RODRIGO
Me decías que le odiabas.

YAGO
Despréciame si es falso. Tres magnates de Venecia se descubren ante él y le piden que me nombre su teniente;
y te juro que menos no merezco, que yo sé lo que valgo. Mas él, enamorado de su propia majestad y de su verbo, los evade con rodeos ampulosos hinchados de términos marciales y acaba denegándoles la súplica.

Les dice: «Ya he nombrado a mi oficial». ¿Y quién es el elegido? Pardiez, todo un matemático un tal Miguel Casio, un florentino (casi condenado a mujercita),
que jamás puso una escuadra sobre el campo ni sabe disponer un batallón mejor que una hilandera ... si no es con teoría libresca, de la cual también saben hablar los cónsules togados.

RODERIGO

Thou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy hate.

IAGO

Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city,

In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,

Off-capp'd to him: and, by the faith of man,

I know my price, I am worth no worse a place:

But he; as loving his own pride and purposes,

Evades them, with a bombast circumstance

Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;

And, in conclusion,

Nonsuits my mediators; for, 'Certes,' says he,

'I have already chose my officer.'

And what was he?

Forsooth, a great arithmetician,

One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,

A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;

That never set a squadron in the field,

Nor the division of a battle knows

More than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric,

Wherein the toged consuls can propose

As masterly as he: mere prattle, without practise,

RODRIGO
You told me you hated him.

IAGO
Despise me if it is false. Three magnates from Venice reveal themselves to him and ask him to name me his lieutenant;
And I swear to you that I don't deserve less, that I know what I'm worth. But he, in love with his own majesty and with his verb, evades them with pompous detours swollen with martial terms and ends up denying their plea.

He tells them: "I have already appointed my officer." And who is the chosen one? Pardiez, quite a mathematician, a certain Miguel Casio, a Florentine (almost condemned to being a little woman),
who never put a squad on the field nor knows how to arrange a battalion better than a spinner... if not with bookish theory, of which he also the robed consuls know how to speak.

Mera plática sin práctica es toda su milicia. Mas le ha dado el puesto, y a mí, a quien ha visto dar pruebas en Rodas, en Chipre y en tierras cristianas y paganas, me deja a la sombra y a la zaga del debe y el haber. Y este sacacuentas es, en buena hora, su teniente, y yo, vaya por Dios, el alférez de Su Morería

RODRIGO
¡El colmo! Yo antes sería su verdugo.

YAGO
Pues ya lo ves. Son los gajes del soldado: los ascensos se rigen por el libro y el afecto, no según antigüedad, por la cual el segundo siempre sucede al primero. Conque juzga si tengo algún motivo para estar a bien con el moro.

RODRIGO
Yo no le serviría.

Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election:

And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof

At Rhodes, at Cyprus and on other grounds

Christian and heathen, must be be-lee'd and calm'd

By debitor and creditor: this counter-caster,

He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,

And I--God bless the mark!--his Moorship's ancient

RODERIGO

By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman.

IAGO

Why, there's no remedy; 'tis the curse of service,

Preferment goes by letter and affection,

And not by old gradation, where each second

Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself,

Whether I in any just term am affined

To love the Moor.

RODERIGO

I would not follow him then.

Mere talk without practice is all his militia. But he has given him the job, and he leaves me, whom he has seen give proofs in Rhodes, in Cyprus and in Christian and pagan lands, he leaves me in the shadow and behind the debits and credits. And this account taker is, in good time, his lieutenant, and I, by God, the second lieutenant of Su Morería

RODRIGO
The last straw! Before I would be the executioner of him.

IAGO
Well, you see. They are the soldier's perks: promotions are governed by the book and affection, not according to seniority, for which the second always succeeds the first. So he judges if I have any reason to be on good terms with the Moor.

RODRIGO
I wouldn't do you any good.