And before retiring for the night with Desdemona, he says—
"Michael, good night: To-morrow, with our earliest,
Let me have speech with you."
TALBOYS.
Why lay you such emphasis on these unimportant words?
NORTH.
They are not unimportant. Then comes the Night Brawl—as schemed by Iago. Othello, on the spot, cashiers Cassio—and at that very moment, Desdemona entering disturbed, with attendants, he says—
"Look if my gentle love is not rais'd up.—
Come, Desdemona; 'tis the soldiers' life,
To have their balmy slumbers wak'd with strife."
Iago advises the unfortunate Cassio to "confess himself freely" to Desdemona—who will help to put him in his place again—and Cassio replies—"betimes in the morning I will beseech the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me: I am desperate of my fortunes, if they check me here;"—and the Scene concludes with these words of Iago's—
"Two things are to be done,—
My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress;
I'll set her on;
Myself, the while, to draw the Moor apart,
And bring him jump when he may Cassio find
Soliciting his wife; Ay, that's the way;
Dull not device by coldness and delay."
"By the mass, 'tis morning," quoth Iago—and Act II. closes with the dawn of the Second Day at Cyprus. You don't deny that?