The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  EMILIA O, who hath done this deed?

  DESDEMONA

  Nobody, I myself. Farewell.

  Commend me to my kind lord. O, farewell! She dies

  OTHELLO

  Why, how should she be murdered?

  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 killed her.

  EMILIA

  O, the more angel she, and you the blacker devil!

  OTHELLO

  She turned 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 damned 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. Had she been true,

  If heaven would make me such another world

  Of one entire and perfect chrysolite

  I’d not have sold her for it.

  EMILIA My husband?

  OTHELLO

  Ay, ’twas he that told me on her first.

  An honest man he is, and hates the slime

  That sticks on filthy deeds.

  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.

  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.

  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, hot Help!

  The Moor hath killed my mistress. Murder, murder!

  Enter Montano, Graziano, 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.

  GRAZIANO What is the matter?

  EMILIA (to Iago)

  Disprove this villain if thou beest 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?

  IACO I did.

  EMILIA

  You told a lie, an odious, damnèd 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 murdered in her bed.

  ⌈MONTANO and GRAZIANO⌉ O heavens forfend!

  EMILIA (to Iago)

  And your reports have set the murder on.

  OTHELLO

  Nay, stare not, masters. It is true indeed.

  GRAZIANO

  ’Tis a strange truth.

  MONTANO O monstrous act!

  EMILIA

  Villainy, villainy, villainy!

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

  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.

  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 ⌈rising ⌉ O, she was foul!

  (To Graziano) 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

  GRAZIANO

  Poor Desdemon, 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 reprobance.

  OTHELLO

  ’Tis pitiful. But yet Iago knows

  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.

  It was a handkerchief, an antique token

  My father gave my mother.

  EMILIA O God! O heavenly God!

  IAGO

  ’Swounds, 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 ’em all,

  All, all cry shame against me, yet I’ll speak.

  IAGO Be wise and get you home.

  EMILIA I will not.

  Iago draws his sword

  GRAZIANO (to Iago) 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 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.

  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 Are there no stones in heaven

  But what serves for the thunder? Precious villain!

  The Moor runs at lago. Montano disarms Othello. Iago wounds his wife

  GRAZIANO

  The woman falls. Sure he hath killed his wife.

  EMILIA

  Ay, ay. O, lay me by my mistress’ side!

  Exit lago

  GRAZIANO 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.

  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 Graziano

  OTHELLO I am not valiant neither,

  But every 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. (Sings) ‘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, alas, I die. She dies

  OTHELLO

  I have another weapon in this chamber.

  It was a sword of Spain, the ice-brook’s temper.

  O, here it is. (Calling) Uncle, I must come forth.

  GRAZIANO (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.

  Enter Graziano

  GRAZIANO

  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 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

  And he retires. Where should Othello go?

  (To Desdemona) Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-

  starred wench,

  Pale as thy smock! When we shall meet at count

  This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven,

  And fiends will snatch at it.

  ⌈He touches her⌉

  Cold, cold, my girl,

  Even like thy chastity. O cursed, cursed slavel

  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 Desdemon! Dead Desdemon! Dead! 0! 0!

  Enter Lodovico, Montano, Iago guarded by officers, with 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.

  (To Iago) If that thou beest a devil I cannot kill thee.

  He wounds Iago

  LODOVICO

  Wrench his sword from him.

  Officers disarm Othello

  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 was once so good,

  Fall’n in the practice of a cursed slave,

  What shall be said to thee?

  OTHELLO Why, anything;

  An honourable murderer, if you will,

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

  LODOVICO

  This wretch hath part confessed his villainy.

  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 (to Iago) What, not to pray?

  GRAZIANO (to Iago) 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’ve sent this damned villain,

  But that, belike, Iago in the interim

  Came in and satisfied him.

  OTHELLO (to Iago) O thou pernicious caitiff!

  How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief

  That was my wife’s?

  CASSIO I found it in my chamber,

  And he himself confessed it, 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

  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.

  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. (To officers) Come, bring 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,

  Perplexed 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,

  Drops tears as fast as the Arabian trees

  Their medicinable gum. Set you down this,

  And say besides that in Aleppo once,

  Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk

  Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,

  I took by th’ throat the circumcised dog

  And smote him thus.

  He stabs himself

  LODOVICO O bloody period!

  GRAZIANO All that is spoke is marred.

  OTHELLO (to Desdemona)

  I kissed thee ere I killed thee. No way but this:

  Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.

  He kisses Desdemona 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,

  Loo
k on the tragic loading of this bed.

  This is thy work. The object poisons sight.

  Let it be hid.

  ⌈They close the bed-curtains ⌉

  Graziano, keep the house,

  And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor,

  For they succeed on you. (To Cassio) 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 ⌈with Emilia’s bodyl ⌉

  THE HISTORY OF KING LEAR

  THE QUARTO TEXT

  King Lear first appeared in print in a quarto of 1608. A substantially different text appeared in the 1623 Folio. Until the first appearance of the Oxford text, editors, assuming that each of these early texts imperfectly represented a single play, conflated them. But research conducted mainly during the 1970s and 1980s confirms an earlier view that the 1608 quarto represents the play as Shakespeare originally wrote it, and the 1623 Folio as he substantially revised it. He revised other plays, too, but usually by making many small changes in the dialogue and adding or omitting passages, as in Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, and Othello. For these plays we print the revised text in so far as it can be ascertained. But in King Lear revisions are not simply local but structural, too; conflation, as Harley Granville-Barker wrote, ‘may make for redundancy or confusion’, so we print an edited version of each text. The first, printed in the following pages, represents the play as Shakespeare first conceived it, probably before it was performed.

  The story of a king who, angry with the failure of his virtuous youngest daughter (Cordelia) to respond as he desires in a love-test, divides his kingdom between her two malevolent sisters (Gonoril and Regan), had been often told; Shakespeare would have come upon it in Holinshed’s Chronicles and in A Mirror for Magistrates while reading for his plays on English history. It is told also (though briefly) in Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene (Book 2, canto 10), and had been dramatized in a play of unknown authorship—The True Chronicle History of King Leir and his three daughters—published in 1605, but probably written some fifteen years earlier. This play particularly gave Shakespeare much, including suggestions for the characters of Lear’s loyal servant, Kent, and of Gonoril’s husband, Albany, and her steward, Oswald; for the storm; for Lear’s kneeling to Cordelia; and for many details of language. Nevertheless, his play is a highly original creation. Lear’s madness and the harrowing series of disasters in King Lear’s final stages are of Shakespeare’s invention, and he complicates the plot by adding the story (based on an episode of Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia) of Gloucester and his two sons, Edmund and Edgar. Edgar’s love and loyalty to the father who, failing to see the truth, has rejected him in favour of the villainous Edmund makes him a counterpart to Cordelia; and the horrific blinding of Gloucester brought about by Edmund creates a physical parallel to Lear’s madness which reaches its consummation in the scene (Sc. 20) at Dover Cliff when the mad and the blind old men commune together.