OTHELLO

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

(PAGINA 5)

OTHELLO



ACT III





SCENE IV Before the castle.



[Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, and Clown]

DESDEMONA Do you know, sirrah, where Lieutenant Cassio lies?

Clown I dare not say he lies any where.

DESDEMONA Why, man?

Clown He's a soldier, and for one to say a soldier lies,

is stabbing.

DESDEMONA Go to: where lodges he?

Clown To tell you where he lodges, is to tell you where I lie.

DESDEMONA Can any thing 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 in mine own throat.

DESDEMONA Can you inquire him out, and be edified by report?

Clown I will catechise the world for him; that is, make

questions, and by them answer.

DESDEMONA Seek him, bid him come hither: tell him I have

moved 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]

DESDEMONA Where should I lose that handkerchief, Emilia?

EMILIA I know not, madam.

DESDEMONA Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse

Full of crusadoes: 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

Drew all such humours from him.

EMILIA Look, where he comes.

DESDEMONA I will not leave him now till Cassio

Be call'd to him.

[Enter OTHELLO]

How is't with you, my lord

OTHELLO Well, my good lady.

[Aside]

O, hardness to dissemble!--

How do you, Desdemona?

DESDEMONA Well, my good lord.

OTHELLO Give me your hand: this hand is moist, my lady.

DESDEMONA It yet hath felt no age nor known no sorrow.

OTHELLO This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart:

Hot, hot, and moist: this hand of yours requires

A sequester from liberty, fasting and prayer,

Much castigation, exercise devout;

For here's a young and sweating devil here,

That commonly rebels. 'Tis a good hand,

A frank one.

DESDEMONA You may, indeed, say so;

For 'twas that hand that gave away my heart.

OTHELLO A liberal hand: the hearts of old gave hands;

But our new heraldry is hands, not hearts.

DESDEMONA I cannot speak of this. Come now, your promise.

OTHELLO What promise, chuck?

DESDEMONA I have sent to bid Cassio come speak with you.

OTHELLO I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me;

Lend me thy handkerchief.

DESDEMONA Here, my lord.

OTHELLO That which I gave you.

DESDEMONA I have it not about me.

OTHELLO Not?

DESDEMONA No, indeed, my lord.

OTHELLO That is a fault.

That handkerchief

Did an Egyptian to my mother give;

She was a charmer, and could almost read

The thoughts of people: she told her, while

she kept it,

'Twould make her amiable and subdue my father

Entirely to her love, but if she lost it

Or made gift of it, my father's eye

Should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt

After new fancies: she, dying, gave it me;

And bid me, when my fate would have me wive,

To give it her. I did so: and take heed on't;

Make it a darling like your precious eye;

To lose't or give't away were such perdition

As nothing else could match.

DESDEMONA Is't possible?

OTHELLO 'Tis true: there's magic in the web of it:

A sibyl, that had number'd in the world

The sun to course two hundred compasses,

In her prophetic fury sew'd the work;

The worms were hallow'd that did breed the silk;

And it was dyed in mummy which the skilful

Conserved of maidens' hearts.

DESDEMONA Indeed! is't true?

OTHELLO Most veritable; therefore look to't well.

DESDEMONA Then would to God that I had never seen't!

OTHELLO Ha! wherefore?

DESDEMONA Why do you speak so startingly and rash?

OTHELLO Is't lost? is't gone? speak, is it out

o' the way?

DESDEMONA Heaven bless us!

OTHELLO Say you?

DESDEMONA It is not lost; but what an if it were?

OTHELLO How!

DESDEMONA I say, it is not lost.

OTHELLO Fetch't, let me see't.

DESDEMONA Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now.

This is a trick to put me from my suit:

Pray you, let Cassio be received again.

OTHELLO Fetch me the handkerchief: my mind misgives.

DESDEMONA Come, come;

You'll never meet a more sufficient man.

OTHELLO The handkerchief!

DESDEMONA I pray, talk me of Cassio.

OTHELLO The handkerchief!

DESDEMONA A man that all his time

Hath founded his good fortunes on your love,

Shared dangers with you,--

OTHELLO The handkerchief!

DESDEMONA In sooth, you are to blame.

OTHELLO Away!

[Exit]

EMILIA Is not this man jealous?

DESDEMONA I ne'er saw this before.

Sure, there's some wonder in this handkerchief:

I am most unhappy in the loss of it.

EMILIA 'Tis not a year or two shows us a man:

They are all but stomachs, and we all but food;

To eat us hungerly, and when they are full,

They belch us. Look you, Cassio and my husband!

[Enter CASSIO and IAGO]

IAGO There is no other way; 'tis she must do't:

And, lo, the happiness! go, and importune her.

DESDEMONA How now, good Cassio! what's the news with you?

CASSIO Madam, my former suit: I do beseech you

That by your virtuous means I may again

Exist, and be a member of his love

Whom I with all the office of my heart

Entirely honour: I would not be delay'd.

If my offence be of such mortal kind

That nor my service past, nor present sorrows,

Nor purposed merit in futurity,

Can ransom me into his love again,

But to know so must be my benefit;

So shall I clothe me in a forced content,

And shut myself up in some other course,

To fortune's alms.

DESDEMONA Alas, thrice-gentle Cassio!

My advocation is not now in tune;

My lord is not my lord; nor should I know him,

Were he in favour as in humour alter'd.

So help me every spirit sanctified,

As I have spoken for you all my best

And stood within the blank of his displeasure

For my free speech! you must awhile be patient:

What I can do I will; and more I will

Than for myself I dare: let that suffice you.

IAGO Is my lord angry?

EMILIA He went hence but now,

And certainly in strange unquietness.

IAGO Can he be angry? I have seen the cannon,

When it hath blown his ranks into the air,

And, like the devil, from his very arm

Puff'd his own brother:--and can he be angry?

Something of moment then: I will go meet him:

There's matter in't indeed, if he be angry.

DESDEMONA I prithee, do so.

[Exit IAGO]

Something, sure, of state,

Either from Venice, or some unhatch'd practise

Made demonstrable here in Cyprus to him,

Hath puddled his clear spirit: and in such cases

Men's natures wrangle with inferior things,

Though great ones are their object. 'Tis even so;

For let our finger ache, and it indues

Our other healthful members even to that sense

Of pain: nay, we must think men are not gods,

Nor of them look for such observances

As fit the bridal. Beshrew me much, Emilia,

I was, unhandsome warrior as I am,

Arraigning his unkindness with my soul;

But now I find I had suborn'd the witness,

And he's indicted falsely.

EMILIA Pray heaven it be state-matters, as you think,

And no conception nor no jealous toy

Concerning you.

DESDEMONA Alas the day! I never gave him cause.

EMILIA But jealous souls will not be answer'd so;

They are not ever jealous for the cause,

But jealous for they are jealous: 'tis a monster

Begot upon itself, born on itself.

DESDEMONA Heaven keep that monster from Othello's mind!

EMILIA Lady, amen.

DESDEMONA I will go seek him. Cassio, walk hereabout:

If I do find him fit, I'll move your suit

And seek to effect it to my uttermost.

CASSIO I humbly thank your ladyship.

[Exeunt DESDEMONA and EMILIA]

[Enter BIANCA]

BIANCA Save you, friend Cassio!

CASSIO What make you from home?

How is it with you, my most fair Bianca?

I' faith, sweet love, I was coming to your house.

BIANCA And I was going to your lodging, Cassio.

What, keep a week away? seven days and nights?

Eight score eight hours? and lovers' absent hours,

More tedious than the dial eight score times?

O weary reckoning!

CASSIO Pardon me, Bianca:

I have this while with leaden thoughts been press'd:

But I shall, in a more continuate time,

Strike off this score of absence. Sweet Bianca,

[Giving her DESDEMONA's handkerchief]

Take me this work out.

BIANCA O Cassio, whence came this?

This is some token from a newer friend:

To the felt absence now I feel a cause:

Is't come to this? Well, well.

CASSIO Go to, woman!

Throw your vile guesses in the devil's teeth,

From whence you have them. You are jealous now

That this is from some mistress, some remembrance:

No, in good troth, Bianca.

BIANCA Why, whose is it?

CASSIO I know not, sweet: I found it in my chamber.

I like the work well: ere it be demanded--

As like enough it will--I'ld have it copied:

Take it, and do't; and leave me for this time.

BIANCA Leave you! wherefore?

CASSIO I do attend here on the general;

And think it no addition, nor my wish,

To have him see me woman'd.

BIANCA Why, I pray you?

CASSIO Not that I love you not.

BIANCA But that you do not love me.

I pray you, bring me on the way a little,

And say if I shall see you soon at night.

CASSIO 'Tis but a little way that I can bring you;

For I attend here: but I'll see you soon.

BIANCA 'Tis very good; I must be circumstanced.

[Exeunt]







OTHELLO



ACT IV





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 Bianco'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 hey:

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]

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