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;
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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!
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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.
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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!
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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;
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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,
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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.
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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
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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.
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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!
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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;
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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?
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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!
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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;
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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.
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Be not afraid, though you do see me weaponed:
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
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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,
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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?
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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.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 428