ACT 4. 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 Bianca'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 her:
- 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.
Othello
- Excellent good.
A trumpet within
- What trumpet is that same?
Iago
- Something from Venice, sure. 'Tis Lodovico
- Come from the duke: and, see, your wife is with him.
Enter LODOVICO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants
Lodovico
- Save you, worthy general!
Othello
- With all my heart, sir.
Lodovico
- The duke and senators of Venice greet you.
Gives him a letter
Othello
- I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.
Opens the letter, and reads
Desdemona
- And what's the news, good cousin 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: but you shall make all well.
Othello
- Are you sure of that?
Desdemona
- My lord?
Othello
- Reads '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
- To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio.
Othello
- Fire and brimstone!
Desdemona
- My lord?
Othello
- Are you wise?
Desdemona
- What, is he angry?
Lodovico
- May be the 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.
Othello
- Indeed!
Desdemona
- My lord?
Othello
- I am glad to see you mad.
Desdemona
- Why, sweet Othello,--
Othello
- Striking her Devil!
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:
- Make her amends; she weeps.
Othello
- O devil, devil!
- If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,
- Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.
- Out of my sight!
Desdemona
- I will not stay to offend you.
Going
Lodovico
- Truly, an obedient lady:
- I do beseech your lordship, call her back.
Othello
- Mistress!
Desdemona
- My lord?
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, and turn, and yet go on,
- And turn again; and she can weep, sir, weep;
- And she's obedient, as you say, obedient,
- Very obedient. Proceed you in your tears.
- Concerning this, sir,--O well-painted passion!--
- 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. And, sir, tonight,
- I do entreat that we may sup together:
- You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.--Goats and monkeys!
Exit
Lodovico
- Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate
- Call all in all sufficient? 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
- What he might be: if what he might he is not,
- I would to heaven he were!
Lodovico
- What, strike his wife!
Iago
- 'Faith, that was not so well; yet would I knew
- That stroke would prove the worst!
Lodovico
- Is it his use?
- Or did the letters work upon his blood,
- And new-create this 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 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