Othello: Act II, Scene iii; First Folio

 

Othello.         Act 2, Scene 3.      Iago

This speech is used in our interview with Lee Nishri-Howitt

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1460:  And what’s he then,
1461:  That saies I play the Villaine?
1462:  When this aduise is free I giue, and honest,
1463:  Proball to thinking, and indeed the course
1464:  To win the Moore againe.
1465:  For ’tis most easie
1466:  Th’ inclyning Desdemona to subdue
1467:  In any honest Suite. She’s fram’d as fruitefull
1468:  As the free Elements. And then for her
1469:  To win the Moore, were to renownce his Baptisme,
1470:  All Seales, and Simbols of redeemed sin:
1471:  His Soule is so enfetter’d to her Loue,
1472:  That she may make, vnmake, do what she list,
1473:  Euen as her Appetite shall play the God,
1474:  With his weake Function. How am I then a Villaine,
1475:  To Counsell Cassio to this paralell course,
1476:  Directly to his good? Diuinitie of hell,
1477:  When diuels will the blackest sinnes put on,
1478:  They do suggest at first with heauenly shewes,
1479:  As I do now. For whiles this honest Foole
1480:  Plies Desdemona, to repaire his Fortune,
1481:  And she for him, pleades strongly to the Moore,
1482:  Ile powre this pestilence into his eare:
1483:  That she repeales him, for her bodies Lust,
1484:  And by how much she striues to do him good,
1485:  She shall vndo her Credite with the Moore.
1486:  So will I turne her vertue into pitch.
1487:  And out of her owne goodnesse make the Net,
1488:  That shall en-mash them all.