Othello, the Moor of Venice
Act IV.
Scene i. Cyprus. Before the castle.
- Enter Othello and Iago
- Iago: Will you think so?
- Othello: Think so, Iago!
- Iago: What,
- To kiss in private?
- Othello: An unauthorized kiss.
- Iago: Or to be naked with her friend in bed
- An hour or more, not meaning any harm?
- Othello: Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm!
- It is hypocrisy against the devil:
- They that mean virtuously, and yet do so,
- The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.
- Iago: So they do nothing, 'tis a venial slip:
- But if I give my wife a handkerchief,—
- Othello: What then?
- Iago: Why, then, 'tis hers, my lord; and, being hers,
- She may, I think, bestow't on any man.
- Othello: She is protectress of her honour too:
- May she give that?
- Iago: Her honour is an essence that's not seen;
- They have it very oft that have it not:
- But, for the handkerchief,—
- Othello: By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it.
- Thou said'st, it comes o'er my memory,
- As doth the raven o'er the infected house,
- Boding to all—he had my handkerchief.
- Iago: Ay, what of that?
- Othello: That's not so good now.
- Iago: What,
- If I had said I had seen him do you wrong?
- Or heard him say,—as knaves be such abroad,
- Who having, by their own importunate suit,
- Or voluntary dotage of some mistress,
- Convinced or supplied them, cannot choose
- But they must blab—
- Othello: Hath he said any thing?
- Iago: He hath, my lord; but be you well assured,
- No more than he'll unswear.
- Othello: What hath he said?
- Iago: 'Faith, that he did—I know not what he did.
- Othello: What? what?
- Iago: Lie—
- Othello: With her?
- Iago: With her, on her; what you will.
- Othello: Lie with her! lie on her! We say lie on her, when
- they belie her. Lie with her! that's fulsome.
- —Handkerchief—confessions—handkerchief!—To
- confess, and be hanged for his labour;—first, to be
- hanged, and then to confess.—I tremble at it.
- Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing
- passion without some instruction. It is not words
- that shake me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips.
- —Is't possible?—Confess—handkerchief!—O devil!—
- Falls in a trance
- Iago: Work on,
- My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught;
- And many worthy and chaste dames even thus,
- All guiltless, meet reproach. What, ho! my lord!
- My lord, I say! Othello!
- Enter Cassio
- How now, Cassio!
- Cassio: What's the matter?
- Iago: My lord is fall'n into an epilepsy:
- This is his second fit; he had one yesterday.
- Cassio: Rub him about the temples.
- Iago: No, forbear;
- The lethargy must have his quiet course:
- If not, he foams at mouth and by and by
- Breaks out to savage madness. Look he stirs:
- Do you withdraw yourself a little while,
- He will recover straight: when he is gone,
- I would on great occasion speak with you.
- Exit Cassio
- How is it, general? have you not hurt your head?
- Othello: Dost thou mock me?
- Iago: I mock you! no, by heaven.
- Would you would bear your fortune like a man!
- Othello: A horned man's a monster and a beast.
- Iago: There's many a beast then in a populous city,
- And many a civil monster.
- Othello: Did he confess it?
- Iago: Good sir, be a man;
- Think every bearded fellow that's but yoked
- May draw with you: there's millions now alive
- That nightly lie in those unproper beds
- Which they dare swear peculiar: your case is better.
- O, 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock,
- To lip a wanton in a secure couch,
- And to suppose her chaste! No, let me know;
- And knowing what I am, I know what she shall be.
- Othello: O, thou art wise; 'tis certain.
- Iago: Stand you awhile apart;
- Confine yourself but in a patient list.
- Whilst you were here o'erwhelmed with your grief—
- A passion most unsuiting such a man—
- Cassio came hither: I shifted him away,
- And laid good 'scuse upon your ecstasy,
- Bade him anon return and here speak with me;
- The which he promised. Do but encave yourself,
- And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns,
- That dwell in every region of his face;
- For I will make him tell the tale anew,
- Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when
- He hath, and is again to cope your wife:
- I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience;
- Or I shall say you are all in all in spleen,
- And nothing of a man.
- Othello: Dost thou hear, Iago?
- I will be found most cunning in my patience;
- But—dost thou hear?—most bloody.
- Iago: That's not amiss;
- But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw?
- Othello retires
- Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,
- A housewife that by selling her desires
- Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature
- That dotes on Cassio; as 'tis the strumpet's plague
- To beguile many and be beguiled by one:
- He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain
- From the excess of laughter. Here he comes:
- Re-enter Cassio
- As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;
- And his unbookish jealousy must construe
- Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures and light behavior,
- Quite in the wrong. How do you now, lieutenant?
- Cassio: The worser that you give me the addition
- Whose want even kills me.
- Iago: Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on't.
- Speaking lower
- Now, if this suit lay in Bianco's power,
- How quickly should you speed!
- Cassio: Alas, poor caitiff!
- Othello: Look, how he laughs already!
- Iago: I never knew woman love man so.
- Cassio: Alas, poor rogue! I think, i' faith, she loves me.
- Othello: Now he denies it faintly, and laughs it out.
- Iago: Do you hear, Cassio?
- Othello: Now he importunes him
- To tell it o'er: go to; well said, well said.
- Iago: She gives it out that you shall marry hey:
- Do you intend it?
- Cassio: Ha, ha, ha!
- Othello: Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?
- Cassio: I marry her! what? a customer! Prithee, bear some
- charity to my wit: do not think it so unwholesome.
- Ha, ha, ha!
- Othello: So, so, so, so: they laugh that win.
- Iago: 'Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her.
- Cassio: Prithee, say true.
- Iago: I am a very villain else.
- Othello: Have you scored me? Well.
- Cassio: This is the monkey's own giving out: she is
- persuaded I will marry her, out of her own love and
- flattery, not out of my promise.
- Othello: Iago beckons me; now he begins the story.
- Cassio: She was here even now; she haunts me in every place.
- I was the other day talking on the sea-bank with
- certain Venetians; and thither comes the bauble,
- and, by this hand, she falls me thus about my neck—
- Othello: Crying 'O dear Cassio!' as it were: his gesture
- imports it.
- Cassio: So hangs, and lolls, and weeps upon me; so hales,
- and pulls me: ha, ha, ha!
- Othello: Now he tells how she plucked him to my chamber. O,
- I see that nose of yours, but not that dog I shall
- throw it to.
- Cassio: Well, I must leave her company.
- Iago: Before me! look, where she comes.
- Cassio: 'Tis such another fitchew! marry a perfumed one.
- Enter Bianca
- What do you mean by this haunting of me?
- Bianca: Let the devil and his dam haunt you! What did you
- mean by that same handkerchief you gave me even now?
- I was a fine fool to take it. I must take out the
- work?—A likely piece of work, that you should find
- it in your chamber, and not know who left it there!
- This is some minx's token, and I must take out the
- work? There; give it your hobby-horse: wheresoever
- you had it, I'll take out no work on't.
- Cassio: How now, my sweet Bianca! how now! how now!
- Othello: By heaven, that should be my handkerchief!
- Bianca: An you'll come to supper to-night, you may; an you
- will not, come when you are next prepared for.
- Exit
- Iago: After her, after her.
- Cassio: 'Faith, I must; she'll rail in the street else.
- Iago: Will you sup there?
- Cassio: 'Faith, I intend so.
- Iago: Well, I may chance to see you; for I would very fain
- speak with you.
- Cassio: Prithee, come; will you?
- Iago: Go to; say no more.
- Exit Cassio
- Othello: [Advancing] How shall I murder him, Iago?
- Iago: Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice?
- Othello: O Iago!
- Iago: And did you see the handkerchief?
- Othello: Was that mine?
- Iago: Yours by this hand: and to see how he prizes the
- foolish woman your wife! she gave it him, and he
- hath given it his whore.
- Othello: I would have him nine years a-killing.
- A fine woman! a fair woman! a sweet woman!
- Iago: Nay, you must forget that.
- Othello: Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be damned to-night;
- for she shall not live: no, my heart is turned to
- stone; I strike it, and it hurts my hand. O, the
- world hath not a sweeter creature: she might lie by
- an emperor's side and command him tasks.
- Iago: Nay, that's not your way.
- Othello: Hang her! I do but say what she is: so delicate
- with her needle: an admirable musician: O! she
- will sing the savageness out of a bear: of so high
- and plenteous wit and invention:—
- Iago: She's the worse for all this.
- Othello: O, a thousand thousand times: and then, of so
- gentle a condition!
- Iago: Ay, too gentle.
- Othello: Nay, that's certain: but yet the pity of it, Iago!
- O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!
- Iago: If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her
- patent to offend; for, if it touch not you, it comes
- near nobody.
- Othello: I will chop her into messes: cuckold me!
- Iago: O, 'tis foul in her.
- Othello: With mine officer!
- Iago: That's fouler.
- Othello: Get me some poison, Iago; this night: I'll not
- expostulate with her, lest her body and beauty
- unprovide my mind again: this night, Iago.
- Iago: Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed, even
- the bed she hath contaminated.
- Othello: Good, good: the justice of it pleases: very good.
- Iago: And for Cassio, let me be his undertaker: you
- shall hear more by midnight.
- Othello: Excellent good.
- A trumpet within
- What trumpet is that same?
- Iago: Something from Venice, sure. 'Tis Lodovico
- Come from the duke: and, see, your wife is with him.
- Enter Lodovico, Desdemona, and Attendants
- Lodovico: Save you, worthy general!
- Othello: With all my heart, sir.
- Lodovico: The duke and senators of Venice greet you.
- Gives him a letter
- Othello: I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.
- Opens the letter, and reads
- Desdemona: And what's the news, good cousin Lodovico?
- Iago: I am very glad to see you, signior
- Welcome to Cyprus.
- Lodovico: I thank you. How does Lieutenant Cassio?
- Iago: Lives, sir.
- Desdemona: Cousin, there's fall'n between him and my lord
- An unkind breach: but you shall make all well.
- Othello: Are you sure of that?
- Desdemona: My lord?
- Othello: [Reads] 'This fail you not to do, as you will—'
- Lodovico: He did not call; he's busy in the paper.
- Is there division 'twixt my lord and Cassio?
- Desdemona: A most unhappy one: I would do much
- To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio.
- Othello: Fire and brimstone!
- Desdemona: My lord?
- Othello: Are you wise?
- Desdemona: What, is he angry?
- Lodovico: May be the letter moved him;
- For, as I think, they do command him home,
- Deputing Cassio in his government.
- Desdemona: Trust me, I am glad on't.
- Othello: Indeed!
- Desdemona: My lord?
- Othello: I am glad to see you mad.
- Desdemona: Why, sweet Othello,—
- Othello: [Striking her] Devil!
- Desdemona: I have not deserved this.
- Lodovico: My lord, this would not be believed in Venice,
- Though I should swear I saw't: 'tis very much:
- Make her amends; she weeps.
- Othello: O devil, devil!
- If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,
- Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.
- Out of my sight!
- Desdemona: I will not stay to offend you.
- Going
- Lodovico: Truly, an obedient lady:
- I do beseech your lordship, call her back.
- Othello: Mistress!
- Desdemona: My lord?
- Othello: What would you with her, sir?
- Lodovico: Who, I, my lord?
- Othello: Ay; you did wish that I would make her turn:
- Sir, she can turn, and turn, and yet go on,
- And turn again; and she can weep, sir, weep;
- And she's obedient, as you say, obedient,
- Very obedient. Proceed you in your tears.
- Concerning this, sir,—O well-painted passion!—
- I am commanded home. Get you away;
- I'll send for you anon. Sir, I obey the mandate,
- And will return to Venice. Hence, avaunt!
- Exit Desdemona
- Cassio shall have my place. And, sir, tonight,
- I do entreat that we may sup together:
- You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.—Goats and monkeys!
- Exit
- Lodovico: Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate
- Call all in all sufficient? Is this the nature
- Whom passion could not shake? whose solid virtue
- The shot of accident, nor dart of chance,
- Could neither graze nor pierce?
- Iago: He is much changed.
- Lodovico: Are his wits safe? is he not light of brain?
- Iago: He's that he is: I may not breathe my censure
- What he might be: if what he might he is not,
- I would to heaven he were!
- Lodovico: What, strike his wife!
- Iago: 'Faith, that was not so well; yet would I knew
- That stroke would prove the worst!
- Lodovico: Is it his use?
- Or did the letters work upon his blood,
- And new-create this fault?
- Iago: Alas, alas!
- It is not honesty in me to speak
- What I have seen and known. You shall observe him,
- And his own courses will denote him so
- That I may save my speech: do but go after,
- And mark how he continues.
- Lodovico: I am sorry that I am deceived in him.
- Exeunt
Scene ii. A room in the castle.
- Enter Othello and Emilia
- Othello: You have seen nothing then?
- Emilia: Nor ever heard, nor ever did suspect.
- Othello: Yes, you have seen Cassio and she together.
- Emilia: But then I saw no harm, and then I heard
- Each syllable that breath made up between them.
- Othello: What, did they never whisper?
- Emilia: Never, my lord.
- Othello: Nor send you out o' the way?
- Emilia: Never.
- Othello: To fetch her fan, her gloves, her mask, nor nothing?
- Emilia: Never, my lord.
- Othello: That's strange.
- Emilia: I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest,
- Lay down my soul at stake: if you think other,
- Remove your thought; it doth abuse your bosom.
- If any wretch have put this in your head,
- Let heaven requite it with the serpent's curse!
- For, if she be not honest, chaste, and true,
- There's no man happy; the purest of their wives
- Is foul as slander.
- Othello: Bid her come hither: go.
- Exit Emilia
- She says enough; yet she's a simple bawd
- That cannot say as much. This is a subtle whore,
- A closet lock and key of villanous secrets
- And yet she'll kneel and pray; I have seen her do't.
- Enter Desdemona with Emilia
- Desdemona: My lord, what is your will?
- Othello: Pray, chuck, come hither.
- Desdemona: What is your pleasure?
- Othello: Let me see your eyes;
- Look in my face.
- Desdemona: What horrible fancy's this?
- Othello: [To Emilia] Some of your function, mistress;
- Leave procreants alone and shut the door;
- Cough, or cry 'hem,' if any body come:
- Your mystery, your mystery: nay, dispatch.
- Exit Emilia
- Desdemona: Upon my knees, what doth your speech import?
- I understand a fury in your words.
- But not the words.
- Othello: Why, what art thou?
- Desdemona: Your wife, my lord; your true
- And loyal wife.
- Othello: Come, swear it, damn thyself
- Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves
- Should fear to seize thee: therefore be double damn'd:
- Swear thou art honest.
- Desdemona: Heaven doth truly know it.
- Othello: Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell.
- Desdemona: To whom, my lord? with whom? how am I false?
- Othello: O Desdemona! away! away! away!
- Desdemona: Alas the heavy day! Why do you weep?
- Am I the motive of these tears, my lord?
- If haply you my father do suspect
- An instrument of this your calling back,
- Lay not your blame on me: If you have lost him,
- Why, I have lost him too.
- Othello: Had it pleased heaven
- To try me with affliction; had they rain'd
- All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head.
- Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips,
- Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes,
- I should have found in some place of my soul
- A drop of patience: but, alas, to make me
- A fixed figure for the time of scorn
- To point his slow unmoving finger at!
- Yet could I bear that too; well, very well:
- But there, where I have garner'd up my heart,
- Where either I must live, or bear no life;
- The fountain from the which my current runs,
- Or else dries up; to be discarded thence!
- Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads
- To knot and gender in! Turn thy complexion there,
- Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubin,—
- Ay, there, look grim as hell!
- Desdemona: I hope my noble lord esteems me honest.
- Othello: O, ay; as summer flies are in the shambles,
- That quicken even with blowing. O thou weed,
- Who art so lovely fair and smell'st so sweet
- That the sense aches at thee, would thou hadst
- ne'er been born!
- Desdemona: Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed?
- Othello: Was this fair paper, this most goodly book,
- Made to write 'whore' upon? What committed!
- Committed! O thou public commoner!
- I should make very forges of my cheeks,
- That would to cinders burn up modesty,
- Did I but speak thy deeds. What committed!
- Heaven stops the nose at it and the moon winks,
- The bawdy wind that kisses all it meets
- Is hush'd within the hollow mine of earth,
- And will not hear it. What committed!
- Impudent strumpet!
- Desdemona: By heaven, you do me wrong.
- Othello: Are you not a strumpet?
- Desdemona: No, as I am a Christian:
- If to preserve this vessel for my lord
- From any other foul unlawful touch
- Be not to be a strumpet, I am none.
- Othello: What, not a whore?
- Desdemona: No, as I shall be saved.
- Othello: Is't possible?
- Desdemona: O, heaven forgive us!
- Othello: I cry you mercy, then:
- I took you for that cunning whore of Venice
- That married with Othello.
- Raising his voice
- You, mistress,
- That have the office opposite to Saint Peter,
- And keep the gate of hell!
- Re-enter Emilia
- You, you, ay, you!
- We have done our course; there's money for your pains:
- I pray you, turn the key and keep our counsel.
- Exit
- Emilia: Alas, what does this gentleman conceive?
- How do you, madam? how do you, my good lady?
- Desdemona: 'Faith, half asleep.
- Emilia: Good madam, what's the matter with my lord?
- Desdemona: With who?
- Emilia: Why, with my lord, madam.
- Desdemona: Who is thy lord?
- Emilia: He that is yours, sweet lady.
- Desdemona: I have none: do not talk to me, Emilia;
- I cannot weep; nor answer have I none,
- But what should go by water. Prithee, tonight
- Lay on my bed my wedding sheets: remember;
- And call thy husband hither.
- Emilia: Here's a change indeed!
- Exit
- Desdemona: 'Tis meet I should be used so, very meet.
- How have I been behaved, that he might stick
- The small'st opinion on my least misuse?
- Re-enter Emilia with Iago
- Iago: What is your pleasure, madam?
- How is't with you?
- Desdemona: I cannot tell. Those that do teach young babes
- Do it with gentle means and easy tasks:
- He might have chid me so; for, in good faith,
- I am a child to chiding.
- Iago: What's the matter, lady?
- Emilia: Alas, Iago, my lord hath so bewhored her.
- Thrown such despite and heavy terms upon her,
- As true hearts cannot bear.
- Desdemona: Am I that name, Iago?
- Iago: What name, fair lady?
- Desdemona: Such as she says my lord did say I was.
- Emilia: He call'd her whore: a beggar in his drink
- Could not have laid such terms upon his callat.
- Iago: Why did he so?
- Desdemona: I do not know; I am sure I am none such.
- Iago: Do not weep, do not weep. Alas the day!
- Emilia: Hath she forsook so many noble matches,
- Her father and her country and her friends,
- To be call'd whore? would it not make one weep?
- Desdemona: It is my wretched fortune.
- Iago: Beshrew him for't!
- How comes this trick upon him?
- Desdemona: Nay, heaven doth know.
- Emilia: I will be hang'd, if some eternal villain,
- Some busy and insinuating rogue,
- Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office,
- Have not devised this slander; I'll be hang'd else.
- Iago: Fie, there is no such man; it is impossible.
- Desdemona: If any such there be, heaven pardon him!
- Emilia: A halter pardon him! and hell gnaw his bones!
- Why should he call her whore? who keeps her company?
- What place? what time? what form? what likelihood?
- The Moor's abused by some most villanous knave,
- Some base notorious knave, some scurvy fellow.
- O heaven, that such companions thou'ldst unfold,
- And put in every honest hand a whip
- To lash the rascals naked through the world
- Even from the east to the west!
- Iago: Speak within door.
- Emilia: O, fie upon them! Some such squire he was
- That turn'd your wit the seamy side without,
- And made you to suspect me with the Moor.
- Iago: You are a fool; go to.
- Desdemona: O good Iago,
- What shall I do to win my lord again?
- Good friend, go to him; for, by this light of heaven,
- I know not how I lost him. Here I kneel:
- If e'er my will did trespass 'gainst his love,
- Either in discourse of thought or actual deed,
- Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any sense,
- Delighted them in any other form;
- Or that I do not yet, and ever did.
- And ever will—though he do shake me off
- To beggarly divorcement—love him dearly,
- Comfort forswear me! Unkindness may do much;
- And his unkindness may defeat my life,
- But never taint my love. I cannot say 'whore:'
- It does abhor me now I speak the word;
- To do the act that might the addition earn
- Not the world's mass of vanity could make me.
- Iago: I pray you, be content; 'tis but his humour:
- The business of the state does him offence,
- And he does chide with you.
- Desdemona: If 'twere no other—
- Iago: 'Tis but so, I warrant.
- Trumpets within
- Hark, how these instruments summon to supper!
- The messengers of Venice stay the meat;
- Go in, and weep not; all things shall be well.
- Exeunt Desdemona and Emilia
- Enter Roderigo
- How now, Roderigo!
- Roderigo: I do not find that thou dealest justly with me.
- Iago: What in the contrary?
- Roderigo: Every day thou daffest me with some device, Iago;
- and rather, as it seems to me now, keepest from me
- all conveniency than suppliest me with the least
- advantage of hope. I will indeed no longer endure
- it, nor am I yet persuaded to put up in peace what
- already I have foolishly suffered.
- Iago: Will you hear me, Roderigo?
- Roderigo: 'Faith, I have heard too much, for your words and
- performances are no kin together.
- Iago: You charge me most unjustly.
- Roderigo: With nought but truth. I have wasted myself out of
- my means. The jewels you have had from me to
- deliver to Desdemona would half have corrupted a
- votarist: you have told me she hath received them
- and returned me expectations and comforts of sudden
- respect and acquaintance, but I find none.
- Iago: Well; go to; very well.
- Roderigo: Very well! go to! I cannot go to, man; nor 'tis
- not very well: nay, I think it is scurvy, and begin
- to find myself fobbed in it.
- Iago: Very well.
- Roderigo: I tell you 'tis not very well. I will make myself
- known to Desdemona: if she will return me my
- jewels, I will give over my suit and repent my
- unlawful solicitation; if not, assure yourself I
- will seek satisfaction of you.
- Iago: You have said now.
- Roderigo: Ay, and said nothing but what I protest intendment of doing.
- Iago: Why, now I see there's mettle in thee, and even from
- this instant to build on thee a better opinion than
- ever before. Give me thy hand, Roderigo: thou hast
- taken against me a most just exception; but yet, I
- protest, I have dealt most directly in thy affair.
- Roderigo: It hath not appeared.
- Iago: I grant indeed it hath not appeared, and your
- suspicion is not without wit and judgment. But,
- Roderigo, if thou hast that in thee indeed, which I
- have greater reason to believe now than ever, I mean
- purpose, courage and valour, this night show it: if
- thou the next night following enjoy not Desdemona,
- take me from this world with treachery and devise
- engines for my life.
- Roderigo: Well, what is it? is it within reason and compass?
- Iago: Sir, there is especial commission come from Venice
- to depute Cassio in Othello's place.
- Roderigo: Is that true? why, then Othello and Desdemona
- return again to Venice.
- Iago: O, no; he goes into Mauritania and takes away with
- him the fair Desdemona, unless his abode be
- lingered here by some accident: wherein none can be
- so determinate as the removing of Cassio.
- Roderigo: How do you mean, removing of him?
- Iago: Why, by making him uncapable of Othello's place;
- knocking out his brains.
- Roderigo: And that you would have me to do?
- Iago: Ay, if you dare do yourself a profit and a right.
- He sups to-night with a harlotry, and thither will I
- go to him: he knows not yet of his horrorable
- fortune. If you will watch his going thence, which
- I will fashion to fall out between twelve and one,
- you may take him at your pleasure: I will be near
- to second your attempt, and he shall fall between
- us. Come, stand not amazed at it, but go along with
- me; I will show you such a necessity in his death
- that you shall think yourself bound to put it on
- him. It is now high suppertime, and the night grows
- to waste: about it.
- Roderigo: I will hear further reason for this.
- Iago: And you shall be satisfied.
- Exeunt
Scene iii. Another room In the castle.
- Enter Othello, Lodovico, Desdemona, Emilia and Attendants
- Lodovico: I do beseech you, sir, trouble yourself no further.
- Othello: O, pardon me: 'twill do me good to walk.
- Lodovico: Madam, good night; I humbly thank your ladyship.
- Desdemona: Your honour is most welcome.
- Othello: Will you walk, sir?
- O,—Desdemona,—
- Desdemona: My lord?
- Othello: Get you to bed on the instant; I will be returned
- forthwith: dismiss your attendant there: look it be done.
- Desdemona: I will, my lord.
- Exeunt Othello, Lodovico, and Attendants
- Emilia: How goes it now? he looks gentler than he did.
- Desdemona: He says he will return incontinent:
- He hath commanded me to go to bed,
- And bade me to dismiss you.
- Emilia: Dismiss me!
- Desdemona: It was his bidding: therefore, good Emilia,.
- Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu:
- We must not now displease him.
- Emilia: I would you had never seen him!
- Desdemona: So would not I my love doth so approve him,
- That even his stubbornness, his cheques, his frowns—
- Prithee, unpin me,—have grace and favour in them.
- Emilia: I have laid those sheets you bade me on the bed.
- Desdemona: All's one. Good faith, how foolish are our minds!
- If I do die before thee prithee, shroud me
- In one of those same sheets.
- Emilia: Come, come you talk.
- Desdemona: My mother had a maid call'd Barbara:
- She was in love, and he she loved proved mad
- And did forsake her: she had a song of 'willow;'
- An old thing 'twas, but it express'd her fortune,
- And she died singing it: that song to-night
- Will not go from my mind; I have much to do,
- But to go hang my head all at one side,
- And sing it like poor Barbara. Prithee, dispatch.
- Emilia: Shall I go fetch your night-gown?
- Desdemona: No, unpin me here.
- This Lodovico is a proper man.
- Emilia: A very handsome man.
- Desdemona: He speaks well.
- Emilia: I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot
- to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip.
- Desdemona: [Singing] The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
- Sing all a green willow:
- Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
- Sing willow, willow, willow:
- The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her moans;
- Sing willow, willow, willow;
- Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the stones;
- Lay by these:—
- Singing
- Sing willow, willow, willow;
- Prithee, hie thee; he'll come anon:—
- Singing
- Sing all a green willow must be my garland.
- Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve,-
- Nay, that's not next.—Hark! who is't that knocks?
- Emilia: It's the wind.
- Desdemona: [Singing] I call'd my love false love; but what
- said he then?
- Sing willow, willow, willow:
- If I court moe women, you'll couch with moe men!
- So, get thee gone; good night Ate eyes do itch;
- Doth that bode weeping?
- Emilia: 'Tis neither here nor there.
- Desdemona: I have heard it said so. O, these men, these men!
- Dost thou in conscience think,—tell me, Emilia,—
- That there be women do abuse their husbands
- In such gross kind?
- Emilia: There be some such, no question.
- Desdemona: Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?
- Emilia: Why, would not you?
- Desdemona: No, by this heavenly light!
- Emilia: Nor I neither by this heavenly light;
- I might do't as well i' the dark.
- Desdemona: Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?
- Emilia: The world's a huge thing: it is a great price.
- For a small vice.
- Desdemona: In troth, I think thou wouldst not.
- Emilia: In troth, I think I should; and undo't when I had
- done. Marry, I would not do such a thing for a
- joint-ring, nor for measures of lawn, nor for
- gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any petty
- exhibition; but for the whole world,—why, who would
- not make her husband a cuckold to make him a
- monarch? I should venture purgatory for't.
- Desdemona: Beshrew me, if I would do such a wrong
- For the whole world.
- Emilia: Why the wrong is but a wrong i' the world: and
- having the world for your labour, tis a wrong in your
- own world, and you might quickly make it right.
- Desdemona: I do not think there is any such woman.
- Emilia: Yes, a dozen; and as many to the vantage as would
- store the world they played for.
- But I do think it is their husbands' faults
- If wives do fall: say that they slack their duties,
- And pour our treasures into foreign laps,
- Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
- Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,
- Or scant our former having in despite;
- Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace,
- Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
- Their wives have sense like them: they see and smell
- And have their palates both for sweet and sour,
- As husbands have. What is it that they do
- When they change us for others? Is it sport?
- I think it is: and doth affection breed it?
- I think it doth: is't frailty that thus errs?
- It is so too: and have not we affections,
- Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
- Then let them use us well: else let them know,
- The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.
- Desdemona: Good night, good night: heaven me such uses send,
- Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend!
- Exeunt
- --oOo-- -