Othello (14 page)

IAGO
   She’s the worse for all this.

OTHELLO
   O, a thousand, a thousand times! And then, of
so
²⁰⁰
     gentle a condition!

IAGO
   Ay, too
gentle
²⁰²
.

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
²⁰⁵
     to offend, for if it
touch
²⁰⁶
not you, it comes near nobody.

OTHELLO
   I will chop her into
messes
²⁰⁷
. 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
²¹²
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
²¹⁷
: you shall
     hear more by midnight.

Enter Lodovico, Desdemona and Attendants

OTHELLO
   Excellent good.

A trumpet within

     What trumpet is that same?

IAGO
   I warrant something from Venice.
     ’Tis Lodovico: this comes from the duke.
     See, your wife’s with him.

LODOVICO
   Save you, worthy general!

OTHELLO
   With all my heart, sir.

LODOVICO
   The duke and the senators of Venice

Gives a letter

       greet you.

OTHELLO
   I kiss the
instrument of their pleasures
²²⁷
.

Opens letter
and reads

DESDEMONA
   And what’s the news, good
cousin
²²⁸
       Lodovico?

IAGO
   I am very glad to see you, signior.
     Welcome to Cyprus.

LODOVICO
   I thank you. How does Lieutenant Cassio?

IAGO
   Lives, sir.

DESDEMONA
   Cousin, there’s fall’n between him and my lord
     An
unkind breach
²³⁴
: but you shall make all well.

OTHELLO
   Are you sure of that?

DESDEMONA
   My lord?

Reads

OTHELLO
   ‘This fail you not to do, as you will—’

LODOVICO
   He did not call: he’s busy in the paper.
     Is there division ’twixt my lord and Cassio?

DESDEMONA
   A most unhappy one: I would do much
     
T’atone
²⁴¹
them, for the love I bear to Cassio.

OTHELLO
   Fire and brimstone!

DESDEMONA
   My lord?

OTHELLO
   Are you
wise
²⁴⁴
?

DESDEMONA
   What? Is he angry?

LODOVICO
   Maybe th’letter moved him,
     For, as I think, they do command him home,
     Deputing Cassio in his government.

DESDEMONA
   Trust me, I am glad
on’t
²⁴⁹
.

OTHELLO
   Indeed?

DESDEMONA
   My lord?

OTHELLO
   I am glad to see you
mad
²⁵²
.

DESDEMONA
   Why, sweet Othello?

OTHELLO
   Devil!

Strikes her

DESDEMONA
   I have not deserved this.

LODOVICO
   My lord, this would not be believed in Venice,
     Though I should swear I saw’t. ’Tis
very much
²⁵⁷
:
     Make her amends, she weeps.

OTHELLO
   O devil, devil!
     If that the earth could
teem
²⁶⁰
with woman’s tears,
     Each drop she falls would prove a
crocodile
²⁶¹
.—
     Out of my sight!

DESDEMONA
   I will not stay to offend you.

Starts to leave

LODOVICO
   Truly, an obedient lady:
     I do beseech your lordship, call her back.

OTHELLO
   Mistress!

DESDEMONA
   My lord?

Returns

OTHELLO
   What would you with her, sir?

LODOVICO
   Who, I, my lord?

OTHELLO
   Ay, you did wish that I would make her turn:
     Sir, she can
turn
²⁷¹
, and turn, and yet go on
     And turn again: and she can weep, sir, weep:
     And she’s
obedient
²⁷³
, as you say, obedient:
     Very obedient.— Proceed you in your tears.—
     Concerning this, sir, — O
well-painted passion
²⁷⁵
! —
     I am commanded home.— Get you away:
     I’ll send for you anon.— Sir, I obey the mandate,
     And will return to Venice.— Hence, avaunt!

[
Exit Desdemona
]

     Cassio shall have
my place
²⁷⁹
. And, sir, tonight
     I do entreat that we may sup together:
     You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.— Goats and
monkeys
²⁸¹
!

Exit

LODOVICO
   Is this the noble Moor whom our
full
²⁸²
senate
     Call all in
all sufficient
²⁸³
? Is this the nature
     Whom passion could not shake? Whose solid virtue
     The shot of accident nor dart of chance
     Could neither graze nor pierce?

IAGO
   He is much changed.

LODOVICO
   Are his wits safe? Is he not light of brain?

IAGO
   He’s that he is: I may not breathe my
censure
²⁸⁹
     What he might be:
if what he might he is not,
²⁹⁰
     I would to heaven he were
!

LODOVICO
   What, strike his wife?

IAGO
   Faith, that was not so
well
²⁹³
, yet would I knew
     That stroke would prove the worst!

LODOVICO
   Is it his
use
²⁹⁵
?
     Or did the letters work upon his blood
     And new-create his fault?

IAGO
   Alas, alas!
     It is not honesty in me to speak
     What I have seen and known. You shall observe him,
     And his own
courses will denote
³⁰¹
him so
     That I may save my speech: do but go after,
     And mark how he continues.

LODOVICO
   I am sorry that I am deceived in him.

Exeunt

Location: Cyprus (within the citadel)

Enter Othello and Emilia

OTHELLO
   You have seen nothing then?

EMILIA
   Nor ever heard, nor ever did suspect.

OTHELLO
   Yes, you have seen Cassio and she together.

EMILIA
   But then I saw no harm, and then I heard
     Each syllable that breath made up between them.

OTHELLO
   What, did they never whisper?

EMILIA
   Never, my lord.

OTHELLO
   Nor send you out o’th’way?

EMILIA
   Never.

OTHELLO
   To fetch her fan, her gloves, her mask, nor nothing?

EMILIA
   Never, my lord.

OTHELLO
   That’s strange.

EMILIA
   I
durst
¹³
, my lord, to wager she is honest,
     Lay down my soul
at stake
¹⁴
: if you think other,
     Remove your thought, it doth abuse your bosom:
     If any wretch have put this in your head,
     Let heaven requite it with the
serpent’s curse
¹⁷
!
     For if she be not honest, chaste and true,
     There’s no man happy: the purest of their wives
     Is foul as slander.

OTHELLO
   Bid her come hither: go.

Exit Emilia

     She says enough, yet she’s a simple
bawd
²²
     That cannot say as much.
This
²³
is a subtle whore,
     A
closet lock and key of villainous secrets
²⁴
:
     And yet she’ll kneel and pray, I have seen her do’t.

Enter Desdemona and Emilia

DESDEMONA
   My lord, what is your will?

OTHELLO
   Pray you, chuck, come hither.

DESDEMONA
   What is your pleasure?

OTHELLO
   Let me see your eyes: look in my face.

DESDEMONA
   What horrible fancy’s this?

OTHELLO
  
Some of your function
³¹
, mistress:

To Emilia

     Leave
procreants
³²
alone and shut the door:
     Cough or cry ‘Hem’ if anybody come.
     Your
mystery
³⁴
, your mystery: nay, dispatch.

Exit Emilia

DESDEMONA
   Upon my knee, what doth your speech

Kneels

       import?
     I understand a fury in your words.

OTHELLO
   Why, what art thou?

DESDEMONA
   Your wife, my lord, your true and loyal wife.

OTHELLO
   Come, swear it, damn thyself
     Lest,
being like one of heaven
⁴⁰
, the devils themselves
     Should fear to seize thee: therefore be double damned:
     Swear thou art honest.

DESDEMONA
   Heaven doth truly know it.

OTHELLO
   Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell.

DESDEMONA
   To whom, my lord? With whom? How am I false?

OTHELLO
   Ah Desdemon! Away, away, away!

Weeps

DESDEMONA
   Alas the
heavy
⁴⁷
day! Why do you weep?
     Am I the motive of these tears, my lord?
     If
haply
⁴⁹
you my father do suspect
     An instrument of this your calling back,
     Lay not your blame on me: if you have lost him,
     I have lost him too.

OTHELLO
   Had it pleased heaven
     To try me with affliction, had they rained
     All kind of
sores
⁵⁵
and shames on my bare head,
     
Steeped
⁵⁶
me in poverty to the very lips,
     Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes,
     I should have found in some place of my soul
     A drop of patience: but, alas, to make me
     The fixèd
figure
⁶⁰
for the time of scorn
     To point his slow and moving
finger
⁶¹
at!
     Yet could I bear that too, well, very well,
     But there where I have
garnered
⁶³
up my heart,
     Where either I must live, or bear no life,
     The
fountain
⁶⁵
from the which my current runs
     Or else dries up: to be discarded thence!
     Or keep it as a
cistern
⁶⁷
for foul toads
     To
knot and gender
⁶⁸
in! Turn thy complexion there,
     Patience, thou young and rose-lipped
cherubin
⁶⁹
:
     Ay, here look
grim
⁷⁰
as hell!

DESDEMONA
   I hope my noble lord esteems me
honest
⁷¹
.

OTHELLO
   O, ay, as summer flies are in the
shambles
⁷²
,
     That
quicken even with blowing
⁷³
. O, thou weed,
     Who art so lovely fair and smell’st so sweet
     That the sense aches at thee, would thou hadst never been born!

DESDEMONA
   Alas, what
ignorant
⁷⁶
sin have I committed?

OTHELLO
   Was this fair paper, this most goodly book,
     Made to write ‘whore’ upon? What
committed
⁷⁸
?
     Committed? O, thou public
commoner
⁷⁹
,
     I should make very forges of my cheeks,
     That would to cinders burn up modesty,
     Did I but speak thy deeds. What committed?
     Heaven
stops
⁸³
the nose at it and the moon winks,
     The bawdy wind that kisses all it meets
     Is hushed within the hollow
mine
⁸⁵
of earth
     And will not hear’t. What committed?

DESDEMONA
   By heaven, you do me wrong.

OTHELLO
   Are not you a
strumpet
⁸⁸
?

DESDEMONA
   No, as I am a Christian:
     If to preserve this
vessel
⁹⁰
for my lord
     From any other foul unlawful touch
     Be not to be a strumpet, I am none.