The Tragedy Of Othello, The Moor Of Venice

1 Enter Othello, Lodovico, Desdemona, Emilia and Attendants.
2 LODOVICO.
3 I do beseech you, sir, trouble yourself no further.
4 OTHELLO.
5 O, pardon me; ’twill do me good to walk.
6 LODOVICO.
7 Madam, good night. I humbly thank your ladyship.
8 DESDEMONA.
9 Your honour is most welcome.
10 OTHELLO.
11 Will you walk, sir?—
12 O, Desdemona,—
13 DESDEMONA.
14 My lord?
15 OTHELLO.
16 Get you to bed on th’ instant, I will be return’d forthwith. Dismiss
17 your attendant there. Look ’t be done.
18 DESDEMONA.
19 I will, my lord.
20 [_Exeunt Othello, Lodovico and Attendants._]
21 EMILIA.
22 How goes it now? He looks gentler than he did.
23 DESDEMONA.
24 He says he will return incontinent,
25 He hath commanded me to go to bed,
26 And bade me to dismiss you.
27 EMILIA.
28 Dismiss me?
29 DESDEMONA.
30 It was his bidding. Therefore, good Emilia,
31 Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu.
32 We must not now displease him.
33 EMILIA.
34 I would you had never seen him!
35 DESDEMONA.
36 So would not I. My love doth so approve him,
37 That even his stubbornness, his checks, his frowns,—
38 Prithee, unpin me,—have grace and favour in them.
39 EMILIA.
40 I have laid those sheets you bade me on the bed.
41 DESDEMONA.
42 All’s one. Good faith, how foolish are our minds!
43 If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me
44 In one of those same sheets.
45 EMILIA.
46 Come, come, you talk.
47 DESDEMONA.
48 My mother had a maid call’d Barbary,
49 She was in love, and he she lov’d prov’d mad
50 And did forsake her. She had a song of “willow”,
51 An old thing ’twas, but it express’d her fortune,
52 And she died singing it. That song tonight
53 Will not go from my mind. I have much to do
54 But to go hang my head all at one side
55 And sing it like poor Barbary. Prithee dispatch.
56 EMILIA.
57 Shall I go fetch your night-gown?
58 DESDEMONA.
59 No, unpin me here.
60 This Lodovico is a proper man.
61 EMILIA.
62 A very handsome man.
63 DESDEMONA.
64 He speaks well.
65 EMILIA.
66 I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot to Palestine for a
67 touch of his nether lip.
68 DESDEMONA.
69 [_Singing._]
70 _The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
71 Sing all a green willow.
72 Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
73 Sing willow, willow, willow.
74 The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur’d her moans,
75 Sing willow, willow, willow;
76 Her salt tears fell from her, and soften’d the stones;—_
77 Lay by these:—
78 [_Sings._]
79 _Sing willow, willow, willow._
80 Prithee hie thee. He’ll come anon.
81 [_Sings._]
82 _Sing all a green willow must be my garland.
83 Let nobody blame him, his scorn I approve,—_
84 Nay, that’s not next. Hark! who is’t that knocks?
85 EMILIA.
86 It’s the wind.
87 DESDEMONA.
88 [_Sings._]
89 _I call’d my love false love; but what said he then?
90 Sing willow, willow, willow:
91 If I court mo women, you’ll couch with mo men._
92 So get thee gone; good night. Mine eyes do itch;
93 Doth that bode weeping?
94 EMILIA.
95 ’Tis neither here nor there.
96 DESDEMONA.
97 I have heard it said so. O, these men, these men!
98 Dost thou in conscience think,—tell me, Emilia,—
99 That there be women do abuse their husbands
100 In such gross kind?
101 EMILIA.
102 There be some such, no question.
103 DESDEMONA.
104 Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?
105 EMILIA.
106 Why, would not you?
107 DESDEMONA.
108 No, by this heavenly light!
109 EMILIA.
110 Nor I neither by this heavenly light,
111 I might do’t as well i’ the dark.
112 DESDEMONA.
113 Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?
114 EMILIA.
115 The world’s a huge thing. It is a great price
116 For a small vice.
117 DESDEMONA.
118 In troth, I think thou wouldst not.
119 EMILIA.
120 In troth, I think I should, and undo’t when I had done. Marry, I would
121 not do such a thing for a joint-ring, nor for measures of lawn, nor for
122 gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any petty exhibition; but, for the
123 whole world—why, who would not make her husband a cuckold to make him a
124 monarch? I should venture purgatory for ’t.
125 DESDEMONA.
126 Beshrew me, if I would do such a wrong for the whole world.
127 EMILIA.
128 Why, the wrong is but a wrong i’ the world; and having the world for
129 your labour, ’tis a wrong in your own world, and you might quickly make
130 it right.
131 DESDEMONA.
132 I do not think there is any such woman.
133 EMILIA.
134 Yes, a dozen; and as many to the vantage as would store the world they
135 played for.
136 But I do think it is their husbands’ faults
137 If wives do fall: say that they slack their duties,
138 And pour our treasures into foreign laps;
139 Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
140 Throwing restraint upon us. Or say they strike us,
141 Or scant our former having in despite.
142 Why, we have galls; and though we have some grace,
143 Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
144 Their wives have sense like them: they see, and smell
145 And have their palates both for sweet and sour,
146 As husbands have. What is it that they do
147 When they change us for others? Is it sport?
148 I think it is. And doth affection breed it?
149 I think it doth. Is’t frailty that thus errs?
150 It is so too. And have not we affections,
151 Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
152 Then let them use us well: else let them know,
153 The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.
154 DESDEMONA.
155 Good night, good night. Heaven me such usage send,
156 Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend!
157 [_Exeunt._]