Authors: William Shakespeare
IAGO
Why, what is that to you?
Snatches it
EMILIA
If it be not for some purpose of import,
Give’t me again: poor lady, she’ll run mad
When she shall
lack
354
it.
IAGO
Be not acknown on’t
355
: I have use for it.
Go, leave me.
Exit Emilia
I will in Cassio’s lodging loose this napkin
And let him find it. Trifles light as air
Are to the jealous confirmations strong
As proofs of
holy writ
360
: this may do something.
The Moor already changes with my poison:
Dangerous
conceits
362
are in their natures poisons,
Which at the first are scarce found to
distaste
363
,
But with a little
act
364
upon the blood,
Burn like the mines of sulphur. I did say so:
Enter Othello
At a distance
Look, where he comes! Not
poppy
366
, nor mandragora,
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou
owed’st
369
yesterday.
OTHELLO
Ha, ha, false to me?
IAGO
Why how now, general? No more of that.
OTHELLO
Avaunt
372
, be gone! Thou hast set me on the rack:
I swear ’tis better to be much abused
Than but to know’t a little.
IAGO
How now, my lord?
OTHELLO
What sense had I in her stol’n hours of lust?
I saw’t not, thought it not, it harmed not me:
I slept the next night well, fed well, was
free
378
and merry:
I found not Cassio’s kisses on her lips.
He that is robbed, not
wanting
380
what is stol’n,
Let him not know’t and he’s not robbed at all.
IAGO
I am sorry to hear this.
OTHELLO
I had been happy, if the general camp,
Pioneers
384
and all, had tasted her sweet body,
So
385
I had nothing known. O, now, for ever
Farewell the tranquil mind; farewell content;
Farewell the
plumèd
387
troops and the big wars
That makes ambition virtue! O, farewell!
Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill
trump
389
,
The spirit-stirring drum, th’ear-piercing
fife
390
,
The royal banner, and all
quality
391
,
Pride
392
, pomp and circumstance of glorious war!
And, O, you
mortal engines
393
, whose rude throats
Th’immortal
Jove’s dread clamours
394
counterfeit,
Farewell! Othello’s occupation’s gone.
IAGO
Is’t possible, my lord?
OTHELLO
Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore;
Grabs him
Be sure of it: give me the ocular proof,
Or by the worth of mine eternal soul,
Thou hadst been better have been born a dog
Than answer my waked wrath!
IAGO
Is’t come to this?
OTHELLO
Make me to see’t, or at the least so prove it
That the
probation
404
bear no hinge nor loop
To hang a doubt on, or woe upon thy life!
IAGO
My noble lord—
OTHELLO
If thou dost slander her and torture me,
Never pray more: abandon all
remorse
408
,
On horror’s head horrors accumulate,
Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth
amazed
410
,
For nothing canst thou to damnation add
Greater than that.
IAGO
O grace! O heaven forgive me!
Are you a man? Have you a soul? Or sense?
God b’wi’you
415
, take mine office. O wretched fool,
That lov’st to make thine honesty a vice!
O monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world,
To be direct and honest is not safe.
I thank you for this
profit
419
, and from hence
I’ll love no friend,
sith
420
love breeds such offence.
OTHELLO
Nay, stay: thou
shouldst be
421
honest.
IAGO
I
should be
422
wise, for honesty’s a fool
And loses
that
423
it works for.
OTHELLO
By the world,
I think my wife be honest and think she is not:
I think that thou art just and think thou art not.
I’ll have some proof. My name, that was as fresh
As
Dian
428
’s visage, is now begrimed and black
As mine own face. If there be
cords, or knives,
429
Poison, or fire, or suffocating streams
,
I’ll not endure it. Would I were satisfied!
IAGO
I see you are eaten up with passion:
I do repent me that I put it to you.
You would be satisfied?
OTHELLO
Would? Nay, and I will.
IAGO
And may: but, how? How satisfied, my lord?
Would you the
supervision
437
grossly gape on?
Behold her
topped
438
?
OTHELLO
Death and damnation! O!
IAGO
It were a tedious difficulty, I think,
To bring them to that
prospect
441
: damn them then,
If ever mortal eyes do see them
bolster
442
More
443
than their own. What then? How then?
What shall I say? Where’s
satisfaction
444
?
It is impossible you should see this,
Were they as
prime
446
as goats, as hot as monkeys,
As
salt
447
as wolves in pride, and fools as gross
As ignorance made drunk. But yet, I say,
If
imputation and strong circumstances
449
Which lead directly to the door of truth
Will give you satisfaction, you might have’t.
OTHELLO
Give me a living reason she’s disloyal.
IAGO
I do not like the office,
But sith I am entered in this cause so far —
Pricked
455
to’t by foolish honesty and love —
I will go on. I
lay
456
with Cassio lately,
And being troubled with a raging tooth
I could not sleep. There are a kind of men
So loose of soul that in their sleeps will mutter
Their affairs: one of this kind is Cassio.
In sleep I heard him say, ‘Sweet Desdemona,
Let us be wary, let us hide our loves’:
And then, sir, would he grip and wring my hand,
Cry ‘O sweet creature!’ then kiss me hard,
As if he plucked up kisses by the roots
That grew upon my lips, laid his leg
O’er my thigh, and
sigh
467
, and kiss, and then
Cry, ‘Cursèd fate that gave thee to the Moor!’
OTHELLO
O monstrous! Monstrous!
IAGO
Nay, this was but his dream.
OTHELLO
But this denoted a
foregone conclusion
471
:
’Tis a
shrewd doubt
472
, though it be but a dream.
IAGO
And this may help to thicken other proofs
That do demonstrate thinly.
OTHELLO
I’ll tear her all to pieces.
IAGO
Nay, yet be wise:
yet we
476
see nothing done,
She may be honest yet. Tell me but this:
Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief
Spotted with strawberries in your wife’s hand?
OTHELLO
I gave her such a one: ’twas my first gift.
IAGO
I know not that, but such a handkerchief —
I am sure it was your wife’s — did I today
See Cassio wipe his beard with.
OTHELLO
If it be that—
IAGO
If it be that, or any it was hers,
It speaks against her with the other proofs.
OTHELLO
O, that the
slave
487
had forty thousand lives:
One is too poor, too weak for my revenge.
Now do I see ’tis true. Look here, Iago,
All my
fond
490
love thus do I blow to heaven.
’Tis gone.
Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow hell!
Yield up, O love, thy crown and
hearted
493
throne
To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy
fraught
494
,
For ’tis of
aspics
495
’ tongues!
IAGO
Yet be content.
OTHELLO
O, blood, blood, blood!
IAGO
Patience, I say: your mind may change.
OTHELLO
Never, Iago. Like to the
Pontic sea
499
,
Whose icy current and
compulsive
500
course
Ne’er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
To the
Propontic
502
and the Hellespont,
Even so my bloody thoughts with violent pace
Shall ne’er look back, ne’er ebb to humble love,
Till that a
capable
505
and wide revenge
Swallow them up. Now, by yond
marble
506
heaven,
Kneels
In the due reverence of a sacred vow
I here
engage
508
my words.
Attempts to rise
IAGO
Do not rise yet.
Kneels
Witness, you ever-burning lights above,
You elements that
clip
511
us round about,
Witness that here Iago doth give up
The
execution
513
of his wit, hands, heart,
To wronged Othello’s service! Let him command,
And to obey shall be in me
remorse
515
,
What bloody business ever
516
.
They rise
OTHELLO
I greet thy love,
Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous,
And will upon the instant put thee
to’t
519
:
Within these three days let me hear thee say
That Cassio’s not alive.
IAGO
My friend is dead:
’Tis done at your request. But let her live.
OTHELLO
Damn her, lewd
minx
524
! O, damn her, damn her!
Come, go with me apart: I will withdraw
To furnish me with some swift means of death
For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant.
IAGO
I am your own for ever.
Exeunt
Location: Cyprus (presumably outside the citadel)
Enter Desdemona, Emilia and Clown
DESDEMONA
Do you know,
sirrah
1
, where Lieutenant Cassio lies?
CLOWN
I dare not say he
lies
2
anywhere.
DESDEMONA
Why, man?
CLOWN
He’s a soldier, and for me to say a soldier lies, ’tis
stabbing
5
.
DESDEMONA
Go to: where lodges he?
CLOWN
To tell you where he lodges is to tell you where I lie.
DESDEMONA
Can anything be made of this?
CLOWN
I know not where he lodges, and for me to devise a
lodging and say he
lies here or he lies there, were to lie
10
in mine own throat
.
DESDEMONA
Can you inquire him out, and be
edified
12
by report?
CLOWN
I will
catechize
13
the world for him, that is, make questions,
and by them answer.
DESDEMONA
Seek him, bid him come hither: tell him I have
moved
16
my lord on his behalf and hope all will be well.
CLOWN
To do this is within the compass of man’s wit, and
therefore I will attempt the doing it.
Exit Clown
DESDEMONA
Where should I lose the handkerchief, Emilia?
EMILIA
I know not, madam.
DESDEMONA
Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse
Full of
crusadoes
22
: and but my noble Moor
Is true of mind and made of no such baseness
As jealous creatures are, it were enough
To put him to ill thinking.
EMILIA
Is he not jealous?
DESDEMONA
Who, he? I think the
sun where he was born
27
Drew all such
humours
28
from him.