Othello/Source

DRAMATIS PERSONAE (Persons Represented):


 * DUKE OF VENICE.
 * BRABANTIO, a Senator.
 * Other Senators.
 * GRATIANO, Brother to Brabantio.
 * LODOVICO, Kinsman to Brabantio.
 * OTHELLO, a noble Moor, in the service of Venice.
 * CASSIO, his Lieutenant.
 * IAGO, his Ancient.
 * RODERIGO, a Venetian Gentleman.
 * MONTANO, Othello's predecessor in the government of Cyprus.
 * Clown, servant to Othello.
 * Herald.


 * DESDEMONA, Daughter to Brabantio, and Wife to Othello.
 * EMILIA, Wife to Iago.
 * BIANCA, Mistress to Cassio.


 * Officers, Gentlemen, Messenger, Musicians, Herald, Sailor, Attendants, &c.

SCENE: The First Act in Venice; during the rest of the Play at a Seaport in Cyprus.

ACT 1. SCENE I. Venice. A street.
Enter Roderigo and Iago

Roderigo
 * (Tush) never tell me; I take it much unkindly
 * That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse
 * As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.

Iago
 * (S'blood), but you will not hear me!
 * If ever I did dream of such a matter,
 * Abhor me.

Roderigo
 * Thou toldst me thou didst hold him in thy hate.

Iago
 * Despise me
 * If I do not. Three great ones of the city,
 * In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
 * Off-capped to him; and, by the faith of man,
 * I know my price, I am worth no worse a place.
 * But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
 * Evades them with a bombast circumstance,
 * Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war,
 * (And, in conclusion),
 * Nonsuits my mediators. For, "Certes," says he,
 * "I have already chose my officer."
 * And what was he?
 * Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
 * One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
 * A fellow almost damned in a fair wife;
 * That never set a squadron in the field,
 * Nor the division of a battle knows
 * More than a spinster -unless the bookish theoric,
 * Wherein the (toged) consuls can propose
 * As masterly as he. Mere prattle, without practise,
 * Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had th' election;
 * And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof
 * At Rhodes, at Cyprus and on (other) grounds
 * Christian and heathen, must be be-lee'd and
 * Calmed
 * By debitor and creditor. This countercaster,
 * He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,
 * And I (God) bless the mark! his Moorship's ancient.

Roderigo
 * By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman.

Iago
 * Why, there's no remedy. 'Tis the curse of service,.
 * Preferment goes by letter and affection,
 * And not by old gradation, where each second
 * Stood heir to th' first. Now, sir, be judge yourself,
 * Whether I in any just term am affined
 * To love the Moor.

Roderigo
 * I would not follow him then.

Iago
 * O, sir, content you.
 * I follow him to serve my turn upon him:
 * We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
 * Cannot be truly followed. You shall mark
 * Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
 * That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
 * Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
 * For nought but provender, and when he's old,
 * Cashier'd.
 * Whip me such honest knaves! Others there are
 * Who, trimmed in forms and visages of duty,
 * Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves,
 * And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
 * Do well thrive by them; and when they have lined
 * their coats
 * Do themselves homage. These fellows have some
 * soul.
 * And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,
 * It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
 * Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago.
 * In following him, I follow but myself.
 * Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
 * But seeming so, for my peculiar end.
 * For when my outward action doth demonstrate
 * The native act and figure of my heart
 * In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
 * But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
 * For daws to peck at. I am not what I am.

Roderigo
 * What a (full) fortune does the (thick-lips) owe
 * If he can carry't thus!

Iago
 * Call up her father.
 * Rouse him. Make after him, poison his delight,
 * Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,
 * And, though he in a fertile climate dwell,
 * Plague him with flies. though that his joy be joy,
 * Yet throw such changes of vexation on't,
 * As it may lose some color.

Roderigo
 * Here is her father's house. I'll call aloud.

Iago
 * Do, with like timorous accent and dire yell
 * As when, by night and negligence, the fire
 * Is spied in populous cities.

Roderigo
 * What, ho, Brabantio! Signior Brabantio, ho!

Iago
 * Awake! what, ho, Brabantio! thieves! thieves! thieves!
 * Look to your house, your daughter and your bags!
 * Thieves! thieves!
 * &BRABANTIO appears above, at a window
 * &BRABANTIO appears above, at a window

Brabantio
 * What is the reason of this terrible summons?
 * What is the matter there?

Roderigo
 * Signior, is all your family within?

Iago
 * Are your doors lock'd?

Brabantio
 * Why, wherefore ask you this?

Iago
 * 'Zounds, sir, you're robb'd; for shame, put on
 * your gown;
 * Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;
 * Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
 * Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise;
 * Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
 * Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:
 * Arise, I say.

Brabantio
 * What, have you lost your wits?

Roderigo
 * Most reverend signior, do you know my voice?

Brabantio
 * Not I what are you?

Roderigo
 * My name is Roderigo.

Brabantio
 * The worser welcome:
 * I have charged thee not to haunt about my doors:
 * In honest plainness thou hast heard me say
 * My daughter is not for thee; and now, in madness,
 * Being full of supper and distempering draughts,
 * Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come
 * To start my quiet.

Roderigo
 * Sir, sir, sir,--

Brabantio
 * But thou must needs be sure
 * My spirit and my place have in them power
 * To make this bitter to thee.

Roderigo
 * Patience, good sir.

Brabantio
 * What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is Venice;
 * My house is not a grange.

Roderigo
 * Most grave Brabantio,
 * In simple and pure soul I come to you.

Iago
 * 'Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will not
 * Serve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to
 * Do you service and you think we are ruffians, you'll
 * Have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse;
 * You'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have
 * Coursers for cousins and gennets for germans.

Brabantio
 * What profane wretch art thou?

Iago
 * I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter
 * And the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.

Brabantio
 * Thou art a villain.

Iago
 * You are--a senator.

Brabantio
 * This thou shalt answer; I know thee, Roderigo.

Roderigo
 * Sir, I will answer any thing. But, I beseech you,
 * If't be your pleasure and most wise consent,
 * As partly I find it is, that your fair daughter,
 * At this odd-even and dull watch o' the night,
 * Transported, with no worse nor better guard
 * But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,
 * To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor--
 * If this be known to you and your allowance,
 * We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;
 * But if you know not this, my manners tell me
 * We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe
 * That, from the sense of all civility,
 * I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:
 * Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,
 * I say again, hath made a gross revolt;
 * Tying her duty, beauty, wit and fortunes
 * In an extravagant and wheeling stranger
 * Of here and every where. Straight satisfy yourself:
 * If she be in her chamber or your house,
 * Let loose on me the justice of the state
 * For thus deluding you.

Brabantio
 * Strike on the tinder, ho!
 * Give me a taper! call up all my people!
 * This accident is not unlike my dream:
 * Belief of it oppresses me already.
 * Light, I say! light!

Exit above

Iago
 * Farewell; for I must leave you:
 * It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place,
 * To be produced--as, if I stay, I shall--
 * Against the Moor: for, I do know, the state,
 * However this may gall him with some cheque,
 * Cannot with safety cast him, for he's embark'd
 * With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars,
 * Which even now stand in act, that, for their souls,
 * Another of his fathom they have none,
 * To lead their business: in which regard,
 * Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains.
 * Yet, for necessity of present life,
 * I must show out a flag and sign of love,
 * Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely find him,
 * Lead to the Sagittary the raised search;
 * And there will I be with him. So, farewell.

Exit

Enter, below, Brabantio, and Servants with torches

Brabantio
 * It is too true an evil: gone she is;
 * And what's to come of my despised time
 * Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo,
 * Where didst thou see her? O unhappy girl!
 * With the Moor, say'st thou? Who would be a father!
 * How didst thou know 'twas she? O she deceives me
 * Past thought! What said she to you? Get more tapers:
 * Raise all my kindred. Are they married, think you?

Roderigo
 * Truly, I think they are.

Brabantio
 * O heaven! How got she out? O treason of the blood!
 * Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds
 * By what you see them act. Is there not charms
 * By which the property of youth and maidhood
 * May be abused? Have you not read, Roderigo,
 * Of some such thing?

Roderigo
 * Yes, sir, I have indeed.

Brabantio
 * Call up my brother. O, would you had had her!
 * Some one way, some another. Do you know
 * Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?

Roderigo
 * I think I can discover him, if you please,
 * To get good guard and go along with me.

Brabantio
 * Pray you, lead on. At every house I'll call;
 * I may command at most. Get weapons, ho!
 * And raise some special officers of night.
 * On, good Roderigo: I'll deserve your pains.

Exeunt

ACT 1. SCENE II. Another street.
Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Attendants with torches

Iago
 * Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
 * Yet do I hold it very stuff o' the conscience
 * To do no contrived murder: I lack iniquity
 * Sometimes to do me service: nine or ten times
 * I had thought to have yerk'd him here under the ribs.

Othello
 * 'Tis better as it is.

Iago
 * Nay, but he prated,
 * And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
 * Against your honour
 * That, with the little godliness I have,
 * I did full hard forbear him. But, I pray you, sir,
 * Are you fast married? Be assured of this,
 * That the magnifico is much beloved,
 * And hath in his effect a voice potential
 * As double as the duke's: he will divorce you;
 * Or put upon you what restraint and grievance
 * The law, with all his might to enforce it on,
 * Will give him cable.

Othello
 * Let him do his spite:
 * My services which I have done the signiory
 * Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know,--
 * Which, when I know that boasting is an honour,
 * I shall promulgate--I fetch my life and being
 * From men of royal siege, and my demerits
 * May speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune
 * As this that I have reach'd: for know, Iago,
 * But that I love the gentle Desdemona,
 * I would not my unhoused free condition
 * Put into circumscription and confine
 * For the sea's worth. But, look! what lights come yond?

Iago
 * Those are the raised father and his friends:
 * You were best go in.

Othello
 * Not I I must be found:
 * My parts, my title and my perfect soul
 * Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?

Iago
 * By Janus, I think no.

Enter CASSIO, and certain Officers with torches

Othello
 * The servants of the duke, and my lieutenant.
 * The goodness of the night upon you, friends!
 * What is the news?

Cassio
 * The duke does greet you, general,
 * And he requires your haste-post-haste appearance,
 * Even on the instant.

Othello
 * What is the matter, think you?

Cassio
 * Something from Cyprus as I may divine:
 * It is a business of some heat: the galleys
 * Have sent a dozen sequent messengers
 * This very night at one another's heels,
 * And many of the consuls, raised and met,
 * Are at the duke's already: you have been
 * hotly call'd for;
 * When, being not at your lodging to be found,
 * The senate hath sent about three several guests
 * To search you out.

Othello
 * 'Tis well I am found by you.
 * I will but spend a word here in the house,
 * And go with you.

Exit

Cassio
 * Ancient, what makes he here?

Iago
 * 'Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land carack:
 * If it prove lawful prize, he's made for ever.

Cassio
 * I do not understand.

Iago
 * He's married.

Cassio
 * To who?

Re-enter OTHELLO

Iago
 * Marry, to--Come, captain, will you go?

Othello
 * Have with you.

Cassio
 * Here comes another troop to seek for you.

Iago
 * It is Brabantio. General, be advised;
 * He comes to bad intent.

''Enter BRABANTIO, RODERIGO, and Officers with torches and weapons''

Othello
 * Holla! stand there!

Roderigo
 * Signior, it is the Moor.

Brabantio
 * Down with him, thief!

They draw on both sides

Iago
 * You, Roderigo! come, sir, I am for you.

Othello
 * Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.
 * Good signior, you shall more command with years
 * Than with your weapons.

Brabantio
 * O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my daughter?
 * Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her;
 * For I'll refer me to all things of sense,
 * If she in chains of magic were not bound,
 * Whether a maid so tender, fair and happy,
 * So opposite to marriage that she shunned
 * The wealthy curled darlings of our nation,
 * Would ever have, to incur a general mock,
 * Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
 * Of such a thing as thou, to fear, not to delight.
 * Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense
 * That thou hast practised on her with foul charms,
 * Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals
 * That weaken motion: I'll have't disputed on;
 * 'Tis probable and palpable to thinking.
 * I therefore apprehend and do attach thee
 * For an abuser of the world, a practiser
 * Of arts inhibited and out of warrant.
 * Lay hold upon him: if he do resist,
 * Subdue him at his peril.

Othello
 * Hold your hands,
 * Both you of my inclining, and the rest:
 * Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it
 * Without a prompter. Where will you that I go
 * To answer this your charge?

Brabantio
 * To prison, till fit time
 * Of law and course of direct session
 * Call thee to answer.

Othello
 * What if I do obey?
 * How may the duke be therewith satisfied,
 * Whose messengers are here about my side,
 * Upon some present business of the state
 * To bring me to him?

First officer
 * 'Tis true, most worthy signior;
 * The duke's in council and your noble self,
 * I am sure, is sent for.

Brabantio
 * How! the duke in council!
 * In this time of the night! Bring him away:
 * Mine's not an idle cause: the duke himself,
 * Or any of my brothers of the state,
 * Cannot but feel this wrong as 'twere their own;
 * For if such actions may have passage free,
 * Bond-slaves and pagans shall our statesmen be.

Exeunt

ACT 1. SCENE III. A council-chamber.
''The DUKE and Senators sitting at a table; Officers attending''

Duke of Venice
 * There is no composition in these news
 * That gives them credit.

First senator
 * Indeed, they are disproportion'd;
 * My letters say a hundred and seven galleys.

Duke of Venice
 * And mine, a hundred and forty.

Second senator
 * And mine, two hundred:
 * But though they jump not on a just account,--
 * As in these cases, where the aim reports,
 * 'Tis oft with difference--yet do they all confirm
 * A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus.

Duke of Venice
 * Nay, it is possible enough to judgment:
 * I do not so secure me in the error,
 * But the main article I do approve
 * In fearful sense.

Sailor
 * Within What, ho! what, ho! what, ho!

First officer
 * A messenger from the galleys.

Enter a Sailor

Duke of Venice
 * Now, what's the business?

Sailor
 * The Turkish preparation makes for Rhodes;
 * So was I bid report here to the state
 * By Signior Angelo.

Duke of Venice
 * How say you by this change?

First senator
 * This cannot be,
 * By no assay of reason: 'tis a pageant,
 * To keep us in false gaze. When we consider
 * The importancy of Cyprus to the Turk,
 * And let ourselves again but understand,
 * That as it more concerns the Turk than Rhodes,
 * So may he with more facile question bear it,
 * For that it stands not in such warlike brace,
 * But altogether lacks the abilities
 * That Rhodes is dress'd in: if we make thought of this,
 * We must not think the Turk is so unskilful
 * To leave that latest which concerns him first,
 * Neglecting an attempt of ease and gain,
 * To wake and wage a danger profitless.

Duke of Venice
 * Nay, in all confidence, he's not for Rhodes.

First officer
 * Here is more news.

Enter a Messenger

Messenger
 * The Ottomites, reverend and gracious,
 * Steering with due course towards the isle of Rhodes,
 * Have there injointed them with an after fleet.

First senator
 * Ay, so I thought. How many, as you guess?

Messenger
 * Of thirty sail: and now they do restem
 * Their backward course, bearing with frank appearance
 * Their purposes toward Cyprus. Signior Montano,
 * Your trusty and most valiant servitor,
 * With his free duty recommends you thus,
 * And prays you to believe him.

Duke of Venice
 * 'Tis certain, then, for Cyprus.
 * Marcus Luccicos, is not he in town?

First senator
 * He's now in Florence.

Duke of Venice
 * Write from us to him; post-post-haste dispatch.

First senator
 * Here comes Brabantio and the valiant Moor.

Enter BRABANTIO, OTHELLO, IAGO, RODERIGO, and Officers

Duke of Venice
 * Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you
 * Against the general enemy Ottoman.

To BRABANTIO
 * I did not see you; welcome, gentle signior;
 * We lack'd your counsel and your help tonight.

Brabantio
 * So did I yours. Good your grace, pardon me;
 * Neither my place nor aught I heard of business
 * Hath raised me from my bed, nor doth the general care
 * Take hold on me, for my particular grief
 * Is of so flood-gate and o'erbearing nature
 * That it engluts and swallows other sorrows
 * And it is still itself.

Duke of Venice
 * Why, what's the matter?

Brabantio
 * My daughter! O, my daughter!

Duke of Venice

Senator
 * Dead?

Brabantio
 * Ay, to me;
 * She is abused, stol'n from me, and corrupted
 * By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks;
 * For nature so preposterously to err,
 * Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense,
 * Sans witchcraft could not.

Duke of Venice
 * Whoe'er he be that in this foul proceeding
 * Hath thus beguiled your daughter of herself
 * And you of her, the bloody book of law
 * You shall yourself read in the bitter letter
 * After your own sense, yea, though our proper son
 * Stood in your action.

Brabantio
 * Humbly I thank your grace.
 * Here is the man, this Moor, whom now, it seems,
 * Your special mandate for the state-affairs
 * Hath hither brought.

Duke of Venice

Senator
 * We are very sorry for't.

Duke of Venice
 * To OTHELLO What, in your own part, can you say to this?

Brabantio
 * Nothing, but this is so.

Othello
 * Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
 * My very noble and approved good masters,
 * That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter,
 * It is most true; true, I have married her:
 * The very head and front of my offending
 * Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech,
 * And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace:
 * For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,
 * Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used
 * Their dearest action in the tented field,
 * And little of this great world can I speak,
 * More than pertains to feats of broil and battle,
 * And therefore little shall I grace my cause
 * In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,
 * I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver
 * Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms,
 * What conjuration and what mighty magic,
 * For such proceeding I am charged withal,
 * I won his daughter.

Brabantio
 * A maiden never bold;
 * Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion
 * Blush'd at herself; and she, in spite of nature,
 * Of years, of country, credit, every thing,
 * To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on!
 * It is a judgment maim'd and most imperfect
 * That will confess perfection so could err
 * Against all rules of nature, and must be driven
 * To find out practises of cunning hell,
 * Why this should be. I therefore vouch again
 * That with some mixtures powerful o'er the blood,
 * Or with some dram conjured to this effect,
 * He wrought upon her.

Duke of Venice
 * To vouch this, is no proof,
 * Without more wider and more overt test
 * Than these thin habits and poor likelihoods
 * Of modern seeming do prefer against him.

First senator
 * But, Othello, speak:
 * Did you by indirect and forced courses
 * Subdue and poison this young maid's affections?
 * Or came it by request and such fair question
 * As soul to soul affordeth?

Othello
 * I do beseech you,
 * Send for the lady to the Sagittary,
 * And let her speak of me before her father:
 * If you do find me foul in her report,
 * The trust, the office I do hold of you,
 * Not only take away, but let your sentence
 * Even fall upon my life.

Duke of Venice
 * Fetch Desdemona hither.

Othello
 * Ancient, conduct them: you best know the place.

Exeunt IAGO and Attendants
 * And, till she come, as truly as to heaven
 * I do confess the vices of my blood,
 * So justly to your grave ears I'll present
 * How I did thrive in this fair lady's love,
 * And she in mine.

Duke of Venice
 * Say it, Othello.

Othello
 * Her father loved me; oft invited me;
 * Still question'd me the story of my life,
 * From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
 * That I have passed.
 * I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
 * To the very moment that he bade me tell it;
 * Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
 * Of moving accidents by flood and field
 * Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach,
 * Of being taken by the insolent foe
 * And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence
 * And portance in my travels' history:
 * Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
 * Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven
 * It was my hint to speak,--such was the process;
 * And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
 * The Anthropophagi and men whose heads
 * Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear
 * Would Desdemona seriously incline:
 * But still the house-affairs would draw her thence:
 * Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
 * She'ld come again, and with a greedy ear
 * Devour up my discourse: which I observing,
 * Took once a pliant hour, and found good means
 * To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart
 * That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
 * Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
 * But not intentively: I did consent,
 * And often did beguile her of her tears,
 * When I did speak of some distressful stroke
 * That my youth suffer'd. My story being done,
 * She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
 * She swore, in faith, twas strange, 'twas passing strange,
 * 'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful:
 * She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd
 * That heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me,
 * And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
 * I should but teach him how to tell my story.
 * And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:
 * She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd,
 * And I loved her that she did pity them.
 * This only is the witchcraft I have used:
 * Here comes the lady; let her witness it.

Enter DESDEMONA, IAGO, and Attendants

Duke of Venice
 * I think this tale would win my daughter too.
 * Good Brabantio,
 * Take up this mangled matter at the best:
 * Men do their broken weapons rather use
 * Than their bare hands.

Brabantio
 * I pray you, hear her speak:
 * If she confess that she was half the wooer,
 * Destruction on my head, if my bad blame
 * Light on the man! Come hither, gentle mistress:
 * Do you perceive in all this noble company
 * Where most you owe obedience?

Desdemona
 * My noble father,
 * I do perceive here a divided duty:
 * To you I am bound for life and education;
 * My life and education both do learn me
 * How to respect you; you are the lord of duty;
 * I am hitherto your daughter: but here's my husband,
 * And so much duty as my mother show'd
 * To you, preferring you before her father,
 * So much I challenge that I may profess
 * Due to the Moor my lord.

Brabantio
 * God be wi' you! I have done.
 * Please it your grace, on to the state-affairs:
 * I had rather to adopt a child than get it.
 * Come hither, Moor:
 * I here do give thee that with all my heart
 * Which, but thou hast already, with all my heart
 * I would keep from thee. For your sake, jewel,
 * I am glad at soul I have no other child:
 * For thy escape would teach me tyranny,
 * To hang clogs on them. I have done, my lord.

Duke of Venice
 * Let me speak like yourself, and lay a sentence,
 * Which, as a grise or step, may help these lovers
 * Into your favour.
 * When remedies are past, the griefs are ended
 * By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended.
 * To mourn a mischief that is past and gone
 * Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
 * What cannot be preserved when fortune takes
 * Patience her injury a mockery makes.
 * The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief;
 * He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.

Brabantio
 * So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile;
 * We lose it not, so long as we can smile.
 * He bears the sentence well that nothing bears
 * But the free comfort which from thence he hears,
 * But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow
 * That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow.
 * These sentences, to sugar, or to gall,
 * Being strong on both sides, are equivocal:
 * But words are words; I never yet did hear
 * That the bruised heart was pierced through the ear.
 * I humbly beseech you, proceed to the affairs of state.

Duke of Venice
 * The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes for
 * Cyprus. Othello, the fortitude of the place is best
 * known to you; and though we have there a substitute
 * of most allowed sufficiency, yet opinion, a
 * sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer
 * voice on you: you must therefore be content to
 * slubber the gloss of your new fortunes with this
 * more stubborn and boisterous expedition.

Othello
 * The tyrant custom, most grave senators,
 * Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
 * My thrice-driven bed of down: I do agnise
 * A natural and prompt alacrity
 * I find in hardness, and do undertake
 * These present wars against the Ottomites.
 * Most humbly therefore bending to your state,
 * I crave fit disposition for my wife.
 * Due reference of place and exhibition,
 * With such accommodation and besort
 * As levels with her breeding.

Duke of Venice
 * If you please,
 * Be't at her father's.

Brabantio
 * I'll not have it so.

Othello
 * Nor I.

Desdemona
 * Nor I; I would not there reside,
 * To put my father in impatient thoughts
 * By being in his eye. Most gracious duke,
 * To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear;
 * And let me find a charter in your voice,
 * To assist my simpleness.

Duke of Venice
 * What would You, Desdemona?

Desdemona
 * That I did love the Moor to live with him,
 * My downright violence and storm of fortunes
 * May trumpet to the world: my heart's subdued
 * Even to the very quality of my lord:
 * I saw Othello's visage in his mind,
 * And to his honour and his valiant parts
 * Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.
 * So that, dear lords, if I be left behind,
 * A moth of peace, and he go to the war,
 * The rites for which I love him are bereft me,
 * And I a heavy interim shall support
 * By his dear absence. Let me go with him.

Othello
 * Let her have your voices.
 * Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not,
 * To please the palate of my appetite,
 * Nor to comply with heat--the young affects
 * In me defunct--and proper satisfaction.
 * But to be free and bounteous to her mind:
 * And heaven defend your good souls, that you think
 * I will your serious and great business scant
 * For she is with me: no, when light-wing'd toys
 * Of feather'd Cupid seal with wanton dullness
 * My speculative and officed instruments,
 * That my disports corrupt and taint my business,
 * Let housewives make a skillet of my helm,
 * And all indign and base adversities
 * Make head against my estimation!

Duke of Venice
 * Be it as you shall privately determine,
 * Either for her stay or going: the affair cries haste,
 * And speed must answer it.

First senator
 * You must away to-night.

Othello
 * With all my heart.

Duke of Venice
 * At nine i' the morning here we'll meet again.
 * Othello, leave some officer behind,
 * And he shall our commission bring to you;
 * With such things else of quality and respect
 * As doth import you.

Othello
 * So please your grace, my ancient;
 * A man he is of honest and trust:
 * To his conveyance I assign my wife,
 * With what else needful your good grace shall think
 * To be sent after me.

Duke of Venice
 * Let it be so.
 * Good night to every one.

To BRABANTIO
 * And, noble signior,
 * If virtue no delighted beauty lack,
 * Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.

First senator
 * Adieu, brave Moor, use Desdemona well.

Brabantio
 * Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:
 * She has deceived her father, and may thee.

Exeunt DUKE OF VENICE, Senators, Officers, &c

Othello
 * My life upon her faith! Honest Iago,
 * My Desdemona must I leave to thee:
 * I prithee, let thy wife attend on her:
 * And bring them after in the best advantage.
 * Come, Desdemona: I have but an hour
 * Of love, of worldly matters and direction,
 * To spend with thee: we must obey the time.

Exeunt OTHELLO and DESDEMONA

Roderigo
 * Iago,--

Iago
 * What say'st thou, noble heart?

Roderigo
 * What will I do, thinkest thou?

Iago
 * Why, go to bed, and sleep.

Roderigo
 * I will incontinently drown myself.

Iago
 * If thou dost, I shall never love thee after. Why,
 * thou silly gentleman!

Roderigo
 * It is silliness to live when to live is torment; and
 * then have we a prescription to die when death is our physician.

Iago
 * O villainous! I have looked upon the world for four
 * times seven years; and since I could distinguish
 * betwixt a benefit and an injury, I never found man
 * that knew how to love himself. Ere I would say, I
 * would drown myself for the love of a guinea-hen, I
 * would change my humanity with a baboon.

Roderigo
 * What should I do? I confess it is my shame to be so
 * fond; but it is not in my virtue to amend it.

Iago
 * Virtue! a fig! 'tis in ourselves that we are thus
 * or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which
 * our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant
 * nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up
 * thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs, or
 * distract it with many, either to have it sterile
 * with idleness, or manured with industry, why, the
 * power and corrigible authority of this lies in our
 * wills. If the balance of our lives had not one
 * scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the
 * blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us
 * to most preposterous conclusions: but we have
 * reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal
 * stings, our unbitted lusts, whereof I take this that
 * you call love to be a sect or scion.

Roderigo
 * It cannot be.

Iago
 * It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of
 * the will. Come, be a man. Drown thyself! drown
 * cats and blind puppies. I have professed me thy
 * friend and I confess me knit to thy deserving with
 * cables of perdurable toughness; I could never
 * better stead thee than now. Put money in thy
 * purse; follow thou the wars; defeat thy favour with
 * an usurped beard; I say, put money in thy purse. It
 * cannot be that Desdemona should long continue her
 * love to the Moor,-- put money in thy purse,--nor he
 * his to her: it was a violent commencement, and thou
 * shalt see an answerable sequestration:--put but
 * money in thy purse. These Moors are changeable in
 * their wills: fill thy purse with money:--the food
 * that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be
 * to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida. She must
 * change for youth: when she is sated with his body,
 * she will find the error of her choice: she must
 * have change, she must: therefore put money in thy
 * purse. If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a
 * more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money
 * thou canst: if sanctimony and a frail vow betwixt
 * an erring barbarian and a supersubtle Venetian not
 * too hard for my wits and all the tribe of hell, thou
 * shalt enjoy her; therefore make money. A pox of
 * drowning thyself! it is clean out of the way: seek
 * thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy than
 * to be drowned and go without her.

Roderigo
 * Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on
 * the issue?

Iago
 * Thou art sure of me:--go, make money:--I have told
 * thee often, and I re-tell thee again and again, I
 * hate the Moor: my cause is hearted; thine hath no
 * less reason. Let us be conjunctive in our revenge
 * against him: if thou canst cuckold him, thou dost
 * thyself a pleasure, me a sport. There are many
 * events in the womb of time which will be delivered.
 * Traverse! go, provide thy money. We will have more
 * of this to-morrow. Adieu.

Roderigo
 * Where shall we meet i' the morning?

Iago
 * At my lodging.

Roderigo
 * I'll be with thee betimes.

Iago
 * Go to; farewell. Do you hear, Roderigo?

Roderigo
 * What say you?

Iago
 * No more of drowning, do you hear?

Roderigo
 * I am changed: I'll go sell all my land.

Exit

Iago
 * Thus do I ever make my fool my purse:
 * For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane,
 * If I would time expend with such a snipe.
 * But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor:
 * And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets
 * He has done my office: I know not if't be true;
 * But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
 * Will do as if for surety. He holds me well;
 * The better shall my purpose work on him.
 * Cassio's a proper man: let me see now:
 * To get his place and to plume up my will
 * In double knavery--How, how? Let's see:--
 * After some time, to abuse Othello's ear
 * That he is too familiar with his wife.
 * He hath a person and a smooth dispose
 * To be suspected, framed to make women false.
 * The Moor is of a free and open nature,
 * That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,
 * And will as tenderly be led by the nose
 * As asses are.
 * I have't. It is engender'd. Hell and night
 * Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light.

Exit

ACT 2. SCENE I. A Sea-port in Cyprus. An open place near the quay.
Enter MONTANO and two Gentlemen

Montano
 * What from the cape can you discern at sea?

First gentleman
 * Nothing at all: it is a highwrought flood;
 * I cannot, 'twixt the heaven and the main,
 * Descry a sail.

Montano
 * Methinks the wind hath spoke aloud at land;
 * A fuller blast ne'er shook our battlements:
 * If it hath ruffian'd so upon the sea,
 * What ribs of oak, when mountains melt on them,
 * Can hold the mortise? What shall we hear of this?

Second gentleman
 * A segregation of the Turkish fleet:
 * For do but stand upon the foaming shore,
 * The chidden billow seems to pelt the clouds;
 * The wind-shaked surge, with high and monstrous mane,
 * seems to cast water on the burning bear,
 * And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole:
 * I never did like molestation view
 * On the enchafed flood.

Montano
 * If that the Turkish fleet
 * Be not enshelter'd and embay'd, they are drown'd:
 * It is impossible they bear it out.

Enter a third Gentleman

Third gentleman
 * News, lads! our wars are done.
 * The desperate tempest hath so bang'd the Turks,
 * That their designment halts: a noble ship of Venice
 * Hath seen a grievous wreck and sufferance
 * On most part of their fleet.

Montano
 * How! is this true?

Third gentleman
 * The ship is here put in,
 * A Veronesa; Michael Cassio,
 * Lieutenant to the warlike Moor Othello,
 * Is come on shore: the Moor himself at sea,
 * And is in full commission here for Cyprus.

Montano
 * I am glad on't; 'tis a worthy governor.

Third gentleman
 * But this same Cassio, though he speak of comfort
 * Touching the Turkish loss, yet he looks sadly,
 * And prays the Moor be safe; for they were parted
 * With foul and violent tempest.

Montano
 * Pray heavens he be;
 * For I have served him, and the man commands
 * Like a full soldier. Let's to the seaside, ho!
 * As well to see the vessel that's come in
 * As to throw out our eyes for brave Othello,
 * Even till we make the main and the aerial blue
 * An indistinct regard.

Third gentleman
 * Come, let's do so:
 * For every minute is expectancy
 * Of more arrivance.

Enter CASSIO

Cassio
 * Thanks, you the valiant of this warlike isle,
 * That so approve the Moor! O, let the heavens
 * Give him defence against the elements,
 * For I have lost us him on a dangerous sea.

Montano
 * Is he well shipp'd?

Cassio
 * His bark is stoutly timber'd, his pilot
 * Of very expert and approved allowance;
 * Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death,
 * Stand in bold cure.

A cry within 'A sail, a sail, a sail!' Enter a fourth Gentleman

Cassio
 * What noise?

Fourth gentleman
 * The town is empty; on the brow o' the sea
 * Stand ranks of people, and they cry 'A sail!'

Cassio
 * My hopes do shape him for the governor.

Guns heard

Second gentlemen
 * They do discharge their shot of courtesy:
 * Our friends at least.

Cassio
 * I pray you, sir, go forth,
 * And give us truth who 'tis that is arrived.

Second gentleman
 * I shall.

Exit

Montano
 * But, good lieutenant, is your general wived?

Cassio
 * Most fortunately: he hath achieved a maid
 * That paragons description and wild fame;
 * One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens,
 * And in the essential vesture of creation
 * Does tire the ingener.

Re-enter second Gentleman
 * How now! who has put in?

Second gentleman
 * 'Tis one Iago, ancient to the general.

Cassio
 * Has had most favourable and happy speed:
 * Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds,
 * The gutter'd rocks and congregated sands--
 * Traitors ensteep'd to clog the guiltless keel,--
 * As having sense of beauty, do omit
 * Their mortal natures, letting go safely by
 * The divine Desdemona.

Montano
 * What is she?

Cassio
 * She that I spake of, our great captain's captain,
 * Left in the conduct of the bold Iago,
 * Whose footing here anticipates our thoughts
 * A se'nnight's speed. Great Jove, Othello guard,
 * And swell his sail with thine own powerful breath,
 * That he may bless this bay with his tall ship,
 * Make love's quick pants in Desdemona's arms,
 * Give renew'd fire to our extincted spirits
 * And bring all Cyprus comfort!

''Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, IAGO, RODERIGO, and Attendants''
 * O, behold,
 * The riches of the ship is come on shore!
 * Ye men of Cyprus, let her have your knees.
 * Hail to thee, lady! and the grace of heaven,
 * Before, behind thee, and on every hand,
 * Enwheel thee round!

Desdemona
 * I thank you, valiant Cassio.
 * What tidings can you tell me of my lord?

Cassio
 * He is not yet arrived: nor know I aught
 * But that he's well and will be shortly here.

Desdemona
 * O, but I fear--How lost you company?

Cassio
 * The great contention of the sea and skies
 * Parted our fellowship--But, hark! a sail.

Within 'A sail, a sail!' Guns heard

Second gentleman
 * They give their greeting to the citadel;
 * This likewise is a friend.

Cassio
 * See for the news.

Exit Gentleman
 * Good ancient, you are welcome.

To EMILIA
 * Welcome, mistress.
 * Let it not gall your patience, good Iago,
 * That I extend my manners; 'tis my breeding
 * That gives me this bold show of courtesy.

Kissing her

Iago
 * Sir, would she give you so much of her lips
 * As of her tongue she oft bestows on me,
 * You'll have enough.

Desdemona
 * Alas, she has no speech.

Iago
 * In faith, too much;
 * I find it still, when I have list to sleep:
 * Marry, before your ladyship, I grant,
 * She puts her tongue a little in her heart,
 * And chides with thinking.

Emilia
 * You have little cause to say so.

Iago
 * Come on, come on; you are pictures out of doors,
 * Bells in your parlors, wild-cats in your kitchens,
 * Saints in your injuries, devils being offended,
 * Players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds.

Desdemona
 * O, fie upon thee, slanderer!

Iago
 * Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk:
 * You rise to play and go to bed to work.

Emilia
 * You shall not write my praise.

Iago
 * No, let me not.

Desdemona
 * What wouldst thou write of me, if thou shouldst
 * praise me?

Iago
 * O gentle lady, do not put me to't;
 * For I am nothing, if not critical.

Desdemona
 * Come on assay. There's one gone to the harbour?

Iago
 * Ay, madam.

Desdemona
 * I am not merry; but I do beguile
 * The thing I am, by seeming otherwise.
 * Come, how wouldst thou praise me?

Iago
 * I am about it; but indeed my invention
 * Comes from my pate as birdlime does from frize;
 * It plucks out brains and all: but my Muse labours,
 * And thus she is deliver'd.
 * If she be fair and wise, fairness and wit,
 * The one's for use, the other useth it.

Desdemona
 * Well praised! How if she be black and witty?

Iago
 * If she be black, and thereto have a wit,
 * She'll find a white that shall her blackness fit.

Desdemona
 * Worse and worse.

Emilia
 * How if fair and foolish?

Iago
 * She never yet was foolish that was fair;
 * For even her folly help'd her to an heir.

Desdemona
 * These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i'
 * the alehouse. What miserable praise hast thou for
 * her that's foul and foolish?

Iago
 * There's none so foul and foolish thereunto,
 * But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do.

Desdemona
 * O heavy ignorance! thou praisest the worst best.
 * But what praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving
 * woman indeed, one that, in the authority of her
 * merit, did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself?

Iago
 * She that was ever fair and never proud,
 * Had tongue at will and yet was never loud,
 * Never lack'd gold and yet went never gay,
 * Fled from her wish and yet said 'Now I may,'
 * She that being anger'd, her revenge being nigh,
 * Bade her wrong stay and her displeasure fly,
 * She that in wisdom never was so frail
 * To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail;
 * She that could think and ne'er disclose her mind,
 * See suitors following and not look behind,
 * She was a wight, if ever such wight were,--

Desdemona
 * To do what?

Iago
 * To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.

Desdemona
 * O most lame and impotent conclusion! Do not learn
 * of him, Emilia, though he be thy husband. How say
 * you, Cassio? is he not a most profane and liberal
 * counsellor?

Cassio
 * He speaks home, madam: You may relish him more in
 * the soldier than in the scholar.

Iago
 * Aside He takes her by the palm: ay, well said,
 * whisper: with as little a web as this will I
 * ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. Ay, smile upon
 * her, do; I will gyve thee in thine own courtship.
 * You say true; 'tis so, indeed: if such tricks as
 * these strip you out of your lieutenantry, it had
 * been better you had not kissed your three fingers so
 * oft, which now again you are most apt to play the
 * sir in. Very good; well kissed! an excellent
 * courtesy! 'tis so, indeed. Yet again your fingers
 * to your lips? would they were clyster-pipes for your sake!

Trumpet within
 * The Moor! I know his trumpet.

Cassio
 * 'Tis truly so.

Desdemona
 * Let's meet him and receive him.

Cassio
 * Lo, where he comes!

Enter OTHELLO and Attendants

Othello
 * O my fair warrior!

Desdemona
 * My dear Othello!

Othello
 * It gives me wonder great as my content
 * To see you here before me. O my soul's joy!
 * If after every tempest come such calms,
 * May the winds blow till they have waken'd death!
 * And let the labouring bark climb hills of seas
 * Olympus-high and duck again as low
 * As hell's from heaven! If it were now to die,
 * 'Twere now to be most happy; for, I fear,
 * My soul hath her content so absolute
 * That not another comfort like to this
 * Succeeds in unknown fate.

Desdemona
 * The heavens forbid
 * But that our loves and comforts should increase,
 * Even as our days do grow!

Othello
 * Amen to that, sweet powers!
 * I cannot speak enough of this content;
 * It stops me here; it is too much of joy:
 * And this, and this, the greatest discords be

Kissing her
 * That e'er our hearts shall make!

Iago
 * Aside O, you are well tuned now!
 * But I'll set down the pegs that make this music,
 * As honest as I am.

Othello
 * Come, let us to the castle.
 * News, friends; our wars are done, the Turks
 * are drown'd.
 * How does my old acquaintance of this isle?
 * Honey, you shall be well desired in Cyprus;
 * I have found great love amongst them. O my sweet,
 * I prattle out of fashion, and I dote
 * In mine own comforts. I prithee, good Iago,
 * Go to the bay and disembark my coffers:
 * Bring thou the master to the citadel;
 * He is a good one, and his worthiness
 * Does challenge much respect. Come, Desdemona,
 * Once more, well met at Cyprus.

Exeunt OTHELLO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants

Iago
 * Do thou meet me presently at the harbour. Come
 * hither. If thou be'st valiant,-- as, they say, base
 * men being in love have then a nobility in their
 * natures more than is native to them--list me. The
 * lieutenant tonight watches on the court of
 * guard:--first, I must tell thee this--Desdemona is
 * directly in love with him.

Roderigo
 * With him! why, 'tis not possible.

Iago
 * Lay thy finger thus, and let thy soul be instructed.
 * Mark me with what violence she first loved the Moor,
 * but for bragging and telling her fantastical lies:
 * and will she love him still for prating? let not
 * thy discreet heart think it. Her eye must be fed;
 * and what delight shall she have to look on the
 * devil? When the blood is made dull with the act of
 * sport, there should be, again to inflame it and to
 * give satiety a fresh appetite, loveliness in favour,
 * sympathy in years, manners and beauties; all which
 * the Moor is defective in: now, for want of these
 * required conveniences, her delicate tenderness will
 * find itself abused, begin to heave the gorge,
 * disrelish and abhor the Moor; very nature will
 * instruct her in it and compel her to some second
 * choice. Now, sir, this granted,--as it is a most
 * pregnant and unforced position--who stands so
 * eminent in the degree of this fortune as Cassio
 * does? a knave very voluble; no further
 * conscionable than in putting on the mere form of
 * civil and humane seeming, for the better compassing
 * of his salt and most hidden loose affection? why,
 * none; why, none: a slipper and subtle knave, a
 * finder of occasions, that has an eye can stamp and
 * counterfeit advantages, though true advantage never
 * present itself; a devilish knave. Besides, the
 * knave is handsome, young, and hath all those
 * requisites in him that folly and green minds look
 * after: a pestilent complete knave; and the woman
 * hath found him already.

Roderigo
 * I cannot believe that in her; she's full of
 * most blessed condition.

Iago
 * Blessed fig's-end! the wine she drinks is made of
 * grapes: if she had been blessed, she would never
 * have loved the Moor. Blessed pudding! Didst thou
 * not see her paddle with the palm of his hand? didst
 * not mark that?

Roderigo
 * Yes, that I did; but that was but courtesy.

Iago
 * Lechery, by this hand; an index and obscure prologue
 * to the history of lust and foul thoughts. They met
 * so near with their lips that their breaths embraced
 * together. Villanous thoughts, Roderigo! when these
 * mutualities so marshal the way, hard at hand comes
 * the master and main exercise, the incorporate
 * conclusion, Pish! But, sir, be you ruled by me: I
 * have brought you from Venice. Watch you to-night;
 * for the command, I'll lay't upon you. Cassio knows
 * you not. I'll not be far from you: do you find
 * some occasion to anger Cassio, either by speaking
 * too loud, or tainting his discipline; or from what
 * other course you please, which the time shall more
 * favourably minister.

Roderigo
 * Well.

Iago
 * Sir, he is rash and very sudden in choler, and haply
 * may strike at you: provoke him, that he may; for
 * even out of that will I cause these of Cyprus to
 * mutiny; whose qualification shall come into no true
 * taste again but by the displanting of Cassio. So
 * shall you have a shorter journey to your desires by
 * the means I shall then have to prefer them; and the
 * impediment most profitably removed, without the
 * which there were no expectation of our prosperity.

Roderigo
 * I will do this, if I can bring it to any
 * opportunity.

Iago
 * I warrant thee. Meet me by and by at the citadel:
 * I must fetch his necessaries ashore. Farewell.

Roderigo
 * Adieu.

Exit

Iago
 * That Cassio loves her, I do well believe it;
 * That she loves him, 'tis apt and of great credit:
 * The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not,
 * Is of a constant, loving, noble nature,
 * And I dare think he'll prove to Desdemona
 * A most dear husband. Now, I do love her too;
 * Not out of absolute lust, though peradventure
 * I stand accountant for as great a sin,
 * But partly led to diet my revenge,
 * For that I do suspect the lusty Moor
 * Hath leap'd into my seat; the thought whereof
 * Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards;
 * And nothing can or shall content my soul
 * Till I am even'd with him, wife for wife,
 * Or failing so, yet that I put the Moor
 * At least into a jealousy so strong
 * That judgment cannot cure. Which thing to do,
 * If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trace
 * For his quick hunting, stand the putting on,
 * I'll have our Michael Cassio on the hip,
 * Abuse him to the Moor in the rank garb--
 * For I fear Cassio with my night-cap too--
 * Make the Moor thank me, love me and reward me.
 * For making him egregiously an ass
 * And practising upon his peace and quiet
 * Even to madness. 'Tis here, but yet confused:
 * Knavery's plain face is never seen till used.

Exit

ACT 2. SCENE II. A street.
''Enter a Herald with a proclamation; People following''

Herald
 * It is Othello's pleasure, our noble and valiant
 * general, that, upon certain tidings now arrived,
 * importing the mere perdition of the Turkish fleet,
 * every man put himself into triumph; some to dance,
 * some to make bonfires, each man to what sport and
 * revels his addiction leads him: for, besides these
 * beneficial news, it is the celebration of his
 * nuptial. So much was his pleasure should be
 * proclaimed. All offices are open, and there is full
 * liberty of feasting from this present hour of five
 * till the bell have told eleven. Heaven bless the
 * isle of Cyprus and our noble general Othello!

Exeunt

ACT 2. SCENE III. A hall in the castle.
Enter Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, and Attendants

Othello
 * Good Michael, look you to the guard to-night:
 * Let's teach ourselves that honourable stop,
 * Not to outsport discretion.

Cassio
 * Iago hath direction what to do;
 * But, notwithstanding, with my personal eye
 * Will I look to't.

Othello
 * Iago is most honest.
 * Michael, good night: to-morrow with your earliest
 * Let me have speech with you.

To Desdemona
 * Come, my dear love,
 * The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue;
 * That profit's yet to come 'tween me and you.
 * Good night.

Exeunt Othello, Desdemona, and Attendants Enter Iago

Cassio
 * Welcome, Iago; we must to the watch.

Iago
 * Not this hour, lieutenant; 'tis not yet ten o' the
 * clock. Our general cast us thus early for the love
 * of his Desdemona; who let us not therefore blame:
 * he hath not yet made wanton the night with her; and
 * she is sport for Jove.

Cassio
 * She's a most exquisite lady.

Iago
 * And, I'll warrant her, fun of game.

Cassio
 * Indeed, she's a most fresh and delicate creature.

Iago
 * What an eye she has! methinks it sounds a parley of
 * provocation.

Cassio
 * An inviting eye; and yet methinks right modest.

Iago
 * And when she speaks, is it not an alarum to love?

Cassio
 * She is indeed perfection.

Iago
 * Well, happiness to their sheets! Come, lieutenant, I
 * have a stoup of wine; and here without are a brace
 * of Cyprus gallants that would fain have a measure to
 * the health of black Othello.

Cassio
 * Not to-night, good Iago: I have very poor and
 * unhappy brains for drinking: I could well wish
 * courtesy would invent some other custom of
 * entertainment.

Iago
 * O, they are our friends; but one cup: I'll drink for
 * you.

Cassio
 * I have drunk but one cup to-night, and that was
 * craftily qualified too, and, behold, what innovation
 * it makes here: I am unfortunate in the infirmity,
 * and dare not task my weakness with any more.

Iago
 * What, man! 'tis a night of revels: the gallants
 * desire it.

Cassio
 * Where are they?

Iago
 * Here at the door; I pray you, call them in.

Cassio
 * I'll do't; but it dislikes me.

Exit

Iago
 * If I can fasten but one cup upon him,
 * With that which he hath drunk to-night already,
 * He'll be as full of quarrel and offence
 * As my young mistress' dog. Now, my sick fool Roderigo,
 * Whom love hath turn'd almost the wrong side out,
 * To Desdemona hath to-night caroused
 * Potations pottle-deep; and he's to watch:
 * Three lads of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits,
 * That hold their honours in a wary distance,
 * The very elements of this warlike isle,
 * Have I to-night fluster'd with flowing cups,
 * And they watch too. Now, 'mongst this flock of drunkards,
 * Am I to put our Cassio in some action
 * That may offend the isle.--But here they come:
 * If consequence do but approve my dream,
 * My boat sails freely, both with wind and stream.

''Re-enter Cassio; with him MONTANO and Gentlemen; servants following with wine''

Cassio
 * 'Fore God, they have given me a rouse already.

Montano
 * Good faith, a little one; not past a pint, as I am
 * a soldier.

Iago
 * Some wine, ho!

Sings
 * And let me the canakin clink, clink;
 * And let me the canakin clink
 * A soldier's a man;
 * A life's but a span;
 * Why, then, let a soldier drink.
 * Some wine, boys!

Cassio
 * 'Fore God, an excellent song.

Iago
 * I learned it in England, where, indeed, they are
 * most potent in potting: your Dane, your German, and
 * your swag-bellied Hollander--Drink, ho!--are nothing
 * to your English.

Cassio
 * Is your Englishman so expert in his drinking?

Iago
 * Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead
 * drunk; he sweats not to overthrow your Almain; he
 * gives your Hollander a vomit, ere the next pottle
 * can be filled.

Cassio
 * To the health of our general!

Montano
 * I am for it, lieutenant; and I'll do you justice.

Iago
 * O sweet England!
 * King Stephen was a worthy peer,
 * His breeches cost him but a crown;
 * He held them sixpence all too dear,
 * With that he call'd the tailor lown.
 * He was a wight of high renown,
 * And thou art but of low degree:
 * 'Tis pride that pulls the country down;
 * Then take thine auld cloak about thee.
 * Some wine, ho!

Cassio
 * Why, this is a more exquisite song than the other.

Iago
 * Will you hear't again?

Cassio
 * No; for I hold him to be unworthy of his place that
 * does those things. Well, God's above all; and there
 * be souls must be saved, and there be souls must not be saved.

Iago
 * It's true, good lieutenant.

Cassio
 * For mine own part,--no offence to the general, nor
 * any man of quality,--I hope to be saved.

Iago
 * And so do I too, lieutenant.

Cassio
 * Ay, but, by your leave, not before me; the
 * lieutenant is to be saved before the ancient. Let's
 * have no more of this; let's to our affairs.--Forgive
 * us our sins!--Gentlemen, let's look to our business.
 * Do not think, gentlemen. I am drunk: this is my
 * ancient; this is my right hand, and this is my left:
 * I am not drunk now; I can stand well enough, and
 * speak well enough.

All
 * Excellent well.

Cassio
 * Why, very well then; you must not think then that I am drunk.

Exit

Montano
 * To the platform, masters; come, let's set the watch.

Iago
 * You see this fellow that is gone before;
 * He is a soldier fit to stand by Caesar
 * And give direction: and do but see his vice;
 * 'Tis to his virtue a just equinox,
 * The one as long as the other: 'tis pity of him.
 * I fear the trust Othello puts him in.
 * On some odd time of his infirmity,
 * Will shake this island.

Montano
 * But is he often thus?

Iago
 * 'Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep:
 * He'll watch the horologe a double set,
 * If drink rock not his cradle.

Montano
 * It were well
 * The general were put in mind of it.
 * Perhaps he sees it not; or his good nature
 * Prizes the virtue that appears in Cassio,
 * And looks not on his evils: is not this true?

Enter RODERIGO

Iago
 * Aside to him How now, Roderigo!
 * I pray you, after the lieutenant; go.

Exit RODERIGO

Montano
 * And 'tis great pity that the noble Moor
 * Should hazard such a place as his own second
 * With one of an ingraft infirmity:
 * It were an honest action to say
 * So to the Moor.

Iago
 * Not I, for this fair island:
 * I do love Cassio well; and would do much
 * To cure him of this evil--But, hark! what noise?

''Cry within: 'Help! help!''' Re-enter Cassio, driving in RODERIGO

Cassio
 * You rogue! you rascal!

Montano
 * What's the matter, lieutenant?

Cassio
 * A knave teach me my duty!
 * I'll beat the knave into a twiggen bottle.

Roderigo
 * Beat me!

Cassio
 * Dost thou prate, rogue?

Striking RODERIGO

Montano
 * Nay, good lieutenant;

Staying him
 * I pray you, sir, hold your hand.

Cassio
 * Let me go, sir,
 * Or I'll knock you o'er the mazzard.

Montano
 * Come, come,
 * you're drunk.

Cassio
 * Drunk!

They fight

Iago
 * Aside to RODERIGO Away, I say; go out, and cry a mutiny.

Exit RODERIGO
 * Nay, good lieutenant,--alas, gentlemen;--
 * Help, ho!--Lieutenant,--sir,--Montano,--sir;
 * Help, masters!--Here's a goodly watch indeed!

Bell rings
 * Who's that which rings the bell?--Diablo, ho!
 * The town will rise: God's will, lieutenant, hold!
 * You will be shamed for ever.

Re-enter Othello and Attendants

Othello
 * What is the matter here?

Montano
 * 'Zounds, I bleed still; I am hurt to the death.

Faints

Othello
 * Hold, for your lives!

Iago
 * Hold, ho! Lieutenant,--sir--Montano,--gentlemen,--
 * Have you forgot all sense of place and duty?
 * Hold! the general speaks to you; hold, hold, for shame!

Othello
 * Why, how now, ho! from whence ariseth this?
 * Are we turn'd Turks, and to ourselves do that
 * Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites?
 * For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl:
 * He that stirs next to carve for his own rage
 * Holds his soul light; he dies upon his motion.
 * Silence that dreadful bell: it frights the isle
 * From her propriety. What is the matter, masters?
 * Honest Iago, that look'st dead with grieving,
 * Speak, who began this? on thy love, I charge thee.

Iago
 * I do not know: friends all but now, even now,
 * In quarter, and in terms like bride and groom
 * Devesting them for bed; and then, but now--
 * As if some planet had unwitted men--
 * Swords out, and tilting one at other's breast,
 * In opposition bloody. I cannot speak
 * Any beginning to this peevish odds;
 * And would in action glorious I had lost
 * Those legs that brought me to a part of it!

Othello
 * How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot?

Cassio
 * I pray you, pardon me; I cannot speak.

Othello
 * Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil;
 * The gravity and stillness of your youth
 * The world hath noted, and your name is great
 * In mouths of wisest censure: what's the matter,
 * That you unlace your reputation thus
 * And spend your rich opinion for the name
 * Of a night-brawler? give me answer to it.

Montano
 * Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger:
 * Your officer, Iago, can inform you,--
 * While I spare speech, which something now
 * offends me,--
 * Of all that I do know: nor know I aught
 * By me that's said or done amiss this night;
 * Unless self-charity be sometimes a vice,
 * And to defend ourselves it be a sin
 * When violence assails us.

Othello
 * Now, by heaven,
 * My blood begins my safer guides to rule;
 * And passion, having my best judgment collied,
 * Assays to lead the way: if I once stir,
 * Or do but lift this arm, the best of you
 * Shall sink in my rebuke. Give me to know
 * How this foul rout began, who set it on;
 * And he that is approved in this offence,
 * Though he had twinn'd with me, both at a birth,
 * Shall lose me. What! in a town of war,
 * Yet wild, the people's hearts brimful of fear,
 * To manage private and domestic quarrel,
 * In night, and on the court and guard of safety!
 * 'Tis monstrous. Iago, who began't?

Montano
 * If partially affined, or leagued in office,
 * Thou dost deliver more or less than truth,
 * Thou art no soldier.

Iago
 * Touch me not so near:
 * I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth
 * Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio;
 * Yet, I persuade myself, to speak the truth
 * Shall nothing wrong him. Thus it is, general.
 * Montano and myself being in speech,
 * There comes a fellow crying out for help:
 * And Cassio following him with determined sword,
 * To execute upon him. Sir, this gentleman
 * Steps in to Cassio, and entreats his pause:
 * Myself the crying fellow did pursue,
 * Lest by his clamour--as it so fell out--
 * The town might fall in fright: he, swift of foot,
 * Outran my purpose; and I return'd the rather
 * For that I heard the clink and fall of swords,
 * And Cassio high in oath; which till to-night
 * I ne'er might say before. When I came back--
 * For this was brief--I found them close together,
 * At blow and thrust; even as again they were
 * When you yourself did part them.
 * More of this matter cannot I report:
 * But men are men; the best sometimes forget:
 * Though Cassio did some little wrong to him,
 * As men in rage strike those that wish them best,
 * Yet surely Cassio, I believe, received
 * From him that fled some strange indignity,
 * Which patience could not pass.

Othello
 * I know, Iago,
 * Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter,
 * Making it light to Cassio. Cassio, I love thee
 * But never more be officer of mine.

Re-enter Desdemona, attended
 * Look, if my gentle love be not raised up!
 * I'll make thee an example.

Desdemona
 * What's the matter?

Othello
 * All's well now, sweeting; come away to bed.
 * Sir, for your hurts, myself will be your surgeon:
 * Lead him off.

To MONTANO, who is led off
 * Iago, look with care about the town,
 * And silence those whom this vile brawl distracted.
 * Come, Desdemona: 'tis the soldiers' life
 * To have their balmy slumbers waked with strife.

Exeunt all but Iago and Cassio

Iago
 * What, are you hurt, lieutenant?

Cassio
 * Ay, past all surgery.

Iago
 * Marry, heaven forbid!

Cassio
 * Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost
 * my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of
 * myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation,
 * Iago, my reputation!

Iago
 * As I am an honest man, I thought you had received
 * some bodily wound; there is more sense in that than
 * in reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false
 * imposition: oft got without merit, and lost without
 * deserving: you have lost no reputation at all,
 * unless you repute yourself such a loser. What, man!
 * there are ways to recover the general again: you
 * are but now cast in his mood, a punishment more in
 * policy than in malice, even so as one would beat his
 * offenceless dog to affright an imperious lion: sue
 * to him again, and he's yours.

Cassio
 * I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so
 * good a commander with so slight, so drunken, and so
 * indiscreet an officer. Drunk? and speak parrot?
 * and squabble? swagger? swear? and discourse
 * fustian with one's own shadow? O thou invisible
 * spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by,
 * let us call thee devil!

Iago
 * What was he that you followed with your sword? What
 * had he done to you?

Cassio
 * I know not.

Iago
 * Is't possible?

Cassio
 * I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly;
 * a quarrel, but nothing wherefore. O God, that men
 * should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away
 * their brains! that we should, with joy, pleasance
 * revel and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!

Iago
 * Why, but you are now well enough: how came you thus
 * recovered?

Cassio
 * It hath pleased the devil drunkenness to give place
 * to the devil wrath; one unperfectness shows me
 * another, to make me frankly despise myself.

Iago
 * Come, you are too severe a moraler: as the time,
 * the place, and the condition of this country
 * stands, I could heartily wish this had not befallen;
 * but, since it is as it is, mend it for your own good.

Cassio
 * I will ask him for my place again; he shall tell me
 * I am a drunkard! Had I as many mouths as Hydra,
 * such an answer would stop them all. To be now a
 * sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a
 * beast! O strange! Every inordinate cup is
 * unblessed and the ingredient is a devil.

Iago
 * Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature,
 * if it be well used: exclaim no more against it.
 * And, good lieutenant, I think you think I love you.

Cassio
 * I have well approved it, sir. I drunk!

Iago
 * You or any man living may be drunk! at a time, man.
 * I'll tell you what you shall do. Our general's wife
 * is now the general: may say so in this respect, for
 * that he hath devoted and given up himself to the
 * contemplation, mark, and denotement of her parts and
 * graces: confess yourself freely to her; importune
 * her help to put you in your place again: she is of
 * so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition,
 * she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more
 * than she is requested: this broken joint between
 * you and her husband entreat her to splinter; and, my
 * fortunes against any lay worth naming, this
 * crack of your love shall grow stronger than it was before.

Cassio
 * You advise me well.

Iago
 * I protest, in the sincerity of love and honest kindness.

Cassio
 * I think it freely; and betimes in the morning I will
 * beseech the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me:
 * I am desperate of my fortunes if they cheque me here.

Iago
 * You are in the right. Good night, lieutenant; I
 * must to the watch.

Cassio
 * Good night, honest Iago.

Exit

Iago
 * And what's he then that says I play the villain?
 * When this advice is free I give and honest,
 * Probal to thinking and indeed the course
 * To win the Moor again? For 'tis most easy
 * The inclining Desdemona to subdue
 * In any honest suit: she's framed as fruitful
 * As the free elements. And then for her
 * To win the Moor--were't to renounce his baptism,
 * All seals and symbols of redeemed sin,
 * His soul is so enfetter'd to her love,
 * That she may make, unmake, do what she list,
 * Even as her appetite shall play the god
 * With his weak function. How am I then a villain
 * To counsel Cassio to this parallel course,
 * Directly to his good? Divinity of hell!
 * When devils will the blackest sins put on,
 * They do suggest at first with heavenly shows,
 * As I do now: for whiles this honest fool
 * Plies Desdemona to repair his fortunes
 * And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor,
 * I'll pour this pestilence into his ear,
 * That she repeals him for her body's lust;
 * And by how much she strives to do him good,
 * She shall undo her credit with the Moor.
 * So will I turn her virtue into pitch,
 * And out of her own goodness make the net
 * That shall enmesh them all.

Re-enter RODERIGO
 * How now, Roderigo!

Roderigo
 * I do follow here in the chase, not like a hound that
 * hunts, but one that fills up the cry. My money is
 * almost spent; I have been to-night exceedingly well
 * cudgelled; and I think the issue will be, I shall
 * have so much experience for my pains, and so, with
 * no money at all and a little more wit, return again to Venice.

Iago
 * How poor are they that have not patience!
 * What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
 * Thou know'st we work by wit, and not by witchcraft;
 * And wit depends on dilatory time.
 * Does't not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee.
 * And thou, by that small hurt, hast cashier'd Cassio:
 * Though other things grow fair against the sun,
 * Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe:
 * Content thyself awhile. By the mass, 'tis morning;
 * Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.
 * Retire thee; go where thou art billeted:
 * Away, I say; thou shalt know more hereafter:
 * Nay, get thee gone.

Exit RODERIGO
 * Two things are to be done:
 * My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress;
 * I'll set her on;
 * Myself the while to draw the Moor apart,
 * And bring him jump when he may Cassio find
 * Soliciting his wife: ay, that's the way
 * Dull not device by coldness and delay.

Exit

ACT 3. 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

ACT 3. 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

ACT 3. 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 life 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

ACT 3. 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

ACT 4. 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 Bianca'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 her:
 * 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

ACT 4. 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

ACT 4. 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

ACT 5. SCENE I. Cyprus. A street.
Enter Iago and Roderigo

Iago
 * Here, stand behind this bulk; straight will he come:
 * Wear thy good rapier bare, and put it home:
 * Quick, quick; fear nothing; I'll be at thy elbow:
 * It makes us, or it mars us; think on that,
 * And fix most firm thy resolution.

Roderigo
 * Be near at hand; I may miscarry in't.

Iago
 * Here, at thy hand: be bold, and take thy stand.

Retires

Roderigo
 * I have no great devotion to the deed;
 * And yet he hath given me satisfying reasons:
 * 'Tis but a man gone. Forth, my sword: he dies.

Iago
 * I have rubb'd this young quat almost to the sense,
 * And he grows angry. Now, whether he kill Cassio,
 * Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other,
 * Every way makes my gain: live Roderigo,
 * He calls me to a restitution large
 * Of gold and jewels that I bobb'd from him,
 * As gifts to Desdemona;
 * It must not be: if Cassio do remain,
 * He hath a daily beauty in his life
 * That makes me ugly; and, besides, the Moor
 * May unfold me to him; there stand I in much peril:
 * No, he must die. But so: I hear him coming.

Enter Cassio

Roderigo
 * I know his gait, 'tis he.--Villain, thou diest!

Makes a pass at Cassio

Cassio
 * That thrust had been mine enemy indeed,
 * But that my coat is better than thou know'st
 * I will make proof of thine.

Draws, and wounds Roderigo

Roderigo
 * O, I am slain!

Iago from behind wounds Cassio in the leg, and exit

Cassio
 * I am maim'd for ever. Help, ho! murder! murder!

Falls Enter Othello

Othello
 * The voice of Cassio: Iago keeps his word.

Roderigo
 * O, villain that I am!

Othello
 * It is even so.

Cassio
 * O, help, ho! light! a surgeon!

Othello
 * 'Tis he:--O brave Iago, honest and just,
 * That hast such noble sense of thy friend's wrong!
 * Thou teachest me. Minion, your dear lies dead,
 * And your unblest fate hies: strumpet, I come.
 * Forth of my heart those charms, thine eyes, are blotted;
 * Thy bed, lust-stain'd, shall with lust's blood be spotted.

Exit Enter Lodovico and GRATIANO

Cassio
 * What, ho! no watch? no passage? murder! murder!

Gratiano
 * 'Tis some mischance; the cry is very direful.

Cassio
 * O, help!

Lodovico
 * Hark!

Roderigo
 * O wretched villain!

Lodovico
 * Two or three groan: it is a heavy night:
 * These may be counterfeits: let's think't unsafe
 * To come in to the cry without more help.

Roderigo
 * Nobody come? then shall I bleed to death.

Lodovico
 * Hark!

Re-enter Iago, with a light

Gratiano
 * Here's one comes in his shirt, with light and weapons.

Iago
 * Who's there? whose noise is this that ones on murder?

Lodovico
 * We do not know.

Iago
 * Did not you hear a cry?

Cassio
 * Here, here! for heaven's sake, help me!

Iago
 * What's the matter?

Gratiano
 * This is Othello's ancient, as I take it.

Lodovico
 * The same indeed; a very valiant fellow.

Iago
 * What are you here that cry so grievously?

Cassio
 * Iago? O, I am spoil'd, undone by villains!
 * Give me some help.

Iago
 * O me, lieutenant! what villains have done this?

Cassio
 * I think that one of them is hereabout,
 * And cannot make away.

Iago
 * O treacherous villains!
 * What are you there? come in, and give some help.

To Lodovico and GRATIANO

Roderigo
 * O, help me here!

Cassio
 * That's one of them.

Iago
 * O murderous slave! O villain!

Stabs Roderigo

Roderigo
 * O damn'd Iago! O inhuman dog!

Iago
 * Kill men i' the dark!--Where be these bloody thieves?--
 * How silent is this town!--Ho! murder! murder!--
 * What may you be? are you of good or evil?

Lodovico
 * As you shall prove us, praise us.

Iago
 * Signior Lodovico?

Lodovico
 * He, sir.

Iago
 * I cry you mercy. Here's Cassio hurt by villains.

Gratiano
 * Cassio!

Iago
 * How is't, brother!

Cassio
 * My leg is cut in two.

Iago
 * Marry, heaven forbid!
 * Light, gentlemen; I'll bind it with my shirt.

Enter BIANCA

Bianca
 * What is the matter, ho? who is't that cried?

Iago
 * Who is't that cried!

Bianca
 * O my dear Cassio! my sweet Cassio! O Cassio,
 * Cassio, Cassio!

Iago
 * O notable strumpet! Cassio, may you suspect
 * Who they should be that have thus many led you?

Cassio
 * No.

Gratiano
 * I am to find you thus: I have been to seek you.

Iago
 * Lend me a garter. So. O, for a chair,
 * To bear him easily hence!

Bianca
 * Alas, he faints! O Cassio, Cassio, Cassio!

Iago
 * Gentlemen all, I do suspect this trash
 * To be a party in this injury.
 * Patience awhile, good Cassio. Come, come;
 * Lend me a light. Know we this face or no?
 * Alas my friend and my dear countryman
 * Roderigo! no:--yes, sure: O heaven! Roderigo.

Gratiano
 * What, of Venice?

Iago
 * Even he, sir; did you know him?

Gratiano
 * Know him! ay.

Iago
 * Signior Gratiano? I cry you gentle pardon;
 * These bloody accidents must excuse my manners,
 * That so neglected you.

Gratiano
 * I am glad to see you.

Iago
 * How do you, Cassio? O, a chair, a chair!

Gratiano
 * Roderigo!

Iago
 * He, he 'tis he.

A chair brought in
 * O, that's well said; the chair!

Gratiano
 * Some good man bear him carefully from hence;
 * I'll fetch the general's surgeon.

To BIANCA
 * For you, mistress,
 * Save you your labour. He that lies slain
 * here, Cassio,
 * Was my dear friend: what malice was between you?

Cassio
 * None in the world; nor do I know the man.

Iago
 * To BIANCA What, look you pale? O, bear him out
 * o' the air.

Cassio and Roderigo are borne off
 * Stay you, good gentlemen. Look you pale, mistress?
 * Do you perceive the gastness of her eye?
 * Nay, if you stare, we shall hear more anon.
 * Behold her well; I pray you, look upon her:
 * Do you see, gentlemen? nay, guiltiness will speak,
 * Though tongues were out of use.

Enter Emilia

Emilia
 * 'Las, what's the matter? what's the matter, husband?

Iago
 * Cassio hath here been set on in the dark
 * By Roderigo and fellows that are scaped:
 * He's almost slain, and Roderigo dead.

Emilia
 * Alas, good gentleman! alas, good Cassio!

Iago
 * This is the fruit of whoring. Prithee, Emilia,
 * Go know of Cassio where he supp'd to-night.

To BIANCA
 * What, do you shake at that?

Bianca
 * He supp'd at my house; but I therefore shake not.

Iago
 * O, did he so? I charge you, go with me.

Emilia
 * Fie, fie upon thee, strumpet!

Bianca
 * I am no strumpet; but of life as honest
 * As you that thus abuse me.

Emilia
 * As I! foh! fie upon thee!

Iago
 * Kind gentlemen, let's go see poor Cassio dress'd.
 * Come, mistress, you must tell's another tale.
 * Emilia run you to the citadel,
 * And tell my lord and lady what hath happ'd.
 * Will you go on? I pray.

Aside
 * This is the night
 * That either makes me or fordoes me quite.

Exeunt

ACT 5. SCENE II. A bedchamber in the castle: Desdemona in bed asleep; a light burning.
Enter Othello

Othello
 * It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,--
 * Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!--
 * It is the cause. Yet I'll not shed her blood;
 * Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow,
 * And smooth as monumental alabaster.
 * Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men.
 * Put out the light, and then put out the light:
 * If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,
 * I can again thy former light restore,
 * Should I repent me: but once put out thy light,
 * Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature,
 * I know not where is that Promethean heat
 * That can thy light relume. When I have pluck'd the rose,
 * I cannot give it vital growth again.
 * It must needs wither: I'll smell it on the tree.

Kissing her
 * Ah balmy breath, that dost almost persuade
 * Justice to break her sword! One more, one more.
 * Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee,
 * And love thee after. One more, and this the last:
 * So sweet was ne'er so fatal. I must weep,
 * But they are cruel tears: this sorrow's heavenly;
 * It strikes where it doth love. She wakes.

Desdemona
 * Who's there? Othello?

Othello
 * Ay. Desdemona.

Desdemona
 * Will you come to bed, my lord?

Othello
 * Have you pray'd to-night, Desdemona?

Desdemona
 * Ay, my lord.

Othello
 * If you bethink yourself of any crime
 * Unreconciled as yet to heaven and grace,
 * Solicit for it straight.

Desdemona
 * Alas, my lord, what do you mean by that?

Othello
 * Well, do it, and be brief; I will walk by:
 * I would not kill thy unprepared spirit;
 * No; heaven forfend! I would not kill thy soul.

Desdemona
 * Talk you of killing?

Othello
 * Ay, I do.

Desdemona
 * Then heaven
 * Have mercy on me!

Othello
 * Amen, with all my heart!

Desdemona
 * If you say so, I hope you will not kill me.

Othello
 * Hum!

Desdemona
 * And yet I fear you; for you are fatal then
 * When your eyes roll so: why I should fear I know not,
 * Since guiltiness I know not; but yet I feel I fear.

Othello
 * Think on thy sins.

Desdemona
 * They are loves I bear to you.

Othello
 * Ay, and for that thou diest.

Desdemona
 * That death's unnatural that kills for loving.
 * Alas, why gnaw you so your nether lip?
 * Some bloody passion shakes your very frame:
 * These are portents; but yet I hope, I hope,
 * They do not point on me.

Othello
 * Peace, and be still!

Desdemona
 * I will so. What's the matter?

Othello
 * That handkerchief which I so loved and gave thee
 * Thou gavest to Cassio.

Desdemona
 * No, by my life and soul!
 * Send for the man, and ask him.

Othello
 * Sweet soul, take heed,
 * Take heed of perjury; thou art on thy deathbed.

Desdemona
 * Ay, but not yet to die.

Othello
 * Yes, presently:
 * Therefore confess thee freely of thy sin;
 * For to deny each article with oath
 * Cannot remove nor choke the strong conception
 * That I do groan withal. Thou art to die.

Desdemona
 * Then Lord have mercy on me!

Othello
 * I say, amen.

Desdemona
 * And have you mercy too! I never did
 * Offend you in my life; never loved Cassio
 * But with such general warranty of heaven
 * As I might love: I never gave him token.

Othello
 * By heaven, I saw my handkerchief in's hand.
 * O perjured woman! thou dost stone my heart,
 * And makest me call what I intend to do
 * A murder, which I thought a sacrifice:
 * I saw the handkerchief.

Desdemona
 * He found it then;
 * I never gave it him: send for him hither;
 * Let him confess a truth.

Othello
 * He hath confess'd.

Desdemona
 * What, my lord?

Othello
 * That he hath used thee.

Desdemona
 * How? unlawfully?

Othello
 * Ay.

Desdemona
 * He will not say so.

Othello
 * No, his mouth is stopp'd;
 * Honest Iago hath ta'en order for't.

Desdemona
 * O! my fear interprets: what, is he dead?

Othello
 * Had all his hairs been lives, my great revenge
 * Had stomach for them all.

Desdemona
 * Alas! he is betray'd and I undone.

Othello
 * Out, strumpet! weep'st thou for him to my face?

Desdemona
 * O, banish me, my lord, but kill me not!

Othello
 * Down, strumpet!

Desdemona
 * Kill me to-morrow: let me live to-night!

Othello
 * Nay, if you strive--

Desdemona
 * But half an hour!

Othello
 * Being done, there is no pause.

Desdemona
 * But while I say one prayer!

Othello
 * It is too late.

He stifles her

Emilia
 * Within My lord, my lord! what, ho! my lord, my lord!

Othello
 * What noise is this? Not dead? not yet quite dead?
 * I that am cruel am yet merciful;
 * I would not have thee linger in thy pain: So, so.

Emilia
 * Within What, ho! my lord, my lord!

Othello
 * Who's there?

Emilia
 * Within O, good my lord, I would speak a word with you!

Othello
 * Yes: 'tis Emilia. By and by. She's dead.
 * 'Tis like she comes to speak of Cassio's death.--
 * The noise was here. Ha! no more moving?
 * Still as the grave. Shall she come in? were't good?--
 * I think she stirs again:--no. What's best to do?
 * If she come in, she'll sure speak to my wife:
 * My wife! my wife! what wife? I have no wife.
 * O insupportable! O heavy hour!
 * Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse
 * Of sun and moon, and that the affrighted globe
 * Should yawn at alteration.

Emilia
 * Within I do beseech you
 * That I may speak with you, O, good my lord!

Othello
 * I had forgot thee: O, come in, Emilia;
 * Soft; by and by. Let me the curtains draw.
 * Where art thou?

Unlocks the door Enter Emilia
 * What's the matter with thee now?

Emilia
 * O, my good lord, yonder's foul murders done!

Othello
 * What, now?

Emilia
 * But now, my lord.

Othello
 * It is the very error of the moon;
 * She comes more nearer earth than she was wont,
 * And makes men mad.

Emilia
 * Cassio, my lord, hath kill'd a young Venetian
 * Call'd Roderigo.

Othello
 * Roderigo kill'd!
 * And Cassio kill'd!

Emilia
 * No, Cassio is not kill'd.

Othello
 * Not Cassio kill'd! then murder's out of tune,
 * And sweet revenge grows harsh.

Desdemona
 * O, falsely, falsely murder'd!

Emilia
 * Alas, what cry is that?

Othello
 * That! what?

Emilia
 * Out, and alas! that was my lady's voice.
 * Help! help, ho! help! O lady, speak again!
 * Sweet Desdemona! O sweet mistress, speak!

Desdemona
 * A guiltless death I die.

Emilia
 * O, who hath done this deed?

Desdemona
 * Nobody; I myself. Farewell
 * Commend me to my kind lord: O, farewell!

Dies

Othello
 * Why, how should she be murder'd?

Emilia
 * Alas, who knows?

Othello
 * You heard her say herself, it was not I.

Emilia
 * She said so: I must needs report the truth.

Othello
 * She's, like a liar, gone to burning hell:
 * 'Twas I that kill'd her.

Emilia
 * O, the more angel she,
 * And you the blacker devil!

Othello
 * She turn'd to folly, and she was a whore.

Emilia
 * Thou dost belie her, and thou art a devil.

Othello
 * She was false as water.

Emilia
 * Thou art rash as fire, to say
 * That she was false: O, she was heavenly true!

Othello
 * Cassio did top her; ask thy husband else.
 * O, I were damn'd beneath all depth in hell,
 * But that I did proceed upon just grounds
 * To this extremity. Thy husband knew it all.

Emilia
 * My husband!

Othello
 * Thy husband.

Emilia
 * That she was false to wedlock?

Othello
 * Ay, with Cassio. Nay, had she been true,
 * If heaven would make me such another world
 * Of one entire and Perfect chrysolite,
 * I'ld not have sold her for it.

Emilia
 * My husband!

Othello
 * Ay, 'twas he that told me first:
 * An honest man he is, and hates the slime
 * That sticks on filthy deeds.

Emilia
 * My husband!

Othello
 * What needs this iteration, woman? I say thy husband.

Emilia
 * O mistress, villany hath made mocks with love,
 * My husband say that she was false!

Othello
 * He, woman;
 * I say thy husband: dost understand the word?
 * My friend, thy husband, honest, honest Iago.

Emilia
 * If he say so, may his pernicious soul
 * Rot half a grain a day! he lies to the heart:
 * She was too fond of her most filthy bargain.

Othello
 * Ha!

Emilia
 * Do thy worst:
 * This deed of thine is no more worthy heaven
 * Than thou wast worthy her.

Othello
 * Peace, you were best.

Emilia
 * Thou hast not half that power to do me harm
 * As I have to be hurt. O gull! O dolt!
 * As ignorant as dirt! thou hast done a deed--
 * I care not for thy sword; I'll make thee known,
 * Though I lost twenty lives.--Help! help, ho! help!
 * The Moor hath kill'd my mistress! Murder! murder!

Enter MONTANO, GRATIANO, Iago, and others

Montano
 * What is the matter? How now, general!

Emilia
 * O, are you come, Iago? you have done well,
 * That men must lay their murders on your neck.

Gratiano
 * What is the matter?

Emilia
 * Disprove this villain, if thou be'st a man:
 * He says thou told'st him that his wife was false:
 * I know thou didst not, thou'rt not such a villain:
 * Speak, for my heart is full.

Iago
 * I told him what I thought, and told no more
 * Than what he found himself was apt and true.

Emilia
 * But did you ever tell him she was false?

Iago
 * I did.

Emilia
 * You told a lie, an odious, damned lie;
 * Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie.
 * She false with Cassio!--did you say with Cassio?

Iago
 * With Cassio, mistress. Go to, charm your tongue.

Emilia
 * I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to speak:
 * My mistress here lies murder'd in her bed,--

All
 * O heavens forfend!

Emilia
 * And your reports have set the murder on.

Othello
 * Nay, stare not, masters: it is true, indeed.

Gratiano
 * 'Tis a strange truth.

Montano
 * O monstrous act!

Emilia
 * Villany, villany, villany!
 * I think upon't, I think: I smell't: O villany!--
 * I thought so then:--I'll kill myself for grief:--
 * O villany, villany!

Iago
 * What, are you mad? I charge you, get you home.

Emilia
 * Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak:
 * 'Tis proper I obey him, but not now.
 * Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home.

Othello
 * O! O! O!

He falls on the bed

Emilia
 * Nay, lay thee down and roar;
 * For thou hast kill'd the sweetest innocent
 * That e'er did lift up eye.

Othello
 * Rising O, she was foul!
 * I scarce did know you, uncle: there lies your niece,
 * Whose breath, indeed, these hands have newly stopp'd:
 * I know this act shows horrible and grim.

Gratiano
 * Poor Desdemona! I am glad thy father's dead:
 * Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief
 * Shore his old thread in twain: did he live now,
 * This sight would make him do a desperate turn,
 * Yea, curse his better angel from his side,
 * And fall to reprobation.

Othello
 * 'Tis pitiful; but yet Iago knows
 * That she with Cassio hath the act of shame
 * A thousand times committed; Cassio confess'd it:
 * And she did gratify his amorous works
 * With that recognizance and pledge of love
 * Which I first gave her; I saw it in his hand:
 * It was a handkerchief, an antique token
 * My father gave my mother.

Emilia
 * O heaven! O heavenly powers!

Iago
 * Come, hold your peace.

Emilia
 * 'Twill out, 'twill out: I peace!
 * No, I will speak as liberal as the north:
 * Let heaven and men and devils, let them all,
 * All, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak.

Iago
 * Be wise, and get you home.

Emilia
 * I will not.

Iago offers to stab Emilia

Gratiano
 * Fie!
 * Your sword upon a woman?

Emilia
 * O thou dull Moor! that handkerchief thou speak'st of
 * I found by fortune and did give my husband;
 * For often, with a solemn earnestness,
 * More than indeed belong'd to such a trifle,
 * He begg'd of me to steal it.

Iago
 * Villanous whore!

Emilia
 * She give it Cassio! no, alas! I found it,
 * And I did give't my husband.

Iago
 * Filth, thou liest!

Emilia
 * By heaven, I do not, I do not, gentlemen.
 * O murderous coxcomb! what should such a fool
 * Do with so good a woman?

Othello
 * Are there no stones in heaven
 * But what serve for the thunder?--Precious villain!

He runs at Iago Iago, from behind, stabs Emilia, and exit

Gratiano
 * The woman falls; sure, he hath kill'd his wife.

Emilia
 * Ay, ay: O, lay me by my mistress' side.

Gratiano
 * He's gone, but his wife's kill'd.

Montano
 * 'Tis a notorious villain. Take you this weapon,
 * Which I have here recover'd from the Moor:
 * Come, guard the door without; let him not pass,
 * But kill him rather. I'll after that same villain,
 * For 'tis a damned slave.

Exeunt MONTANO and GRATIANO

Othello
 * I am not valiant neither,
 * But ever puny whipster gets my sword:
 * But why should honour outlive honesty?
 * Let it go all.

Emilia
 * What did thy song bode, lady?
 * Hark, canst thou hear me? I will play the swan.
 * And die in music.

Singing
 * Willow, willow, willow,--
 * Moor, she was chaste; she loved thee, cruel Moor;
 * So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true;
 * So speaking as I think, I die, I die.

Dies

Othello
 * I have another weapon in this chamber;
 * It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook's temper:--
 * O, here it is. Uncle, I must come forth.

Gratiano
 * Within If thou attempt it, it will cost thee dear:
 * Thou hast no weapon, and perforce must suffer.

Othello
 * Look in upon me then and speak with me,
 * Or, naked as I am, I will assault thee.

Re-enter GRATIANO

Gratiano
 * What is the matter?

Othello
 * Behold, I have a weapon;
 * A better never did itself sustain
 * Upon a soldier's thigh: I have seen the day,
 * That, with this little arm and this good sword,
 * I have made my way through more impediments
 * Than twenty times your stop: but, O vain boast!
 * Who can control his fate? 'tis not so now.
 * Be not afraid, though you do see me weapon'd;
 * Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,
 * And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.
 * Do you go back dismay'd? 'tis a lost fear;
 * Man but a rush against Othello's breast,
 * And he retires. Where should Othello go?
 * Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starr'd wench!
 * Pale as thy smock! when we shall meet at compt,
 * This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven,
 * And fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl!
 * Even like thy chastity. O cursed slave!
 * Whip me, ye devils,
 * From the possession of this heavenly sight!
 * Blow me about in winds! roast me in sulphur!
 * Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!
 * O Desdemona! Desdemona! dead!
 * Oh! Oh! Oh!

''Enter Lodovico. MONTANO, Cassio carried in a chair, and Officers with Iago, prisoner''

Lodovico
 * Where is this rash and most unfortunate man?

Othello
 * That's he that was Othello: here I am.

Lodovico
 * Where is that viper? bring the villain forth.

Othello
 * I look down towards his feet; but that's a fable.
 * If that thou best a devil, I cannot kill thee.

Wounds Iago

Lodovico
 * Wrench his sword from him.

Iago
 * I bleed, sir; but not kill'd.

Othello
 * I am not sorry neither: I'ld have thee live;
 * For, in my sense, 'tis happiness to die.

Lodovico
 * O thou Othello, thou wert once so good,
 * Fall'n in the practise of a damned slave,
 * What shall be said to thee?

Othello
 * Why, any thing:
 * An honourable murderer, if you will;
 * For naught I did in hate, but all in honour.

Lodovico
 * This wretch hath part confess'd his villany:
 * Did you and he consent in Cassio's death?

Othello
 * Ay.

Cassio
 * Dear general, I never gave you cause.

Othello
 * I do believe it, and I ask your pardon.
 * Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil
 * Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body?

Iago
 * Demand me nothing: what you know, you know:
 * From this time forth I never will speak word.

Lodovico
 * What, not to pray?

Gratiano
 * Torments will ope your lips.

Othello
 * Well, thou dost best.

Lodovico
 * Sir, you shall understand what hath befall'n,
 * Which, as I think, you know not. Here is a letter
 * Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo;
 * And here another: the one of them imports
 * The death of Cassio to be undertook
 * By Roderigo.

Othello
 * O villain!

Cassio
 * Most heathenish and most gross!

Lodovico
 * Now here's another discontented paper,
 * Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems,
 * Roderigo meant to have sent this damned villain;
 * But that belike Iago in the interim
 * Came in and satisfied him.

Othello
 * O the pernicious caitiff!
 * How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief
 * That was my wife's?

Cassio
 * I found it in my chamber:
 * And he himself confess'd but even now
 * That there he dropp'd it for a special purpose
 * Which wrought to his desire.

Othello
 * O fool! fool! fool!

Cassio
 * There is besides in Roderigo's letter,
 * How he upbraids Iago, that he made him
 * Brave me upon the watch; whereon it came
 * That I was cast: and even but now he spake,
 * After long seeming dead, Iago hurt him,
 * Iago set him on.

Lodovico
 * You must forsake this room, and go with us:
 * Your power and your command is taken off,
 * And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave,
 * If there be any cunning cruelty
 * That can torment him much and hold him long,
 * It shall be his. You shall close prisoner rest,
 * Till that the nature of your fault be known
 * To the Venetian state. Come, bring him away.

Othello
 * Soft you; a word or two before you go.
 * I have done the state some service, and they know't.
 * No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,
 * When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
 * Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
 * Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak
 * Of one that loved not wisely but too well;
 * Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought
 * Perplex'd in the extreme; of one whose hand,
 * Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
 * Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes,
 * Albeit unused to the melting mood,
 * Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
 * Their medicinal gum. Set you down this;
 * And say besides, that in Aleppo once,
 * Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk
 * Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
 * I took by the throat the circumcised dog,
 * And smote him, thus.

Stabs himself

Lodovico
 * O bloody period!

Gratiano
 * All that's spoke is marr'd.

Othello
 * I kiss'd thee ere I kill'd thee: no way but this;
 * Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.

Falls on the bed, and dies

Cassio
 * This did I fear, but thought he had no weapon;
 * For he was great of heart.

Lodovico
 * To Iago O Spartan dog,
 * More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea!
 * Look on the tragic loading of this bed;
 * This is thy work: the object poisons sight;
 * Let it be hid. Gratiano, keep the house,
 * And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor,
 * For they succeed on you. To you, lord governor,
 * Remains the censure of this hellish villain;
 * The time, the place, the torture: O, enforce it!
 * Myself will straight aboard: and to the state
 * This heavy act with heavy heart relate.

Exeunt