Othello Act II quotes

Montano
“What from the cape can you discern at sea?”

Montano
“What ribs of oak, when mountains melt on them, can hold the motise?”

Montano
“Pray heaven he be; For I have served him, and the man commands like a full soldier. Let’s to the seaside, ho! As well to see the vessel that’s come in As to throw out our eyes for brave Othello.”

Cassio
“Thanks, you the valiant of this warlike isle, that so approve the Moor! O, let the heavens give him defense against the elements, for I have lost him on a dangerous sea!”

Cassio
“My hopes do shape him for the governor.

”

Cassio
“He hath achieved a maid that paragons description and wild fame; One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens, and in th’ essential vesture of creation does tire the ingener.”

Cassio
“H’as had most favorable and happy speed:Tempest themselves, high seas, and howling winds… as having sense of beauty, do omit their moral natures, letting go safely by the divine Desdemona.

”

Cassio
“She that I spake of, our great captain’s captain, left in the conduct of the bold Iago… Great Jove, Othello guard, and swell his sail with thine own pow’rful breath, that he may bless this bay with his tall ship, make love’s quick pants in Desdemona’s arms…”

Cassio
“O behold! The riches of the ship is come on shore! Ye men of Cyprus, let her have your knees.”

Desdemona
“O but I fear! How lost you company?”

Cassio
“Let it not gall your patience, good Iago, that I extend my manners. ‘Tis my breeding that gives me this bold show of courtesy”

Iago
“Sir, would she give you so much of her lips as of her tongue she oft bestows on me, you would have enough.”

Desdemona
“Alas, she has no speech!”

Iago
“You are pictures out of doors. Bells in you parlors, wildcats in your kitchen, saints in your injuries, devils being offended, players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds.”

Iago
“Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk: You rise to play, and go to bed to work.”

Desdemona
“What would thou write of me, if thou shouldest praise me?”

Iago
“O gentle lady, do not put me to’t, for I am nothing if not critical.”

Iago
“If she be fair and wise, fairness and wit- The one’s for use, the other useth it.”

Iago
“If she be black, and thereto have a wit, she’ll find a white that shall her blackness fit.”

Iago
“She never yet was foolish that was fair, for even her folly helped her to an heir.”

Cassio
“You may relish him more in the soldier than in the scholar.”

Iago
“He takes her by the palm. Ay, well said, whisper! With as little a web as this will I ensnare a great fly as Cassio. Ay, smile upon her, do! I will gyve thee in thine own courtship”

Othello
“O my fair warrior!”

Othello
“It gives me wonder great as my content to see you here before me. O my soul’s joy! If after every tempest come such calms, may the winds blow till they have wakened death”

Othello
” If it were now to die, ’twere now to be most happy; for I fear my soul hath her content so absolute that not another comfort like to this succeeds in unknown fate.”

Desdemona
“The heavens forbid but that our loves and comforts should increase even as our days grow.”

Othello
” Go to the bay and disembark my coffers. Bring thou the master to the citadel; He is a good one, and his worthiness does challenge much respect.”

Iago
“Mark me with what violence she first loved the Moor, but for bragging and telling her fantastical lies; and will she love him still for pratting?… Her eye must be fed; and what delight shall she have to look on the devil? When blood is made dull with the act of sport, there should be, again to inflame it and to give satiety a fresh appetite, loveliness in favor, sympathy in years, manners, and beauties, all which the Moor is defective in.”

Iago
“Blessed fig’s-end! The wine she drinks is made of grapes. If she had been blessed, she would never have loved the Moor.”

Iago
“Cassio knows you not. I’ll not be far from you: do you find some occasion to anger Cassio, either by speaking too loud, or tainting his discipline, or from what other course you please…”

Iago
“He is rash and very sudden in choler, and haply with his truncheon may strike at you. Provoke him that he may; for even out of that will I cause these of Cyprus to mutiny”

Iago
“That Cassio loves her, I do well believe it; That she loves him, ’tis apt of great credit. The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not, Is of a constant, loving, noble nature, and I dare think he’ll prove to Desdemona a most dear husband. “

Othello
“Good Michael, look you to the guard tonight. Let’s teach ourselves that honorable stop, not to outsport discretion.”

Cassio
“Iago hath direction what to do; But not withstanding, with my personal eye will I look to’t.”

Othello
” Come, my dear love. The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue; That profit’s yet to come ‘tween me and you”

Iago
“Not this hour, lieutenant; ’tis not yet ten o’ th’ clock. Our general cast us thus early for the love of his Desdemona; who let us not therefore blame.”

Iago
“I have a stoup of wine, and here without are a brace of Cyprus gallants that would fain have a measure to the health of black Othello.”

Cassio
“Not to-night, good Iago. I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking; I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of entertainment.”

Iago
“If I can fasten but one cup upon him with that which he hath drunk to-night already, he’ll be as full of quarrel and offense as my young mistress’ dog.”

Iago
“If consequence do but approve my dream, my boat sails freely, both with mind and stream.”

Iago
“Some wine, ho! And let me the canakin clink, clink; And let me the canakin clink…”

Cassio
“Ay, but, by your leave, not before me. The lieutenant is to be saved before the ancient… Do not think, gentlemen, that I am drunk”

Iago
“You see this fellow that is gone before. He is a soldier fit to stand by Caesar and give direction; and do but see his vice. ‘Tis to his virtue a just equinox, the one as long as th’ other. ‘Tis a pity of him. I fear the trust Othello puts in him, on some odd time of his infirmity, will shake this island.”

Iago
” ‘Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep: He’ll watch the horologe a double set if drink rock not is cradle.”

Montano
“It were well the general were put in mind of it. Perhaps he sees it not, or his good nature prizes the virtue that appears in Cassio and looks not on his evils.”

Montano
“And ’tis great a pity that the noble Moor should hazard such a place as his own second with one of an ingraft infirmity. It were an honest action to say so to the Moor.”

Iago
“Not I, for this fair island! I do love Cassio well and would do much to cure him of this evil.”

Montano
“Zounds, I bleed still. I am hurt to the death. He dies!”

Othello
“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.”

Iago
“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 has unwitted men- Swords out, and tilting one at other’s breast in opposition bloody. “

Iago
“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’t.”

Montano
“Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger. 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 judgment collied, assays to lead the way.”

Montano
“If partially affined, or leagued in office, thou dost deliver more or less than truth, thou art no soldier.”

Othello
“I know, Iago, thy honesty and love doth mince this matter, making it light to Cassio. Cassio, I love thee; but never more be officer of mine.”

Othello
“Sir, for your hurts, myself will be your surgeon.”

Cassio
“Reputaion, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost my immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation!”

Iago
“Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit and lost without deserving.”

Iago
” There are ways to recover the general again. You are but now cast in his mood- a punishment more in policy than in malice, even so as one would beat his offenseless dog to affright an imperious lion. Sue to him again, and he’s yours.”

Cassio
“I will rather sue o be despised than to deceive so good a commander with so slight, so drunken,and so indiscreet an officer… O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil!”

Iago
“Our general’s wife is now the general…Confess yourself freely to her; importune her help to put you in your place again.”

Iago
“What’s he then that says I play the villain, when this advice is free I give and honest, probal to thinking, and indeed the course to win the Moor again?… How am I then a villain to counsel Cassio to this parallel course, directly to his good?”

Iago
“When devils will the blackest sins put on, they do suggest at first with heavenly shows, as I do now.”

Roderigo
My money is almost spent; I have been to-night exceedingly well cudgeled; and I think the issue will be- I shall have so much experience for my pains; and so, with no money at all, and a little more wit, return again to Venice.”

Iago
“How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees! … Cassio hath beaten thee, and thou by that small hurt hast cashiered Cassio.”

Iago
“Two things are to be done: My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress… Myself the while to draw the Moor apart and bring him jump when he may Cassio find soliciting his wife.”