The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 428

by William Shakespeare

EMILIA My husband!

  OTHELLO What needs

  This iterance, woman? I say thy husband.

  EMILIA

  O mistress, villainy hath made mocks with love!

  My husband say she was false?

  OTHELLO He, woman;

  150

  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 th’ heart:

  She was too fond of her most filthy bargain!

  155

  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.

  160

  As I have to be hurt. O gull, O dolt,

  As ignorant as dirt! Thou hast done a deed

  [He threatens her with his sword.]

  – I care not for thy sword, I’ll make thee known

  Though I lost twenty lives. Help, help, ho, help!

  The Moor hath killed my mistress! Murder, murder!

  165

  Enter MONTANO, GRATIANO and IAGO.

  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;

  170

  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.

  175

  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?

  180

  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 murdered in her bed.

  ALL O heavens forfend!

  EMILIA And your reports have set the murder on.

  185

  OTHELLO Nay, stare not, masters, it is true indeed.

  GRATIANO ’Tis a strange truth.

  MONTANO O monstrous act!

  EMILIA Villainy, villainy, villainy!

  I think upon’t, I think I smell’t, O villainy!

  190

  I thought so then: I’ll kill myself for grief!

  O villainy, villainy!

  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.

  195

  Perchance, Iago, I will ne’er go home.

  OTHELLO O! O! O! [Othello falls on the bed.]

  EMILIA Nay, lay thee down and roar

  For thou hast killed the sweetest innocent

  That e’er did lift up eye.

  OTHELLO O, she was foul.

  200

  I scarce did know you, uncle: there lies your niece

  Whose breath, indeed, these hands have newly

  stopped;

  I know this act shows horrible and grim.

  GRATIANO

  Poor Desdemon, I am glad thy father’s dead;

  Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief

  205

  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 reprobance.

  OTHELLO ’Tis pitiful; but yet Iago knows

  210

  That she with Cassio hath the act of shame

  A thousand times committed. Cassio confessed 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,

  215

  It was a handkerchief, an antique token

  My father gave my mother.

  EMILIA O God, O heavenly God!

  IAGO Zounds, hold your peace!

  EMILIA ’Twill out, ’twill out! I peace?

  No, I will speak as liberal as the north.

  220

  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 tries to stab Emilia.]

  GRATIANO Fie! Your sword upon a woman?

  EMILIA

  O thou dull Moor, that handkerchief thou speak’st of

  225

  I found by fortune and did give my husband,

  For often, with a solemn earnestness

  – More than indeed belonged to such a trifle –

  He begged of me to steal’t.

  IAGO Villainous whore!

  EMILIA She give it Cassio? No, alas, I found it

  And I did give’t my husband.

  230

  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 wife?

  [Othello runs at Iago. Iago stabs his wife.]

  OTHELLO Are there no stones in heaven

  But what serves for the thunder? Precious villain!

  235

  GRATIANO

  The woman falls, sure he hath killed his wife.

  EMILIA

  Ay, ay; O lay me by my mistress’ side. Exit Iago.

  GRATIANO He’s gone, but his wife’s killed.

  MONTANO

  ’Tis a notorious villain. Take you this weapon

  Which I have here recovered from the Moor;

  240

  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 every puny whipster gets my sword.

  But why should honour outlive honesty?

  245

  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. [Sings.] Willow, willow, willow.

  – Moor, she was chaste, she loved thee, cruel Moor,

  So come my soul to bliss as I speak true!

  250

  So speaking as I think, alas, I die. [She 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;

  255

  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.

  Enter GRATIANO.

  GRATIANO What is the matter?

  OTHELLO Behold, I have a weapon,

  A better never did itself sustain

  260

  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.

  265

  Be not afraid, though you do see me weaponed:r />
  Here is my journey’s end, here is my butt

  And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.

  Do you go back dismayed? ’tis a lost fear:

  Man but a rush against Othello’s breast

  270

  And he retires. Where should Othello go?

  Now: how dost thou look now? O ill-starred 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,

  275

  Even like thy chastity. O cursed, 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!

  280

  O Desdemon! dead, Desdemon. Dead! O, O!

  Enter LODOVICO, MONTANO, officers with IAGO, prisoner, and CASSIO in a chair

  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.

  285

  If that thou be’st a devil, I cannot kill thee.

  [Wounds Iago.]

  LODOVICO Wrench his sword from him.

  IAGO I bleed, sir, but not killed.

  OTHELLO I am not sorry neither, I’d have thee live:

  For in my sense ’tis happiness to die.

  LODOVICO

  O thou Othello, that wert once so good,

  290

  Fallen in the practice of a cursed slave,

  What shall be said to thee?

  OTHELLO Why, anything;

  An honourable murderer, if you will,

  For nought I did in hate, but all in honour.

  LODOVICO

  This wretch hath part confessed his villainy.

  295

  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

  300

  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.

  305

  LODOVICO

  Sir, you shall understand what hath befallen,

  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

  310

  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 t’have sent this damned villain

  315

  But that, belike, Iago in the nick

  Came in, and satisfied him.

  OTHELLO

  O thou pernicious caitiff!

  How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief

  That was my wife’s?

  320

  CASSIO I found it in my chamber,

  And he himself confessed but even now

  That there he dropped 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

  325

  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 [to Othello]

  You must forsake this room and go with us.

  330

  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

  335

  Till that the nature of your fault be known

  To the Venetian state. Come, bring him away.

 

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