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.

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

Enter EMILIA.

Emi. Good morrow, good lieutenant: I am sorry
For your displeasure; but all will soon 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.

Cas.

If you

Yet, I beseech you,—

think fit, or that it may be done,—

Give me advantage of some brief discourse

With Desdemona alone."

Emi.

Pray you, come in:

I will bestow you where you shall have time

To speak your bosom freely.

Cas.

I am much bound to you.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

A room in the castle.

Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and gentlemen.

Oth. These letters give, Iago, to the pilot;
And, by him, do my duties to the state:
That done, I will be walking on the works:
Repair there to me.

Iago.

Well, my good lord, I'll do 't.

Oth. This fortification, gentlemen,-shall we

see 't?

Gen. We'll wait upon your lordship.

[Exeunt.

་

SCENE III.

Before the castle.

Enter DESDEMONA, CASSIO, and EMILIA.

Des. Be thou assured, good Cassio, I will do All my abilities in thy behalf.

Emi. Good madam, do; I know it grieves my husband

As if the case were his.

Des. O, that's an honest fellow!-Do not doubt,

Cassio,

But I will have my lord and you again

As friendly as you were.

Cas Bounteous madam, Whatever shall become of Michael Cassio,

He's never any thing but your true servant.

Des. O, sir, I thank you. You do love my lord; You have known him long; and be you well assured,

He shall in strangeness stand no farther off

Than in a politic distance.

Cas.

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.

Des. Do not doubt that: before Emilia here,
I give thee warrant of thy place: assure thee,
If I do vow a friendship, I 'll perform it

To the last article: my lord shall never rest;
I'll watch him tame,1 and talk him out of patience;
His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift;
I'll intermingle every thing he does

With Cassio's suit: therefore be merry, Cassio;
For thy solicitor shall rather die,

Than give thy cause away.

' I will make him tame, like a hawk, by depriving him of

sleep.

And hear me speak.

Cas. Madam, not now: I am very ill at ease;

Unfit for mine own purposes.

Des.

Well, well,

Do

your discretion.

[Exit Cassio.

Iago.

Ha! I like not that.

Oth. What dost thou say?

Iago. Nothing, my lord; or if I know not

what.

Oth. Was not that Cassio parted from my wife?
Iago. Cassio, my lord? No, sure, I cannot think

it,

That he would steal away so guilty-like,

lord?

Oth.

Des. How now, my

I have been talking with a suitor here,

A man that languishes in your displeasure.

Oth. Who is 't you mean?

Des. Why, your lieutenant Cassio. Good my

lord,

If I have any grace, or power to move you,

His present reconciliation take;

For, if he be not one that truly loves you,
That errs in ignorance, and not in cunning,
I have no judgment in an honest face :

I pr'ythee, call him back.

Oth.

Went he hence now?

Des. Ay, sooth; so humbled,

That he hath left part of his grief with me:
I suffer with him. Good love, call him back.

Oth. Not now, sweet Desdemona; some other

time.

Des. But shall 't be shortly?

Oth.

Des. Shall 't be to-night at supper?

Oth.

The sooner, sweet, for you.

No, not to-night.

Des. To-morrow dinner then?
Oth.

I shall not dine at home:

I meet the captains at the citadel.

Des. Why, then, to-morrow night; or Tuesday

morn;

Or Tuesday noon, or night; or Wednesday morn ;-
I pray thee, name the time; but let it not
Exceed three days: in faith, he 's penitent;
And yet his trespass, in our common reason,

(Save that, they say, the wars must make examples Out of their best) 1 is not almost a fault

To incur a private check. When shall he come ?
Tell me, Othello. I wonder in my soul,

What you could ask me, that I should deny,
Or stand so mammering on.
2

Cassio,

What! Michael

That came a wooing with you; and so many a time, When I have spoke of you dispraisingly,

Hath ta'en your part; to have so much to do

To bring him in! Trust me, I could do much,

i. e. must not spare the best men of the army when their punishment may afford a wholesome example.

* Hesitating.