Or made a gift of it, my father’s eye
Should hold her loathèd and his spirits should hunt
After new fancies66: she, dying, gave it me,
And bid me, when my fate would have me wived,
To give it her68: 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 web73 of it:
A sibyl74, that had numbered in the world
The sun to course two hundred compasses75,
In her prophetic fury76 sewed the work:
The worms were hallowed77 that did breed the silk,
And it was dyed in mummy78 which the skilful
Conserved of79 maidens’ hearts.DESDEMONA Indeed? Is’t true?OTHELLO Most veritable: therefore look to’t well.DESDEMONA Then would to heaven that I had never seen’t!OTHELLO Ha? Wherefore?DESDEMONA Why do you speak so startingly and rash84?OTHELLO Is’t lost? Is’t gone? Speak, is’t out o’th’way85?DESDEMONA Bless us!OTHELLO Say you?DESDEMONA It is not lost, but what an if88 it were?OTHELLO How?89DESDEMONA I say it is not lost.OTHELLO Fetch’t, let me see’t.DESDEMONA Why, so I can, 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 misgives95.DESDEMONA Come, come,
You’ll never meet a more sufficient97 man.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 sooth103, you are to blame.OTHELLO Away!Exit OthelloEMILIA Is not this man jealous?DESDEMONA I ne’er saw this before.
Sure, there’s some wonder107 in this handkerchief:
I am most unhappy108 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:
They eat us hungerly111, and when they are full
They belch112 us.
Enter Iago and Cassio Look you, Cassio and my husband.IAGO There is no other way: ’tis she must do’t.
And, lo, the happiness115! 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 virtuous118 means I may again
Exist, and be a member of his love
Whom I with all the office120 of my heart
Entirely honour. I would not be delayed.
If my offence be of such mortal122 kind
That nor123 my service past, nor present sorrows,
Nor purposed merit in futurity124,
Can ransom me into his love again,
But126 to know so must be my benefit:
So shall I clothe me in a forced content,
And shut myself up in128 some other course,
To fortune’s alms129.DESDEMONA Alas, thrice-gentle Cassio,
My advocation131 is not now in tune;
My lord is not my lord; nor should I know him,
Were he in favour133 as in humour altered.
So help me every spirit sanctified
As I have spoken for you all my best
And stood within the blank136 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 suffice139 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 ranks144 into the air,
And like the devil from his very arm
Puffed his own brother146: and is he angry?
Something of moment147 then. I will go meet him:
There’s matter in’t indeed, if he be angry.Exit
DESDEMONA I prithee do so. Something, sure, of state149,
Either from Venice, or some unhatched practice150
Made demonstrable here in Cyprus to him,
Hath puddled152 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 indues155
Our other healthful members156 even to a sense
Of pain. Nay, we must think men are not gods,
Nor of them look for such observancy158
As fits the bridal. Beshrew159 me much, Emilia,
I was — unhandsome160 warrior as I am —
Arraigning161 his unkindness with my soul,
But now I find I had suborned the witness162,
And he’s indicted falsely.EMILIA Pray heaven it be state matters, as you think,
And no conception nor no jealous toy165
Concerning you.DESDEMONA Alas the day! I never gave him cause.EMILIA But jealous souls will not be answered so;
They are not ever jealous for the cause,
But jealous for they’re jealous: it is a monster
Begot upon171 itself, born on itself.DESDEMONA Heaven keep the 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.Exeunt [Desdemona and Emilia]
CASSIO I humbly thank your ladyship.
Enter BiancaBIANCA Save178 you, friend Cassio!CASSIO What make you179 from home?
How is’t with you, my most fair Bianca?
Indeed, 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 eight184 hours? And lovers’ absent hours
More tedious than the dial185 eight score times?
O weary reck’ning186!CASSIO Pardon me, Bianca: I have this while with leaden thoughts been pressed:
But I shall, in a more continuate189 time,
Strike off this score190 of absence. Sweet Bianca,Gives her
Desdemona’s handkerchief
Take me this work out191.BIANCA O Cassio, whence came this?
This is some token from a newer friend193:
To the felt absence now I feel a cause194.
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, neither: I found it in my chamber.
I like the work well. Ere it be demanded203 —
As like enough it will — I would 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 womaned209.BIANCA Why, I pray you?CASSIO Not that I love you not.BIANCA But that you do not love me.
I pray you bring213 me on the way a little,
And say if I shall see you soon at night214.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 circumstanced217.Exeunt
Act 4 Scene 1 running scene 8 continues
Enter Othello and IagoIAGO 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 devil8:
They that mean virtuously, and yet do so,
The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.IAGO If they do nothing, ’tis a venial11 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 not19.
But, for the handkerchief—OTHELLO By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it.
Thou said’st — O, it comes o’er my memory
As doth the raven23 o’er the infectious house,
Boding24 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 abroad28,
Who having by their own importunate29 suit,
Or voluntary dotage30 of some mistress,
Convincèd31 or supplied them, cannot choose
But they must blab—OTHELLO Hath he said anything?IAGO He hath, my lord, but be you well assured,
No more than he’ll unswear.OTHELLO What hath he said?IAGO Why, that he did37: 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 her42? We say ‘Lie on her’ when
they belie43 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 instruction46. It is not words that shakes
me thus. Pish! Noses48, ears and lips. Is’t possible? Confess?
Handkerchief? O devil!Falls in a trance
IAGO Work on,
My medicine51 works! Thus credulous fools are caught,
And many worthy and chaste dames even thus,
All guiltless, meet reproach53.— What, ho? My lord?
My lord, I say! Othello!—
Enter CassioHow 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 The lethargy59 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 occasion64 speak with you.[Exit Cassio]
How is it, general? Have you not hurt your head?OTHELLO Dost thou mock me66?IAGO I mock you not, by heaven.
Would you would bear your fortune like a man!OTHELLO A hornèd69 man’s a monster and a beast.IAGO There’s many a beast then in a populous city,
And many a civil71 monster.OTHELLO Did he confess it?IAGO Good sir, be a man.
Think every bearded74 fellow that’s but yoked
May draw75 with you: there’s millions now alive
That nightly lie in those unproper76 beds
Which they dare swear peculiar77: your case is better.
O, ’tis the spite of hell, the fiend’s arch-mock,
To lip79 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 list84.
Whilst you were here o’erwhelmèd with your grief —
A passion most unsuiting such a man —
Cassio came hither: I shifted him away87,
And laid good ’scuses upon your ecstasy88,
Bade him anon89 return and here speak with me,
The which he promised. Do but encave90 yourself
And mark the fleers91, 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 cope95 your wife.
I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience,
Or I shall say you’re all in all in spleen97,
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 time103 in all. Will you withdraw?Othello withdraws
Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,
A housewife105 that by selling her desires
Buys herself bread and cloth: it is a creature
That dotes on Cassio — as ’tis the strumpet107’s plague
To beguile108 many and be beguiled by one.
He, when he hears of her, cannot restrain109
From the excess of laughter. Here he comes.
Enter Cassio As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad,
And his unbookish112 jealousy must conster
Poor Cassio’s smiles, gestures and light113 behaviours
Quite in the wrong.— How do you, lieutenant?CASSIO The worser that you give me the addition115
Whose want116 even kills me.IAGO Ply Desdemona well, and you areLowers his voice
sure on’t117.
Now, if this suit lay in Bianca’s power,
How quickly should you speed119!CASSIO Alas, poor caitiff120!He laughs
OTHELLO Look how he laughs already!IAGO I never knew woman love man so.CASSIO Alas, poor rogue, I think, indeed, she loves me.OTHELLO Now he denies it faintly124, and laughs it out.IAGO Do you hear, Cassio?OTHELLO Now he importunes him
To tell it o’er: go to, well said127, well said.IAGO She gives it out that you shall marry her:
Do you intend it?CASSIO Ha, ha, ha!OTHELLO Do ye triumph131, Roman? Do you triumph?CASSIO I marry? What? A customer?132 Prithee bear some
charity to my wit: do not think it so unwholesome133. Ha,
ha, ha!OTHELLO So, so, so, so: they laugh that wins.IAGO Why, the cry136 goes that you marry her.CASSIO Prithee say true.IAGO I am a very villain else138.OTHELLO Have you scored me139? Well.CASSIO This is the monkey’s own giving out: she is
persuaded I will marry her, out of her own love and flattery141,
not out of my promise.OTHELLO Iago beckons me: now he begins the story.CASSIO She was here even now: she haunts144 me in every
place. I was the other day talking on the sea-bank145 with
certain Venetians, and thither comes the bauble146, and falls
me thus about my neck—Embraces him
OTHELLO Crying, ‘O dear Cassio!’ as it were: his gesture
imports149 it.CASSIO So hangs and lolls and weeps upon me, so shakes
and pulls me. Ha, ha, ha!OTHELLO Now he tells how she plucked152 him to my chamber.
O, I see that nose153 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.
Enter BiancaCASSIO ’Tis such another156 fitchew! Marry, a perfumed
one!— What do you mean by this haunting of me?BIANCA Let the devil and his dam158 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 work161, that you should find it in your chamber and
know not who left it there. This is some minx162’s token, and I
must take out the work? There, give it your hobby-horse163:
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