"Pray you, come in; _I will bestow you where you shall have time To speak your bosom freely_. _Cassio._ I am much bound to you." And off they go to sue to the gentle Desdemona. TALBOYS. Alas! somewhat too gentle. NORTH. Then follows Scene II. of Act III.--a very short one--let me read it aloud. "_A Room in the Castle._ _Enter_ OTHELLO, IAGO, _and Gentlemen_. _Othello._ These letters give, Iago, to the pilot; And, by him, do my duties to the State; That done, I will be walking on the works; Repair there to me. _Iago._ Well, my good Lord, I'll do't. _Othello._ This fortification, gentlemen,--shall we see't? _Gent._ We'll wait upon your lordship. [_Exeunt._" That this Scene is on the same day as Scene Second--and with little intermission of time--is too plain to require proof. Othello here sends off his first dispatches to Venice by the pilot who had brought him safely to Cyprus, and then goes out to inspect the fortification. That is in the natural course of things--such a scene at any subsequent time would be altogether without meaning. TALBOYS. I cannot see that, sir. NORTH. None so blind as they who will not see. TALBOYS. There again. NORTH. What do you want, Talboys? TALBOYS. Have the goodness, my dear sir, to pause a moment--and go back to the close of the Scene preceding this short one. Then and there, Cassio, as we saw, goes into the Castle with Emilia, "_to be bestowed_" that he may have an opportunity of asking Desdemona to intercede for him with Othello. But "to be bestowed" may mean to have apartments there--and he may have been living in the Castle for several days, with or without Othello's knowledge, before that short Scene which you have just now quoted. NORTH. Living in the Castle for several days! With or without Othello's knowledge! Prodigious! All that Cassio asked was, "the advantage of some _brief discourse_;" and, that he might have that advantage, Emilia gave him apartments in the Castle! And there we may suppose him living at rack and manger, lying _perdu_ in the Governor's House! Emilia was a queer customer enough, but she could hardly have taken upon herself the responsibility of secreting a man under the same roof with Desdemona, without the sanction of her Mistress--and if with her sanction, what must we think of the "gentle Lady married to the Moor?" Talboys, you are quizzing the old Gentleman. TALBOYS. I give it up. NORTH. The short Scene I quoted, then, _immediately_ follows the preceding--in time; and that short Scene is manifestly introduced by Shakspeare, merely to get Othello out on the ramparts with Iago, _that_ Iago may bring the Moor "plump on Cassio soliciting his wife." SCENE THIRD OF ACT III.! Unfurl. TALBOYS. Ay, ay, sir. _Scene Third of Act III._ That is the Scene of Scenes. NORTH.