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OTHELLO
SCENE Venice: a Sea-port in Cyprus.
ACT I, SCENE I.
Venice. A street.
Enter RODERIGO and IAGO
RODERIGO
001: Tush! never tell me; I take it much unkindly
002: That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse
003: As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.
IAGO
004: 'Sblood, but you will not hear me:
005: If ever I did dream of such a matter, Abhor me.
RODERIGO
006: Thou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy hate.
IAGO
007: Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city,
008: In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
009: Off-capp'd to him: and, by the faith of man,
010: I know my price, I am worth no worse a place:
011: But he; as loving his own pride and purposes,
012: Evades them, with a bombast circumstance
013: Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;
014: And, in conclusion,
015: Nonsuits my mediators; for, 'Certes,' says he,
016: 'I have already chose my officer.'
017: And what was he?
018: Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
019: One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
020: A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;
021: That never set a squadron in the field,
022: Nor the division of a battle knows
023: More than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric,
024: Wherein the toged consuls can propose
025: As masterly as he: mere prattle, without practise,
026: Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election:
027: And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof
028: At Rhodes, at Cyprus and on other grounds
029: Christian and heathen, must be be-lee'd and calm'd
030: By debitor and creditor: this counter-caster,
031: He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,
032: And I--God bless the mark!--his Moorship's ancient.
RODERIGO
033: By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman.
IAGO
034: Why, there's no remedy; 'tis the curse of service,
035: Preferment goes by letter and affection,
036: And not by old gradation, where each second
037: Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself,
038: Whether I in any just term am affined
039: To love the Moor.
RODERIGO
040: I would not follow him then.
IAGO
041: O, sir, content you;
042: I follow him to serve my turn upon him:
043: We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
044: Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
045: Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
046: That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
047: Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
048: For nought but provender, and when he's old, cashier'd:
049: Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are
050: Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty,
051: Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves,
052: And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
053: Do well thrive by them and when they have lined
054: their coats
055: Do themselves homage: these fellows have some soul;
056: And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,
057: It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
058: Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
059: In following him, I follow but myself;
060: Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
061: But seeming so, for my peculiar end:
062: For when my outward action doth demonstrate
063: The native act and figure of my heart
064: In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
065: But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
066: For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.
RODERIGO
067: What a full fortune does the thicklips owe
068: If he can carry't thus!
IAGO
069: Call up her father,
070: Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight,
071: Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,
072: And, though he in a fertile climate dwell,
073: Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,
074: Yet throw such changes of vexation on't,
075: As it may lose some colour.
RODERIGO
076: Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud.
IAGO
077: Do, with like timorous accent and dire yell
078: As when, by night and negligence, the fire
079: Is spied in populous cities.
RODERIGO
080: What, ho, Brabantio! Signior Brabantio, ho!
IAGO
081: Awake! what, ho, Brabantio! thieves! thieves! thieves!
082: Look to your house, your daughter and your bags!
083: Thieves! thieves!
BRABANTIO appears above, at a window
BRABANTIO
084: What is the reason of this terrible summons?
085: What is the matter there?
RODERIGO
086: Signior, is all your family within?
IAGO
087: Are your doors lock'd?
BRABANTIO
088: Why, wherefore ask you this?
IAGO
089: 'Zounds, sir, you're robb'd; for shame, put on
090: your gown;
091: Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;
092: Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
093: Is topping your white ewe. Arise, arise;
094: Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
095: Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:
096: Arise, I say.
BRABANTIO
097: What, have you lost your wits?
RODERIGO
098: Most reverend signior, do you know my voice?
BRABANTIO
099: Not I what are you?
RODERIGO
100: My name is Roderigo.
BRABANTIO
101: The worser welcome:
102: I have charged thee not to haunt about my doors:
103: In honest plainness thou hast heard me say
104: My daughter is not for thee; and now, in madness,
105: Being full of supper and distempering draughts,
106: Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come
107: To start my quiet.
RODERIGO
108: Sir, sir, sir,--
BRABANTIO
109: But thou must needs be sure
110: My spirit and my place have in them power
111: To make this bitter to thee.
RODERIGO
112: Patience, good sir.
BRABANTIO
113: What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is Venice;
114: My house is not a grange.
RODERIGO
115: Most grave Brabantio,
116: In simple and pure soul I come to you.
IAGO
117: 'Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will not
118: serve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to
119: do you service and you think we are ruffians, you'll
120: have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse;
121: you'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have
122: coursers for cousins and gennets for germans.
BRABANTIO
123: What profane wretch art thou?
IAGO
124: I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter
125: and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.
BRABANTIO
126: Thou art a villain.
IAGO
127: You are--a senator.
BRABANTIO
128: This thou shalt answer; I know thee, Roderigo.
RODERIGO
129: Sir, I will answer any thing. But, I beseech you,
130: If't be your pleasure and most wise consent,
131: As partly I find it is, that your fair daughter,
132: At this odd-even and dull watch o' the night,
133: Transported, with no worse nor better guard
134: But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,
135: To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor--
136: If this be known to you and your allowance,
137: We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;
138: But if you know not this, my manners tell me
139: We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe
140: That, from the sense of all civility,
141: I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:
142: Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,
143: I say again, hath made a gross revolt;
144: Tying her duty, beauty, wit and fortunes
145: In an extravagant and wheeling stranger
146: Of here and every where. Straight satisfy yourself:
147: If she be in her chamber or your house,
148: Let loose on me the justice of the state
149: For thus deluding you.
BRABANTIO
150: Strike on the tinder, ho!
151: Give me a taper! call up all my people!
152: This accident is not unlike my dream:
153: Belief of it oppresses me already.
154: Light, I say! light!
Exit above
IAGO
155: Farewell; for I must leave you:
156: It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place,
157: To be produced--as, if I stay, I shall--
158: Against the Moor: for, I do know, the state,
159: However this may gall him with some cheque,
160: Cannot with safety cast him, for he's embark'd
161: With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars,
162: Which even now stand in act, that, for their souls,
163: Another of his fathom they have none,
164: To lead their business: in which regard,
165: Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains.
166: Yet, for necessity of present life,
167: I must show out a flag and sign of love,
168: Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely find him,
169: Lead to the Sagittary the raised search;
170: And there will I be with him. So, farewell.
Exit
Enter, below, BRABANTIO, and Servants with torches
BRABANTIO
171: It is too true an evil: gone she is;
172: And what's to come of my despised time
173: Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo,
174: Where didst thou see her? O unhappy girl!
175: With the Moor, say'st thou? Who would be a father!
176: How didst thou know 'twas she? O she deceives me
177: Past thought! What said she to you? Get more tapers:
178: Raise all my kindred. Are they married, think you?
RODERIGO
179: Truly, I think they are.
BRABANTIO
180: O heaven! How got she out? O treason of the blood!
181: Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds
182: By what you see them act. Is there not charms
183: By which the property of youth and maidhood
184: May be abused? Have you not read, Roderigo,
185: Of some such thing?
RODERIGO
186: Yes, sir, I have indeed.
BRABANTIO
187: Call up my brother. O, would you had had her!
188: Some one way, some another. Do you know
189: Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?
RODERIGO
190: I think I can discover him, if you please,
191: To get good guard and go along with me.
BRABANTIO
192: Pray you, lead on. At every house I'll call;
193: I may command at most. Get weapons, ho!
194: And raise some special officers of night.
195: On, good Roderigo: I'll deserve your pains.
Exeunt
ACT I, SCENE II.
Another street.
Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Attendants with torches
IAGO
001: Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
002: Yet do I hold it very stuff o' the conscience
003: To do no contrived murder: I lack iniquity
004: Sometimes to do me service: nine or ten times
005: I had thought to have yerk'd him here under the ribs.
OTHELLO
006: 'Tis better as it is.
IAGO
007: Nay, but he prated,
008: And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
009: Against your honour
010: That, with the little godliness I have,
011: I did full hard forbear him. But, I pray you, sir,
012: Are you fast married? Be assured of this,
013: That the magnifico is much beloved,
014: And hath in his effect a voice potential
015: As double as the duke's: he will divorce you;
016: Or put upon you what restraint and grievance
017: The law, with all his might to enforce it on,
018: Will give him cable.
OTHELLO
019: Let him do his spite:
020: My services which I have done the signiory
021: Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know,--
022: Which, when I know that boasting is an honour,
023: I shall promulgate--I fetch my life and being
024: From men of royal siege, and my demerits
025: May speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune
026: As this that I have reach'd: for know, Iago,
027: But that I love the gentle Desdemona,
028: I would not my unhoused free condition
029: Put into circumscription and confine
030: For the sea's worth. But, look! what lights come yond?
IAGO
031: Those are the raised father and his friends:
032: You were best go in.
OTHELLO
033: Not I I must be found:
034: My parts, my title and my perfect soul
035: Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?
IAGO
036: By Janus, I think no.
Enter CASSIO, and certain Officers with torches
OTHELLO
037: The servants of the duke, and my lieutenant.
038: The goodness of the night upon you, friends!
039: What is the news?
CASSIO
040: The duke does greet you, general,
041: And he requires your haste-post-haste appearance,
042: Even on the instant.
OTHELLO
043: What is the matter, think you?
CASSIO
044: Something from Cyprus as I may divine:
045: It is a business of some heat: the galleys
046: Have sent a dozen sequent messengers
047: This very night at one another's heels,
048: And many of the consuls, raised and met,
049: Are at the duke's already: you have been
050: hotly call'd for;
051: When, being not at your lodging to be found,
052: The senate hath sent about three several guests
053: To search you out.
OTHELLO
054: 'Tis well I am found by you.
055: I will but spend a word here in the house,
056: And go with you.
Exit
CASSIO
057: Ancient, what makes he here?
IAGO
058: 'Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land carack:
059: If it prove lawful prize, he's made for ever.
CASSIO
060: I do not understand.
IAGO
061: He's married.
CASSIO
062: To who?
Re-enter OTHELLO
IAGO
063: Marry, to--Come, captain, will you go?
OTHELLO
064: Have with you.
CASSIO
065: Here comes another troop to seek for you.
IAGO
066: It is Brabantio. General, be advised;
067: He comes to bad intent.
Enter BRABANTIO, RODERIGO, and Officers with torches and weapons
OTHELLO
068: Holla! stand there!
RODERIGO
069: Signior, it is the Moor.
BRABANTIO
070: Down with him, thief!
They draw on both sides
IAGO
071: You, Roderigo! come, sir, I am for you.
OTHELLO
072: Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.
073: Good signior, you shall more command with years
074: Than with your weapons.
BRABANTIO
075: O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my daughter?
076: Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her;
077: For I'll refer me to all things of sense,
078: If she in chains of magic were not bound,
079: Whether a maid so tender, fair and happy,
080: So opposite to marriage that she shunned
081: The wealthy curled darlings of our nation,
082: Would ever have, to incur a general mock,
083: Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
084: Of such a thing as thou, to fear, not to delight.
085: Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense
086: That thou hast practised on her with foul charms,
087: Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals
088: That weaken motion: I'll have't disputed on;
089: 'Tis probable and palpable to thinking.
090: I therefore apprehend and do attach thee
091: For an abuser of the world, a practiser
092: Of arts inhibited and out of warrant.
093: Lay hold upon him: if he do resist,
094: Subdue him at his peril.
OTHELLO
095: Hold your hands,
096: Both you of my inclining, and the rest:
097: Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it
098: Without a prompter. Where will you that I go
099: To answer this your charge?
BRABANTIO
100: To prison, till fit time
101: Of law and course of direct session
102: Call thee to answer.
OTHELLO
103: What if I do obey?
104: How may the duke be therewith satisfied,
105: Whose messengers are here about my side,
106: Upon some present business of the state
107: To bring me to him?
First Officer
108: 'Tis true, most worthy signior;
109: The duke's in council and your noble self,
110: I am sure, is sent for.
BRABANTIO
111: How! the duke in council!
112: In this time of the night! Bring him away:
113: Mine's not an idle cause: the duke himself,
114: Or any of my brothers of the state,
115: Cannot but feel this wrong as 'twere their own;
116: For if such actions may have passage free,
117: Bond-slaves and pagans shall our statesmen be.
Exeunt
ACT I, SCENE III.
A council-chamber.
The DUKE and Senators sitting at a table; Officers attending
DUKE OF VENICE
001: There is no composition in these news
002: That gives them credit.
First Senator
003: Indeed, they are disproportion'd;
004: My letters say a hundred and seven galleys.
DUKE OF VENICE
005: And mine, a hundred and forty.
Second Senator
006: And mine, two hundred:
007: But though they jump not on a just account,--
008: As in these cases, where the aim reports,
009: 'Tis oft with difference--yet do they all confirm
010: A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus.
DUKE OF VENICE
011: Nay, it is possible enough to judgment:
012: I do not so secure me in the error,
013: But the main article I do approve
014: In fearful sense.
Sailor
[Within]
015: What, ho! what, ho! what, ho!
First Officer
016: A messenger from the galleys.
Enter a Sailor
DUKE OF VENICE
017: Now, what's the business?
Sailor
018: The Turkish preparation makes for Rhodes;
019: So was I bid report here to the state
020: By Signior Angelo.
DUKE OF VENICE
021: How say you by this change?
First Senator
022: This cannot be,
023: By no assay of reason: 'tis a pageant,
024: To keep us in false gaze. When we consider
025: The importancy of Cyprus to the Turk,
026: And let ourselves again but understand,
027: That as it more concerns the Turk than Rhodes,
028: So may he with more facile question bear it,
029: For that it stands not in such warlike brace,
030: But altogether lacks the abilities
031: That Rhodes is dress'd in: if we make thought of this,
032: We must not think the Turk is so unskilful
033: To leave that latest which concerns him first,
034: Neglecting an attempt of ease and gain,
035: To wake and wage a danger profitless.
DUKE OF VENICE
036: Nay, in all confidence, he's not for Rhodes.
First Officer
037: Here is more news.
Enter a Messenger
Messenger
038: The Ottomites, reverend and gracious,
039: Steering with due course towards the isle of Rhodes,
040: Have there injointed them with an after fleet.
First Senator
041: Ay, so I thought. How many, as you guess?
Messenger
042: Of thirty sail: and now they do restem
043: Their backward course, bearing with frank appearance
044: Their purposes toward Cyprus. Signior Montano,
045: Your trusty and most valiant servitor,
046: With his free duty recommends you thus,
047: And prays you to believe him.
DUKE OF VENICE
048: 'Tis certain, then, for Cyprus.
049: Marcus Luccicos, is not he in town?
First Senator
050: He's now in Florence.
DUKE OF VENICE
051: Write from us to him; post-post-haste dispatch.
First Senator
052: Here comes Brabantio and the valiant Moor.
Enter BRABANTIO, OTHELLO, IAGO, RODERIGO, and Officers
DUKE OF VENICE
053: Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you
054: Against the general enemy Ottoman.
[To BRABANTIO]
055: I did not see you; welcome, gentle signior;
056: We lack'd your counsel and your help tonight.
BRABANTIO
057: So did I yours. Good your grace, pardon me;
058: Neither my place nor aught I heard of business
059: Hath raised me from my bed, nor doth the general care
060: Take hold on me, for my particular grief
061: Is of so flood-gate and o'erbearing nature
062: That it engluts and swallows other sorrows
063: And it is still itself.
DUKE OF VENICE
064: Why, what's the matter?
BRABANTIO
065: My daughter! O, my daughter!
DUKE OF VENICE, Senator
066: Dead?
BRABANTIO
067: Ay, to me;
068: She is abused, stol'n from me, and corrupted
069: By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks;
070: For nature so preposterously to err,
071: Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense,
072: Sans witchcraft could not.
DUKE OF VENICE
073: Whoe'er he be that in this foul proceeding
074: Hath thus beguiled your daughter of herself
075: And you of her, the bloody book of law
076: You shall yourself read in the bitter letter
077: After your own sense, yea, though our proper son
078: Stood in your action.
BRABANTIO
079: Humbly I thank your grace.
080: Here is the man, this Moor, whom now, it seems,
081: Your special mandate for the state-affairs
082: Hath hither brought.
DUKE OF VENICE, Senator
083: We are very sorry for't.
DUKE OF VENICE
[To OTHELLO]
084: What, in your own part, can you say to this?
BRABANTIO
085: Nothing, but this is so.
OTHELLO
086: Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
087: My very noble and approved good masters,
088: That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter,
089: It is most true; true, I have married her:
090: The very head and front of my offending
091: Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech,
092: And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace:
093: For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,
094: Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used
095: Their dearest action in the tented field,
096: And little of this great world can I speak,
097: More than pertains to feats of broil and battle,
098: And therefore little shall I grace my cause
099: In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,
100: I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver
101: Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms,
102: What conjuration and what mighty magic,
103: For such proceeding I am charged withal,
104: I won his daughter.
BRABANTIO
105: A maiden never bold;
106: Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion
107: Blush'd at herself; and she, in spite of nature,
108: Of years, of country, credit, every thing,
109: To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on!
110: It is a judgment maim'd and most imperfect
111: That will confess perfection so could err
112: Against all rules of nature, and must be driven
113: To find out practises of cunning hell,
114: Why this should be. I therefore vouch again
115: That with some mixtures powerful o'er the blood,
116: Or with some dram conjured to this effect,
117: He wrought upon her.
DUKE OF VENICE
118: To vouch this, is no proof,
119: Without more wider and more overt test
120: Than these thin habits and poor likelihoods
121: Of modern seeming do prefer against him.
First Senator
122: But, Othello, speak:
123: Did you by indirect and forced courses
124: Subdue and poison this young maid's affections?
125: Or came it by request and such fair question
126: As soul to soul affordeth?
OTHELLO
127: I do beseech you,
128: Send for the lady to the Sagittary,
129: And let her speak of me before her father:
130: If you do find me foul in her report,
131: The trust, the office I do hold of you,
132: Not only take away, but let your sentence
133: Even fall upon my life.
DUKE OF VENICE
134: Fetch Desdemona hither.
OTHELLO
135: Ancient, conduct them: you best know the place.
[Exeunt IAGO and Attendants]
136: And, till she come, as truly as to heaven
137: I do confess the vices of my blood,
138: So justly to your grave ears I'll present
139: How I did thrive in this fair lady's love,
140: And she in mine.
DUKE OF VENICE
141: Say it, Othello.
OTHELLO
142: Her father loved me; oft invited me;
143: Still question'd me the story of my life,
144: From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
145: That I have passed.
146: I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
147: To the very moment that he bade me tell it;
148: Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
149: Of moving accidents by flood and field
150: Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach,
151: Of being taken by the insolent foe
152: And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence
153: And portance in my travels' history:
154: Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
155: Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven
156: It was my hint to speak,--such was the process;
157: And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
158: The Anthropophagi and men whose heads
159: Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear
160: Would Desdemona seriously incline:
161: But still the house-affairs would draw her thence:
162: Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
163: She'ld come again, and with a greedy ear
164: Devour up my discourse: which I observing,
165: Took once a pliant hour, and found good means
166: To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart
167: That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
168: Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
169: But not intentively: I did consent,
170: And often did beguile her of her tears,
171: When I did speak of some distressful stroke
172: That my youth suffer'd. My story being done,
173: She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
174: She swore, in faith, twas strange, 'twas passing strange,
175: 'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful:
176: She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd
177: That heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me,
178: And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
179: I should but teach him how to tell my story.
180: And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:
181: She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd,
182: And I loved her that she did pity them.
183: This only is the witchcraft I have used:
184: Here comes the lady; let her witness it.
Enter DESDEMONA, IAGO, and Attendants
DUKE OF VENICE
185: I think this tale would win my daughter too.
186: Good Brabantio,
187: Take up this mangled matter at the best:
188: Men do their broken weapons rather use
189: Than their bare hands.
BRABANTIO
190: I pray you, hear her speak:
191: If she confess that she was half the wooer,
192: Destruction on my head, if my bad blame
193: Light on the man! Come hither, gentle mistress:
194: Do you perceive in all this noble company
195: Where most you owe obedience?
DESDEMONA
196: My noble father,
197: I do perceive here a divided duty:
198: To you I am bound for life and education;
199: My life and education both do learn me
200: How to respect you; you are the lord of duty;
201: I am hitherto your daughter: but here's my husband,
202: And so much duty as my mother show'd
203: To you, preferring you before her father,
204: So much I challenge that I may profess
205: Due to the Moor my lord.
BRABANTIO
206: God be wi' you! I have done.
207: Please it your grace, on to the state-affairs:
208: I had rather to adopt a child than get it.
209: Come hither, Moor:
210: I here do give thee that with all my heart
211: Which, but thou hast already, with all my heart
212: I would keep from thee. For your sake, jewel,
213: I am glad at soul I have no other child:
214: For thy escape would teach me tyranny,
215: To hang clogs on them. I have done, my lord.
DUKE OF VENICE
216: Let me speak like yourself, and lay a sentence,
217: Which, as a grise or step, may help these lovers
218: Into your favour.
219: When remedies are past, the griefs are ended
220: By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended.
221: To mourn a mischief that is past and gone
222: Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
223: What cannot be preserved when fortune takes
224: Patience her injury a mockery makes.
225: The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief;
226: He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.
BRABANTIO
227: So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile;
228: We lose it not, so long as we can smile.
229: He bears the sentence well that nothing bears
230: But the free comfort which from thence he hears,
231: But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow
232: That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow.
233: These sentences, to sugar, or to gall,
234: Being strong on both sides, are equivocal:
235: But words are words; I never yet did hear
236: That the bruised heart was pierced through the ear.
237: I humbly beseech you, proceed to the affairs of state.
DUKE OF VENICE
238: The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes for
239: Cyprus. Othello, the fortitude of the place is best
240: known to you; and though we have there a substitute
241: of most allowed sufficiency, yet opinion, a
242: sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer
243: voice on you: you must therefore be content to
244: slubber the gloss of your new fortunes with this
245: more stubborn and boisterous expedition.
OTHELLO
246: The tyrant custom, most grave senators,
247: Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
248: My thrice-driven bed of down: I do agnise
249: A natural and prompt alacrity
250: I find in hardness, and do undertake
251: These present wars against the Ottomites.
252: Most humbly therefore bending to your state,
253: I crave fit disposition for my wife.
254: Due reference of place and exhibition,
255: With such accommodation and besort
256: As levels with her breeding.
DUKE OF VENICE
257: If you please,
258: Be't at her father's.
BRABANTIO
259: I'll not have it so.
OTHELLO
260: Nor I.
DESDEMONA
261: Nor I; I would not there reside,
262: To put my father in impatient thoughts
263: By being in his eye. Most gracious duke,
264: To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear;
265: And let me find a charter in your voice,
266: To assist my simpleness.
DUKE OF VENICE
267: What would You, Desdemona?
DESDEMONA
268: That I did love the Moor to live with him,
269: My downright violence and storm of fortunes
270: May trumpet to the world: my heart's subdued
271: Even to the very quality of my lord:
272: I saw Othello's visage in his mind,
273: And to his honour and his valiant parts
274: Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.
275: So that, dear lords, if I be left behind,
276: A moth of peace, and he go to the war,
277: The rites for which I love him are bereft me,
278: And I a heavy interim shall support
279: By his dear absence. Let me go with him.
OTHELLO
280: Let her have your voices.
281: Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not,
282: To please the palate of my appetite,
283: Nor to comply with heat--the young affects
284: In me defunct--and proper satisfaction.
285: But to be free and bounteous to her mind:
286: And heaven defend your good souls, that you think
287: I will your serious and great business scant
288: For she is with me: no, when light-wing'd toys
289: Of feather'd Cupid seal with wanton dullness
290: My speculative and officed instruments,
291: That my disports corrupt and taint my business,
292: Let housewives make a skillet of my helm,
293: And all indign and base adversities
294: Make head against my estimation!
DUKE OF VENICE
295: Be it as you shall privately determine,
296: Either for her stay or going: the affair cries haste,
297: And speed must answer it.
First Senator
298: You must away to-night.
OTHELLO
299: With all my heart.
DUKE OF VENICE
300: At nine i' the morning here we'll meet again.
301: Othello, leave some officer behind,
302: And he shall our commission bring to you;
303: With such things else of quality and respect
304: As doth import you.
OTHELLO
305: So please your grace, my ancient;
306: A man he is of honest and trust:
307: To his conveyance I assign my wife,
308: With what else needful your good grace shall think
309: To be sent after me.
DUKE OF VENICE
310: Let it be so.
311: Good night to every one.
[To BRABANTIO]
312: And, noble signior,
313: If virtue no delighted beauty lack,
314: Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.
First Senator
315: Adieu, brave Moor, use Desdemona well.
BRABANTIO
316: Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:
317: She has deceived her father, and may thee.
Exeunt DUKE OF VENICE, Senators, Officers, &c
OTHELLO
318: My life upon her faith! Honest Iago,
319: My Desdemona must I leave to thee:
320: I prithee, let thy wife attend on her:
321: And bring them after in the best advantage.
322: Come, Desdemona: I have but an hour
323: Of love, of worldly matters and direction,
324: To spend with thee: we must obey the time.
Exeunt OTHELLO and DESDEMONA
RODERIGO
325: Iago,--
IAGO
326: What say'st thou, noble heart?
RODERIGO
327: What will I do, thinkest thou?
IAGO
328: Why, go to bed, and sleep.
RODERIGO
329: I will incontinently drown myself.
IAGO
330: If thou dost, I shall never love thee after. Why,
331: thou silly gentleman!
RODERIGO
332: It is silliness to live when to live is torment; and
333: then have we a prescription to die when death is our physician.
IAGO
334: O villainous! I have looked upon the world for four
335: times seven years; and since I could distinguish
336: betwixt a benefit and an injury, I never found man
337: that knew how to love himself. Ere I would say, I
338: would drown myself for the love of a guinea-hen, I
339: would change my humanity with a baboon.
RODERIGO
340: What should I do? I confess it is my shame to be so
341: fond; but it is not in my virtue to amend it.
IAGO
342: Virtue! a fig! 'tis in ourselves that we are thus
343: or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which
344: our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant
345: nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up
346: thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs, or
347: distract it with many, either to have it sterile
348: with idleness, or manured with industry, why, the
349: power and corrigible authority of this lies in our
350: wills. If the balance of our lives had not one
351: scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the
352: blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us
353: to most preposterous conclusions: but we have
354: reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal
355: stings, our unbitted lusts, whereof I take this that
356: you call love to be a sect or scion.
RODERIGO
357: It cannot be.
IAGO
358: It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of
359: the will. Come, be a man. Drown thyself! drown
360: cats and blind puppies. I have professed me thy
361: friend and I confess me knit to thy deserving with
362: cables of perdurable toughness; I could never
363: better stead thee than now. Put money in thy
364: purse; follow thou the wars; defeat thy favour with
365: an usurped beard; I say, put money in thy purse. It
366: cannot be that Desdemona should long continue her
367: love to the Moor,-- put money in thy purse,--nor he
368: his to her: it was a violent commencement, and thou
369: shalt see an answerable sequestration:--put but
370: money in thy purse. These Moors are changeable in
371: their wills: fill thy purse with money:--the food
372: that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be
373: to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida. She must
374: change for youth: when she is sated with his body,
375: she will find the error of her choice: she must
376: have change, she must: therefore put money in thy
377: purse. If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a
378: more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money
379: thou canst: if sanctimony and a frail vow betwixt
380: an erring barbarian and a supersubtle Venetian not
381: too hard for my wits and all the tribe of hell, thou
382: shalt enjoy her; therefore make money. A pox of
383: drowning thyself! it is clean out of the way: seek
384: thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy than
385: to be drowned and go without her.
RODERIGO
386: Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on
387: the issue?
IAGO
388: Thou art sure of me:--go, make money:--I have told
389: thee often, and I re-tell thee again and again, I
390: hate the Moor: my cause is hearted; thine hath no
391: less reason. Let us be conjunctive in our revenge
392: against him: if thou canst cuckold him, thou dost
393: thyself a pleasure, me a sport. There are many
394: events in the womb of time which will be delivered.
395: Traverse! go, provide thy money. We will have more
396: of this to-morrow. Adieu.
RODERIGO
397: Where shall we meet i' the morning?
IAGO
398: At my lodging.
RODERIGO
399: I'll be with thee betimes.
IAGO
400: Go to; farewell. Do you hear, Roderigo?
RODERIGO
401: What say you?
IAGO
402: No more of drowning, do you hear?
RODERIGO
403: I am changed: I'll go sell all my land.
Exit
IAGO
404: Thus do I ever make my fool my purse:
405: For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane,
406: If I would time expend with such a snipe.
407: But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor:
408: And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets
409: He has done my office: I know not if't be true;
410: But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
411: Will do as if for surety. He holds me well;
412: The better shall my purpose work on him.
413: Cassio's a proper man: let me see now:
414: To get his place and to plume up my will
415: In double knavery--How, how? Let's see:--
416: After some time, to abuse Othello's ear
417: That he is too familiar with his wife.
418: He hath a person and a smooth dispose
419: To be suspected, framed to make women false.
420: The Moor is of a free and open nature,
421: That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,
422: And will as tenderly be led by the nose
423: As asses are.
424: I have't. It is engender'd. Hell and night
425: Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light.
Exit
ACT II, SCENE I.
A Sea-port in Cyprus. An open place near the quay.
Enter MONTANO and two Gentlemen
MONTANO
001: What from the cape can you discern at sea?
First Gentleman
002: Nothing at all: it is a highwrought flood;
003: I cannot, 'twixt the heaven and the main,
004: Descry a sail.
MONTANO
005: Methinks the wind hath spoke aloud at land;
006: A fuller blast ne'er shook our battlements:
007: If it hath ruffian'd so upon the sea,
008: What ribs of oak, when mountains melt on them,
009: Can hold the mortise? What shall we hear of this?
Second Gentleman
010: A segregation of the Turkish fleet:
011: For do but stand upon the foaming shore,
012: The chidden billow seems to pelt the clouds;
013: The wind-shaked surge, with high and monstrous mane,
014: seems to cast water on the burning bear,
015: And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole:
016: I never did like molestation view
017: On the enchafed flood.
MONTANO
018: If that the Turkish fleet
019: Be not enshelter'd and embay'd, they are drown'd:
020: It is impossible they bear it out.
Enter a third Gentleman
Third Gentleman
021: News, lads! our wars are done.
022: The desperate tempest hath so bang'd the Turks,
023: That their designment halts: a noble ship of Venice
024: Hath seen a grievous wreck and sufferance
025: On most part of their fleet.
MONTANO
026: How! is this true?
Third Gentleman
027: The ship is here put in,
028: A Veronesa; Michael Cassio,
029: Lieutenant to the warlike Moor Othello,
030: Is come on shore: the Moor himself at sea,
031: And is in full commission here for Cyprus.
MONTANO
032: I am glad on't; 'tis a worthy governor.
Third Gentleman
033: But this same Cassio, though he speak of comfort
034: Touching the Turkish loss, yet he looks sadly,
035: And prays the Moor be safe; for they were parted
036: With foul and violent tempest.
MONTANO
037: Pray heavens he be;
038: For I have served him, and the man commands
039: Like a full soldier. Let's to the seaside, ho!
040: As well to see the vessel that's come in
041: As to throw out our eyes for brave Othello,
042: Even till we make the main and the aerial blue
043: An indistinct regard.
Third Gentleman
044: Come, let's do so:
045: For every minute is expectancy
046: Of more arrivance.
Enter CASSIO
CASSIO
047: Thanks, you the valiant of this warlike isle,
048: That so approve the Moor! O, let the heavens
049: Give him defence against the elements,
050: For I have lost us him on a dangerous sea.
MONTANO
051: Is he well shipp'd?
CASSIO
052: His bark is stoutly timber'd, his pilot
053: Of very expert and approved allowance;
054: Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death,
055: Stand in bold cure.
A cry within 'A sail, a sail, a sail!'
Enter a fourth Gentleman
CASSIO
056: What noise?
Fourth Gentleman
057: The town is empty; on the brow o' the sea
058: Stand ranks of people, and they cry 'A sail!'
CASSIO
059: My hopes do shape him for the governor.
Guns heard
Second Gentleman
060: They do discharge their shot of courtesy:
061: Our friends at least.
CASSIO
062: I pray you, sir, go forth,
063: And give us truth who 'tis that is arrived.
Second Gentleman
064: I shall.
Exit
MONTANO
065: But, good lieutenant, is your general wived?
CASSIO
066: Most fortunately: he hath achieved a maid
067: That paragons description and wild fame;
068: One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens,
069: And in the essential vesture of creation
070: Does tire the ingener.
[Re-enter second Gentleman]
071: How now! who has put in?
Second Gentleman
072: 'Tis one Iago, ancient to the general.
CASSIO
073: Has had most favourable and happy speed:
074: Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds,
075: The gutter'd rocks and congregated sands--
076: Traitors ensteep'd to clog the guiltless keel,--
077: As having sense of beauty, do omit
078: Their mortal natures, letting go safely by
079: The divine Desdemona.
MONTANO
080: What is she?
CASSIO
081: She that I spake of, our great captain's captain,
082: Left in the conduct of the bold Iago,
083: Whose footing here anticipates our thoughts
084: A se'nnight's speed. Great Jove, Othello guard,
085: And swell his sail with thine own powerful breath,
086: That he may bless this bay with his tall ship,
087: Make love's quick pants in Desdemona's arms,
088: Give renew'd fire to our extincted spirits
089: And bring all Cyprus comfort!
[Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, IAGO, RODERIGO, and
Attendants]
090: O, behold,
091: The riches of the ship is come on shore!
092: Ye men of Cyprus, let her have your knees.
093: Hail to thee, lady! and the grace of heaven,
094: Before, behind thee, and on every hand,
095: Enwheel thee round!
DESDEMONA
096: I thank you, valiant Cassio.
097: What tidings can you tell me of my lord?
CASSIO
098: He is not yet arrived: nor know I aught
099: But that he's well and will be shortly here.
DESDEMONA
100: O, but I fear--How lost you company?
CASSIO
101: The great contention of the sea and skies
102: Parted our fellowship--But, hark! a sail.
Within 'A sail, a sail!' Guns heard
Second Gentleman
103: They give their greeting to the citadel;
104: This likewise is a friend.
CASSIO
105: See for the news.
[Exit Gentleman]
106: Good ancient, you are welcome.
[To EMILIA]
107: Welcome, mistress.
108: Let it not gall your patience, good Iago,
109: That I extend my manners; 'tis my breeding
110: That gives me this bold show of courtesy.
Kissing her
IAGO
111: Sir, would she give you so much of her lips
112: As of her tongue she oft bestows on me,
113: You'll have enough.
DESDEMONA
114: Alas, she has no speech.
IAGO
115: In faith, too much;
116: I find it still, when I have list to sleep:
117: Marry, before your ladyship, I grant,
118: She puts her tongue a little in her heart,
119: And chides with thinking.
EMILIA
120: You have little cause to say so.
IAGO
121: Come on, come on; you are pictures out of doors,
122: Bells in your parlors, wild-cats in your kitchens,
123: Saints m your injuries, devils being offended,
124: Players in your housewifery, and housewives' in your beds.
DESDEMONA
125: O, fie upon thee, slanderer!
IAGO
126: Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk:
127: You rise to play and go to bed to work.
EMILIA
128: You shall not write my praise.
IAGO
129: No, let me not.
DESDEMONA
130: What wouldst thou write of me, if thou shouldst
131: praise me?
IAGO
132: O gentle lady, do not put me to't;
133: For I am nothing, if not critical.
DESDEMONA
134: Come on assay. There's one gone to the harbour?
IAGO
135: Ay, madam.
DESDEMONA
136: I am not merry; but I do beguile
137: The thing I am, by seeming otherwise.
138: Come, how wouldst thou praise me?
IAGO
139: I am about it; but indeed my invention
140: Comes from my pate as birdlime does from frize;
141: It plucks out brains and all: but my Muse labours,
142: And thus she is deliver'd.
143: If she be fair and wise, fairness and wit,
144: The one's for use, the other useth it.
DESDEMONA
145: Well praised! How if she be black and witty?
IAGO
146: If she be black, and thereto have a wit,
147: She'll find a white that shall her blackness fit.
DESDEMONA
148: Worse and worse.
EMILIA
149: How if fair and foolish?
IAGO
150: She never yet was foolish that was fair;
151: For even her folly help'd her to an heir.
DESDEMONA
152: These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i'
153: the alehouse. What miserable praise hast thou for
154: her that's foul and foolish?
IAGO
155: There's none so foul and foolish thereunto,
156: But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do.
DESDEMONA
157: O heavy ignorance! thou praisest the worst best.
158: But what praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving
159: woman indeed, one that, in the authority of her
160: merit, did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself?
IAGO
161: She that was ever fair and never proud,
162: Had tongue at will and yet was never loud,
163: Never lack'd gold and yet went never gay,
164: Fled from her wish and yet said 'Now I may,'
165: She that being anger'd, her revenge being nigh,
166: Bade her wrong stay and her displeasure fly,
167: She that in wisdom never was so frail
168: To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail;
169: She that could think and ne'er disclose her mind,
170: See suitors following and not look behind,
171: She was a wight, if ever such wight were,--
DESDEMONA
172: To do what?
IAGO
173: To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.
DESDEMONA
174: O most lame and impotent conclusion! Do not learn
175: of him, Emilia, though he be thy husband. How say
176: you, Cassio? is he not a most profane and liberal
177: counsellor?
CASSIO
178: He speaks home, madam: You may relish him more in
179: the soldier than in the scholar.
IAGO
[Aside]
180: He takes her by the palm: ay, well said,
181: whisper: with as little a web as this will I
182: ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. Ay, smile upon
183: her, do; I will gyve thee in thine own courtship.
184: You say true; 'tis so, indeed: if such tricks as
185: these strip you out of your lieutenantry, it had
186: been better you had not kissed your three fingers so
187: oft, which now again you are most apt to play the
188: sir in. Very good; well kissed! an excellent
189: courtesy! 'tis so, indeed. Yet again your fingers
190: to your lips? would they were clyster-pipes for your sake!
[Trumpet within]
191: The Moor! I know his trumpet.
CASSIO
192: 'Tis truly so.
DESDEMONA
193: Let's meet him and receive him.
CASSIO
194: Lo, where he comes!
Enter OTHELLO and Attendants
OTHELLO
195: O my fair warrior!
DESDEMONA
196: My dear Othello!
OTHELLO
197: It gives me wonder great as my content
198: To see you here before me. O my soul's joy!
199: If after every tempest come such calms,
200: May the winds blow till they have waken'd death!
201: And let the labouring bark climb hills of seas
202: Olympus-high and duck again as low
203: As hell's from heaven! If it were now to die,
204: 'Twere now to be most happy; for, I fear,
205: My soul hath her content so absolute
206: That not another comfort like to this
207: Succeeds in unknown fate.
DESDEMONA
208: The heavens forbid
209: But that our loves and comforts should increase,
210: Even as our days do grow!
OTHELLO
211: Amen to that, sweet powers!
212: I cannot speak enough of this content;
213: It stops me here; it is too much of joy:
214: And this, and this, the greatest discords be
[Kissing her]
215: That e'er our hearts shall make!
IAGO
[Aside]
216: O, you are well tuned now!
217: But I'll set down the pegs that make this music,
218: As honest as I am.
OTHELLO
219: Come, let us to the castle.
220: News, friends; our wars are done, the Turks
221: are drown'd.
222: How does my old acquaintance of this isle?
223: Honey, you shall be well desired in Cyprus;
224: I have found great love amongst them. O my sweet,
225: I prattle out of fashion, and I dote
226: In mine own comforts. I prithee, good Iago,
227: Go to the bay and disembark my coffers:
228: Bring thou the master to the citadel;
229: He is a good one, and his worthiness
230: Does challenge much respect. Come, Desdemona,
231: Once more, well met at Cyprus.
Exeunt OTHELLO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants
IAGO
232: Do thou meet me presently at the harbour. Come
233: hither. If thou be'st valiant,-- as, they say, base
234: men being in love have then a nobility in their
235: natures more than is native to them--list me. The
236: lieutenant tonight watches on the court of
237: guard:--first, I must tell thee this--Desdemona is
238: directly in love with him.
RODERIGO
239: With him! why, 'tis not possible.
IAGO
240: Lay thy finger thus, and let thy soul be instructed.
241: Mark me with what violence she first loved the Moor,
242: but for bragging and telling her fantastical lies:
243: and will she love him still for prating? let not
244: thy discreet heart think it. Her eye must be fed;
245: and what delight shall she have to look on the
246: devil? When the blood is made dull with the act of
247: sport, there should be, again to inflame it and to
248: give satiety a fresh appetite, loveliness in favour,
249: sympathy in years, manners and beauties; all which
250: the Moor is defective in: now, for want of these
251: required conveniences, her delicate tenderness will
252: find itself abused, begin to heave the gorge,
253: disrelish and abhor the Moor; very nature will
254: instruct her in it and compel her to some second
255: choice. Now, sir, this granted,--as it is a most
256: pregnant and unforced position--who stands so
257: eminent in the degree of this fortune as Cassio
258: does? a knave very voluble; no further
259: conscionable than in putting on the mere form of
260: civil and humane seeming, for the better compassing
261: of his salt and most hidden loose affection? why,
262: none; why, none: a slipper and subtle knave, a
263: finder of occasions, that has an eye can stamp and
264: counterfeit advantages, though true advantage never
265: present itself; a devilish knave. Besides, the
266: knave is handsome, young, and hath all those
267: requisites in him that folly and green minds look
268: after: a pestilent complete knave; and the woman
269: hath found him already.
RODERIGO
270: I cannot believe that in her; she's full of
271: most blessed condition.
IAGO
272: Blessed fig's-end! the wine she drinks is made of
273: grapes: if she had been blessed, she would never
274: have loved the Moor. Blessed pudding! Didst thou
275: not see her paddle with the palm of his hand? didst
276: not mark that?
RODERIGO
277: Yes, that I did; but that was but courtesy.
IAGO
278: Lechery, by this hand; an index and obscure prologue
279: to the history of lust and foul thoughts. They met
280: so near with their lips that their breaths embraced
281: together. Villanous thoughts, Roderigo! when these
282: mutualities so marshal the way, hard at hand comes
283: the master and main exercise, the incorporate
284: conclusion, Pish! But, sir, be you ruled by me: I
285: have brought you from Venice. Watch you to-night;
286: for the command, I'll lay't upon you. Cassio knows
287: you not. I'll not be far from you: do you find
288: some occasion to anger Cassio, either by speaking
289: too loud, or tainting his discipline; or from what
290: other course you please, which the time shall more
291: favourably minister.
RODERIGO
292: Well.
IAGO
293: Sir, he is rash and very sudden in choler, and haply
294: may strike at you: provoke him, that he may; for
295: even out of that will I cause these of Cyprus to
296: mutiny; whose qualification shall come into no true
297: taste again but by the displanting of Cassio. So
298: shall you have a shorter journey to your desires by
299: the means I shall then have to prefer them; and the
300: impediment most profitably removed, without the
301: which there were no expectation of our prosperity.
RODERIGO
302: I will do this, if I can bring it to any
303: opportunity.
IAGO
304: I warrant thee. Meet me by and by at the citadel:
305: I must fetch his necessaries ashore. Farewell.
RODERIGO
306: Adieu.
Exit
IAGO
307: That Cassio loves her, I do well believe it;
308: That she loves him, 'tis apt and of great credit:
309: The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not,
310: Is of a constant, loving, noble nature,
311: And I dare think he'll prove to Desdemona
312: A most dear husband. Now, I do love her too;
313: Not out of absolute lust, though peradventure
314: I stand accountant for as great a sin,
315: But partly led to diet my revenge,
316: For that I do suspect the lusty Moor
317: Hath leap'd into my seat; the thought whereof
318: Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards;
319: And nothing can or shall content my soul
320: Till I am even'd with him, wife for wife,
321: Or failing so, yet that I put the Moor
322: At least into a jealousy so strong
323: That judgment cannot cure. Which thing to do,
324: If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trash
325: For his quick hunting, stand the putting on,
326: I'll have our Michael Cassio on the hip,
327: Abuse him to the Moor in the rank garb--
328: For I fear Cassio with my night-cap too--
329: Make the Moor thank me, love me and reward me.
330: For making him egregiously an ass
331: And practising upon his peace and quiet
332: Even to madness. 'Tis here, but yet confused:
333: Knavery's plain face is never seen tin used.
Exit
ACT II, SCENE II.
A street.
Enter a Herald with a proclamation; People following
Herald
001: It is Othello's pleasure, our noble and valiant
002: general, that, upon certain tidings now arrived,
003: importing the mere perdition of the Turkish fleet,
004: every man put himself into triumph; some to dance,
005: some to make bonfires, each man to what sport and
006: revels his addiction leads him: for, besides these
007: beneficial news, it is the celebration of his
008: nuptial. So much was his pleasure should be
009: proclaimed. All offices are open, and there is full
010: liberty of feasting from this present hour of five
011: till the bell have told eleven. Heaven bless the
012: isle of Cyprus and our noble general Othello!
Exeunt
ACT II, SCENE III.
A hall in the castle.
Enter OTHELLO, DESDEMONA, CASSIO, and Attendants
OTHELLO
001: Good Michael, look you to the guard to-night:
002: Let's teach ourselves that honourable stop,
003: Not to outsport discretion.
CASSIO
004: Iago hath direction what to do;
005: But, notwithstanding, with my personal eye
006: Will I look to't.
OTHELLO
007: Iago is most honest.
008: Michael, good night: to-morrow with your earliest
009: Let me have speech with you.
[To DESDEMONA]
010: Come, my dear love,
011: The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue;
012: That profit's yet to come 'tween me and you.
013: Good night.
Exeunt OTHELLO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants
Enter IAGO
CASSIO
014: Welcome, Iago; we must to the watch.
IAGO
015: Not this hour, lieutenant; 'tis not yet ten o' the
016: clock. Our general cast us thus early for the love
017: of his Desdemona; who let us not therefore blame:
018: he hath not yet made wanton the night with her; and
019: she is sport for Jove.
CASSIO
020: She's a most exquisite lady.
IAGO
021: And, I'll warrant her, fun of game.
CASSIO
022: Indeed, she's a most fresh and delicate creature.
IAGO
023: What an eye she has! methinks it sounds a parley of
024: provocation.
CASSIO
025: An inviting eye; and yet methinks right modest.
IAGO
026: And when she speaks, is it not an alarum to love?
CASSIO
027: She is indeed perfection.
IAGO
028: Well, happiness to their sheets! Come, lieutenant, I
029: have a stoup of wine; and here without are a brace
030: of Cyprus gallants that would fain have a measure to
031: the health of black Othello.
CASSIO
032: Not to-night, good Iago: I have very poor and
033: unhappy brains for drinking: I could well wish
034: courtesy would invent some other custom of
035: entertainment.
IAGO
036: O, they are our friends; but one cup: I'll drink for
037: you.
CASSIO
038: I have drunk but one cup to-night, and that was
039: craftily qualified too, and, behold, what innovation
040: it makes here: I am unfortunate in the infirmity,
041: and dare not task my weakness with any more.
IAGO
042: What, man! 'tis a night of revels: the gallants
043: desire it.
CASSIO
044: Where are they?
IAGO
045: Here at the door; I pray you, call them in.
CASSIO
046: I'll do't; but it dislikes me.
Exit
IAGO
047: If I can fasten but one cup upon him,
048: With that which he hath drunk to-night already,
049: He'll be as full of quarrel and offence
050: As my young mistress' dog. Now, my sick fool Roderigo,
051: Whom love hath turn'd almost the wrong side out,
052: To Desdemona hath to-night caroused
053: Potations pottle-deep; and he's to watch:
054: Three lads of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits,
055: That hold their honours in a wary distance,
056: The very elements of this warlike isle,
057: Have I to-night fluster'd with flowing cups,
058: And they watch too. Now, 'mongst this flock of drunkards,
059: Am I to put our Cassio in some action
060: That may offend the isle.--But here they come:
061: If consequence do but approve my dream,
062: My boat sails freely, both with wind and stream.
Re-enter CASSIO; with him MONTANO and Gentlemen; servants following with wine
CASSIO
063: 'Fore God, they have given me a rouse already.
MONTANO
064: Good faith, a little one; not past a pint, as I am
065: a soldier.
IAGO
066: Some wine, ho!
[Sings]
067: And let me the canakin clink, clink;
068: And let me the canakin clink
069: A soldier's a man;
070: A life's but a span;
071: Why, then, let a soldier drink.
072: Some wine, boys!
CASSIO
073: 'Fore God, an excellent song.
IAGO
074: I learned it in England, where, indeed, they are
075: most potent in potting: your Dane, your German, and
076: your swag-bellied Hollander--Drink, ho!--are nothing
077: to your English.
CASSIO
078: Is your Englishman so expert in his drinking?
IAGO
079: Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead
080: drunk; he sweats not to overthrow your Almain; he
081: gives your Hollander a vomit, ere the next pottle
082: can be filled.
CASSIO
083: To the health of our general!
MONTANO
084: I am for it, lieutenant; and I'll do you justice.
IAGO
085: O sweet England!
086: King Stephen was a worthy peer,
087: His breeches cost him but a crown;
088: He held them sixpence all too dear,
089: With that he call'd the tailor lown.
090: He was a wight of high renown,
091: And thou art but of low degree:
092: 'Tis pride that pulls the country down;
093: Then take thine auld cloak about thee.
094: Some wine, ho!
CASSIO
095: Why, this is a more exquisite song than the other.
IAGO
096: Will you hear't again?
CASSIO
097: No; for I hold him to be unworthy of his place that
098: does those things. Well, God's above all; and there
099: be souls must be saved, and there be souls must not be saved.
IAGO
100: It's true, good lieutenant.
CASSIO
101: For mine own part,--no offence to the general, nor
102: any man of quality,--I hope to be saved.
IAGO
103: And so do I too, lieutenant.
CASSIO
104: Ay, but, by your leave, not before me; the
105: lieutenant is to be saved before the ancient. Let's
106: have no more of this; let's to our affairs.--Forgive
107: us our sins!--Gentlemen, let's look to our business.
108: Do not think, gentlemen. I am drunk: this is my
109: ancient; this is my right hand, and this is my left:
110: I am not drunk now; I can stand well enough, and
111: speak well enough.
All
112: Excellent well.
CASSIO
113: Why, very well then; you must not think then that I am drunk.
Exit
MONTANO
114: To the platform, masters; come, let's set the watch.
IAGO
115: You see this fellow that is gone before;
116: He is a soldier fit to stand by Caesar
117: And give direction: and do but see his vice;
118: 'Tis to his virtue a just equinox,
119: The one as long as the other: 'tis pity of him.
120: I fear the trust Othello puts him in.
121: On some odd time of his infirmity,
122: Will shake this island.
MONTANO
123: But is he often thus?
IAGO
124: 'Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep:
125: He'll watch the horologe a double set,
126: If drink rock not his cradle.
MONTANO
127: It were well
128: The general were put in mind of it.
129: Perhaps he sees it not; or his good nature
130: Prizes the virtue that appears in Cassio,
131: And looks not on his evils: is not this true?
Enter RODERIGO
IAGO
[Aside to him]
132: How now, Roderigo!
133: I pray you, after the lieutenant; go.
Exit RODERIGO
MONTANO
134: And 'tis great pity that the noble Moor
135: Should hazard such a place as his own second
136: With one of an ingraft infirmity:
137: It were an honest action to say
138: So to the Moor.
IAGO
139: Not I, for this fair island:
140: I do love Cassio well; and would do much
141: To cure him of this evil--But, hark! what noise?
Cry within: 'Help! help!'
Re-enter CASSIO, driving in RODERIGO
CASSIO
142: You rogue! you rascal!
MONTANO
143: What's the matter, lieutenant?
CASSIO
144: A knave teach me my duty!
145: I'll beat the knave into a twiggen bottle.
RODERIGO
146: Beat me!
CASSIO
147: Dost thou prate, rogue?
Striking RODERIGO
MONTANO
148: Nay, good lieutenant;
[Staying him]
149: I pray you, sir, hold your hand.
CASSIO
150: Let me go, sir,
151: Or I'll knock you o'er the mazzard.
MONTANO
152: Come, come,
153: you're drunk.
CASSIO
154: Drunk!
They fight
IAGO
155:
[Aside to RODERIGO]
Away, I say; go out, and cry a mutiny.
[Exit RODERIGO]
156: Nay, good lieutenant,--alas, gentlemen;--
157: Help, ho!--Lieutenant,--sir,--Montano,--sir;
158: Help, masters!--Here's a goodly watch indeed!
[Bell rings]
159: Who's that which rings the bell?--Diablo, ho!
160: The town will rise: God's will, lieutenant, hold!
161: You will be shamed for ever.
Re-enter OTHELLO and Attendants
OTHELLO
162: What is the matter here?
MONTANO
163: 'Zounds, I bleed still; I am hurt to the death.
Faints
OTHELLO
164: Hold, for your lives!
IAGO
165: Hold, ho! Lieutenant,--sir--Montano,--gentlemen,--
166: Have you forgot all sense of place and duty?
167: Hold! the general speaks to you; hold, hold, for shame!
OTHELLO
168: Why, how now, ho! from whence ariseth this?
169: Are we turn'd Turks, and to ourselves do that
170: Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites?
171: For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl:
172: He that stirs next to carve for his own rage
173: Holds his soul light; he dies upon his motion.
174: Silence that dreadful bell: it frights the isle
175: From her propriety. What is the matter, masters?
176: Honest Iago, that look'st dead with grieving,
177: Speak, who began this? on thy love, I charge thee.
IAGO
178: I do not know: friends all but now, even now,
179: In quarter, and in terms like bride and groom
180: Devesting them for bed; and then, but now--
181: As if some planet had unwitted men--
182: Swords out, and tilting one at other's breast,
183: In opposition bloody. I cannot speak
184: Any beginning to this peevish odds;
185: And would in action glorious I had lost
186: Those legs that brought me to a part of it!
OTHELLO
187: How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot?
CASSIO
188: I pray you, pardon me; I cannot speak.
OTHELLO
189: Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil;
190: The gravity and stillness of your youth
191: The world hath noted, and your name is great
192: In mouths of wisest censure: what's the matter,
193: That you unlace your reputation thus
194: And spend your rich opinion for the name
195: Of a night-brawler? give me answer to it.
MONTANO
196: Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger:
197: Your officer, Iago, can inform you,--
198: While I spare speech, which something now
199: offends me,--
200: Of all that I do know: nor know I aught
201: By me that's said or done amiss this night;
202: Unless self-charity be sometimes a vice,
203: And to defend ourselves it be a sin
204: When violence assails us.
OTHELLO
205: Now, by heaven,
206: My blood begins my safer guides to rule;
207: And passion, having my best judgment collied,
208: Assays to lead the way: if I once stir,
209: Or do but lift this arm, the best of you
210: Shall sink in my rebuke. Give me to know
211: How this foul rout began, who set it on;
212: And he that is approved in this offence,
213: Though he had twinn'd with me, both at a birth,
214: Shall lose me. What! in a town of war,
215: Yet wild, the people's hearts brimful of fear,
216: To manage private and domestic quarrel,
217: In night, and on the court and guard of safety!
218: 'Tis monstrous. Iago, who began't?
MONTANO
219: If partially affined, or leagued in office,
220: Thou dost deliver more or less than truth,
221: Thou art no soldier.
IAGO
222: Touch me not so near:
223: I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth
224: Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio;
225: Yet, I persuade myself, to speak the truth
226: Shall nothing wrong him. Thus it is, general.
227: Montano and myself being in speech,
228: There comes a fellow crying out for help:
229: And Cassio following him with determined sword,
230: To execute upon him. Sir, this gentleman
231: Steps in to Cassio, and entreats his pause:
232: Myself the crying fellow did pursue,
233: Lest by his clamour--as it so fell out--
234: The town might fall in fright: he, swift of foot,
235: Outran my purpose; and I return'd the rather
236: For that I heard the clink and fall of swords,
237: And Cassio high in oath; which till to-night
238: I ne'er might say before. When I came back--
239: For this was brief--I found them close together,
240: At blow and thrust; even as again they were
241: When you yourself did part them.
242: More of this matter cannot I report:
243: But men are men; the best sometimes forget:
244: Though Cassio did some little wrong to him,
245: As men in rage strike those that wish them best,
246: Yet surely Cassio, I believe, received
247: From him that fled some strange indignity,
248: Which patience could not pass.
OTHELLO
249: I know, Iago,
250: Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter,
251: Making it light to Cassio. Cassio, I love thee
252: But never more be officer of mine.
[Re-enter DESDEMONA, attended]
253: Look, if my gentle love be not raised up!
254: I'll make thee an example.
DESDEMONA
255: What's the matter?
OTHELLO
256: All's well now, sweeting; come away to bed.
257: Sir, for your hurts, myself will be your surgeon:
258: Lead him off.
[To MONTANO, who is led off]
259: Iago, look with care about the town,
260: And silence those whom this vile brawl distracted.
261: Come, Desdemona: 'tis the soldiers' life
262: To have their balmy slumbers waked with strife.
Exeunt all but IAGO and CASSIO
IAGO
263: What, are you hurt, lieutenant?
CASSIO
264: Ay, past all surgery.
IAGO
265: Marry, heaven forbid!
CASSIO
266: Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost
267: my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of
268: myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation,
269: Iago, my reputation!
IAGO
270: As I am an honest man, I thought you had received
271: some bodily wound; there is more sense in that than
272: in reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false
273: imposition: oft got without merit, and lost without
274: deserving: you have lost no reputation at all,
275: unless you repute yourself such a loser. What, man!
276: there are ways to recover the general again: you
277: are but now cast in his mood, a punishment more in
278: policy than in malice, even so as one would beat his
279: offenceless dog to affright an imperious lion: sue
280: to him again, and he's yours.
CASSIO
281: I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so
282: good a commander with so slight, so drunken, and so
283: indiscreet an officer. Drunk? and speak parrot?
284: and squabble? swagger? swear? and discourse
285: fustian with one's own shadow? O thou invisible
286: spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by,
287: let us call thee devil!
IAGO
288: What was he that you followed with your sword? What
289: had he done to you?
CASSIO
290: I know not.
IAGO
291: Is't possible?
CASSIO
292: I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly;
293: a quarrel, but nothing wherefore. O God, that men
294: should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away
295: their brains! that we should, with joy, pleasance
296: revel and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!
IAGO
297: Why, but you are now well enough: how came you thus
298: recovered?
CASSIO
299: It hath pleased the devil drunkenness to give place
300: to the devil wrath; one unperfectness shows me
301: another, to make me frankly despise myself.
IAGO
302: Come, you are too severe a moraler: as the time,
303: the place, and the condition of this country
304: stands, I could heartily wish this had not befallen;
305: but, since it is as it is, mend it for your own good.
CASSIO
306: I will ask him for my place again; he shall tell me
307: I am a drunkard! Had I as many mouths as Hydra,
308: such an answer would stop them all. To be now a
309: sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a
310: beast! O strange! Every inordinate cup is
311: unblessed and the ingredient is a devil.
IAGO
312: Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature,
313: if it be well used: exclaim no more against it.
314: And, good lieutenant, I think you think I love you.
CASSIO
315: I have well approved it, sir. I drunk!
IAGO
316: You or any man living may be drunk! at a time, man.
317: I'll tell you what you shall do. Our general's wife
318: is now the general: may say so in this respect, for
319: that he hath devoted and given up himself to the
320: contemplation, mark, and denotement of her parts and
321: graces: confess yourself freely to her; importune
322: her help to put you in your place again: she is of
323: so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition,
324: she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more
325: than she is requested: this broken joint between
326: you and her husband entreat her to splinter; and, my
327: fortunes against any lay worth naming, this
328: crack of your love shall grow stronger than it was before.
CASSIO
329: You advise me well.
IAGO
330: I protest, in the sincerity of love and honest kindness.
CASSIO
331: I think it freely; and betimes in the morning I will
332: beseech the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me:
333: I am desperate of my fortunes if they cheque me here.
IAGO
334: You are in the right. Good night, lieutenant; I
335: must to the watch.
CASSIO
336: Good night, honest Iago.
Exit
IAGO
337: And what's he then that says I play the villain?
338: When this advice is free I give and honest,
339: Probal to thinking and indeed the course
340: To win the Moor again? For 'tis most easy
341: The inclining Desdemona to subdue
342: In any honest suit: she's framed as fruitful
343: As the free elements. And then for her
344: To win the Moor--were't to renounce his baptism,
345: All seals and symbols of redeemed sin,
346: His soul is so enfetter'd to her love,
347: That she may make, unmake, do what she list,
348: Even as her appetite shall play the god
349: With his weak function. How am I then a villain
350: To counsel Cassio to this parallel course,
351: Directly to his good? Divinity of hell!
352: When devils will the blackest sins put on,
353: They do suggest at first with heavenly shows,
354: As I do now: for whiles this honest fool
355: Plies Desdemona to repair his fortunes
356: And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor,
357: I'll pour this pestilence into his ear,
358: That she repeals him for her body's lust;
359: And by how much she strives to do him good,
360: She shall undo her credit with the Moor.
361: So will I turn her virtue into pitch,
362: And out of her own goodness make the net
363: That shall enmesh them all.
[Re-enter RODERIGO]
364: How now, Roderigo!
RODERIGO
365: I do follow here in the chase, not like a hound that
366: hunts, but one that fills up the cry. My money is
367: almost spent; I have been to-night exceedingly well
368: cudgelled; and I think the issue will be, I shall
369: have so much experience for my pains, and so, with
370: no money at all and a little more wit, return again to Venice.
IAGO
371: How poor are they that have not patience!
372: What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
373: Thou know'st we work by wit, and not by witchcraft;
374: And wit depends on dilatory time.
375: Does't not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee.
376: And thou, by that small hurt, hast cashier'd Cassio:
377: Though other things grow fair against the sun,
378: Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe:
379: Content thyself awhile. By the mass, 'tis morning;
380: Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.
381: Retire thee; go where thou art billeted:
382: Away, I say; thou shalt know more hereafter:
383: Nay, get thee gone.
[Exit RODERIGO]
384: Two things are to be done:
385: My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress;
386: I'll set her on;
387: Myself the while to draw the Moor apart,
388: And bring him jump when he may Cassio find
389: Soliciting his wife: ay, that's the way
390: Dull not device by coldness and delay.
Exit
ACT III, SCENE I.
Before the castle.
Enter CASSIO and some Musicians
CASSIO
001: Masters, play here; I will content your pains;
002: Something that's brief; and bid 'Good morrow, general.'
Music
Enter Clown
Clown
003: Why masters, have your instruments been in Naples,
004: that they speak i' the nose thus?
First Musician
005: How, sir, how!
Clown
006: Are these, I pray you, wind-instruments?
First Musician
007: Ay, marry, are they, sir.
Clown
008: O, thereby hangs a tail.
First Musician
009: Whereby hangs a tale, sir?
Clown
010: Marry. sir, by many a wind-instrument that I know.
011: But, masters, here's money for you: and the general
012: so likes your music, that he desires you, for love's
013: sake, to make no more noise with it.
First Musician
014: Well, sir, we will not.
Clown
015: If you have any music that may not be heard, to't
016: again: but, as they say to hear music the general
017: does not greatly care.
First Musician
018: We have none such, sir.
Clown
019: Then put up your pipes in your bag, for I'll away:
020: go; vanish into air; away!
Exeunt Musicians
CASSIO
021: Dost thou hear, my honest friend?
Clown
022: No, I hear not your honest friend; I hear you.
CASSIO
023: Prithee, keep up thy quillets. There's a poor piece
024: of gold for thee: if the gentlewoman that attends
025: the general's wife be stirring, tell her there's
026: one Cassio entreats her a little favour of speech:
027: wilt thou do this?
Clown
028: She is stirring, sir: if she will stir hither, I
029: shall seem to notify unto her.
CASSIO
030: Do, good my friend.
[Exit Clown]
[Enter IAGO]
031: In happy time, Iago.
IAGO
032: You have not been a-bed, then?
CASSIO
033: Why, no; the day had broke
034: Before we parted. I have made bold, Iago,
035: To send in to your wife: my suit to her
036: Is, that she will to virtuous Desdemona
037: Procure me some access.
IAGO
038: I'll send her to you presently;
039: And I'll devise a mean to draw the Moor
040: Out of the way, that your converse and business
041: May be more free.
CASSIO
042: I humbly thank you for't.
[Exit IAGO]
043: I never knew
044: A Florentine more kind and honest.
Enter EMILIA
EMILIA
045: Good morrow, good Lieutenant: I am sorry
046: For your displeasure; but all will sure be well.
047: The general and his wife are talking of it;
048: And she speaks for you stoutly: the Moor replies,
049: That he you hurt is of great fame in Cyprus,
050: And great affinity, and that in wholesome wisdom
051: He might not but refuse you; but he protests he loves you
052: And needs no other suitor but his likings
053: To take the safest occasion by the front
054: To bring you in again.
CASSIO
055: Yet, I beseech you,
056: If you think fit, or that it may be done,
057: Give me advantage of some brief discourse
058: With Desdemona alone.
EMILIA
059: Pray you, come in;
060: I will bestow you where you shall have time
061: To speak your bosom freely.
CASSIO
062: I am much bound to you.
Exeunt
ACT III, SCENE II.
A room in the castle.
Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Gentlemen
OTHELLO
001: These letters give, Iago, to the pilot;
002: And by him do my duties to the senate:
003: That done, I will be walking on the works;
004: Repair there to me.
IAGO
005: Well, my good lord, I'll do't.
OTHELLO
006: This fortification, gentlemen, shall we see't?
Gentleman
007: We'll wait upon your lordship.
Exeunt
ACT III, SCENE III.
The garden of the castle.
Enter DESDEMONA, CASSIO, and EMILIA
DESDEMONA
001: Be thou assured, good Cassio, I will do
002: All my abilities in thy behalf.
EMILIA
003: Good madam, do: I warrant it grieves my husband,
004: As if the case were his.
DESDEMONA
005: O, that's an honest fellow. Do not doubt, Cassio,
006: But I will have my lord and you again
007: As friendly as you were.
CASSIO
008: Bounteous madam,
009: Whatever shall become of Michael Cassio,
010: He's never any thing but your true servant.
DESDEMONA
011: I know't; I thank you. You do love my lord:
012: You have known him long; and be you well assured
013: He shall in strangeness stand no further off
014: Than in a polite distance.
CASSIO
015: Ay, but, lady,
016: That policy may either last so long,
017: Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet,
018: Or breed itself so out of circumstance,
019: That, I being absent and my place supplied,
020: My general will forget my love and service.
DESDEMONA
021: Do not doubt that; before Emilia here
022: I give thee warrant of thy place: assure thee,
023: If I do vow a friendship, I'll perform it
024: To the last article: my lord shall never rest;
025: I'll watch him tame and talk him out of patience;
026: His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift;
027: I'll intermingle every thing he does
028: With Cassio's suit: therefore be merry, Cassio;
029: For thy solicitor shall rather die
030: Than give thy cause away.
EMILIA
031: Madam, here comes my lord.
CASSIO
032: Madam, I'll take my leave.
DESDEMONA
033: Why, stay, and hear me speak.
CASSIO
034: Madam, not now: I am very ill at ease,
035: Unfit for mine own purposes.
DESDEMONA
036: Well, do your discretion.
Exit CASSIO
Enter OTHELLO and IAGO
IAGO
037: Ha! I like not that.
OTHELLO
038: What dost thou say?
IAGO
039: Nothing, my lord: or if--I know not what.
OTHELLO
040: Was not that Cassio parted from my wife?
IAGO
041: Cassio, my lord! No, sure, I cannot think it,
042: That he would steal away so guilty-like,
043: Seeing you coming.
OTHELLO
044: I do believe 'twas he.
DESDEMONA
045: How now, my lord!
046: I have been talking with a suitor here,
047: A man that languishes in your displeasure.
OTHELLO
048: Who is't you mean?
DESDEMONA
049: Why, your lieutenant, Cassio. Good my lord,
050: If I have any grace or power to move you,
051: His present reconciliation take;
052: For if he be not one that truly loves you,
053: That errs in ignorance and not in cunning,
054: I have no judgment in an honest face:
055: I prithee, call him back.
OTHELLO
056: Went he hence now?
DESDEMONA
057: Ay, sooth; so humbled
058: That he hath left part of his grief with me,
059: To suffer with him. Good love, call him back.
OTHELLO
060: Not now, sweet Desdemona; some other time.
DESDEMONA
061: But shall't be shortly?
OTHELLO
062: The sooner, sweet, for you.
DESDEMONA
063: Shall't be to-night at supper?
OTHELLO
064: No, not to-night.
DESDEMONA
065: To-morrow dinner, then?
OTHELLO
066: I shall not dine at home;
067: I meet the captains at the citadel.
DESDEMONA
068: Why, then, to-morrow night; or Tuesday morn;
069: On Tuesday noon, or night; on Wednesday morn:
070: I prithee, name the time, but let it not
071: Exceed three days: in faith, he's penitent;
072: And yet his trespass, in our common reason--
073: Save that, they say, the wars must make examples
074: Out of their best--is not almost a fault
075: To incur a private cheque. When shall he come?
076: Tell me, Othello: I wonder in my soul,
077: What you would ask me, that I should deny,
078: Or stand so mammering on. What! Michael Cassio,
079: That came a-wooing with you, and so many a time,
080: When I have spoke of you dispraisingly,
081: Hath ta'en your part; to have so much to do
082: To bring him in! Trust me, I could do much,--
OTHELLO
083: Prithee, no more: let him come when he will;
084: I will deny thee nothing.
DESDEMONA
085: Why, this is not a boon;
086: 'Tis as I should entreat you wear your gloves,
087: Or feed on nourishing dishes, or keep you warm,
088: Or sue to you to do a peculiar profit
089: To your own person: nay, when I have a suit
090: Wherein I mean to touch your love indeed,
091: It shall be full of poise and difficult weight
092: And fearful to be granted.
OTHELLO
093: I will deny thee nothing:
094: Whereon, I do beseech thee, grant me this,
095: To leave me but a little to myself.
DESDEMONA
096: Shall I deny you? no: farewell, my lord.
OTHELLO
097: Farewell, my Desdemona: I'll come to thee straight.
DESDEMONA
098: Emilia, come. Be as your fancies teach you;
099: Whate'er you be, I am obedient.
Exeunt DESDEMONA and EMILIA
OTHELLO
100: Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul,
101: But I do love thee! and when I love thee not,
102: Chaos is come again.
IAGO
103: My noble lord--
OTHELLO
104: What dost thou say, Iago?
IAGO
105: Did Michael Cassio, when you woo'd my lady,
106: Know of your love?
OTHELLO
107: He did, from first to last: why dost thou ask?
IAGO
108: But for a satisfaction of my thought;
109: No further harm.
OTHELLO
110: Why of thy thought, Iago?
IAGO
111: I did not think he had been acquainted with her.
OTHELLO
112: O, yes; and went between us very oft.
IAGO
113: Indeed!
OTHELLO
114: Indeed! ay, indeed: discern'st thou aught in that?
115: Is he not honest?
IAGO
116: Honest, my lord!
OTHELLO
117: Honest! ay, honest.
IAGO
118: My lord, for aught I know.
OTHELLO
119: What dost thou think?
IAGO
120: Think, my lord!
OTHELLO
121: Think, my lord!
122: By heaven, he echoes me,
123: As if there were some monster in his thought
124: Too hideous to be shown. Thou dost mean something:
125: I heard thee say even now, thou likedst not that,
126: When Cassio left my wife: what didst not like?
127: And when I told thee he was of my counsel
128: In my whole course of wooing, thou criedst 'Indeed!'
129: And didst contract and purse thy brow together,
130: As if thou then hadst shut up in thy brain
131: Some horrible conceit: if thou dost love me,
132: Show me thy thought.
IAGO
133: My lord, you know I love you.
OTHELLO
134: I think thou dost;
135: And, for I know thou'rt full of love and honesty,
136: And weigh'st thy words before thou givest them breath,
137: Therefore these stops of thine fright me the more:
138: For such things in a false disloyal knave
139: Are tricks of custom, but in a man that's just
140: They are close delations, working from the heart
141: That passion cannot rule.
IAGO
142: For Michael Cassio,
143: I dare be sworn I think that he is honest.
OTHELLO
144: I think so too.
IAGO
145: Men should be what they seem;
146: Or those that be not, would they might seem none!
OTHELLO
147: Certain, men should be what they seem.
IAGO
148: Why, then, I think Cassio's an honest man.
OTHELLO
149: Nay, yet there's more in this:
150: I prithee, speak to me as to thy thinkings,
151: As thou dost ruminate, and give thy worst of thoughts
152: The worst of words.
IAGO
153: Good my lord, pardon me:
154: Though I am bound to every act of duty,
155: I am not bound to that all slaves are free to.
156: Utter my thoughts? Why, say they are vile and false;
157: As where's that palace whereinto foul things
158: Sometimes intrude not? who has a breast so pure,
159: But some uncleanly apprehensions
160: Keep leets and law-days and in session sit
161: With meditations lawful?
OTHELLO
162: Thou dost conspire against thy friend, Iago,
163: If thou but think'st him wrong'd and makest his ear
164: A stranger to thy thoughts.
IAGO
165: I do beseech you--
166: Though I perchance am vicious in my guess,
167: As, I confess, it is my nature's plague
168: To spy into abuses, and oft my jealousy
169: Shapes faults that are not--that your wisdom yet,
170: From one that so imperfectly conceits,
171: Would take no notice, nor build yourself a trouble
172: Out of his scattering and unsure observance.
173: It were not for your quiet nor your good,
174: Nor for my manhood, honesty, or wisdom,
175: To let you know my thoughts.
OTHELLO
176: What dost thou mean?
IAGO
177: Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
178: Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
179: Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
180: 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands:
181: But he that filches from me my good name
182: Robs me of that which not enriches him
183: And makes me poor indeed.
OTHELLO
184: By heaven, I'll know thy thoughts.
IAGO
185: You cannot, if my heart were in your hand;
186: Nor shall not, whilst 'tis in my custody.
OTHELLO
187: Ha!
IAGO
188: O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
189: It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
190: The meat it feeds on; that cuckold lives in bliss
191: Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;
192: But, O, what damned minutes tells he o'er
193: Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!
OTHELLO
194: O misery!
IAGO
195: Poor and content is rich and rich enough,
196: But riches fineless is as poor as winter
197: To him that ever fears he shall be poor.
198: Good heaven, the souls of all my tribe defend
199: From jealousy!
OTHELLO
200: Why, why is this?
201: Think'st thou I'ld make a lie of jealousy,
202: To follow still the changes of the moon
203: With fresh suspicions? No; to be once in doubt
204: Is once to be resolved: exchange me for a goat,
205: When I shall turn the business of my soul
206: To such exsufflicate and blown surmises,
207: Matching thy inference. 'Tis not to make me jealous
208: To say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company,
209: Is free of speech, sings, plays and dances well;
210: Where virtue is, these are more virtuous:
211: Nor from mine own weak merits will I draw
212: The smallest fear or doubt of her revolt;
213: For she had eyes, and chose me. No, Iago;
214: I'll see before I doubt; when I doubt, prove;
215: And on the proof, there is no more but this,--
216: Away at once with love or jealousy!
IAGO
217: I am glad of it; for now I shall have reason
218: To show the love and duty that I bear you
219: With franker spirit: therefore, as I am bound,
220: Receive it from me. I speak not yet of proof.
221: Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio;
222: Wear your eye thus, not jealous nor secure:
223: I would not have your free and noble nature,
224: Out of self-bounty, be abused; look to't:
225: I know our country disposition well;
226: In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks
227: They dare not show their husbands; their best conscience
228: Is not to leave't undone, but keep't unknown.
OTHELLO
229: Dost thou say so?
IAGO
230: She did deceive her father, marrying you;
231: And when she seem'd to shake and fear your looks,
232: She loved them most.
OTHELLO
233: And so she did.
IAGO
234: Why, go to then;
235: She that, so young, could give out such a seeming,
236: To seal her father's eyes up close as oak-
237: He thought 'twas witchcraft--but I am much to blame;
238: I humbly do beseech you of your pardon
239: For too much loving you.
OTHELLO
240: I am bound to thee for ever.
IAGO
241: I see this hath a little dash'd your spirits.
OTHELLO
242: Not a jot, not a jot.
IAGO
243: I' faith, I fear it has.
244: I hope you will consider what is spoke
245: Comes from my love. But I do see you're moved:
246: I am to pray you not to strain my speech
247: To grosser issues nor to larger reach
248: Than to suspicion.
OTHELLO
249: I will not.
IAGO
250: Should you do so, my lord,
251: My speech should fall into such vile success
252: As my thoughts aim not at. Cassio's my worthy friend--
253: My lord, I see you're moved.
OTHELLO
254: No, not much moved:
255: I do not think but Desdemona's honest.
IAGO
256: Long live she so! and long live you to think so!
OTHELLO
257: And yet, how nature erring from itself,--
IAGO
258: Ay, there's the point: as--to be bold with you--
259: Not to affect many proposed matches
260: Of her own clime, complexion, and degree,
261: Whereto we see in all things nature tends--
262: Foh! one may smell in such a will most rank,
263: Foul disproportion thoughts unnatural.
264: But pardon me; I do not in position
265: Distinctly speak of her; though I may fear
266: Her will, recoiling to her better judgment,
267: May fall to match you with her country forms
268: And happily repent.
OTHELLO
269: Farewell, farewell:
270: If more thou dost perceive, let me know more;
271: Set on thy wife to observe: leave me, Iago:
IAGO
[Going]
272: My lord, I take my leave.
OTHELLO
273: Why did I marry? This honest creature doubtless
274: Sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds.
IAGO
275:
[Returning]
My lord, I would I might entreat
276: your honour
277: To scan this thing no further; leave it to time:
278: Though it be fit that Cassio have his place,
279: For sure, he fills it up with great ability,
280: Yet, if you please to hold him off awhile,
281: You shall by that perceive him and his means:
282: Note, if your lady strain his entertainment
283: With any strong or vehement importunity;
284: Much will be seen in that. In the mean time,
285: Let me be thought too busy in my fears--
286: As worthy cause I have to fear I am--
287: And hold her free, I do beseech your honour.
OTHELLO
288: Fear not my government.
IAGO
289: I once more take my leave.
Exit
OTHELLO
290: This fellow's of exceeding honesty,
291: And knows all qualities, with a learned spirit,
292: Of human dealings. If I do prove her haggard,
293: Though that her jesses were my dear heartstrings,
294: I'ld whistle her off and let her down the wind,
295: To pray at fortune. Haply, for I am black
296: And have not those soft parts of conversation
297: That chamberers have, or for I am declined
298: Into the vale of years,--yet that's not much--
299: She's gone. I am abused; and my relief
300: Must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage,
301: That we can call these delicate creatures ours,
302: And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad,
303: And live upon the vapour of a dungeon,
304: Than keep a corner in the thing I love
305: For others' uses. Yet, 'tis the plague of great ones;
306: Prerogatived are they less than the base;
307: 'Tis destiny unshunnable, like death:
308: Even then this forked plague is fated to us
309: When we do quicken. Desdemona comes:
[Re-enter DESDEMONA and EMILIA]
310: If she be false, O, then heaven mocks itself!
311: I'll not believe't.
DESDEMONA
312: How now, my dear Othello!
313: Your dinner, and the generous islanders
314: By you invited, do attend your presence.
OTHELLO
315: I am to blame.
DESDEMONA
316: Why do you speak so faintly?
317: Are you not well?
OTHELLO
318: I have a pain upon my forehead here.
DESDEMONA
319: 'Faith, that's with watching; 'twill away again:
320: Let me but bind it hard, within this hour
321: It will be well.
OTHELLO
322: Your napkin is too little:
[He puts the handkerchief from him; and it drops]
323: Let it alone. Come, I'll go in with you.
DESDEMONA
324: I am very sorry that you are not well.
Exeunt OTHELLO and DESDEMONA
EMILIA
325: I am glad I have found this napkin:
326: This was her first remembrance from the Moor:
327: My wayward husband hath a hundred times
328: Woo'd me to steal it; but she so loves the token,
329: For he conjured her she should ever keep it,
330: That she reserves it evermore about her
331: To kiss and talk to. I'll have the work ta'en out,
332: And give't Iago: what he will do with it
333: Heaven knows, not I;
334: I nothing but to please his fantasy.
Re-enter Iago
IAGO
335: How now! what do you here alone?
EMILIA
336: Do not you chide; I have a thing for you.
IAGO
337: A thing for me? it is a common thing--
EMILIA
338: Ha!
IAGO
339: To have a foolish wife.
EMILIA
340: O, is that all? What will you give me now
341: For the same handkerchief?
IAGO
342: What handkerchief?
EMILIA
343: What handkerchief?
344: Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona;
345: That which so often you did bid me steal.
IAGO
346: Hast stol'n it from her?
EMILIA
347: No, 'faith; she let it drop by negligence.
348: And, to the advantage, I, being here, took't up.
349: Look, here it is.
IAGO
350: A good wench; give it me.
EMILIA
351: What will you do with 't, that you have been
352: so earnest
353: To have me filch it?
IAGO
354:
[Snatching it]
Why, what's that to you?
EMILIA
355: If it be not for some purpose of import,
356: Give't me again: poor lady, she'll run mad
357: When she shall lack it.
IAGO
358: Be not acknown on 't; I have use for it.
359: Go, leave me.
[Exit EMILIA]
360: I will in Cassio's lodging lose this napkin,
361: And let him find it. Trifles light as air
362: Are to the jealous confirmations strong
363: As proofs of holy writ: this may do something.
364: The Moor already changes with my poison:
365: Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons.
366: Which at the first are scarce found to distaste,
367: But with a little act upon the blood.
368: Burn like the mines of Sulphur. I did say so:
369: Look, where he comes!
[Re-enter OTHELLO]
370: Not poppy, nor mandragora,
371: Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
372: Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
373: Which thou owedst yesterday.
OTHELLO
374: Ha! ha! false to me?
IAGO
375: Why, how now, general! no more of that.
OTHELLO
376: Avaunt! be gone! thou hast set me on the rack:
377: I swear 'tis better to be much abused
378: Than but to know't a little.
IAGO
379: How now, my lord!
OTHELLO
380: What sense had I of her stol'n hours of lust?
381: I saw't not, thought it not, it harm'd not me:
382: I slept the next night well, was free and merry;
383: I found not Cassio's kisses on her lips:
384: He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stol'n,
385: Let him not know't, and he's not robb'd at all.
IAGO
386: I am sorry to hear this.
OTHELLO
387: I had been happy, if the general camp,
388: Pioners and all, had tasted her sweet body,
389: So I had nothing known. O, now, for ever
390: Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!
391: Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars,
392: That make ambition virtue! O, farewell!
393: Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump,
394: The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
395: The royal banner, and all quality,
396: Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war!
397: And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats
398: The immortal Jove's dead clamours counterfeit,
399: Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone!
IAGO
400: Is't possible, my lord?
OTHELLO
401: Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore,
402: Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof:
403: Or by the worth of man's eternal soul,
404: Thou hadst been better have been born a dog
405: Than answer my waked wrath!
IAGO
406: Is't come to this?
OTHELLO
407: Make me to see't; or, at the least, so prove it,
408: That the probation bear no hinge nor loop
409: To hang a doubt on; or woe upon thy life!
IAGO
410: My noble lord,--
OTHELLO
411: If thou dost slander her and torture me,
412: Never pray more; abandon all remorse;
413: On horror's head horrors accumulate;
414: Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed;
415: For nothing canst thou to damnation add
416: Greater than that.
IAGO
417: O grace! O heaven forgive me!
418: Are you a man? have you a soul or sense?
419: God be wi' you; take mine office. O wretched fool.
420: That livest to make thine honesty a vice!
421: O monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world,
422: To be direct and honest is not safe.
423: I thank you for this profit; and from hence
424: I'll love no friend, sith love breeds such offence.
OTHELLO
425: Nay, stay: thou shouldst be honest.
IAGO
426: I should be wise, for honesty's a fool
427: And loses that it works for.
OTHELLO
428: By the world,
429: I think my wife be honest and think she is not;
430: I think that thou art just and think thou art not.
431: I'll have some proof. Her name, that was as fresh
432: As Dian's visage, is now begrimed and black
433: As mine own face. If there be cords, or knives,
434: Poison, or fire, or suffocating streams,
435: I'll not endure it. Would I were satisfied!
IAGO
436: I see, sir, you are eaten up with passion:
437: I do repent me that I put it to you.
438: You would be satisfied?
OTHELLO
439: Would! nay, I will.
IAGO
440: And may: but, how? how satisfied, my lord?
441: Would you, the supervisor, grossly gape on--
442: Behold her topp'd?
OTHELLO
443: Death and damnation! O!
IAGO
444: It were a tedious difficulty, I think,
445: To bring them to that prospect: damn them then,
446: If ever mortal eyes do see them bolster
447: More than their own! What then? how then?
448: What shall I say? Where's satisfaction?
449: It is impossible you should see this,
450: Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys,
451: As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross
452: As ignorance made drunk. But yet, I say,
453: If imputation and strong circumstances,
454: Which lead directly to the door of truth,
455: Will give you satisfaction, you may have't.
OTHELLO
456: Give me a living reason she's disloyal.
IAGO
457: I do not like the office:
458: But, sith I am enter'd in this cause so far,
459: Prick'd to't by foolish honesty and love,
460: I will go on. I lay with Cassio lately;
461: And, being troubled with a raging tooth,
462: I could not sleep.
463: There are a kind of men so loose of soul,
464: That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs:
465: One of this kind is Cassio:
466: In sleep I heard him say 'Sweet Desdemona,
467: Let us be wary, let us hide our loves;'
468: And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my hand,
469: Cry 'O sweet creature!' and then kiss me hard,
470: As if he pluck'd up kisses by the roots
471: That grew upon my lips: then laid his leg
472: Over my thigh, and sigh'd, and kiss'd; and then
473: Cried 'Cursed fate that gave thee to the Moor!'
OTHELLO
474: O monstrous! monstrous!
IAGO
475: Nay, this was but his dream.
OTHELLO
476: But this denoted a foregone conclusion:
477: 'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream.
IAGO
478: And this may help to thicken other proofs
479: That do demonstrate thinly.
OTHELLO
480: I'll tear her all to pieces.
IAGO
481: Nay, but be wise: yet we see nothing done;
482: She may be honest yet. Tell me but this,
483: Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief
484: Spotted with strawberries in your wife's hand?
OTHELLO
485: I gave her such a one; 'twas my first gift.
IAGO
486: I know not that; but such a handkerchief--
487: I am sure it was your wife's--did I to-day
488: See Cassio wipe his beard with.
OTHELLO
489: If it be that--
IAGO
490: If it be that, or any that was hers,
491: It speaks against her with the other proofs.
OTHELLO
492: O, that the slave had forty thousand lives!
493: One is too poor, too weak for my revenge.
494: Now do I see 'tis true. Look here, Iago;
495: All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven.
496: 'Tis gone.
497: Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!
498: Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne
499: To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught,
500: For 'tis of aspics' tongues!
IAGO
501: Yet be content.
OTHELLO
502: O, blood, blood, blood!
IAGO
503: Patience, I say; your mind perhaps may change.
OTHELLO
504: Never, Iago: Like to the Pontic sea,
505: Whose icy current and compulsive course
506: Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
507: To the Propontic and the Hellespont,
508: Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,
509: Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love,
510: Till that a capable and wide revenge
511: Swallow them up. Now, by yond marble heaven,
[Kneels]
512: In the due reverence of a sacred vow
513: I here engage my words.
IAGO
514: Do not rise yet.
[Kneels]
515: Witness, you ever-burning lights above,
516: You elements that clip us round about,
517: Witness that here Iago doth give up
518: The execution of his wit, hands, heart,
519: To wrong'd Othello's service! Let him command,
520: And to obey shall be in me remorse,
521: What bloody business ever.
They rise
OTHELLO
522: I greet thy love,
523: Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous,
524: And will upon the instant put thee to't:
525: Within these three days let me hear thee say
526: That Cassio's not alive.
IAGO
527: My friend is dead; 'tis done at your request:
528: But let her live.
OTHELLO
529: Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her!
530: Come, go with me apart; I will withdraw,
531: To furnish me with some swift means of death
532: For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant.
IAGO
533: I am your own for ever.
Exeunt
ACT III, SCENE IV.
Before the castle.
Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, and Clown
DESDEMONA
001: Do you know, sirrah, where Lieutenant Cassio lies?
Clown
002: I dare not say he lies any where.
DESDEMONA
003: Why, man?
Clown
004: He's a soldier, and for one to say a soldier lies,
005: is stabbing.
DESDEMONA
006: Go to: where lodges he?
Clown
007: To tell you where he lodges, is to tell you where I lie.
DESDEMONA
008: Can any thing be made of this?
Clown
009: I know not where he lodges, and for me to devise a
010: lodging and say he lies here or he lies there, were
011: to lie in mine own throat.
DESDEMONA
012: Can you inquire him out, and be edified by report?
Clown
013: I will catechise the world for him; that is, make
014: questions, and by them answer.
DESDEMONA
015: Seek him, bid him come hither: tell him I have
016: moved my lord on his behalf, and hope all will be well.
Clown
017: To do this is within the compass of man's wit: and
018: therefore I will attempt the doing it.
Exit
DESDEMONA
019: Where should I lose that handkerchief, Emilia?
EMILIA
020: I know not, madam.
DESDEMONA
021: Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse
022: Full of crusadoes: and, but my noble Moor
023: Is true of mind and made of no such baseness
024: As jealous creatures are, it were enough
025: To put him to ill thinking.
EMILIA
026: Is he not jealous?
DESDEMONA
027: Who, he? I think the sun where he was born
028: Drew all such humours from him.
EMILIA
029: Look, where he comes.
DESDEMONA
030: I will not leave him now till Cassio
031: Be call'd to him.
[Enter OTHELLO]
032: How is't with you, my lord
OTHELLO
033: Well, my good lady.
[Aside]
034: O, hardness to dissemble!--
035: How do you, Desdemona?
DESDEMONA
036: Well, my good lord.
OTHELLO
037: Give me your hand: this hand is moist, my lady.
DESDEMONA
038: It yet hath felt no age nor known no sorrow.
OTHELLO
039: This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart:
040: Hot, hot, and moist: this hand of yours requires
041: A sequester from liberty, fasting and prayer,
042: Much castigation, exercise devout;
043: For here's a young and sweating devil here,
044: That commonly rebels. 'Tis a good hand,
045: A frank one.
DESDEMONA
046: You may, indeed, say so;
047: For 'twas that hand that gave away my heart.
OTHELLO
048: A liberal hand: the hearts of old gave hands;
049: But our new heraldry is hands, not hearts.
DESDEMONA
050: I cannot speak of this. Come now, your promise.
OTHELLO
051: What promise, chuck?
DESDEMONA
052: I have sent to bid Cassio come speak with you.
OTHELLO
053: I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me;
054: Lend me thy handkerchief.
DESDEMONA
055: Here, my lord.
OTHELLO
056: That which I gave you.
DESDEMONA
057: I have it not about me.
OTHELLO
058: Not?
DESDEMONA
059: No, indeed, my lord.
OTHELLO
060: That is a fault.
061: That handkerchief
062: Did an Egyptian to my mother give;
063: She was a charmer, and could almost read
064: The thoughts of people: she told her, while
065: she kept it,
066: 'Twould make her amiable and subdue my father
067: Entirely to her love, but if she lost it
068: Or made gift of it, my father's eye
069: Should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt
070: After new fancies: she, dying, gave it me;
071: And bid me, when my fate would have me wive,
072: To give it her. I did so: and take heed on't;
073: Make it a darling like your precious eye;
074: To lose't or give't away were such perdition
075: As nothing else could match.
DESDEMONA
076: Is't possible?
OTHELLO
077: 'Tis true: there's magic in the web of it:
078: A sibyl, that had number'd in the world
079: The sun to course two hundred compasses,
080: In her prophetic fury sew'd the work;
081: The worms were hallow'd that did breed the silk;
082: And it was dyed in mummy which the skilful
083: Conserved of maidens' hearts.
DESDEMONA
084: Indeed! is't true?
OTHELLO
085: Most veritable; therefore look to't well.
DESDEMONA
086: Then would to God that I had never seen't!
OTHELLO
087: Ha! wherefore?
DESDEMONA
088: Why do you speak so startingly and rash?
OTHELLO
089: Is't lost? is't gone? speak, is it out
090: o' the way?
DESDEMONA
091: Heaven bless us!
OTHELLO
092: Say you?
DESDEMONA
093: It is not lost; but what an if it were?
OTHELLO
094: How!
DESDEMONA
095: I say, it is not lost.
OTHELLO
096: Fetch't, let me see't.
DESDEMONA
097: Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now.
098: This is a trick to put me from my suit:
099: Pray you, let Cassio be received again.
OTHELLO
100: Fetch me the handkerchief: my mind misgives.
DESDEMONA
101: Come, come;
102: You'll never meet a more sufficient man.
OTHELLO
103: The handkerchief!
DESDEMONA
104: I pray, talk me of Cassio.
OTHELLO
105: The handkerchief!
DESDEMONA
106: A man that all his time
107: Hath founded his good fortunes on your love,
108: Shared dangers with you,--
OTHELLO
109: The handkerchief!
DESDEMONA
110: In sooth, you are to blame.
OTHELLO
111: Away!
Exit
EMILIA
112: Is not this man jealous?
DESDEMONA
113: I ne'er saw this before.
114: Sure, there's some wonder in this handkerchief:
115: I am most unhappy in the loss of it.
EMILIA
116: 'Tis not a year or two shows us a man:
117: They are all but stomachs, and we all but food;
118: To eat us hungerly, and when they are full,
119: They belch us. Look you, Cassio and my husband!
Enter CASSIO and IAGO
IAGO
120: There is no other way; 'tis she must do't:
121: And, lo, the happiness! go, and importune her.
DESDEMONA
122: How now, good Cassio! what's the news with you?
CASSIO
123: Madam, my former suit: I do beseech you
124: That by your virtuous means I may again
125: Exist, and be a member of his love
126: Whom I with all the office of my heart
127: Entirely honour: I would not be delay'd.
128: If my offence be of such mortal kind
129: That nor my service past, nor present sorrows,
130: Nor purposed merit in futurity,
131: Can ransom me into his love again,
132: But to know so must be my benefit;
133: So shall I clothe me in a forced content,
134: And shut myself up in some other course,
135: To fortune's alms.
DESDEMONA
136: Alas, thrice-gentle Cassio!
137: My advocation is not now in tune;
138: My lord is not my lord; nor should I know him,
139: Were he in favour as in humour alter'd.
140: So help me every spirit sanctified,
141: As I have spoken for you all my best
142: And stood within the blank of his displeasure
143: For my free speech! you must awhile be patient:
144: What I can do I will; and more I will
145: Than for myself I dare: let that suffice you.
IAGO
146: Is my lord angry?
EMILIA
147: He went hence but now,
148: And certainly in strange unquietness.
IAGO
149: Can he be angry? I have seen the cannon,
150: When it hath blown his ranks into the air,
151: And, like the devil, from his very arm
152: Puff'd his own brother:--and can he be angry?
153: Something of moment then: I will go meet him:
154: There's matter in't indeed, if he be angry.
DESDEMONA
155: I prithee, do so.
[Exit IAGO]
156: Something, sure, of state,
157: Either from Venice, or some unhatch'd practise
158: Made demonstrable here in Cyprus to him,
159: Hath puddled his clear spirit: and in such cases
160: Men's natures wrangle with inferior things,
161: Though great ones are their object. 'Tis even so;
162: For let our finger ache, and it indues
163: Our other healthful members even to that sense
164: Of pain: nay, we must think men are not gods,
165: Nor of them look for such observances
166: As fit the bridal. Beshrew me much, Emilia,
167: I was, unhandsome warrior as I am,
168: Arraigning his unkindness with my soul;
169: But now I find I had suborn'd the witness,
170: And he's indicted falsely.
EMILIA
171: Pray heaven it be state-matters, as you think,
172: And no conception nor no jealous toy
173: Concerning you.
DESDEMONA
174: Alas the day! I never gave him cause.
EMILIA
175: But jealous souls will not be answer'd so;
176: They are not ever jealous for the cause,
177: But jealous for they are jealous: 'tis a monster
178: Begot upon itself, born on itself.
DESDEMONA
179: Heaven keep that monster from Othello's mind!
EMILIA
180: Lady, amen.
DESDEMONA
181: I will go seek him. Cassio, walk hereabout:
182: If I do find him fit, I'll move your suit
183: And seek to effect it to my uttermost.
CASSIO
184: I humbly thank your ladyship.
Exeunt DESDEMONA and EMILIA
Enter BIANCA
BIANCA
185: Save you, friend Cassio!
CASSIO
186: What make you from home?
187: How is it with you, my most fair Bianca?
188: I' faith, sweet love, I was coming to your house.
BIANCA
189: And I was going to your lodging, Cassio.
190: What, keep a week away? seven days and nights?
191: Eight score eight hours? and lovers' absent hours,
192: More tedious than the dial eight score times?
193: O weary reckoning!
CASSIO
194: Pardon me, Bianca:
195: I have this while with leaden thoughts been press'd:
196: But I shall, in a more continuate time,
197: Strike off this score of absence. Sweet Bianca,
[Giving her DESDEMONA's handkerchief]
198: Take me this work out.
BIANCA
199: O Cassio, whence came this?
200: This is some token from a newer friend:
201: To the felt absence now I feel a cause:
202: Is't come to this? Well, well.
CASSIO
203: Go to, woman!
204: Throw your vile guesses in the devil's teeth,
205: From whence you have them. You are jealous now
206: That this is from some mistress, some remembrance:
207: No, in good troth, Bianca.
BIANCA
208: Why, whose is it?
CASSIO
209: I know not, sweet: I found it in my chamber.
210: I like the work well: ere it be demanded--
211: As like enough it will--I'ld have it copied:
212: Take it, and do't; and leave me for this time.
BIANCA
213: Leave you! wherefore?
CASSIO
214: I do attend here on the general;
215: And think it no addition, nor my wish,
216: To have him see me woman'd.
BIANCA
217: Why, I pray you?
CASSIO
218: Not that I love you not.
BIANCA
219: But that you do not love me.
220: I pray you, bring me on the way a little,
221: And say if I shall see you soon at night.
CASSIO
222: 'Tis but a little way that I can bring you;
223: For I attend here: but I'll see you soon.
BIANCA
224: 'Tis very good; I must be circumstanced.
Exeunt
ACT IV, SCENE I.
Cyprus. Before the castle.
Enter OTHELLO and IAGO
IAGO
001: Will you think so?
OTHELLO
002: Think so, Iago!
IAGO
003: What,
004: To kiss in private?
OTHELLO
005: An unauthorized kiss.
IAGO
006: Or to be naked with her friend in bed
007: An hour or more, not meaning any harm?
OTHELLO
008: Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm!
009: It is hypocrisy against the devil:
010: They that mean virtuously, and yet do so,
011: The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.
IAGO
012: So they do nothing, 'tis a venial slip:
013: But if I give my wife a handkerchief,--
OTHELLO
014: What then?
IAGO
015: Why, then, 'tis hers, my lord; and, being hers,
016: She may, I think, bestow't on any man.
OTHELLO
017: She is protectress of her honour too:
018: May she give that?
IAGO
019: Her honour is an essence that's not seen;
020: They have it very oft that have it not:
021: But, for the handkerchief,--
OTHELLO
022: By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it.
023: Thou said'st, it comes o'er my memory,
024: As doth the raven o'er the infected house,
025: Boding to all--he had my handkerchief.
IAGO
026: Ay, what of that?
OTHELLO
027: That's not so good now.
IAGO
028: What,
029: If I had said I had seen him do you wrong?
030: Or heard him say,--as knaves be such abroad,
031: Who having, by their own importunate suit,
032: Or voluntary dotage of some mistress,
033: Convinced or supplied them, cannot choose
034: But they must blab--
OTHELLO
035: Hath he said any thing?
IAGO
036: He hath, my lord; but be you well assured,
037: No more than he'll unswear.
OTHELLO
038: What hath he said?
IAGO
039: 'Faith, that he did--I know not what he did.
OTHELLO
040: What? what?
IAGO
041: Lie--
OTHELLO
042: With her?
IAGO
043: With her, on her; what you will.
OTHELLO
044: Lie with her! lie on her! We say lie on her, when
045: they belie her. Lie with her! that's fulsome.
046: --Handkerchief--confessions--handkerchief!--To
047: confess, and be hanged for his labour;--first, to be
048: hanged, and then to confess.--I tremble at it.
049: Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing
050: passion without some instruction. It is not words
051: that shake me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips.
052: --Is't possible?--Confess--handkerchief!--O devil!--
Falls in a trance
IAGO
053: Work on,
054: My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught;
055: And many worthy and chaste dames even thus,
056: All guiltless, meet reproach. What, ho! my lord!
057: My lord, I say! Othello!
[Enter CASSIO]
058: How now, Cassio!
CASSIO
059: What's the matter?
IAGO
060: My lord is fall'n into an epilepsy:
061: This is his second fit; he had one yesterday.
CASSIO
062: Rub him about the temples.
IAGO
063: No, forbear;
064: The lethargy must have his quiet course:
065: If not, he foams at mouth and by and by
066: Breaks out to savage madness. Look he stirs:
067: Do you withdraw yourself a little while,
068: He will recover straight: when he is gone,
069: I would on great occasion speak with you.
[Exit CASSIO]
070: How is it, general? have you not hurt your head?
OTHELLO
071: Dost thou mock me?
IAGO
072: I mock you! no, by heaven.
073: Would you would bear your fortune like a man!
OTHELLO
074: A horned man's a monster and a beast.
IAGO
075: There's many a beast then in a populous city,
076: And many a civil monster.
OTHELLO
077: Did he confess it?
IAGO
078: Good sir, be a man;
079: Think every bearded fellow that's but yoked
080: May draw with you: there's millions now alive
081: That nightly lie in those unproper beds
082: Which they dare swear peculiar: your case is better.
083: O, 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock,
084: To lip a wanton in a secure couch,
085: And to suppose her chaste! No, let me know;
086: And knowing what I am, I know what she shall be.
OTHELLO
087: O, thou art wise; 'tis certain.
IAGO
088: Stand you awhile apart;
089: Confine yourself but in a patient list.
090: Whilst you were here o'erwhelmed with your grief--
091: A passion most unsuiting such a man--
092: Cassio came hither: I shifted him away,
093: And laid good 'scuse upon your ecstasy,
094: Bade him anon return and here speak with me;
095: The which he promised. Do but encave yourself,
096: And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns,
097: That dwell in every region of his face;
098: For I will make him tell the tale anew,
099: Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when
100: He hath, and is again to cope your wife:
101: I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience;
102: Or I shall say you are all in all in spleen,
103: And nothing of a man.
OTHELLO
104: Dost thou hear, Iago?
105: I will be found most cunning in my patience;
106: But--dost thou hear?--most bloody.
IAGO
107: That's not amiss;
108: But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw?
[OTHELLO retires]
109: Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,
110: A housewife that by selling her desires
111: Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature
112: That dotes on Cassio; as 'tis the strumpet's plague
113: To beguile many and be beguiled by one:
114: He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain
115: From the excess of laughter. Here he comes:
[Re-enter CASSIO]
116: As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;
117: And his unbookish jealousy must construe
118: Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures and light behavior,
119: Quite in the wrong. How do you now, lieutenant?
CASSIO
120: The worser that you give me the addition
121: Whose want even kills me.
IAGO
122: Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on't.
[Speaking lower]
123: Now, if this suit lay in Bianco's power,
124: How quickly should you speed!
CASSIO
125: Alas, poor caitiff!
OTHELLO
126: Look, how he laughs already!
IAGO
127: I never knew woman love man so.
CASSIO
128: Alas, poor rogue! I think, i' faith, she loves me.
OTHELLO
129: Now he denies it faintly, and laughs it out.
IAGO
130: Do you hear, Cassio?
OTHELLO
131: Now he importunes him
132: To tell it o'er: go to; well said, well said.
IAGO
133: She gives it out that you shall marry hey:
134: Do you intend it?
CASSIO
135: Ha, ha, ha!
OTHELLO
136: Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?
CASSIO
137: I marry her! what? a customer! Prithee, bear some
138: charity to my wit: do not think it so unwholesome.
139: Ha, ha, ha!
OTHELLO
140: So, so, so, so: they laugh that win.
IAGO
141: 'Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her.
CASSIO
142: Prithee, say true.
IAGO
143: I am a very villain else.
OTHELLO
144: Have you scored me? Well.
CASSIO
145: This is the monkey's own giving out: she is
146: persuaded I will marry her, out of her own love and
147: flattery, not out of my promise.
OTHELLO
148: Iago beckons me; now he begins the story.
CASSIO
149: She was here even now; she haunts me in every place.
150: I was the other day talking on the sea-bank with
151: certain Venetians; and thither comes the bauble,
152: and, by this hand, she falls me thus about my neck--
OTHELLO
153: Crying 'O dear Cassio!' as it were: his gesture
154: imports it.
CASSIO
155: So hangs, and lolls, and weeps upon me; so hales,
156: and pulls me: ha, ha, ha!
OTHELLO
157: Now he tells how she plucked him to my chamber. O,
158: I see that nose of yours, but not that dog I shall
159: throw it to.
CASSIO
160: Well, I must leave her company.
IAGO
161: Before me! look, where she comes.
CASSIO
162: 'Tis such another fitchew! marry a perfumed one.
[Enter BIANCA]
163: What do you mean by this haunting of me?
BIANCA
164: Let the devil and his dam haunt you! What did you
165: mean by that same handkerchief you gave me even now?
166: I was a fine fool to take it. I must take out the
167: work?--A likely piece of work, that you should find
168: it in your chamber, and not know who left it there!
169: This is some minx's token, and I must take out the
170: work? There; give it your hobby-horse: wheresoever
171: you had it, I'll take out no work on't.
CASSIO
172: How now, my sweet Bianca! how now! how now!
OTHELLO
173: By heaven, that should be my handkerchief!
BIANCA
174: An you'll come to supper to-night, you may; an you
175: will not, come when you are next prepared for.
Exit
IAGO
176: After her, after her.
CASSIO
177: 'Faith, I must; she'll rail in the street else.
IAGO
178: Will you sup there?
CASSIO
179: 'Faith, I intend so.
IAGO
180: Well, I may chance to see you; for I would very fain
181: speak with you.
CASSIO
182: Prithee, come; will you?
IAGO
183: Go to; say no more.
Exit CASSIO
OTHELLO
184:
[Advancing]
How shall I murder him, Iago?
IAGO
185: Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice?
OTHELLO
186: O Iago!
IAGO
187: And did you see the handkerchief?
OTHELLO
188: Was that mine?
IAGO
189: Yours by this hand: and to see how he prizes the
190: foolish woman your wife! she gave it him, and he
191: hath given it his whore.
OTHELLO
192: I would have him nine years a-killing.
193: A fine woman! a fair woman! a sweet woman!
IAGO
194: Nay, you must forget that.
OTHELLO
195: Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be damned to-night;
196: for she shall not live: no, my heart is turned to
197: stone; I strike it, and it hurts my hand. O, the
198: world hath not a sweeter creature: she might lie by
199: an emperor's side and command him tasks.
IAGO
200: Nay, that's not your way.
OTHELLO
201: Hang her! I do but say what she is: so delicate
202: with her needle: an admirable musician: O! she
203: will sing the savageness out of a bear: of so high
204: and plenteous wit and invention:--
IAGO
205: She's the worse for all this.
OTHELLO
206: O, a thousand thousand times: and then, of so
207: gentle a condition!
IAGO
208: Ay, too gentle.
OTHELLO
209: Nay, that's certain: but yet the pity of it, Iago!
210: O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!
IAGO
211: If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her
212: patent to offend; for, if it touch not you, it comes
213: near nobody.
OTHELLO
214: I will chop her into messes: cuckold me!
IAGO
215: O, 'tis foul in her.
OTHELLO
216: With mine officer!
IAGO
217: That's fouler.
OTHELLO
218: Get me some poison, Iago; this night: I'll not
219: expostulate with her, lest her body and beauty
220: unprovide my mind again: this night, Iago.
IAGO
221: Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed, even
222: the bed she hath contaminated.
OTHELLO
223: Good, good: the justice of it pleases: very good.
IAGO
224: And for Cassio, let me be his undertaker: you
225: shall hear more by midnight.
OTHELLO
226: Excellent good.
[A trumpet within]
227: What trumpet is that same?
IAGO
228: Something from Venice, sure. 'Tis Lodovico
229: Come from the duke: and, see, your wife is with him.
Enter LODOVICO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants
LODOVICO
230: Save you, worthy general!
OTHELLO
231: With all my heart, sir.
LODOVICO
232: The duke and senators of Venice greet you.
Gives him a letter
OTHELLO
233: I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.
Opens the letter, and reads
DESDEMONA
234: And what's the news, good cousin Lodovico?
IAGO
235: I am very glad to see you, signior
236: Welcome to Cyprus.
LODOVICO
237: I thank you. How does Lieutenant Cassio?
IAGO
238: Lives, sir.
DESDEMONA
239: Cousin, there's fall'n between him and my lord
240: An unkind breach: but you shall make all well.
OTHELLO
241: Are you sure of that?
DESDEMONA
242: My lord?
OTHELLO
[Reads]
243: 'This fail you not to do, as you will--'
LODOVICO
244: He did not call; he's busy in the paper.
245: Is there division 'twixt my lord and Cassio?
DESDEMONA
246: A most unhappy one: I would do much
247: To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio.
OTHELLO
248: Fire and brimstone!
DESDEMONA
249: My lord?
OTHELLO
250: Are you wise?
DESDEMONA
251: What, is he angry?
LODOVICO
252: May be the letter moved him;
253: For, as I think, they do command him home,
254: Deputing Cassio in his government.
DESDEMONA
255: Trust me, I am glad on't.
OTHELLO
256: Indeed!
DESDEMONA
257: My lord?
OTHELLO
258: I am glad to see you mad.
DESDEMONA
259: Why, sweet Othello,--
OTHELLO
[Striking her]
260: Devil!
DESDEMONA
261: I have not deserved this.
LODOVICO
262: My lord, this would not be believed in Venice,
263: Though I should swear I saw't: 'tis very much:
264: Make her amends; she weeps.
OTHELLO
265: O devil, devil!
266: If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,
267: Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.
268: Out of my sight!
DESDEMONA
269: I will not stay to offend you.
Going
LODOVICO
270: Truly, an obedient lady:
271: I do beseech your lordship, call her back.
OTHELLO
272: Mistress!
DESDEMONA
273: My lord?
OTHELLO
274: What would you with her, sir?
LODOVICO
275: Who, I, my lord?
OTHELLO
276: Ay; you did wish that I would make her turn:
277: Sir, she can turn, and turn, and yet go on,
278: And turn again; and she can weep, sir, weep;
279: And she's obedient, as you say, obedient,
280: Very obedient. Proceed you in your tears.
281: Concerning this, sir,--O well-painted passion!--
282: I am commanded home. Get you away;
283: I'll send for you anon. Sir, I obey the mandate,
284: And will return to Venice. Hence, avaunt!
[Exit DESDEMONA]
285: Cassio shall have my place. And, sir, tonight,
286: I do entreat that we may sup together:
287: You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.--Goats and monkeys!
Exit
LODOVICO
288: Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate
289: Call all in all sufficient? Is this the nature
290: Whom passion could not shake? whose solid virtue
291: The shot of accident, nor dart of chance,
292: Could neither graze nor pierce?
IAGO
293: He is much changed.
LODOVICO
294: Are his wits safe? is he not light of brain?
IAGO
295: He's that he is: I may not breathe my censure
296: What he might be: if what he might he is not,
297: I would to heaven he were!
LODOVICO
298: What, strike his wife!
IAGO
299: 'Faith, that was not so well; yet would I knew
300: That stroke would prove the worst!
LODOVICO
301: Is it his use?
302: Or did the letters work upon his blood,
303: And new-create this fault?
IAGO
304: Alas, alas!
305: It is not honesty in me to speak
306: What I have seen and known. You shall observe him,
307: And his own courses will denote him so
308: That I may save my speech: do but go after,
309: And mark how he continues.
LODOVICO
310: I am sorry that I am deceived in him.
Exeunt
ACT IV, SCENE II.
A room in the castle.
Enter OTHELLO and EMILIA
OTHELLO
001: You have seen nothing then?
EMILIA
002: Nor ever heard, nor ever did suspect.
OTHELLO
003: Yes, you have seen Cassio and she together.
EMILIA
004: But then I saw no harm, and then I heard
005: Each syllable that breath made up between them.
OTHELLO
006: What, did they never whisper?
EMILIA
007: Never, my lord.
OTHELLO
008: Nor send you out o' the way?
EMILIA
009: Never.
OTHELLO
010: To fetch her fan, her gloves, her mask, nor nothing?
EMILIA
011: Never, my lord.
OTHELLO
012: That's strange.
EMILIA
013: I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest,
014: Lay down my soul at stake: if you think other,
015: Remove your thought; it doth abuse your bosom.
016: If any wretch have put this in your head,
017: Let heaven requite it with the serpent's curse!
018: For, if she be not honest, chaste, and true,
019: There's no man happy; the purest of their wives
020: Is foul as slander.
OTHELLO
021: Bid her come hither: go.
[Exit EMILIA]
022: She says enough; yet she's a simple bawd
023: That cannot say as much. This is a subtle whore,
024: A closet lock and key of villanous secrets
025: And yet she'll kneel and pray; I have seen her do't.
Enter DESDEMONA with EMILIA
DESDEMONA
026: My lord, what is your will?
OTHELLO
027: Pray, chuck, come hither.
DESDEMONA
028: What is your pleasure?
OTHELLO
029: Let me see your eyes;
030: Look in my face.
DESDEMONA
031: What horrible fancy's this?
OTHELLO
[To EMILIA]
032: Some of your function, mistress;
033: Leave procreants alone and shut the door;
034: Cough, or cry 'hem,' if any body come:
035: Your mystery, your mystery: nay, dispatch.
Exit EMILIA
DESDEMONA
036: Upon my knees, what doth your speech import?
037: I understand a fury in your words.
038: But not the words.
OTHELLO
039: Why, what art thou?
DESDEMONA
040: Your wife, my lord; your true
041: And loyal wife.
OTHELLO
042: Come, swear it, damn thyself
043: Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves
044: Should fear to seize thee: therefore be double damn'd:
045: Swear thou art honest.
DESDEMONA
046: Heaven doth truly know it.
OTHELLO
047: Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell.
DESDEMONA
048: To whom, my lord? with whom? how am I false?
OTHELLO
049: O Desdemona! away! away! away!
DESDEMONA
050: Alas the heavy day! Why do you weep?
051: Am I the motive of these tears, my lord?
052: If haply you my father do suspect
053: An instrument of this your calling back,