The Complete Works of William Shakespeare In Plain and Simple English (Translated)

by William Shakespeare

  When she shall lack it.

  When she sees she does not have it.

  IAGO

  Be not acknown on 't; I have use for it.

  Do not admit you know where it is. I need it for a reason.

  Go, leave me.

  Go, leave me.

  Exit EMILIA

  I will in Cassio's lodging lose this napkin,

  I will place this napkin in Cassio’s place

  And let him find it. Trifles light as air

  And make sure he finds it. Such a little thing

  Are to the jealous confirmations strong

  Becomes the confirmation of a jealous man’s thoughts,

  As proofs of holy writ: this may do something.

  As if they were holy proof. This might work.

  The Moor already changes with my poison:

  The Moor is already affected by what I said to him.

  Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons.

  Evil ideas are really just like poisons:

  Which at the first are scarce found to distaste,

  At first, they aren’t even distasted,

  But with a little act upon the blood.

  But then they get into the blood.

  Burn like the mines of Sulphur. I did say so:

  There they burn like mines of sulphur.

  Look, where he comes!

  Look, here he comes!

  Re-enter OTHELLO

  Not poppy, nor mandragora,

  No flower

  Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,

  Or medicine in all the world

  Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep

  Will ever force you into the sweet sleep

  Which thou owedst yesterday.

  That you had yesterday.

  OTHELLO

  Ha! ha! false to me?

  Ah! Is she cheating on me?

  IAGO

  Why, how now, general! no more of that.

  What? Now, general, no more of that!

  OTHELLO

  Avaunt! be gone! thou hast set me on the rack:

  Go away! You have place me on the torture rack.

  I swear 'tis better to be much abused

  It is better to be taken advantage of completely

  Than but to know't a little.

  Than to know about it at all.

  IAGO

  How now, my lord!

  What are you saying, my lord!

  OTHELLO

  What sense had I of her stol'n hours of lust?

  Did I know anything of the hours she spent cheating on me?

  I saw't not, thought it not, it harm'd not me:

  I didn’t see it or think it, and it didn’t hurt me.

  I slept the next night well, was free and merry;

  I slept well, and was happy.

  I found not Cassio's kisses on her lips:

  I never tasted Cassio on her lips.

  He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stol'n,

  Whoever is robbed but does not notice it

  Let him not know't, and he's not robb'd at all.

  Should never be told, since he is not really robbed at all.

  IAGO

  I am sorry to hear this.

  I am sorry to hear this.

  OTHELLO

  I had been happy, if the general camp,

  I would have been happier if the entire squadron,

  Pioners and all, had tasted her sweet body,

  Even the lowest ranking soldiers, had had sex with her,

  So I had nothing known. O, now, for ever

  As long as I didn’t know. And now, forever,

  Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!

  Goodbye peaceful mind! Goodbye happiness!

  Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars,

  Goodbye to the soldiers and wars

  That make ambition virtue! O, farewell!

  That make one great! O, goodbye!

  Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump,

  Goodbye to the neighing horse and loud trumpet,

  The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,

  The patriotic drum, the flute,

  The royal banner, and all quality,

  The royal flag and all the glory,

  Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war!

  The pride, festivity, and situations of war!

  And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats

  And you, the cannons whose sounds

  The immortal Jove's dead clamours counterfeit,

  Rival Jove’s thunderbolts,

  Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone!

  Goodbye! My career is ruined!

  IAGO

  Is't possible, my lord?

  Is that possible, my lord?

  OTHELLO

  Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore,

  Villain, you had better be sure that you can prove my love is a whore.

  Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof:

  Be sure of it and give me visible proof,

  Or by the worth of man's eternal soul,

  Or I swear by a man’s eternal soul

  Thou hadst been better have been born a dog

  That you would rather have been born a dog

  Than answer my waked wrath!

  Than stand in front of my anger!

  IAGO

  Is't come to this?

  Has it come to this?

  OTHELLO

  Make me to see't; or, at the least, so prove it,

  Make me see it, or at the least, prove it

  That the probation bear no hinge nor loop

  So that there is no possible explanation

  To hang a doubt on; or woe upon thy life!

  That doubts it, or your life will be destroyed!

  IAGO

  My noble lord,--

  My noble lord –

  OTHELLO

  If thou dost slander her and torture me,

  If you are speaking poorly of her in order to torture me,

  Never pray more; abandon all remorse;

  Then you should stop praying. Do not think you can repent.

  On horror's head horrors accumulate;

  On your head evil deeds will be numbered,

  Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed;

  So do such awful things that heaven cries and all of the earth is stunned.

  For nothing canst thou to damnation add

  Nothing can add to the damnation

  Greater than that.

  You would already receive.

  IAGO

  O grace! O heaven forgive me!

  O God! O God forgive me!

  Are you a man? have you a soul or sense?

  Are you still a man, and do you still have sense?

  God be wi' you; take mine office. O wretched fool.

  Please, I resign my rank. I am a fool,

  That livest to make thine honesty a vice!

  For living to tell the truth and then seeing that it is a vice!

  O monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world,

  O awful world! O world, be forewarned:

  To be direct and honest is not safe.

  It is not safe to be honest and straightforward.

  I thank you for this profit; and from hence

  Thank you for teaching me this, and from now on

  I'll love no friend, sith love breeds such offence.

  I will give such love to no one, since it only hurts them.

  OTHELLO

  Nay, stay: thou shouldst be honest.

  No, stay, you should be honest.

  IAGO

  I should be wise, for honesty's a fool

  No, I should be wise. Honesty is foolish

  And loses that it works for.

  And loses the friendship it works to serve.

  OTHELLO

  By the world,

  By God,

  I think my wife be honest and think she is not;
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  I think my wife is honest and dishonest,

  I think that thou art just and think thou art not.

  And that you are trustworthy and untrustworthy.

  I'll have some proof. Her name, that was as fresh

  I need proof. Her name, that was as pure

  As Dian's visage, is now begrimed and black

  As the Goddess Diana, is now tainted and as black

  As mine own face. If there be cords, or knives,

  As my face. As long as there are ropes or knives

  Poison, or fire, or suffocating streams,

  Or poison or fire or streams to drown in,

  I'll not endure it. Would I were satisfied!

  I won’t stand for this. I wish I knew the truth!

  IAGO

  I see, sir, you are eaten up with passion:

  Sir, you are consumed by passion and strong feeling,

  I do repent me that I put it to you.

  And I feel sorry that I did this.

  You would be satisfied?

  You really want to know?

  OTHELLO

  Would! nay, I will.

  Want! No, I will know.

  IAGO

  And may: but, how? how satisfied, my lord?

  And you might, but how? How will you know, my lord?

  Would you, the supervisor, grossly gape on--

  Will you try to hide and watch –

  Behold her topp'd?

  Watch her have sex?

  OTHELLO

  Death and damnation! O!

  Curses!

  IAGO

  It were a tedious difficulty, I think,

  It seems like it would be very difficult

  To bring them to that prospect: damn them then,

  To make sure you do that. Damn them

  If ever mortal eyes do see them bolster

  If anyone else’s eyes see them

  More than their own! What then? how then?

  Do what they shouldn’t be! So what can we do?

  What shall I say? Where's satisfaction?

  What can I say, how can you find proof?

  It is impossible you should see this,

  It seems impossible that you will see them having sex,

  Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys,

  Even if they were as ready as goats or as hot as monkeys,

  As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross

  As horny as wolves, and as foolish as

  As ignorance made drunk. But yet, I say,

  Drunken morons. But, I wonder,

  If imputation and strong circumstances,

  If calculations and circumstantial evidence,

  Which lead directly to the door of truth,

  Which in inference lead towards the truth,

  Will give you satisfaction, you may have't.

  Might give you the proof you need, you would accept it.

  OTHELLO

  Give me a living reason she's disloyal.

  Give me a good reason that she is disloyal to me.

  IAGO

  I do not like the office:

  I do not like this task,

  But, sith I am enter'd in this cause so far,

  But, since I am already this far in,

  Prick'd to't by foolish honesty and love,

  Led to it by foolish honesty and my love for you,

  I will go on. I lay with Cassio lately;

  I will continue. I slept near Cassio lately

  And, being troubled with a raging tooth,

  And, in pain from a toothache,

  I could not sleep.

  I could not sleep.

  There are a kind of men so loose of soul,

  Some men have a loose soul

  That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs:

  That causes them to talk in their sleep –

  One of this kind is Cassio:

  Cassio is a man like that.

  In sleep I heard him say 'Sweet Desdemona,

  While he was asleep I heard him say, “Sweet Desdemona,

  Let us be wary, let us hide our loves;'

  Let us be careful and hide our love”

  And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my hand,

  And then, sir, he grabbed and held onto my hand,

  Cry 'O sweet creature!' and then kiss me hard,

  Crying “Sweet darling!” and then kissing me hard

  As if he pluck'd up kisses by the roots

  As if he were taking the kisses out by force

  That grew upon my lips: then laid his leg

  From my lips. Then he placed his leg

  Over my thigh, and sigh'd, and kiss'd; and then

  Over my thigh, and sighed, and kisse me again,

  Cried 'Cursed fate that gave thee to the Moor!'

  And cried out “How awful that you belong to the Moor!”

  OTHELLO

  O monstrous! monstrous!

  O awful! awful!

  IAGO

  Nay, this was but his dream.

  No, this was only a dream.

  OTHELLO

  But this denoted a foregone conclusion:

  But it marks something that already happened.

  'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream.

  It’s a good reason to doubt, even though it is only a dream.

  IAGO

  And this may help to thicken other proofs

  It may help support other proofs,

  That do demonstrate thinly.

  If they are not very convincing on their own.

  OTHELLO

  I'll tear her all to pieces.

  I will destroy her!

  IAGO

  Nay, but be wise: yet we see nothing done;

  No, be smart. We do not know anything yet,

  She may be honest yet. Tell me but this,

  She might be honest. Tell me this:

  Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief

  Have you seen a handkerchief

  Spotted with strawberries in your wife's hand?

  Spotted with strawberries, held by your wife?

  OTHELLO

  I gave her such a one; 'twas my first gift.

  I gave it to her, it was my first gift to her.

  IAGO

  I know not that; but such a handkerchief--

  I did not know about that, but this handkerchief –

  I am sure it was your wife's--did I to-day

  I am sure it was your wife’s – I saw today,

  See Cassio wipe his beard with.

  And Cassio wiped his beard with it.

  OTHELLO

  If it be that--

  If that was hers–

  IAGO

  If it be that, or any that was hers,

  If it was hers, or anything else that belonged to her,

  It speaks against her with the other proofs.

  Then it speaks strongly against her alongside the other proofs.

  OTHELLO

  O, that the slave had forty thousand lives!

  O, if Cassio had forty thousand lives!

  One is too poor, too weak for my revenge.

  One life is too few for me to get my revenge.

  Now do I see 'tis true. Look here, Iago;

  Now I see it is true. Look, Iago,

  All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven.

  I am getting rid of all of my love for Desdemona.

  'Tis gone.

  It’s gone.

  Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!

  Come to me, vengeance!

  Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne

  My Love, give up your spot in my life

  To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught,

  To Hate instead! O, my chest, fill with pain

  For 'tis of aspics' tongues!

  As if you are full of snakes’ tongues!

  IAGO

  Yet be content.

  Please, be calm.

  OTHELLO

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sp; O, blood, blood, blood!

  O, blood!

  IAGO

  Patience, I say; your mind perhaps may change.

  Be patient. Your mind might change.

  OTHELLO

  Never, Iago: Like to the Pontic sea,

  No, Iago, never. Like a river to the sea

  Whose icy current and compulsive course

  Whose cold stream and steady course

  Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on

  Never fades away but continues on

  To the Propontic and the Hellespont,

  To the seas in front of it,

  Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,

  So too my revengeful thoughts violently

  Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love,

  never look back or calm to love

  Till that a capable and wide revenge

  Until a they are able to have their full revenge

  Swallow them up. Now, by yond marble heaven,

  And let that swallow them up. Now, I swear by the sky

  Kneels

  In the due reverence of a sacred vow

  In a sacred, holy vow,

  I here engage my words.

  To make my words lead to action.

  IAGO

  Do not rise yet.

  Do not get up yet.

  Kneels

  Witness, you ever-burning lights above,

  Heaven, be my witness,

  You elements that clip us round about,

  Everything that surrounds us daily,

  Witness that here Iago doth give up

  Witness that I, Iago, give up

  The execution of his wit, hands, heart,

  The power of my mind, my hands, and my heart

  To wrong'd Othello's service! Let him command,

  To Othello who has been wronged! Let him command,

  And to obey shall be in me remorse,

  And I will obey him,

  What bloody business ever.

  No matter what happens.

  They rise

  OTHELLO

  I greet thy love,

  I thank you for your love,

  Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous,

  Not vainly, but with devoted acceptance.

  And will upon the instant put thee to't:

  This instant I will task you:

  Within these three days let me hear thee say

  Within the next three days, I must hear you say

  That Cassio's not alive.