country down;
1130 Then take thine auld cloak about thee."
Iago
1131 Some wine, ho!
Cassio
1132 Why, this is a more exquisite song than the other.
Iago
1133 Will you hear it again?
Cassio
1134 No; for I hold him to be unworthy of his place that does
1135 those things.—Well,—God's above all, and there be souls must
1136 be saved, and there be souls must not be saved.
Iago
1137 It's true, good lieutenant.
Cassio
1138 For mine own part,—no offence to the general, nor any
1139 man of quality,—I hope to be saved.
Iago
1140 And so do I too, lieutenant.
Cassio
1141 Ay, but, by your leave, not before me; the lieutenant is to
1142 be saved before the ancient. Let's have no more of this;
1143 let's to our affairs.—Forgive us our sins!—Gentlemen, let's
1144 look to our business. Do not think, gentlemen, I am drunk: this
1145 is my ancient; this is my right hand, and this is my left:—I am
1146 not drunk now; I can stand well enough, and I speak well enough.
All
1147 Excellent well.
Cassio
1148 Why, very well then: you must not think, then, that I am drunk.
[Exit.]
Montano
1149 To the platform, masters; come, let's set the watch.
Iago
1150 You see this fellow that is gone before;—
1151 He is a soldier fit to stand by Caesar
1152 And give direction: and do but see his vice;
1153 'Tis to his virtue a just equinox,
1154 The one as long as the other: 'tis pity of him.
1155 I fear the trust Othello puts him in,
1156 On some odd time of his infirmity,
1157 Will shake this island.
Montano
1158 But is he often thus?
Iago
1159 'Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep:
1160 He'll watch the horologe a double set
1161 If drink rock not his cradle.
Montano
1162 It were well
1163 The general were put in mind of it.
1164 Perhaps he sees it not, or his good nature
1165 Prizes the virtue that appears in Cassio,
1166 And looks not on his evils: is not this true?
[Enter Roderigo.]
[Aside to him.]
Iago
1167 How now, Roderigo!
1168 I pray you, after the lieutenant; go.
[Exit Roderigo.]
Montano
1169 And 'tis great pity that the noble Moor
1170 Should hazard such a place as his own second
1171 With one of an ingraft infirmity:
1172 It were an honest action to say
1173 So to the Moor.
Iago
1174 Not I, for this fair island;
1175 I do love Cassio well; and would do much
1176 To cure him of this evil.—But, hark! What noise?
[Cry within,--"Help! help!"]
[Re-enter Cassio, driving in Roderigo.]
Cassio
1177 You rogue! you rascal!
Montano
1178 What's the matter, lieutenant?
Cassio
1179 A knave teach me my duty! I'll beat the knave into
1180 a twiggen bottle.
Roderigo
1181 Beat me!
Cassio
1182 Dost thou prate, rogue?
[Striking Roderigo.]
Montano
1183 Nay, good lieutenant; I pray you, sir, hold your hand.
Cassio
1184 Let me go, sir, or I'll knock you o'er the mazard.
Montano
1185 Come, come, you're drunk.
Cassio
1186 Drunk!
[They fight.]
[Aside to Roderigo.]
Iago
1187 Away, I say! go out and cry a mutiny.
[Exit Roderigo.]
Iago
1188 Nay, good lieutenant,—alas,, gentlemen:—
1189 Help, ho!—Lieutenant,—sir,—Montano,—sir:—
1190 Help, masters!—Here's a goodly watch indeed!
[Bell rings.]
Iago
1191 Who's that that rings the bell?—Diablo, ho!
1192 The town will rise: God's will, lieutenant, hold;
1193 You will be sham'd forever.
[Re-enter Othello and Attendants.]
Othello
1194 What is the matter here?
Montano
1195 Zounds, I bleed still; I am hurt to the death.
Othello
1196 Hold, for your lives!
Iago
1197 Hold, ho! lieutenant,—sir,—Montano,—gentlemen,—
1198 Have you forgot all sense of place and duty?
1199 Hold! the general speaks to you; hold, hold, for shame!
Othello
1200 Why, how now, ho! from whence ariseth this?
1201 Are we turn'd Turks, and to ourselves do that
1202 Which Heaven hath forbid the Ottomites?
1203 For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl:
1204 He that stirs next to carve for his own rage
1205 Holds his soul light; he dies upon his motion.—
1206 Silence that dreadful bell; it frights the isle
1207 From her propriety.—What is the matter, masters?—
1208 Honest Iago, that look'st dead with grieving,
1209 Speak, who began this? on thy love, I charge thee.
Iago
1210 I do not know:—friends all but now, even now,
1211 In quarter, and in terms like bride and groom
1212 Devesting them for bed; and then, but now—
1213 As if some planet had unwitted men,—
1214 Swords out, and tilting one at other's breast
1215 In opposition bloody. I cannot speak
1216 Any beginning to this peevish odds;
1217 And would in action glorious I had lost
1218 Those legs that brought me to a part of it!
Othello
1219 How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot?
Cassio
1220 I pray you, pardon me; I cannot speak.
Othello
1221 Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil;
1222 The gravity and stillness of your youth
1223 The world hath noted, and your name is great
1224 In mouths of wisest censure: what's the matter,
1225 That you unlace your reputation thus,
1226 And spend your rich opinion for the name
1227 Of a night-brawler? give me answer to it.
Montano
1228 Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger:
1229 Your officer, Iago, can inform you,—
1230 While I spare speech, which something now offends me,—
1231 Of all that I do know: nor know I aught
1232 By me that's said or done amiss this night:
1233 Unless self-charity be sometimes a vice,
1234 And to defend ourselves it be a sin
1235 When violence assails us.
Othello
1236 Now, by heaven,
1237 My blood begins my safer guides to rule;
1238 And passion, having my best judgement collied,
1239 Assays to lead the way. If I once stir,
1240 Or do but lift this arm, the best of you
1241 Shall sink in my rebuke. Give me to know
1242 How this foul rout began, who set it on;
1243 And he that is approv'd in this offense,
1244 Though he had twinn'd with me, both at a birth,
1245 Shall lose me.—What! in a town of war
1246 Yet wild, the people's hearts brimful of fear,
1247 To manage private and domestic quarrel,
1248 In night, and on the court and guard of safety!
1249 'Tis monstrous.—Iago, who began't?
Montano
1250 If partially affin'd, or leagu'd in office,
1251 Thou dost deliver more or less than truth,
1252 Thou art no soldier.
Iago
1253 Touch me not so near:
1254 I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth
1255 Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio;
1256 Yet, I persuade myself, to speak the truth
1257 Shall nothing wrong him.—Thus it is, general.
1258 Montano and myself being in speech,
1259 There comes a fellow crying out for help;
1260 And Cassio following him with determin'd sword,
1261 To execute upon him. Sir, this gentleman
1262 Steps in to Cassio and entreats his pause:
1263 Myself the crying fellow did pursue,
1264 Lest by his clamour,—as it so fell out,—
1265 The town might fall in fright: he, swift of foot,
1266 Outran my purpose; and I return'd the rather
1267 For that I heard the clink and fall of swords,
1268 And Cassio high in oath; which till to-night
1269 I ne'er might say before. When I came back,—
1270 For this was brief,—I found them close together,
1271 At blow and thrust; even as again they were
1272 When you yourself did part them.
1273 More of this matter cannot I report;—
1274 But men are men; the best sometimes forget:—
1275 Though Cassio did some little wrong to him,—
1276 As men in rage strike those that wish them best,—
1277 Yet surely Cassio, I believe, receiv'd
1278 From him that fled some strange indignity,
1279 Which patience could not pass.
Othello
1280 I know, Iago,
1281 Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter,
1282 Making it light to Cassio. Cassio, I love thee;
1283 But never more be officer of mine.—
[Re-enter Desdemona, attended.]
Othello
1284 Look, if my gentle love be not rais'd up!—
1285 I'll make thee an example.
Desdemona
1286 What's the matter?
Othello
1287 All's well now, sweeting; come away to bed.
[To Montano, who is led off.]
Othello
1288 Sir, for your hurts, myself will be your surgeon:
1289 Lead him off.
1290 Iago, look with care about the town,
1291 And silence those whom this vile brawl distracted.—
1292 Come, Desdemona: 'tis the soldiers' life
1293 To have their balmy slumbers wak'd with strife.
[Exeunt all but Iago and Cassio.]
Iago
1294 What, are you hurt, lieutenant?
Cassio
1295 Ay, past all surgery.
Iago
1296 Marry, heaven forbid!
Cassio
1297 Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my
1298 reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what
1299 remains is bestial.—My reputation, Iago, my reputation!
Iago
1300 As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some
1301 bodily wound; there is more sense in that than in reputation.
1302 Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without
1303 merit and lost without deserving: you have lost no reputation at
1304 all, unless you repute yourself such a loser. What, man! there
1305 are ways to recover the general again: you are but now cast in
1306 his mood, a punishment more in policy than in malice; even so as
1307 one would beat his offenceless dog to affright an imperious lion:
1308 sue to him again, and he is yours.
Cassio
1309 I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a
1310 commander with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet an
1311 officer. Drunk? and speak parrot? and squabble? swagger?
1312 swear? and discourse fustian with one's own shadow?—O thou
1313 invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by,
1314 let us call thee devil!
Iago
1315 What was he that you followed with your sword? What had he done
1316 to you?
Cassio
1317 I know not.
Iago
1318 Is't possible?
Cassio
1319 I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a quarrel,
1320 but nothing wherefore.—O God, that men should put an enemy in
1321 their mouths to steal away their brains! that we should, with
1322 joy, pleasance, revel, and applause, transform ourselves into
1323 beasts!
Iago
1324 Why, but you are now well enough: how came you thus recovered?
Cassio
1325 It hath pleased the devil drunkenness to give place to the
1326 devil wrath: one unperfectness shows me another, to make me
1327 frankly despise myself.
Iago
1328 Come, you are too severe a moraler: as the time, the place, and
1329 the condition of this country stands, I could heartily wish
1330 this had not befallen; but since it is as it is, mend it for
1331 your own good.
Cassio
1332 I will ask him for my place again;—he shall tell me I am a
1333 drunkard! Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would
1334 stop them all. To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool,
1335 and presently a beast! O strange!—Every inordinate cup is
1336 unbless'd, and the ingredient is a devil.
Iago
1337 Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be
1338 well used: exclaim no more against it. And, good lieutenant,
1339 I think you think I love you.
Cassio
1340 I have well approved it, sir.—I drunk!
Iago
1341 You, or any man living, may be drunk at a time, man. I'll tell
1342 you what you shall do. Our general's wife is now the general;—
1343 I may say so in this respect, for that he hath devoted and
1344 given up himself to the contemplation, mark, and denotement
1345 of her parts and graces:—confess yourself freely to her;
1346 importune her help to put you in your place again: she is of
1347 so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition, she holds
1348 it a vice in her goodness not to do more than she is requested:
1349 this broken joint between you and her husband entreat her to
1350 splinter; and, my fortunes against any lay worth naming, this
1351 crack of your love shall grow stronger than it was before.
Cassio
1352 You advise me well.
Iago
1353 I protest, in the sincerity of love and honest kindness.
Cassio
1354 I think it freely; and betimes in the morning I will beseech
1355 the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me; I am desperate
1356 of my fortunes if they check me here.
Iago
1357 You are in the right. Good-night, lieutenant; I must to the
1358 watch.
Cassio
1359 Good night, honest Iago.
[Exit.]
Iago
1360 And what's he, then, that says I play the villain?
1361 When this advice is free I give and honest,
1362 Probal to thinking, and, indeed, the course
1363 To win the Moor again? For 'tis most easy
1364 The inclining Desdemona to subdue
1365 In any honest suit: she's fram'd as fruitful
1366 As the free elements. And then for her
1367 To win the Moor,—were't to renounce his baptism,
1368 All seals and symbols of redeemed sin,—
1369 His soul is so enfetter'd to her love
1370 That she may make, unmake, do what she list,
1371 Even as her appetite shall play the god
1372 With his weak function. How am I, then, a villain
1373 To counsel Cassio to this parallel course,
1374 Directly to his good? Divinity of hell!
1375 When devils will the blackest sins put on,
1376 They do suggest at first with heavenly shows,
1377 As I do now: for whiles this honest fool
1378 Plies Desdemona to repair his fortune,
1379 And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor,
1380 I'll pour this pestilence into his ear,—
1381 That she repeals him for her body's lust;
1382 And by how much she strives to do him good,
1383 She shall undo her credit with the Moor.
1384 So will I turn her virtue into pitch;
1385 And out of her own goodness make the net
1386 That shall enmesh them all.
[Enter Roderigo.]
Iago
1387 How now, Roderigo!
Roderigo
1388 I do follow here in the chase, not like a hound that hunts,
1389 but one that fills up the cry. My money is almost spent; I
1390 have been to-night exceedingly well cudgelled; and I think
1391 the issue will be—I shall have so much experience for my
1392 pains: and so, with no money at all and a little more wit,
1393 return again to Venice.
Iago
1394 How poor are they that have not patience!
1395 What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
1396 Thou know'st we work by wit, and not by witchcraft;
1397 And wit depends on dilatory time.
1398 Does't not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee,
1399 And thou, by that small hurt, hast cashier'd Cassio;
1400 Though other things grow fair against the sun,
1401 Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe:
1402 Content thyself awhile.—By the mass, 'tis morning;
1403 Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.—
1404 Retire thee; go where thou art billeted:
1405 Away, I say; thou shalt know more hereafter;
1406 Nay, get thee gone.
[Exit Roderigo.]
Iago
1407 Two things are to be done,—
1408 My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress;
1409 I'll set her on;
1410 Myself the while to draw the Moor apart,
1411 And bring him jump when he may Cassio find
1412 Soliciting his wife. Ay, that's the way;
1413 Dull not device by coldness and delay.
[Exit.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 1048archaic vocab
“teach ourselves that honourable stop”
Othello tells Cassio to impose a 'stop' — a restraint, limit — on their own celebrations. The island has just been saved from the Ottoman fleet, and the troops are in high spirits; Othello insists the celebrating must not go beyond what is 'honourable,' i.e. not dishonour them by going too far.
TLN 1062archaic vocab
“general cast us thus early for the love of his Desdemona”
'Cast' here means dismissed, sent away — Othello has ended the watch early so he can be with his new wife. Iago says this as if tolerant and amused, but his real purpose is to manipulate Cassio into drinking with unguarded time ahead.
TLN 1068historical topical
“methinks it sounds a parley to provocation”
A 'parley' was a trumpet call used in warfare to invite negotiation between enemies — here Iago uses military language to say Desdemona's glance is like a battle-signal inviting a response. The metaphor reduces courtship to siege tactics.
TLN 1072archaic vocab
“a stoup of wine; and here without are a brace of Cyprus gallants”
A 'stoup' is a large drinking vessel or flagon. 'Without' means outside (not 'lacking'). A 'brace' is a pair — two. Iago has a jug of wine ready and two local Cypriots waiting outside who want to toast Othello.
TLN 1079archaic vocab
“that was craftily qualified too, and behold, what innovation it makes here”
Cassio says his single cup was 'qualified' — diluted, watered down — and yet it has still disturbed him. 'Innovation' here means an upheaval or internal disturbance, not a new invention. Even weakened wine has already upset his head.
TLN 1092archaic vocab
“carous'd Potations pottle-deep”
'Carous'd' means drank deeply in a toast. 'Potations' are drafts or draughts of drink. 'Pottle-deep' means to the bottom of a pottle — a two-quart pot, half a gallon. Iago reports that Roderigo has already drunk two-quart toasts to Desdemona's health.
TLN 1094archaic vocab
“noble swelling spirits, That hold their honours in a wary distance”
'Swelling spirits' means men with inflated pride and honour — 'swelling' as in puffed up. To 'hold their honours in a wary distance' means to be on constant guard for any slight to their reputation, quick to take offence at perceived insults. These are men primed for a brawl.
TLN 1106historical topical
“let me the canakin clink”
A 'canakin' (or cannikin) is a small drinking can or cup. Iago sings a drinking song in praise of the soldier's life, using the clink of metal cups as a cheerful refrain. The song makes drinking sound like soldierly virtue.
TLN 1113historical topical
“they are most potent in potting: your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied Hollander”
Iago runs through a comic catalogue of Europe's supposedly heaviest drinkers — Danes, Germans, and 'swag-bellied' (pot-bellied) Dutch — and claims Englishmen outdrink them all. 'Potent in potting' means powerful at drinking (a pun on 'pot'). This was a stock piece of English national bragging.
TLN 1123historical topical
“King Stephen was and a worthy peer”
Iago sings a ballad about King Stephen of England (reigned 1135–1154), mocking a king who haggled over the price of a pair of breeches. The point is anti-pride: a great man should not care about the cost of his clothes. 'Lown' (also 'loon') means a rogue or rascal.
TLN 1135biblical allusion
“God's above all, and there be souls must be saved, and there be souls must not be saved”
The drunk Cassio blurts out a confused version of Calvinist predestination: God has already decided which souls will be saved and which will not. As a Christian soldier he believes in divine authority ('God's above all'), but the logic of Calvinist doctrine implied a world in which some are simply not destined for salvation.
TLN 1141historical topical
“the lieutenant is to be saved before the ancient”
Cassio is drunk and insisting that military rank determines the order in which men will be saved: the lieutenant (his own rank) goes first, then the ancient (ensign — Iago's rank). An 'ancient' was an ensign, the officer who carried the regiment's flag, one rank below lieutenant. Cassio is unwittingly rubbing Iago's face in the very promotion dispute that drives the whole play.
TLN 1151classical allusion
“He is a soldier fit to stand by Caesar”
Iago praises Cassio as good enough to serve as aide-de-camp to Caesar himself — Julius Caesar being the byword in Elizabethan culture for the consummate military commander. Iago says this to Montano to establish Cassio's value before undercutting him with news of his drinking problem.
TLN 1153archaic vocab
“'Tis to his virtue a just equinox, The one as long as the other”
An 'equinox' is the moment when day and night are of exactly equal length. Iago says Cassio's vice (drinking) is a precise equal counterweight to his virtue — the one is just as large as the other. It is a feigned tribute: Cassio is as bad as he is good.
TLN 1160archaic vocab
“He'll watch the horologe a double set”
A 'horologe' is a clock. To 'watch the horologe a double set' means to stay awake for two full twelve-hour turns of the clock — twenty-four hours without sleep. Iago claims Cassio can stay awake all night only if drink 'rocks his cradle,' i.e. knocks him out.
TLN 1171archaic vocab
“one of an ingraft infirmity”
'Ingraft' (also 'engrafted') means deeply rooted, implanted — as if grafted into a tree so that it grows as part of the tree. An 'ingraft infirmity' is a weakness that has become part of a person's nature, not just an occasional lapse. Montano is saying Cassio's drinking is a fixed, constitutional defect.
TLN 1179archaic vocab
“beat the knave into a twiggen bottle”
A 'twiggen bottle' is a glass bottle encased in wickerwork (wicker made of twigs). Cassio, drunk and furious, threatens to beat Roderigo until he resembles a bottle wrapped in a wicker cage — i.e. criss-crossed with bruises like the lattice of wicker.
TLN 1184archaic vocab
“knock you o'er the mazard”
A 'mazard' (also 'mazzard') is the head — specifically the skull, originally slang for a large bowl or cup (comparing the rounded skull to a bowl). Cassio is threatening to knock Montano over the head.
TLN 1191archaic vocab
“Diablo, ho”
'Diablo' is Spanish and Italian for 'Devil.' Iago shouts it as an exclamation of alarm as the bell rings — a performance of horror. The word fits the setting (Cyprus, in the Spanish-Italian Mediterranean world) and also carries a dark irony: Iago, who is the actual devil of the play, is crying 'Devil!' at a crisis he created.
TLN 1201historical topical
“Are we turn'd Turks, and to ourselves do that Which Heaven hath forbid the Ottomites”
Othello means: have we become our own enemies? The storm that scattered the Ottoman fleet (Act 2, Scene 1) saved Cyprus from the Turks; if the Venetian garrison now tears itself apart in a drunken brawl, the soldiers are doing the Turks' work for them. 'Ottomites' is another name for Ottomans, i.e. the Turkish forces.
historical Cyprus and the Ottoman threat
TLN 1213historical topical
“As if some planet had unwitted men”
Iago claims the sudden brawl was as inexplicable as if a malevolent planet had temporarily deprived the men of their wits. In Elizabethan belief, the planets (especially Saturn, Mars, and the moon) directly influenced human mood, health, and reason. 'Unwitted' means robbed of wit — made senseless.
TLN 1225archaic vocab
“unlace your reputation thus, And spend your rich opinion”
To 'unlace' here means to undo, destroy, strip apart — as unlacing armour leaves a soldier exposed. 'Opinion' means reputation, the high regard in which others hold you. Othello asks Montano why he is destroying his good standing by brawling like a common drunk.
TLN 1238archaic vocab
“passion, having my best judgement collied”
'Collied' means blackened, darkened — from 'colly,' an old word for coal-dust or soot. Othello says his passion (anger) is darkening his best judgment, like soot covering a lamp. This is a rare and precise Shakespearean coinage.
TLN 1250archaic vocab
“If partially affin'd, or leagu'd in office”
Montano warns Iago: if you are 'partially affined' — biased because of kinship, friendship, or professional alliance — and tell anything less or more than the full truth, you forfeit your honour as a soldier. 'Affined' means bound by ties of affection or duty ('affinity').
TLN 1298cultural context
“I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial”
Cassio means that his reputation is the part of him that will outlive his body — 'immortal' because it persists after death in others' memory and in historical record. Without it, what remains is merely animal — flesh, appetite, instinct. This is a commonplace of Renaissance honour culture: a man's name survives him, but a dishonoured man is already as good as dead.
TLN 1302cultural context
“Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit and lost without deserving”
Iago dismisses reputation as a sham — 'imposition' means something imposed from outside, not earned from within; 'idle' means empty, worthless. This directly contradicts everything Cassio just said. The speech reveals Iago's cynical worldview: honour is a social fiction, not a real value.
historical The Stage Machiavel
TLN 1306archaic vocab
“even so as one would beat his offenceless dog to affright an imperious lion”
Iago says Othello's punishment of Cassio is like beating an innocent dog to scare a lion — a policy display, not genuine anger. 'Offenceless' means blameless, having done no wrong. 'Imperious' means commanding, lordly (from Latin 'imperiosus,' fitting for an emperor).
TLN 1333classical allusion
“Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would stop them all”
The Hydra was a many-headed serpent of Greek myth: when one head was cut off, two grew back. To have 'as many mouths as Hydra' means to have an endless number of voices to argue with. Cassio is saying that no matter how many objections he could raise, the answer 'you were drunk' would silence them all.
TLN 1342cultural context
“Our general's wife is now the general”
Iago means that Desdemona has so completely captured Othello's devotion that she effectively commands him — whatever she asks, he will grant. It is a cynical but accurate observation about Othello's state on his wedding night, and it is the vulnerability Iago will exploit.
TLN 1374biblical allusion
“Divinity of hell! When devils will the blackest sins put on, They do suggest at first with heavenly shows”
Iago reverses religious language: 'Divinity of hell' means a theology that belongs to hell, not heaven. He is openly comparing himself to the Devil — who, in Christian tradition, tempts by disguising evil as good. 'Suggest' here means to tempt, whisper evil counsel.
historical The Stage Machiavel
TLN 1381archaic vocab
“she repeals him for her body's lust”
'Repeals' means recalls, reinstates — Iago plans to tell Othello that Desdemona is lobbying to get Cassio his position back because she is sexually infatuated with him. In Iago's coming lie, an innocent act of intercession will be recast as evidence of adultery.
TLN 1388archaic vocab
“not like a hound that hunts, but one that fills up the cry”
Roderigo complains that he is not a real hunter in this chase but merely makes up the noise ('cry' = the baying of a pack of hounds). He follows along and barks, but Iago does the actual hunting. 'Fill up the cry' means to add to the hue and cry of the pack without doing any real hunting.
TLN 1394rhetorical device
“How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees”
Iago delivers a pair of rhymed maxims as if they were wise moral advice. The first is an epigram on patience; the second uses a medical analogy — wounds heal slowly — to counsel Roderigo to wait. Both sentiments are true but Iago deploys them purely to keep Roderigo in his scheme.
TLN 1399archaic vocab
“hast cashier'd Cassio”
To 'cashier' means to dismiss from military service — to strip an officer of his commission. The word passed into English from French 'casser' (to break, discharge) via military use. Iago cheerfully tells Roderigo that by getting beaten he has inadvertently gotten Cassio fired.