Othello, the Moor of Venice
Act III.
Scene i. Before the castle.
- Enter Cassio and some Musicians
- Cassio: Masters, play here; I will content your pains;
- Something that's brief; and bid 'Good morrow, general.'
- Music
- Enter Clown
- Clown: Why masters, have your instruments been in Naples,
- that they speak i' the nose thus?
- First Musician: How, sir, how!
- Clown: Are these, I pray you, wind-instruments?
- First Musician: Ay, marry, are they, sir.
- Clown: O, thereby hangs a tail.
- First Musician: Whereby hangs a tale, sir?
- Clown: Marry. sir, by many a wind-instrument that I know.
- But, masters, here's money for you: and the general
- so likes your music, that he desires you, for love's
- sake, to make no more noise with it.
- First Musician: Well, sir, we will not.
- Clown: If you have any music that may not be heard, to't
- again: but, as they say to hear music the general
- does not greatly care.
- First Musician: We have none such, sir.
- Clown: Then put up your pipes in your bag, for I'll away:
- go; vanish into air; away!
- Exeunt Musicians
- Cassio: Dost thou hear, my honest friend?
- Clown: No, I hear not your honest friend; I hear you.
- Cassio: Prithee, keep up thy quillets. There's a poor piece
- of gold for thee: if the gentlewoman that attends
- the general's wife be stirring, tell her there's
- one Cassio entreats her a little favour of speech:
- wilt thou do this?
- Clown: She is stirring, sir: if she will stir hither, I
- shall seem to notify unto her.
- Cassio: Do, good my friend.
- Exit Clown
- Enter Iago
- In happy time, Iago.
- Iago: You have not been a-bed, then?
- Cassio: Why, no; the day had broke
- Before we parted. I have made bold, Iago,
- To send in to your wife: my suit to her
- Is, that she will to virtuous Desdemona
- Procure me some access.
- Iago: I'll send her to you presently;
- And I'll devise a mean to draw the Moor
- Out of the way, that your converse and business
- May be more free.
- Cassio: I humbly thank you for't.
- Exit Iago
- I never knew
- A Florentine more kind and honest.
- Enter Emilia
- Emilia: Good morrow, good Lieutenant: I am sorry
- For your displeasure; but all will sure be well.
- The general and his wife are talking of it;
- And she speaks for you stoutly: the Moor replies,
- That he you hurt is of great fame in Cyprus,
- And great affinity, and that in wholesome wisdom
- He might not but refuse you; but he protests he loves you
- And needs no other suitor but his likings
- To take the safest occasion by the front
- To bring you in again.
- Cassio: Yet, I beseech you,
- If you think fit, or that it may be done,
- Give me advantage of some brief discourse
- With Desdemona alone.
- Emilia: Pray you, come in;
- I will bestow you where you shall have time
- To speak your bosom freely.
- Cassio: I am much bound to you.
- Exeunt
Scene ii. A room in the castle.
- Enter Othello, Iago, and Gentlemen
- Othello: These letters give, Iago, to the pilot;
- And by him do my duties to the senate:
- That done, I will be walking on the works;
- Repair there to me.
- Iago: Well, my good lord, I'll do't.
- Othello: This fortification, gentlemen, shall we see't?
- Gentleman: We'll wait upon your lordship.
- Exeunt
Scene iii. The garden of the castle.
- Enter Desdemona, Cassio, and Emilia
- Desdemona: Be thou assured, good Cassio, I will do
- All my abilities in thy behalf.
- Emilia: Good madam, do: I warrant it grieves my husband,
- As if the case were his.
- Desdemona: O, that's an honest fellow. Do not doubt, Cassio,
- But I will have my lord and you again
- As friendly as you were.
- Cassio: Bounteous madam,
- Whatever shall become of Michael Cassio,
- He's never any thing but your true servant.
- Desdemona: I know't; I thank you. You do love my lord:
- You have known him long; and be you well assured
- He shall in strangeness stand no further off
- Than in a polite distance.
- Cassio: Ay, but, lady,
- That policy may either last so long,
- Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet,
- Or breed itself so out of circumstance,
- That, I being absent and my place supplied,
- My general will forget my love and service.
- Desdemona: Do not doubt that; before Emilia here
- I give thee warrant of thy place: assure thee,
- If I do vow a friendship, I'll perform it
- To the last article: my lord shall never rest;
- I'll watch him tame and talk him out of patience;
- His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift;
- I'll intermingle every thing he does
- With Cassio's suit: therefore be merry, Cassio;
- For thy solicitor shall rather die
- Than give thy cause away.
- Emilia: Madam, here comes my lord.
- Cassio: Madam, I'll take my leave.
- Desdemona: Why, stay, and hear me speak.
- Cassio: Madam, not now: I am very ill at ease,
- Unfit for mine own purposes.
- Desdemona: Well, do your discretion.
- Exit Cassio
- Enter Othello and Iago
- Iago: Ha! I like not that.
- Othello: What dost thou say?
- Iago: Nothing, my lord: or if—I know not what.
- Othello: Was not that Cassio parted from my wife?
- Iago: Cassio, my lord! No, sure, I cannot think it,
- That he would steal away so guilty-like,
- Seeing you coming.
- Othello: I do believe 'twas he.
- Desdemona: How now, my lord!
- I have been talking with a suitor here,
- A man that languishes in your displeasure.
- Othello: Who is't you mean?
- Desdemona: Why, your lieutenant, Cassio. Good my lord,
- If I have any grace or power to move you,
- His present reconciliation take;
- For if he be not one that truly loves you,
- That errs in ignorance and not in cunning,
- I have no judgment in an honest face:
- I prithee, call him back.
- Othello: Went he hence now?
- Desdemona: Ay, sooth; so humbled
- That he hath left part of his grief with me,
- To suffer with him. Good love, call him back.
- Othello: Not now, sweet Desdemona; some other time.
- Desdemona: But shall't be shortly?
- Othello: The sooner, sweet, for you.
- Desdemona: Shall't be to-night at supper?
- Othello: No, not to-night.
- Desdemona: To-morrow dinner, then?
- Othello: I shall not dine at home;
- I meet the captains at the citadel.
- Desdemona: Why, then, to-morrow night; or Tuesday morn;
- On Tuesday noon, or night; on Wednesday morn:
- I prithee, name the time, but let it not
- Exceed three days: in faith, he's penitent;
- And yet his trespass, in our common reason—
- Save that, they say, the wars must make examples
- Out of their best—is not almost a fault
- To incur a private cheque. When shall he come?
- Tell me, Othello: I wonder in my soul,
- What you would ask me, that I should deny,
- Or stand so mammering on. What! Michael Cassio,
- That came a-wooing with you, and so many a time,
- When I have spoke of you dispraisingly,
- Hath ta'en your part; to have so much to do
- To bring him in! Trust me, I could do much,—
- Othello: Prithee, no more: let him come when he will;
- I will deny thee nothing.
- Desdemona: Why, this is not a boon;
- 'Tis as I should entreat you wear your gloves,
- Or feed on nourishing dishes, or keep you warm,
- Or sue to you to do a peculiar profit
- To your own person: nay, when I have a suit
- Wherein I mean to touch your love indeed,
- It shall be full of poise and difficult weight
- And fearful to be granted.
- Othello: I will deny thee nothing:
- Whereon, I do beseech thee, grant me this,
- To leave me but a little to myself.
- Desdemona: Shall I deny you? no: farewell, my lord.
- Othello: Farewell, my Desdemona: I'll come to thee straight.
- Desdemona: Emilia, come. Be as your fancies teach you;
- Whate'er you be, I am obedient.
- Exeunt Desdemona and Emilia
- Othello: Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul,
- But I do love thee! and when I love thee not,
- Chaos is come again.
- Iago: My noble lord—
- Othello: What dost thou say, Iago?
- Iago: Did Michael Cassio, when you woo'd my lady,
- Know of your love?
- Othello: He did, from first to last: why dost thou ask?
- Iago: But for a satisfaction of my thought;
- No further harm.
- Othello: Why of thy thought, Iago?
- Iago: I did not think he had been acquainted with her.
- Othello: O, yes; and went between us very oft.
- Iago: Indeed!
- Othello: Indeed! ay, indeed: discern'st thou aught in that?
- Is he not honest?
- Iago: Honest, my lord!
- Othello: Honest! ay, honest.
- Iago: My lord, for aught I know.
- Othello: What dost thou think?
- Iago: Think, my lord!
- Othello: Think, my lord!
- By heaven, he echoes me,
- As if there were some monster in his thought
- Too hideous to be shown. Thou dost mean something:
- I heard thee say even now, thou likedst not that,
- When Cassio left my wife: what didst not like?
- And when I told thee he was of my counsel
- In my whole course of wooing, thou criedst 'Indeed!'
- And didst contract and purse thy brow together,
- As if thou then hadst shut up in thy brain
- Some horrible conceit: if thou dost love me,
- Show me thy thought.
- Iago: My lord, you know I love you.
- Othello: I think thou dost;
- And, for I know thou'rt full of love and honesty,
- And weigh'st thy words before thou givest them breath,
- Therefore these stops of thine fright me the more:
- For such things in a false disloyal knave
- Are tricks of custom, but in a man that's just
- They are close delations, working from the heart
- That passion cannot rule.
- Iago: For Michael Cassio,
- I dare be sworn I think that he is honest.
- Othello: I think so too.
- Iago: Men should be what they seem;
- Or those that be not, would they might seem none!
- Othello: Certain, men should be what they seem.
- Iago: Why, then, I think Cassio's an honest man.
- Othello: Nay, yet there's more in this:
- I prithee, speak to me as to thy thinkings,
- As thou dost ruminate, and give thy worst of thoughts
- The worst of words.
- Iago: Good my lord, pardon me:
- Though I am bound to every act of duty,
- I am not bound to that all slaves are free to.
- Utter my thoughts? Why, say they are vile and false;
- As where's that palace whereinto foul things
- Sometimes intrude not? who has a breast so pure,
- But some uncleanly apprehensions
- Keep leets and law-days and in session sit
- With meditations lawful?
- Othello: Thou dost conspire against thy friend, Iago,
- If thou but think'st him wrong'd and makest his ear
- A stranger to thy thoughts.
- Iago: I do beseech you—
- Though I perchance am vicious in my guess,
- As, I confess, it is my nature's plague
- To spy into abuses, and oft my jealousy
- Shapes faults that are not—that your wisdom yet,
- From one that so imperfectly conceits,
- Would take no notice, nor build yourself a trouble
- Out of his scattering and unsure observance.
- It were not for your quiet nor your good,
- Nor for my manhood, honesty, or wisdom,
- To let you know my thoughts.
- Othello: What dost thou mean?
- Iago: Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
- Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
- Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
- 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands:
- But he that filches from me my good name
- Robs me of that which not enriches him
- And makes me poor indeed.
- Othello: By heaven, I'll know thy thoughts.
- Iago: You cannot, if my heart were in your hand;
- Nor shall not, whilst 'tis in my custody.
- Othello: Ha!
- Iago: O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
- It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
- The meat it feeds on; that cuckold lives in bliss
- Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;
- But, O, what damned minutes tells he o'er
- Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!
- Othello: O misery!
- Iago: Poor and content is rich and rich enough,
- But riches fineless is as poor as winter
- To him that ever fears he shall be poor.
- Good heaven, the souls of all my tribe defend
- From jealousy!
- Othello: Why, why is this?
- Think'st thou I'ld make a lie of jealousy,
- To follow still the changes of the moon
- With fresh suspicions? No; to be once in doubt
- Is once to be resolved: exchange me for a goat,
- When I shall turn the business of my soul
- To such exsufflicate and blown surmises,
- Matching thy inference. 'Tis not to make me jealous
- To say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company,
- Is free of speech, sings, plays and dances well;
- Where virtue is, these are more virtuous:
- Nor from mine own weak merits will I draw
- The smallest fear or doubt of her revolt;
- For she had eyes, and chose me. No, Iago;
- I'll see before I doubt; when I doubt, prove;
- And on the proof, there is no more but this,—
- Away at once with love or jealousy!
- Iago: I am glad of it; for now I shall have reason
- To show the love and duty that I bear you
- With franker spirit: therefore, as I am bound,
- Receive it from me. I speak not yet of proof.
- Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio;
- Wear your eye thus, not jealous nor secure:
- I would not have your free and noble nature,
- Out of self-bounty, be abused; look to't:
- I know our country disposition well;
- In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks
- They dare not show their husbands; their best conscience
- Is not to leave't undone, but keep't unknown.
- Othello: Dost thou say so?
- Iago: She did deceive her father, marrying you;
- And when she seem'd to shake and fear your looks,
- She loved them most.
- Othello: And so she did.
- Iago: Why, go to then;
- She that, so young, could give out such a seeming,
- To seal her father's eyes up close as oak-
- He thought 'twas witchcraft—but I am much to blame;
- I humbly do beseech you of your pardon
- For too much loving you.
- Othello: I am bound to thee for ever.
- Iago: I see this hath a little dash'd your spirits.
- Othello: Not a jot, not a jot.
- Iago: I' faith, I fear it has.
- I hope you will consider what is spoke
- Comes from my love. But I do see you're moved:
- I am to pray you not to strain my speech
- To grosser issues nor to larger reach
- Than to suspicion.
- Othello: I will not.
- Iago: Should you do so, my lord,
- My speech should fall into such vile success
- As my thoughts aim not at. Cassio's my worthy friend—
- My lord, I see you're moved.
- Othello: No, not much moved:
- I do not think but Desdemona's honest.
- Iago: Long live she so! and long live you to think so!
- Othello: And yet, how nature erring from itself,—
- Iago: Ay, there's the point: as—to be bold with you—
- Not to affect many proposed matches
- Of her own clime, complexion, and degree,
- Whereto we see in all things nature tends—
- Foh! one may smell in such a will most rank,
- Foul disproportion thoughts unnatural.
- But pardon me; I do not in position
- Distinctly speak of her; though I may fear
- Her will, recoiling to her better judgment,
- May fall to match you with her country forms
- And happily repent.
- Othello: Farewell, farewell:
- If more thou dost perceive, let me know more;
- Set on thy wife to observe: leave me, Iago:
- Iago: [Going] My lord, I take my leave.
- Othello: Why did I marry? This honest creature doubtless
- Sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds.
- Iago: [Returning] My lord, I would I might entreat
- your honour
- To scan this thing no further; leave it to time:
- Though it be fit that Cassio have his place,
- For sure, he fills it up with great ability,
- Yet, if you please to hold him off awhile,
- You shall by that perceive him and his means:
- Note, if your lady strain his entertainment
- With any strong or vehement importunity;
- Much will be seen in that. In the mean time,
- Let me be thought too busy in my fears—
- As worthy cause I have to fear I am—
- And hold her free, I do beseech your honour.
- Othello: Fear not my government.
- Iago: I once more take my leave.
- Exit
- Othello: This fellow's of exceeding honesty,
- And knows all qualities, with a learned spirit,
- Of human dealings. If I do prove her haggard,
- Though that her jesses were my dear heartstrings,
- I'ld whistle her off and let her down the wind,
- To pray at fortune. Haply, for I am black
- And have not those soft parts of conversation
- That chamberers have, or for I am declined
- Into the vale of years,—yet that's not much—
- She's gone. I am abused; and my relief
- Must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage,
- That we can call these delicate creatures ours,
- And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad,
- And live upon the vapour of a dungeon,
- Than keep a corner in the thing I love
- For others' uses. Yet, 'tis the plague of great ones;
- Prerogatived are they less than the base;
- 'Tis destiny unshunnable, like death:
- Even then this forked plague is fated to us
- When we do quicken. Desdemona comes:
- Re-enter Desdemona and Emilia
- If she be false, O, then heaven mocks itself!
- I'll not believe't.
- Desdemona: How now, my dear Othello!
- Your dinner, and the generous islanders
- By you invited, do attend your presence.
- Othello: I am to blame.
- Desdemona: Why do you speak so faintly?
- Are you not well?
- Othello: I have a pain upon my forehead here.
- Desdemona: 'Faith, that's with watching; 'twill away again:
- Let me but bind it hard, within this hour
- It will be well.
- Othello: Your napkin is too little:
- He puts the handkerchief from him; and it drops
- Let it alone. Come, I'll go in with you.
- Desdemona: I am very sorry that you are not well.
- Exeunt Othello and Desdemona
- Emilia: I am glad I have found this napkin:
- This was her first remembrance from the Moor:
- My wayward husband hath a hundred times
- Woo'd me to steal it; but she so loves the token,
- For he conjured her she should ever keep it,
- That she reserves it evermore about her
- To kiss and talk to. I'll have the work ta'en out,
- And give't Iago: what he will do with it
- Heaven knows, not I;
- I nothing but to please his fantasy.
- Re-enter Iago
- Iago: How now! what do you here alone?
- Emilia: Do not you chide; I have a thing for you.
- Iago: A thing for me? it is a common thing—
- Emilia: Ha!
- Iago: To have a foolish wife.
- Emilia: O, is that all? What will you give me now
- For the same handkerchief?
- Iago: What handkerchief?
- Emilia: What handkerchief?
- Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona;
- That which so often you did bid me steal.
- Iago: Hast stol'n it from her?
- Emilia: No, 'faith; she let it drop by negligence.
- And, to the advantage, I, being here, took't up.
- Look, here it is.
- Iago: A good wench; give it me.
- Emilia: What will you do with 't, that you have been
- so earnest
- To have me filch it?
- Iago: [Snatching it] Why, what's that to you?
- Emilia: If it be not for some purpose of import,
- Give't me again: poor lady, she'll run mad
- When she shall lack it.
- Iago: Be not acknown on 't; I have use for it.
- Go, leave me.
- Exit Emilia
- I will in Cassio's lodging lose this napkin,
- And let him find it. Trifles light as air
- Are to the jealous confirmations strong
- As proofs of holy writ: this may do something.
- The Moor already changes with my poison:
- Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons.
- Which at the first are scarce found to distaste,
- But with a little act upon the blood.
- Burn like the mines of Sulphur. I did say so:
- Look, where he comes!
- Re-enter Othello
- Not poppy, nor mandragora,
- Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
- Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
- Which thou owedst yesterday.
- Othello: Ha! ha! false to me?
- Iago: Why, how now, general! no more of that.
- Othello: Avaunt! be gone! thou hast set me on the rack:
- I swear 'tis better to be much abused
- Than but to know't a little.
- Iago: How now, my lord!
- Othello: What sense had I of her stol'n hours of lust?
- I saw't not, thought it not, it harm'd not me:
- I slept the next night well, was free and merry;
- I found not Cassio's kisses on her lips:
- He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stol'n,
- Let him not know't, and he's not robb'd at all.
- Iago: I am sorry to hear this.
- Othello: I had been happy, if the general camp,
- Pioners and all, had tasted her sweet body,
- So I had nothing known. O, now, for ever
- Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!
- Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars,
- That make ambition virtue! O, farewell!
- Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump,
- The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
- The royal banner, and all quality,
- Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war!
- And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats
- The immortal Jove's dead clamours counterfeit,
- Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone!
- Iago: Is't possible, my lord?
- Othello: Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore,
- Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof:
- Or by the worth of man's eternal soul,
- Thou hadst been better have been born a dog
- Than answer my waked wrath!
- Iago: Is't come to this?
- Othello: Make me to see't; or, at the least, so prove it,
- That the probation bear no hinge nor loop
- To hang a doubt on; or woe upon thy life!
- Iago: My noble lord,—
- Othello: If thou dost slander her and torture me,
- Never pray more; abandon all remorse;
- On horror's head horrors accumulate;
- Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed;
- For nothing canst thou to damnation add
- Greater than that.
- Iago: O grace! O heaven forgive me!
- Are you a man? have you a soul or sense?
- God be wi' you; take mine office. O wretched fool.
- That livest to make thine honesty a vice!
- O monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world,
- To be direct and honest is not safe.
- I thank you for this profit; and from hence
- I'll love no friend, sith love breeds such offence.
- Othello: Nay, stay: thou shouldst be honest.
- Iago: I should be wise, for honesty's a fool
- And loses that it works for.
- Othello: By the world,
- I think my wife be honest and think she is not;
- I think that thou art just and think thou art not.
- I'll have some proof. Her name, that was as fresh
- As Dian's visage, is now begrimed and black
- As mine own face. If there be cords, or knives,
- Poison, or fire, or suffocating streams,
- I'll not endure it. Would I were satisfied!
- Iago: I see, sir, you are eaten up with passion:
- I do repent me that I put it to you.
- You would be satisfied?
- Othello: Would! nay, I will.
- Iago: And may: but, how? how satisfied, my lord?
- Would you, the supervisor, grossly gape on—
- Behold her topp'd?
- Othello: Death and damnation! O!
- Iago: It were a tedious difficulty, I think,
- To bring them to that prospect: damn them then,
- If ever mortal eyes do see them bolster
- More than their own! What then? how then?
- What shall I say? Where's satisfaction?
- It is impossible you should see this,
- Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys,
- As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross
- As ignorance made drunk. But yet, I say,
- If imputation and strong circumstances,
- Which lead directly to the door of truth,
- Will give you satisfaction, you may have't.
- Othello: Give me a living reason she's disloyal.
- Iago: I do not like the office:
- But, sith I am enter'd in this cause so far,
- Prick'd to't by foolish honesty and love,
- I will go on. I lay with Cassio lately;
- And, being troubled with a raging tooth,
- I could not sleep.
- There are a kind of men so loose of soul,
- That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs:
- One of this kind is Cassio:
- In sleep I heard him say 'Sweet Desdemona,
- Let us be wary, let us hide our loves;'
- And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my hand,
- Cry 'O sweet creature!' and then kiss me hard,
- As if he pluck'd up kisses by the roots
- That grew upon my lips: then laid his leg
- Over my thigh, and sigh'd, and kiss'd; and then
- Cried 'Cursed fate that gave thee to the Moor!'
- Othello: O monstrous! monstrous!
- Iago: Nay, this was but his dream.
- Othello: But this denoted a foregone conclusion:
- 'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream.
- Iago: And this may help to thicken other proofs
- That do demonstrate thinly.
- Othello: I'll tear her all to pieces.
- Iago: Nay, but be wise: yet we see nothing done;
- She may be honest yet. Tell me but this,
- Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief
- Spotted with strawberries in your wife's hand?
- Othello: I gave her such a one; 'twas my first gift.
- Iago: I know not that; but such a handkerchief—
- I am sure it was your wife's—did I to-day
- See Cassio wipe his beard with.
- Othello: If it be that—
- Iago: If it be that, or any that was hers,
- It speaks against her with the other proofs.
- Othello: O, that the slave had forty thousand lives!
- One is too poor, too weak for my revenge.
- Now do I see 'tis true. Look here, Iago;
- All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven.
- 'Tis gone.
- Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!
- Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne
- To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught,
- For 'tis of aspics' tongues!
- Iago: Yet be content.
- Othello: O, blood, blood, blood!
- Iago: Patience, I say; your mind perhaps may change.
- Othello: Never, Iago: Like to the Pontic sea,
- Whose icy current and compulsive course
- Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
- To the Propontic and the Hellespont,
- Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,
- Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love,
- Till that a capable and wide revenge
- Swallow them up. Now, by yond marble heaven,
- Kneels
- In the due reverence of a sacred vow
- I here engage my words.
- Iago: Do not rise yet.
- Kneels
- Witness, you ever-burning lights above,
- You elements that clip us round about,
- Witness that here Iago doth give up
- The execution of his wit, hands, heart,
- To wrong'd Othello's service! Let him command,
- And to obey shall be in me remorse,
- What bloody business ever.
- They rise
- Othello: I greet thy love,
- Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous,
- And will upon the instant put thee to't:
- Within these three days let me hear thee say
- That Cassio's not alive.
- Iago: My friend is dead; 'tis done at your request:
- But let her live.
- Othello: Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her!
- Come, go with me apart; I will withdraw,
- To furnish me with some swift means of death
- For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant.
- Iago: I am your own for ever.
- Exeunt
Scene iv. Before the castle.
- Enter Desdemona, Emilia, and Clown
- Desdemona: Do you know, sirrah, where Lieutenant Cassio lies?
- Clown: I dare not say he lies any where.
- Desdemona: Why, man?
- Clown: He's a soldier, and for one to say a soldier lies,
- is stabbing.
- Desdemona: Go to: where lodges he?
- Clown: To tell you where he lodges, is to tell you where I lie.
- Desdemona: Can any thing be made of this?
- Clown: I know not where he lodges, and for me to devise a
- lodging and say he lies here or he lies there, were
- to lie in mine own throat.
- Desdemona: Can you inquire him out, and be edified by report?
- Clown: I will catechise the world for him; that is, make
- questions, and by them answer.
- Desdemona: Seek him, bid him come hither: tell him I have
- moved my lord on his behalf, and hope all will be well.
- Clown: To do this is within the compass of man's wit: and
- therefore I will attempt the doing it.
- Exit
- Desdemona: Where should I lose that handkerchief, Emilia?
- Emilia: I know not, madam.
- Desdemona: Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse
- Full of crusadoes: and, but my noble Moor
- Is true of mind and made of no such baseness
- As jealous creatures are, it were enough
- To put him to ill thinking.
- Emilia: Is he not jealous?
- Desdemona: Who, he? I think the sun where he was born
- Drew all such humours from him.
- Emilia: Look, where he comes.
- Desdemona: I will not leave him now till Cassio
- Be call'd to him.
- Enter Othello
- How is't with you, my lord
- Othello: Well, my good lady.
- Aside
- O, hardness to dissemble!—
- How do you, Desdemona?
- Desdemona: Well, my good lord.
- Othello: Give me your hand: this hand is moist, my lady.
- Desdemona: It yet hath felt no age nor known no sorrow.
- Othello: This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart:
- Hot, hot, and moist: this hand of yours requires
- A sequester from liberty, fasting and prayer,
- Much castigation, exercise devout;
- For here's a young and sweating devil here,
- That commonly rebels. 'Tis a good hand,
- A frank one.
- Desdemona: You may, indeed, say so;
- For 'twas that hand that gave away my heart.
- Othello: A liberal hand: the hearts of old gave hands;
- But our new heraldry is hands, not hearts.
- Desdemona: I cannot speak of this. Come now, your promise.
- Othello: What promise, chuck?
- Desdemona: I have sent to bid Cassio come speak with you.
- Othello: I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me;
- Lend me thy handkerchief.
- Desdemona: Here, my lord.
- Othello: That which I gave you.
- Desdemona: I have it not about me.
- Othello: Not?
- Desdemona: No, indeed, my lord.
- Othello: That is a fault.
- That handkerchief
- Did an Egyptian to my mother give;
- She was a charmer, and could almost read
- The thoughts of people: she told her, while
- she kept it,
- 'Twould make her amiable and subdue my father
- Entirely to her love, but if she lost it
- Or made gift of it, my father's eye
- Should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt
- After new fancies: she, dying, gave it me;
- And bid me, when my fate would have me wive,
- To give it her. I did so: and take heed on't;
- Make it a darling like your precious eye;
- To lose't or give't away were such perdition
- As nothing else could match.
- Desdemona: Is't possible?
- Othello: 'Tis true: there's magic in the web of it:
- A sibyl, that had number'd in the world
- The sun to course two hundred compasses,
- In her prophetic fury sew'd the work;
- The worms were hallow'd that did breed the silk;
- And it was dyed in mummy which the skilful
- Conserved of maidens' hearts.
- Desdemona: Indeed! is't true?
- Othello: Most veritable; therefore look to't well.
- Desdemona: Then would to God that I had never seen't!
- Othello: Ha! wherefore?
- Desdemona: Why do you speak so startingly and rash?
- Othello: Is't lost? is't gone? speak, is it out
- o' the way?
- Desdemona: Heaven bless us!
- Othello: Say you?
- Desdemona: It is not lost; but what an if it were?
- Othello: How!
- Desdemona: I say, it is not lost.
- Othello: Fetch't, let me see't.
- Desdemona: Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now.
- This is a trick to put me from my suit:
- Pray you, let Cassio be received again.
- Othello: Fetch me the handkerchief: my mind misgives.
- Desdemona: Come, come;
- You'll never meet a more sufficient man.
- Othello: The handkerchief!
- Desdemona: I pray, talk me of Cassio.
- Othello: The handkerchief!
- Desdemona: A man that all his time
- Hath founded his good fortunes on your love,
- Shared dangers with you,—
- Othello: The handkerchief!
- Desdemona: In sooth, you are to blame.
- Othello: Away!
- Exit
- Emilia: Is not this man jealous?
- Desdemona: I ne'er saw this before.
- Sure, there's some wonder in this handkerchief:
- I am most unhappy in the loss of it.
- Emilia: 'Tis not a year or two shows us a man:
- They are all but stomachs, and we all but food;
- To eat us hungerly, and when they are full,
- They belch us. Look you, Cassio and my husband!
- Enter Cassio and Iago
- Iago: There is no other way; 'tis she must do't:
- And, lo, the happiness! go, and importune her.
- Desdemona: How now, good Cassio! what's the news with you?
- Cassio: Madam, my former suit: I do beseech you
- That by your virtuous means I may again
- Exist, and be a member of his love
- Whom I with all the office of my heart
- Entirely honour: I would not be delay'd.
- If my offence be of such mortal kind
- That nor my service past, nor present sorrows,
- Nor purposed merit in futurity,
- Can ransom me into his love again,
- But to know so must be my benefit;
- So shall I clothe me in a forced content,
- And shut myself up in some other course,
- To fortune's alms.
- Desdemona: Alas, thrice-gentle Cassio!
- My advocation is not now in tune;
- My lord is not my lord; nor should I know him,
- Were he in favour as in humour alter'd.
- So help me every spirit sanctified,
- As I have spoken for you all my best
- And stood within the blank of his displeasure
- For my free speech! you must awhile be patient:
- What I can do I will; and more I will
- Than for myself I dare: let that suffice you.
- Iago: Is my lord angry?
- Emilia: He went hence but now,
- And certainly in strange unquietness.
- Iago: Can he be angry? I have seen the cannon,
- When it hath blown his ranks into the air,
- And, like the devil, from his very arm
- Puff'd his own brother:—and can he be angry?
- Something of moment then: I will go meet him:
- There's matter in't indeed, if he be angry.
- Desdemona: I prithee, do so.
- Exit Iago
- Something, sure, of state,
- Either from Venice, or some unhatch'd practise
- Made demonstrable here in Cyprus to him,
- Hath puddled his clear spirit: and in such cases
- Men's natures wrangle with inferior things,
- Though great ones are their object. 'Tis even so;
- For let our finger ache, and it indues
- Our other healthful members even to that sense
- Of pain: nay, we must think men are not gods,
- Nor of them look for such observances
- As fit the bridal. Beshrew me much, Emilia,
- I was, unhandsome warrior as I am,
- Arraigning his unkindness with my soul;
- But now I find I had suborn'd the witness,
- And he's indicted falsely.
- Emilia: Pray heaven it be state-matters, as you think,
- And no conception nor no jealous toy
- Concerning you.
- Desdemona: Alas the day! I never gave him cause.
- Emilia: But jealous souls will not be answer'd so;
- They are not ever jealous for the cause,
- But jealous for they are jealous: 'tis a monster
- Begot upon itself, born on itself.
- Desdemona: Heaven keep that monster from Othello's mind!
- Emilia: Lady, amen.
- Desdemona: I will go seek him. Cassio, walk hereabout:
- If I do find him fit, I'll move your suit
- And seek to effect it to my uttermost.
- Cassio: I humbly thank your ladyship.
- Exeunt Desdemona and Emilia
- Enter Bianca
- Bianca: Save you, friend Cassio!
- Cassio: What make you from home?
- How is it with you, my most fair Bianca?
- I' faith, sweet love, I was coming to your house.
- Bianca: And I was going to your lodging, Cassio.
- What, keep a week away? seven days and nights?
- Eight score eight hours? and lovers' absent hours,
- More tedious than the dial eight score times?
- O weary reckoning!
- Cassio: Pardon me, Bianca:
- I have this while with leaden thoughts been press'd:
- But I shall, in a more continuate time,
- Strike off this score of absence. Sweet Bianca,
- Giving her Desdemona's handkerchief
- Take me this work out.
- Bianca: O Cassio, whence came this?
- This is some token from a newer friend:
- To the felt absence now I feel a cause:
- Is't come to this? Well, well.
- Cassio: Go to, woman!
- Throw your vile guesses in the devil's teeth,
- From whence you have them. You are jealous now
- That this is from some mistress, some remembrance:
- No, in good troth, Bianca.
- Bianca: Why, whose is it?
- Cassio: I know not, sweet: I found it in my chamber.
- I like the work well: ere it be demanded—
- As like enough it will—I'ld have it copied:
- Take it, and do't; and leave me for this time.
- Bianca: Leave you! wherefore?
- Cassio: I do attend here on the general;
- And think it no addition, nor my wish,
- To have him see me woman'd.
- Bianca: Why, I pray you?
- Cassio: Not that I love you not.
- Bianca: But that you do not love me.
- I pray you, bring me on the way a little,
- And say if I shall see you soon at night.
- Cassio: 'Tis but a little way that I can bring you;
- For I attend here: but I'll see you soon.
- Bianca: 'Tis very good; I must be circumstanced.
- Exeunt
- --oOo-- -