That by your virtuous means I may again
Exist, and be a member of his love
Whom I with all the office of my heart
Entirely honour: I would not be delay’d.
If my offence be of such mortal kind
That nor my service past, nor present sorrows,
Nor purposed merit in futurity,
Can ransom me into his love again,
But to know so must be my benefit;
So shall I clothe me in a forced content,
And shut myself up in some other course,
To fortune’s alms.
Desdemona
Alas, thrice-gentle Cassio!
My advocation is not now in tune;
My lord is not my lord; nor should I know him,
Were he in favour as in humour alter’d.
So help me every spirit sanctified,
As I have spoken for you all my best
And stood within the blank 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 suffice 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 ranks into the air,
And, like the devil, from his very arm
Puff’d his own brother:— and can he be angry?
Something of moment then: I will go meet him:
There’s matter in’t indeed, if he be angry.
Desdemona
I prithee, do so.
Exit Iago
Something, sure, of state,
Either from Venice, or some unhatch’d practise
Made demonstrable here in Cyprus to him,
Hath puddled 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 indues
Our other healthful members even to that sense
Of pain: nay, we must think men are not gods,
Nor of them look for such observances
As fit the bridal. Beshrew me much, Emilia,
I was, unhandsome warrior as I am,
Arraigning his unkindness with my soul;
But now I find I had suborn’d the witness,
And he’s indicted falsely.
Emilia
Pray heaven it be state-matters, as you think,
And no conception nor no jealous toy
Concerning you.
Desdemona
Alas the day! I never gave him cause.
Emilia
But jealous souls will not be answer’d so;
They are not ever jealous for the cause,
But jealous for they are jealous: ’tis a monster
Begot upon itself, born on itself.
Desdemona
Heaven keep that 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.
Cassio
I humbly thank your ladyship.
Exeunt Desdemona and Emilia
Enter Bianca
Bianca
Save you, friend Cassio!
Cassio
What make you from home?
How is it with you, my most fair Bianca?
I’ faith, 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 eight hours? and lovers’ absent hours,
More tedious than the dial eight score times?
O weary reckoning!
Cassio
Pardon me, Bianca:
I have this while with leaden thoughts been press’d:
But I shall, in a more continuate time,
Strike off this score of absence. Sweet Bianca,
Giving her Desdemona’s handkerchief
Take me this work out.
Bianca
O Cassio, whence came this?
This is some token from a newer friend:
To the felt absence now I feel a cause:
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, sweet: I found it in my chamber.
I like the work well: ere it be demanded —
As like enough it will — I’ld 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 woman’d.
Bianca
Why, I pray you?
Cassio
Not that I love you not.
Bianca
But that you do not love me.
I pray you, bring me on the way a little,
And say if I shall see you soon at night.
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 circumstanced.
Exeunt
ACT IV
SCENE I. 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.
Complete Plays, The Page 94