ACT 4. SCENE III. Another room In the castle.
Enter Othello, Lodovico, Desdemona, Emilia and Attendants
Lodovico
- I do beseech you, sir, trouble yourself no further.
Othello
- O, pardon me: 'twill do me good to walk.
Lodovico
- Madam, good night; I humbly thank your ladyship.
Desdemona
- Your honour is most welcome.
Othello
- Will you walk, sir?
- O,--Desdemona,--
Desdemona
- My lord?
Othello
- Get you to bed on the instant; I will be returned
- forthwith: dismiss your attendant there: look it be done.
Desdemona
- I will, my lord.
Exeunt Othello, Lodovico, and Attendants
Emilia
- How goes it now? he looks gentler than he did.
Desdemona
- He says he will return incontinent:
- He hath commanded me to go to bed,
- And bade me to dismiss you.
Emilia
- Dismiss me!
Desdemona
- It was his bidding: therefore, good Emilia,.
- Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu:
- We must not now displease him.
Emilia
- I would you had never seen him!
Desdemona
- So would not I my love doth so approve him,
- That even his stubbornness, his cheques, his frowns--
- Prithee, unpin me,--have grace and favour in them.
Emilia
- I have laid those sheets you bade me on the bed.
Desdemona
- All's one. Good faith, how foolish are our minds!
- If I do die before thee prithee, shroud me
- In one of those same sheets.
Emilia
- Come, come you talk.
Desdemona
- My mother had a maid call'd Barbara:
- She was in love, and he she loved proved mad
- And did forsake her: she had a song of 'willow;'
- An old thing 'twas, but it express'd her fortune,
- And she died singing it: that song to-night
- Will not go from my mind; I have much to do,
- But to go hang my head all at one side,
- And sing it like poor Barbara. Prithee, dispatch.
Emilia
- Shall I go fetch your night-gown?
Desdemona
- No, unpin me here.
- This Lodovico is a proper man.
Emilia
- A very handsome man.
Desdemona
- He speaks well.
Emilia
- I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot
- to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip.
Desdemona
- Singing The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
- Sing all a green willow:
- Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
- Sing willow, willow, willow:
- The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her moans;
- Sing willow, willow, willow;
- Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the stones;
- Lay by these:--
Singing
- Sing willow, willow, willow;
- Prithee, hie thee; he'll come anon:--
Singing
- Sing all a green willow must be my garland.
- Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve,-
- Nay, that's not next.--Hark! who is't that knocks?
Emilia
- It's the wind.
Desdemona
- Singing I call'd my love false love; but what
- said he then?
- Sing willow, willow, willow:
- If I court moe women, you'll couch with moe men!
- So, get thee gone; good night Ate eyes do itch;
- Doth that bode weeping?
Emilia
- 'Tis neither here nor there.
Desdemona
- I have heard it said so. O, these men, these men!
- Dost thou in conscience think,--tell me, Emilia,--
- That there be women do abuse their husbands
- In such gross kind?
Emilia
- There be some such, no question.
Desdemona
- Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?
Emilia
- Why, would not you?
Desdemona
- No, by this heavenly light!
Emilia
- Nor I neither by this heavenly light;
- I might do't as well i' the dark.
Desdemona
- Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?
Emilia
- The world's a huge thing: it is a great price.
- For a small vice.
Desdemona
- In troth, I think thou wouldst not.
Emilia
- In troth, I think I should; and undo't when I had
- done. Marry, I would not do such a thing for a
- joint-ring, nor for measures of lawn, nor for
- gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any petty
- exhibition; but for the whole world,--why, who would
- not make her husband a cuckold to make him a
- monarch? I should venture purgatory for't.
Desdemona
- Beshrew me, if I would do such a wrong
- For the whole world.
Emilia
- Why the wrong is but a wrong i' the world: and
- having the world for your labour, tis a wrong in your
- own world, and you might quickly make it right.
Desdemona
- I do not think there is any such woman.
Emilia
- Yes, a dozen; and as many to the vantage as would
- store the world they played for.
- But I do think it is their husbands' faults
- If wives do fall: say that they slack their duties,
- And pour our treasures into foreign laps,
- Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
- Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,
- Or scant our former having in despite;
- Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace,
- Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
- Their wives have sense like them: they see and smell
- And have their palates both for sweet and sour,
- As husbands have. What is it that they do
- When they change us for others? Is it sport?
- I think it is: and doth affection breed it?
- I think it doth: is't frailty that thus errs?
- It is so too: and have not we affections,
- Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
- Then let them use us well: else let them know,
- The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.
Desdemona
- Good night, good night: heaven me such uses send,
- Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend!
Exeunt