To cure him of this evil.

VOICES (within) Help, help!

IAGO But hark, what noise?

Enter Cassio, driving in Roderigo

CASSIO ’Swounds, 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, I pray you, sir, hold your hand.

CASSIO Let me go, sir, or I’ll knock you o’er the mazard.

MONTANO Come, come, you’re drunk.

CASSIO Drunk?

They fight

IAGO (to Roderigo)

Away, I say. Go out and cry a mutiny.

Exit Roderigo

Nay, good lieutenant. God’s will, gentlemen!

Help, ho! Lieutenant! Sir! Montano! Sir!

Help, masters. Here’s a goodly watch indeed.

A bell rung

Who’s that which rings the bell? Diablo, ho!

The town will rise. God’s will, lieutenant, hold.

You’ll be ashamed for ever.

Enter Othello and attendants, with weapons

OTHELLO What is the matter here?

MONTANO

’Swounds, I bleed still. I am hurt to th’ death.

(Attacking Cassio) He dies.

OTHELLO Hold, for your lives!

IAGO

Hold, ho, lieutenant, sir, Montano, gentlemen!

Have you forgot all place of sense and duty?

Hold, the general speaks to you. Hold, hold, for shame.

OTHELLO

Why, how now, ho? From whence ariseth this?

Are we turned Turks, and to ourselves do that

Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites?

For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl.

He that stirs next to carve for his own rage

Holds his soul light. He dies upon his motion.

Silence that dreadful belt—it frights the isle

From her propriety.

⌈Bell stops⌉

What is the matter, masters?

Honest Iago, that looks dead with grieving,

Speak. Who began this? On thy love I charge thee.

IAGO

I do not know. Friends all but now, even now,

In quarter and in terms like bride and groom

Devesting them for bed; and then but now—

As if some planet had unwitted men—

Swords out, and tilting one at others’ breasts

In opposition bloody. I cannot speak

Any beginning to this peevish odds,

And would in action glorious I had lost

Those legs that brought me to a part of it.

OTHELLO

How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot?

CASSIO

I pray you pardon me. I cannot speak.

OTHELLO

Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil.

The gravity and stillness of your youth

The world hath noted, and your name is great

In mouths of wisest censure. What’s the matter,

That you unlace your reputation thus,

And spend your rich opinion for the name

Of a night-brawler? Give me answer to it.

MONTANO

Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger. 1

Your officer Iago can inform you,

While I spare speech—which something now offends

me—

Of all that I do know; nor know I aught

By me that’s said or done amiss this night,

Unless self-charity be sometimes a vice,

And to defend ourselves it be a sin

When violence assails us.

OTHELLO Now, by heaven,

My blood begins my safer guides to rule,

And passion, having my best judgement collied,

Essays to lead the way. ‘Swounds, if I stir,

Or do but lift this arm, the best of you

Shall sink in my rebuke. Give me to know

How this foul rout began, who set it on,

And he that is approved in this offence,

Though he had twinned with me, both at a birth,

Shall lose me. What, in a town of war

Yet wild, the people’s hearts brimful of fear,

To manage private and domestic quarrel

In night, and on the court and guard of safety!

’Tis monstrous. Iago, who began’t?

MONTANO (to Iago)

If partially affined or leagued in office

Thou dost deliver more or less than truth,

Thou art no soldier.

IAGO Touch me not so near.

I had rather ha’ this tongue cut from my mouth

Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio.

Yet I persuade myself to speak the truth

Shall nothing wrong him. This it is, general.

Montano and myself being in speech,

There comes a fellow crying out for help,

And Cassio following him with determined sword

To execute upon him. Sir, this gentleman

Steps in to Cassio, and entreats his pause.

Myself the crying fellow did pursue,

Lest by his clamour, as it so fell out,

The town might fall in fright. He, swift of foot,

Outran my purpose, and I returned, the rather

For that I heard the clink and fall of swords

And Cassio high in oath, which till tonight

I ne’er might say before. When I came back—

For this was brief—I found them close together

At blow and thrust, even as again they were

When you yourself did part them.

More of this matter cannot I report,

But men are men. The best sometimes forget.

Though Cassio did some little wrong to him,

As men in rage strike those that wish them best,

Yet surely Cassio, I believe, received