The Tragedy Of Othello, The Moor Of Venice

1 Enter Othello and Emilia.
2 OTHELLO.
3 You have seen nothing, then?
4 EMILIA.
5 Nor ever heard, nor ever did suspect.
6 OTHELLO.
7 Yes, you have seen Cassio and she together.
8 EMILIA.
9 But then I saw no harm, and then I heard
10 Each syllable that breath made up between them.
11 OTHELLO.
12 What, did they never whisper?
13 EMILIA.
14 Never, my lord.
15 OTHELLO.
16 Nor send you out o’ the way?
17 EMILIA.
18 Never.
19 OTHELLO.
20 To fetch her fan, her gloves, her mask, nor nothing?
21 EMILIA.
22 Never, my lord.
23 OTHELLO.
24 That’s strange.
25 EMILIA.
26 I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest,
27 Lay down my soul at stake: if you think other,
28 Remove your thought, it doth abuse your bosom.
29 If any wretch have put this in your head,
30 Let heaven requite it with the serpent’s curse,
31 For if she be not honest, chaste, and true,
32 There’s no man happy. The purest of their wives
33 Is foul as slander.
34 OTHELLO.
35 Bid her come hither. Go.
36 [_Exit Emilia._]
37 She says enough. Yet she’s a simple bawd
38 That cannot say as much. This is a subtle whore,
39 A closet lock and key of villainous secrets.
40 And yet she’ll kneel and pray. I have seen her do ’t.
41 Enter Desdemona and Emilia.
42 DESDEMONA.
43 My lord, what is your will?
44 OTHELLO.
45 Pray, chuck, come hither.
46 DESDEMONA.
47 What is your pleasure?
48 OTHELLO.
49 Let me see your eyes.
50 Look in my face.
51 DESDEMONA.
52 What horrible fancy’s this?
53 OTHELLO.
54 [_To Emilia._] Some of your function, mistress,
55 Leave procreants alone, and shut the door.
56 Cough, or cry hem, if anybody come.
57 Your mystery, your mystery. Nay, dispatch.
58 [_Exit Emilia._]
59 DESDEMONA.
60 Upon my knees, what doth your speech import?
61 I understand a fury in your words,
62 But not the words.
63 OTHELLO.
64 Why, what art thou?
65 DESDEMONA.
66 Your wife, my lord, your true and loyal wife.
67 OTHELLO.
68 Come, swear it, damn thyself,
69 Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves
70 Should fear to seize thee. Therefore be double-damn’d.
71 Swear thou art honest.
72 DESDEMONA.
73 Heaven doth truly know it.
74 OTHELLO.
75 Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell.
76 DESDEMONA.
77 To whom, my lord? With whom? How am I false?
78 OTHELLO.
79 O Desdemona, away! away! away!
80 DESDEMONA.
81 Alas the heavy day, why do you weep?
82 Am I the motive of these tears, my lord?
83 If haply you my father do suspect
84 An instrument of this your calling back,
85 Lay not your blame on me. If you have lost him,
86 Why, I have lost him too.
87 OTHELLO.
88 Had it pleas’d heaven
89 To try me with affliction, had they rain’d
90 All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head,
91 Steep’d me in poverty to the very lips,
92 Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes,
93 I should have found in some place of my soul
94 A drop of patience. But, alas, to make me
95 A fixed figure for the time of scorn
96 To point his slow unmoving finger at.
97 Yet could I bear that too, well, very well:
98 But there, where I have garner’d up my heart,
99 Where either I must live or bear no life,
100 The fountain from the which my current runs,
101 Or else dries up, to be discarded thence,
102 Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads
103 To knot and gender in!—turn thy complexion there,
104 Patience, thou young and rose-lipp’d cherubin,
105 Ay, there, look grim as hell!
106 DESDEMONA.
107 I hope my noble lord esteems me honest.
108 OTHELLO.
109 O, ay, as summer flies are in the shambles,
110 That quicken even with blowing. O thou weed,
111 Who art so lovely fair, and smell’st so sweet,
112 That the sense aches at thee,
113 Would thou hadst ne’er been born!
114 DESDEMONA.
115 Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed?
116 OTHELLO.
117 Was this fair paper, this most goodly book,
118 Made to write “whore” upon? What committed?
119 Committed! O thou public commoner!
120 I should make very forges of my cheeks,
121 That would to cinders burn up modesty,
122 Did I but speak thy deeds. What committed!
123 Heaven stops the nose at it, and the moon winks;
124 The bawdy wind, that kisses all it meets,
125 Is hush’d within the hollow mine of earth,
126 And will not hear it. What committed!
127 Impudent strumpet!
128 DESDEMONA.
129 By heaven, you do me wrong.
130 OTHELLO.
131 Are not you a strumpet?
132 DESDEMONA.
133 No, as I am a Christian:
134 If to preserve this vessel for my lord
135 From any other foul unlawful touch
136 Be not to be a strumpet, I am none.
137 OTHELLO.
138 What, not a whore?
139 DESDEMONA.
140 No, as I shall be sav’d.
141 OTHELLO.
142 Is’t possible?
143 DESDEMONA.
144 O, heaven forgive us!
145 OTHELLO.
146 I cry you mercy then.
147 I took you for that cunning whore of Venice
148 That married with Othello.—You, mistress,
149 Enter Emilia.
150 That have the office opposite to Saint Peter,
151 And keeps the gate of hell. You, you, ay, you!
152 We have done our course; there’s money for your pains.
153 I pray you turn the key, and keep our counsel.
154 [_Exit._]
155 EMILIA.
156 Alas, what does this gentleman conceive?
157 How do you, madam? How do you, my good lady?
158 DESDEMONA.
159 Faith, half asleep.
160 EMILIA.
161 Good madam, what’s the matter with my lord?
162 DESDEMONA.
163 With who?
164 EMILIA.
165 Why, with my lord, madam.
166 DESDEMONA.
167 Who is thy lord?
168 EMILIA.
169 He that is yours, sweet lady.
170 DESDEMONA.
171 I have none. Do not talk to me, Emilia,
172 I cannot weep, nor answer have I none
173 But what should go by water. Prithee, tonight
174 Lay on my bed my wedding sheets, remember,
175 And call thy husband hither.
176 EMILIA.
177 Here’s a change indeed!
178 [_Exit._]
179 DESDEMONA.
180 ’Tis meet I should be us’d so, very meet.
181 How have I been behav’d, that he might stick
182 The small’st opinion on my least misuse?
183 Enter Iago and Emilia.
184 IAGO.
185 What is your pleasure, madam? How is’t with you?
186 DESDEMONA.
187 I cannot tell. Those that do teach young babes
188 Do it with gentle means and easy tasks.
189 He might have chid me so, for, in good faith,
190 I am a child to chiding.
191 IAGO.
192 What’s the matter, lady?
193 EMILIA.
194 Alas, Iago, my lord hath so bewhor’d her,
195 Thrown such despite and heavy terms upon her,
196 As true hearts cannot bear.
197 DESDEMONA.
198 Am I that name, Iago?
199 IAGO.
200 What name, fair lady?
201 DESDEMONA.
202 Such as she says my lord did say I was.
203 EMILIA.
204 He call’d her whore: a beggar in his drink
205 Could not have laid such terms upon his callet.
206 IAGO.
207 Why did he so?
208 DESDEMONA.
209 I do not know. I am sure I am none such.
210 IAGO.
211 Do not weep, do not weep: alas the day!
212 EMILIA.
213 Hath she forsook so many noble matches,
214 Her father, and her country, and her friends,
215 To be call’d whore? would it not make one weep?
216 DESDEMONA.
217 It is my wretched fortune.
218 IAGO.
219 Beshrew him for’t!
220 How comes this trick upon him?
221 DESDEMONA.
222 Nay, heaven doth know.
223 EMILIA.
224 I will be hang’d, if some eternal villain,
225 Some busy and insinuating rogue,
226 Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office,
227 Have not devis’d this slander. I’ll be hang’d else.
228 IAGO.
229 Fie, there is no such man. It is impossible.
230 DESDEMONA.
231 If any such there be, heaven pardon him!
232 EMILIA.
233 A halter pardon him, and hell gnaw his bones!
234 Why should he call her whore? who keeps her company?
235 What place? what time? what form? what likelihood?
236 The Moor’s abused by some most villainous knave,
237 Some base notorious knave, some scurvy fellow.
238 O heaven, that such companions thou’dst unfold,
239 And put in every honest hand a whip
240 To lash the rascals naked through the world
241 Even from the east to the west!
242 IAGO.
243 Speak within door.
244 EMILIA.
245 O, fie upon them! Some such squire he was
246 That turn’d your wit the seamy side without,
247 And made you to suspect me with the Moor.
248 IAGO.
249 You are a fool. Go to.
250 DESDEMONA.
251 Alas, Iago,
252 What shall I do to win my lord again?
253 Good friend, go to him. For by this light of heaven,
254 I know not how I lost him. Here I kneel.
255 If e’er my will did trespass ’gainst his love,
256 Either in discourse of thought or actual deed,
257 Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any sense,
258 Delighted them in any other form,
259 Or that I do not yet, and ever did,
260 And ever will, (though he do shake me off
261 To beggarly divorcement) love him dearly,
262 Comfort forswear me! Unkindness may do much;
263 And his unkindness may defeat my life,
264 But never taint my love. I cannot say “whore,”
265 It does abhor me now I speak the word;
266 To do the act that might the addition earn
267 Not the world’s mass of vanity could make me.
268 IAGO.
269 I pray you, be content. ’Tis but his humour.
270 The business of the state does him offence,
271 And he does chide with you.
272 DESDEMONA.
273 If ’twere no other,—
274 IAGO.
275 ’Tis but so, I warrant.
276 [_Trumpets within._]
277 Hark, how these instruments summon to supper.
278 The messengers of Venice stay the meat.
279 Go in, and weep not. All things shall be well.
280 [_Exeunt Desdemona and Emilia._]
281 Enter Roderigo.
282 How now, Roderigo?
283 RODERIGO.
284 I do not find that thou dealest justly with me.
285 IAGO.
286 What in the contrary?
287 RODERIGO.
288 Every day thou daffest me with some device, Iago, and rather, as it
289 seems to me now, keepest from me all conveniency than suppliest me with
290 the least advantage of hope. I will indeed no longer endure it. Nor am
291 I yet persuaded to put up in peace what already I have foolishly
292 suffered.
293 IAGO.
294 Will you hear me, Roderigo?
295 RODERIGO.
296 Faith, I have heard too much, for your words and performances are no
297 kin together.
298 IAGO.
299 You charge me most unjustly.
300 RODERIGO.
301 With naught but truth. I have wasted myself out of my means. The jewels
302 you have had from me to deliver to Desdemona would half have corrupted
303 a votarist: you have told me she hath received them, and returned me
304 expectations and comforts of sudden respect and acquaintance, but I
305 find none.
306 IAGO.
307 Well, go to, very well.
308 RODERIGO.
309 Very well, go to, I cannot go to, man, nor ’tis not very well. Nay, I
310 say ’tis very scurvy, and begin to find myself fopped in it.
311 IAGO.
312 Very well.
313 RODERIGO.
314 I tell you ’tis not very well. I will make myself known to Desdemona.
315 If she will return me my jewels, I will give over my suit and repent my
316 unlawful solicitation. If not, assure yourself I will seek satisfaction
317 of you.
318 IAGO.
319 You have said now.
320 RODERIGO.
321 Ay, and said nothing but what I protest intendment of doing.
322 IAGO.
323 Why, now I see there’s mettle in thee, and even from this instant do
324 build on thee a better opinion than ever before. Give me thy hand,
325 Roderigo. Thou hast taken against me a most just exception, but yet I
326 protest, I have dealt most directly in thy affair.
327 RODERIGO.
328 It hath not appeared.
329 IAGO.
330 I grant indeed it hath not appeared, and your suspicion is not without
331 wit and judgement. But, Roderigo, if thou hast that in thee indeed,
332 which I have greater reason to believe now than ever,—I mean purpose,
333 courage, and valour,—this night show it. If thou the next night
334 following enjoy not Desdemona, take me from this world with treachery
335 and devise engines for my life.
336 RODERIGO.
337 Well, what is it? Is it within reason and compass?
338 IAGO.
339 Sir, there is especial commission come from Venice to depute Cassio in
340 Othello’s place.
341 RODERIGO.
342 Is that true? Why then Othello and Desdemona return again to Venice.
343 IAGO.
344 O, no; he goes into Mauritania, and takes away with him the fair
345 Desdemona, unless his abode be lingered here by some accident: wherein
346 none can be so determinate as the removing of Cassio.
347 RODERIGO.
348 How do you mean “removing” of him?
349 IAGO.
350 Why, by making him uncapable of Othello’s place: knocking out his
351 brains.
352 RODERIGO.
353 And that you would have me to do?
354 IAGO.
355 Ay, if you dare do yourself a profit and a right. He sups tonight with
356 a harlotry, and thither will I go to him. He knows not yet of his
357 honourable fortune. If you will watch his going thence, which I will
358 fashion to fall out between twelve and one, you may take him at your
359 pleasure: I will be near to second your attempt, and he shall fall
360 between us. Come, stand not amazed at it, but go along with me. I will
361 show you such a necessity in his death that you shall think yourself
362 bound to put it on him. It is now high supper-time, and the night grows
363 to waste. About it.
364 RODERIGO.
365 I will hear further reason for this.
366 IAGO.
367 And you shall be satisfied.
368 [_Exeunt._]