Cyprus. Before the castle.
[Enter OTHELLO and IAGO]
IAGO Will you think so?
OTHELLO Think so, Iago!
IAGO What,
To kiss in private?
OTHELLO An unauthorized kiss.
IAGO Or to be naked with her friend in bed
An hour or more, not meaning any harm?
OTHELLO Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm!
It is hypocrisy against the devil:
They that mean virtuously, and yet do so,
The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.
IAGO So they do nothing, ’tis a venial slip:
But if I give my wife a handkerchief,–
OTHELLO What then?
IAGO Why, then, ’tis hers, my lord; and, being hers,
She may, I think, bestow’t on any man.
OTHELLO She is protectress of her honour too:
May she give that?
IAGO Her honour is an essence that’s not seen;
They have it very oft that have it not:
But, for the handkerchief,–
OTHELLO
By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it.
Thou said’st, it comes o’er my memory,
As doth the raven o’er the infected house,
Boding to all–he had my handkerchief.
IAGO Ay, what of that?
OTHELLO That’s not so good now.
IAGO What,
If I had said I had seen him do you wrong?
Or heard him say,–as knaves be such abroad,
Who having, by their own importunate suit,
Or voluntary dotage of some mistress,
Convinced or supplied them, cannot choose
But they must blab–
OTHELLO Hath he said any thing?
IAGO He hath, my lord; but be you well assured,
No more than he’ll unswear.
OTHELLO What hath he said?
IAGO ‘Faith, that he did–I know not what he did.
OTHELLO What? what?
IAGO Lie–
OTHELLO With her?
IAGO With her, on her; what you will.
OTHELLO
Lie with her! lie on her! We say lie on her, when
they belie her. Lie with her! that’s fulsome.
–Handkerchief–confessions–handkerchief!–To
confess, and be hanged for his labour;–first, to be
hanged, and then to confess.–I tremble at it.
Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing
passion without some instruction. It is not words
that shake me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips.
–Is’t possible?–Confess–handkerchief!–O devil!–
[Falls in a trance]
IAGO Work on,
My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught;
And many worthy and chaste dames even thus,
All guiltless, meet reproach. What, ho! my lord!
My lord, I say! Othello!
[Enter CASSIO]
How now, Cassio!
CASSIO What’s the matter?
IAGO My lord is fall’n into an epilepsy:
This is his second fit; he had one yesterday.
CASSIO Rub him about the temples.
IAGO No, forbear;
The lethargy must have his quiet course:
If not, he foams at mouth and by and by
Breaks out to savage madness. Look he stirs:
Do you withdraw yourself a little while,
He will recover straight: when he is gone,
I would on great occasion speak with you.
[Exit CASSIO]
How is it, general? have you not hurt your head?
OTHELLO Dost thou mock me?
IAGO I mock you! no, by heaven.
Would you would bear your fortune like a man!
OTHELLO A horned man’s a monster and a beast.
IAGO There’s many a beast then in a populous city,
And many a civil monster.
OTHELLO Did he confess it?
IAGO Good sir, be a man;
Think every bearded fellow that’s but yoked
May draw with you: there’s millions now alive
That nightly lie in those unproper beds
Which they dare swear peculiar: your case is better.
O, ’tis the spite of hell, the fiend’s arch-mock,
To lip a wanton in a secure couch,
And to suppose her chaste! No, let me know;
And knowing what I am, I know what she shall be.
OTHELLO O, thou art wise; ’tis certain.
IAGO Stand you awhile apart;
Confine yourself but in a patient list.
Whilst you were here o’erwhelmed with your grief–
A passion most unsuiting such a man–
Cassio came hither: I shifted him away,
And laid good ‘scuse upon your ecstasy,
Bade him anon return and here speak with me;
The which he promised. Do but encave yourself,
And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns,
That dwell in every region of his face;
For I will make him tell the tale anew,
Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when
He hath, and is again to cope your wife:
I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience;
Or I shall say you are all in all in spleen,
And nothing of a man.
OTHELLO Dost thou hear, Iago?
I will be found most cunning in my patience;
But–dost thou hear?–most bloody.
IAGO That’s not amiss;
But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw?
[OTHELLO retires]
Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,
A housewife that by selling her desires
Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature
That dotes on Cassio; as ’tis the strumpet’s plague
To beguile many and be beguiled by one:
He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain
From the excess of laughter. Here he comes:
[Re-enter CASSIO]
As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;
And his unbookish jealousy must construe
Poor Cassio’s smiles, gestures and light behavior,
Quite in the wrong. How do you now, lieutenant?
CASSIO The worser that you give me the addition
Whose want even kills me.
IAGO Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on’t.
[Speaking lower]
Now, if this suit lay in Bianco’s power,
How quickly should you speed!
CASSIO Alas, poor caitiff!
OTHELLO Look, how he laughs already!
IAGO I never knew woman love man so.
CASSIO Alas, poor rogue!
I think, i’ faith, she loves me.
OTHELLO
Now he denies it faintly, and laughs it out.
IAGO Do you hear, Cassio?
OTHELLO Now he importunes him
To tell it o’er: go to; well said, well said.
IAGO She gives it out that you shall marry hey:
Do you intend it?
CASSIO Ha, ha, ha!
OTHELLO Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?
CASSIO I marry her! what? a customer! Prithee,
bear some charity to my wit: do not think it so
unwholesome. Ha, ha, ha!
OTHELLO So, so, so, so: they laugh that win.
IAGO ‘Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her.
CASSIO Prithee, say true.
IAGO I am a very villain else.
OTHELLO Have you scored me? Well.
CASSIO This is the monkey’s own giving out: she is
persuaded I will marry her, out of her own love and
flattery, not out of my promise.
OTHELLO Iago beckons me; now he begins the story.
CASSIO
She was here even now; she haunts me in every place.
I was the other day talking on the sea-bank with
certain Venetians; and thither comes the bauble,
and, by this hand, she falls me thus about my neck–
OTHELLO Crying ‘O dear Cassio!’ as it were:
his gesture imports it.
CASSIO So hangs, and lolls, and weeps upon me;
so hales, and pulls me: ha, ha, ha!
OTHELLO Now he tells how she plucked him to my
chamber. O, I see that nose of yours, but not that dog
I shall throw it to.
CASSIO Well, I must leave her company.
IAGO Before me! look, where she comes.
CASSIO
‘Tis such another fitchew! marry a perfumed one.
[Enter BIANCA]
What do you mean by this haunting of me?
BIANCA Let the devil and his dam haunt you!
What did you mean by that same handkerchief you
gave me even now? I was a fine fool to take it. I must
take out the work?–A likely piece of work, that you
should find it in your chamber, and not know who
left it there! This is some minx’s token, and I must take
out the work? There; give it your hobby-horse:
wheresoever you had it, I’ll take out no work on’t.
CASSIO
How now, my sweet Bianca! how now! how now!
OTHELLO
By heaven, that should be my handkerchief!
BIANCA An you’ll come to supper to-night, you may;
an you will not, come when you are next prepared for.
[Exit]
IAGO After her, after her.
CASSIO ‘ Faith, I must; she’ll rail in the street else.
IAGO Will you sup there?
CASSIO ‘ Faith, I intend so.
IAGO Well, I may chance to see you; for I would
very fain speak with you.
CASSIO Prithee, come; will you?
IAGO Go to; say no more.
[Exit CASSIO]
OTHELLO [Advancing] How shall I murder him, Iago?
IAGO Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice?
OTHELLO O Iago!
IAGO And did you see the handkerchief?
OTHELLO Was that mine?
IAGO Yours by this hand: and to see how he prizes
the foolish woman your wife! she gave it him, and he
hath given it his whore.
OTHELLO I would have him nine years a-killing.
A fine woman! a fair woman! a sweet woman!
IAGO Nay, you must forget that.
OTHELLO Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be damned
to-night; for she shall not live: no, my heart is turned to
stone; I strike it, and it hurts my hand. O, the world
hath not a sweeter creature: she might lie by an
emperor’s side and command him tasks.
IAGO Nay, that’s not your way.
OTHELLO Hang her! I do but say what she is: so delicate
with her needle: an admirable musician: O! she will sing
the savageness out of a bear: of so high and plenteous
wit and invention:–
IAGO She’s the worse for all this.
OTHELLO O, a thousand thousand times: and then,
of so gentle a condition!
IAGO Ay, too gentle.
OTHELLO Nay, that’s certain: but yet the pity of it, Iago!
O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!
IAGO If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her
patent to offend; for, if it touch not you, it comes
near nobody.
OTHELLO I will chop her into messes: cuckold me!
IAGO O, ’tis foul in her.
OTHELLO With mine officer!
IAGO That’s fouler.
OTHELLO Get me some poison, Iago; this night: I’ll not
expostulate with her, lest her body and beauty
unprovide my mind again: this night, Iago.
IAGO Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed,
even the bed she hath contaminated.
OTHELLO
Good, good: the justice of it pleases: very good.
IAGO And for Cassio, let me be his undertaker:
you shall hear more by midnight.
OTHELLO Excellent good.
[A trumpet within]
What trumpet is that same?
IAGO Something from Venice, sure. ‘Tis Lodovico
Come from the duke: and, see, your wife is with him.
[Enter LODOVICO, DESDEMONA,
and Attendants]
LODOVICO Save you, worthy general!
OTHELLO With all my heart, sir.
LODOVICO
The duke and senators of Venice greet you.
[Gives him a letter]
OTHELLO I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.
[Opens the letter, and reads]
DESDEMONA
And what’s the news, good cousin Lodovico?
IAGO I am very glad to see you, signior
Welcome to Cyprus.
LODOVICO I thank you. How does Lieutenant Cassio?
IAGO Lives, sir.
DESDEMONA
Cousin, there’s fall’n between him and my lord
An unkind breach: but you shall make all well.
OTHELLO Are you sure of that?
DESDEMONA My lord?
OTHELLO [Reads] ‘This fail you not to do, as you will–‘
LODOVICO He did not call; he’s busy in the paper.
Is there division ‘twixt my lord and Cassio?
DESDEMONA A most unhappy one: I would do much
To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio.
OTHELLO Fire and brimstone!
DESDEMONA My lord?
OTHELLO Are you wise?
DESDEMONA What, is he angry?
LODOVICO May be the letter moved him;
For, as I think, they do command him home,
Deputing Cassio in his government.
DESDEMONA Trust me, I am glad on’t.
OTHELLO Indeed!
DESDEMONA My lord?
OTHELLO I am glad to see you mad.
DESDEMONA Why, sweet Othello,–
OTHELLO [Striking her] Devil!
DESDEMONA I have not deserved this.
LODOVICO
My lord, this would not be believed in Venice,
Though I should swear I saw’t: ’tis very much:
Make her amends; she weeps.
OTHELLO O devil, devil!
If that the earth could teem with woman’s tears,
Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.
Out of my sight!
DESDEMONA I will not stay to offend you.
[Going]
LODOVICO Truly, an obedient lady:
I do beseech your lordship, call her back.
OTHELLO Mistress!
DESDEMONA My lord?
OTHELLO What would you with her, sir?
LODOVICO Who, I, my lord?
OTHELLO Ay;
you did wish that I would make her turn:
Sir, she can turn, and turn, and yet go on,
And turn again; and she can weep, sir, weep;
And she’s obedient, as you say, obedient,
Very obedient. Proceed you in your tears.
Concerning this, sir,–O well-painted passion!–
I am commanded home. Get you away;
I’ll send for you anon. Sir, I obey the mandate,
And will return to Venice. Hence, avaunt!
[Exit DESDEMONA]
Cassio shall have my place. And, sir, tonight,
I do entreat that we may sup together:
You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.–Goats and monkeys!
[Exit]
LODOVICO
Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate
Call all in all sufficient? Is this the nature
Whom passion could not shake? whose solid virtue
The shot of accident, nor dart of chance,
Could neither graze nor pierce?
IAGO He is much changed.
LODOVICO Are his wits safe? is he not light of brain?
IAGO
He’s that he is: I may not breathe my censure
What he might be: if what he might he is not,
I would to heaven he were!
LODOVICO What, strike his wife!
IAGO
‘Faith, that was not so well; yet would I knew
That stroke would prove the worst!
LODOVICO Is it his use?
Or did the letters work upon his blood,
And new-create this fault?
IAGO Alas, alas!
It is not honesty in me to speak
What I have seen and known. You shall observe him,
And his own courses will denote him so
That I may save my speech: do but go after,
And mark how he continues.
LODOVICO I am sorry that I am deceived in him.
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