The Tragedy Of Othello, The Moor Of Venice

1 Desdemona in bed asleep; a light burning.
2 Enter Othello.
3 OTHELLO.
4 It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,
5 Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!
6 It is the cause. Yet I’ll not shed her blood,
7 Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow,
8 And smooth as monumental alabaster.
9 Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men.
10 Put out the light, and then put out the light:
11 If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,
12 I can again thy former light restore,
13 Should I repent me. But once put out thy light,
14 Thou cunning’st pattern of excelling nature,
15 I know not where is that Promethean heat
16 That can thy light relume. When I have pluck’d thy rose,
17 I cannot give it vital growth again,
18 It must needs wither. I’ll smell it on the tree.
19 [_Kissing her._]
20 O, balmy breath, that dost almost persuade
21 Justice to break her sword! One more, one more.
22 Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee,
23 And love thee after. One more, and this the last.
24 So sweet was ne’er so fatal. I must weep,
25 But they are cruel tears. This sorrow’s heavenly,
26 It strikes where it doth love. She wakes.
27 DESDEMONA.
28 Who’s there? Othello?
29 OTHELLO.
30 Ay, Desdemona.
31 DESDEMONA.
32 Will you come to bed, my lord?
33 OTHELLO.
34 Have you pray’d tonight, Desdemona?
35 DESDEMONA.
36 Ay, my lord.
37 OTHELLO.
38 If you bethink yourself of any crime
39 Unreconcil’d as yet to heaven and grace,
40 Solicit for it straight.
41 DESDEMONA.
42 Alack, my lord, what may you mean by that?
43 OTHELLO.
44 Well, do it, and be brief, I will walk by.
45 I would not kill thy unprepared spirit,
46 No, heaven forfend! I would not kill thy soul.
47 DESDEMONA.
48 Talk you of killing?
49 OTHELLO.
50 Ay, I do.
51 DESDEMONA.
52 Then heaven have mercy on me!
53 OTHELLO.
54 Amen, with all my heart!
55 DESDEMONA.
56 If you say so, I hope you will not kill me.
57 OTHELLO.
58 Hum!
59 DESDEMONA.
60 And yet I fear you, for you are fatal then
61 When your eyes roll so: why I should fear I know not,
62 Since guiltiness I know not, but yet I feel I fear.
63 OTHELLO.
64 Think on thy sins.
65 DESDEMONA.
66 They are loves I bear to you.
67 OTHELLO.
68 Ay, and for that thou diest.
69 DESDEMONA.
70 That death’s unnatural that kills for loving.
71 Alas, why gnaw you so your nether lip?
72 Some bloody passion shakes your very frame.
73 These are portents; but yet I hope, I hope,
74 They do not point on me.
75 OTHELLO.
76 Peace, and be still!
77 DESDEMONA.
78 I will so. What’s the matter?
79 OTHELLO.
80 That handkerchief which I so loved and gave thee,
81 Thou gav’st to Cassio.
82 DESDEMONA.
83 No, by my life and soul!
84 Send for the man and ask him.
85 OTHELLO.
86 Sweet soul, take heed, take heed of perjury,
87 Thou’rt on thy death-bed.
88 DESDEMONA.
89 Ay, but not yet to die.
90 OTHELLO.
91 Yes, presently:
92 Therefore confess thee freely of thy sin.
93 For to deny each article with oath
94 Cannot remove nor choke the strong conception
95 That I do groan withal. Thou art to die.
96 DESDEMONA.
97 Then, Lord have mercy on me!
98 OTHELLO.
99 I say, amen.
100 DESDEMONA.
101 And have you mercy too! I never did
102 Offend you in my life, never lov’d Cassio
103 But with such general warranty of heaven
104 As I might love. I never gave him token.
105 OTHELLO.
106 By heaven, I saw my handkerchief in ’s hand.
107 O perjur’d woman, thou dost stone my heart,
108 And mak’st me call what I intend to do
109 A murder, which I thought a sacrifice.
110 I saw the handkerchief.
111 DESDEMONA.
112 He found it then.
113 I never gave it him. Send for him hither.
114 Let him confess a truth.
115 OTHELLO.
116 He hath confess’d.
117 DESDEMONA.
118 What, my lord?
119 OTHELLO.
120 That he hath us’d thee.
121 DESDEMONA.
122 How? Unlawfully?
123 OTHELLO.
124 Ay.
125 DESDEMONA.
126 He will not say so.
127 OTHELLO.
128 No, his mouth is stopp’d.
129 Honest Iago hath ta’en order for ’t.
130 DESDEMONA.
131 O, my fear interprets! What, is he dead?
132 OTHELLO.
133 Had all his hairs been lives, my great revenge
134 Had stomach for them all.
135 DESDEMONA.
136 Alas, he is betray’d, and I undone!
137 OTHELLO.
138 Out, strumpet! Weep’st thou for him to my face?
139 DESDEMONA.
140 O, banish me, my lord, but kill me not!
141 OTHELLO.
142 Down, strumpet!
143 DESDEMONA.
144 Kill me tomorrow, let me live tonight!
145 OTHELLO.
146 Nay, if you strive,—
147 DESDEMONA.
148 But half an hour!
149 OTHELLO.
150 Being done, there is no pause.
151 DESDEMONA.
152 But while I say one prayer!
153 OTHELLO.
154 It is too late.
155 [_Smothers her._]
156 EMILIA.
157 [_Within._] My lord, my lord! what, ho! my lord, my lord!
158 OTHELLO.
159 What noise is this? Not dead? Not yet quite dead?
160 I that am cruel am yet merciful,
161 I would not have thee linger in thy pain.
162 So, so.
163 EMILIA.
164 [_Within._] What, ho! my lord, my lord!
165 OTHELLO.
166 Who’s there?
167 EMILIA.
168 [_Within._] O, good my lord, I would speak a word with you!
169 OTHELLO.
170 Yes. ’Tis Emilia, by and by. She’s dead.
171 ’Tis like she comes to speak of Cassio’s death;
172 The noise was high.—Ha! no more moving?
173 Still as the grave. Shall she come in? Were’t good?
174 I think she stirs again; no. What’s best to do?
175 If she come in, she’ll sure speak to my wife.
176 My wife! my wife! what wife? I have no wife.
177 O, insupportable! O heavy hour!
178 Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse
179 Of sun and moon, and that the affrighted globe
180 Should yawn at alteration.
181 EMILIA.
182 [_Within._] I do beseech you
183 That I may speak with you, O, good my lord!
184 OTHELLO.
185 I had forgot thee: O, come in, Emilia.
186 Soft, by and by; let me the curtains draw.
187 Where art thou?
188 [_Unlocks the door._]
189 Enter Emilia.
190 What’s the matter with thee now?
191 EMILIA.
192 O, my good lord, yonder’s foul murders done!
193 OTHELLO.
194 What, now?
195 EMILIA.
196 But now, my lord.
197 OTHELLO.
198 It is the very error of the moon,
199 She comes more nearer earth than she was wont
200 And makes men mad.
201 EMILIA.
202 Cassio, my lord, hath kill’d a young Venetian
203 Call’d Roderigo.
204 OTHELLO.
205 Roderigo kill’d?
206 And Cassio kill’d?
207 EMILIA.
208 No, Cassio is not kill’d.
209 OTHELLO.
210 Not Cassio kill’d! Then murder’s out of tune,
211 And sweet revenge grows harsh.
212 DESDEMONA.
213 O, falsely, falsely murder’d!
214 EMILIA.
215 Alas, what cry is that?
216 OTHELLO.
217 That? What?
218 EMILIA.
219 Out, and alas! That was my lady’s voice.
220 Help! help, ho! help! O lady, speak again,
221 Sweet Desdemona! O sweet mistress, speak!
222 DESDEMONA.
223 A guiltless death I die.
224 EMILIA.
225 O, who hath done this deed?
226 DESDEMONA.
227 Nobody; I myself. Farewell.
228 Commend me to my kind lord. O, farewell!
229 [_She dies._]
230 OTHELLO.
231 Why, how should she be murder’d?
232 EMILIA.
233 Alas, who knows?
234 OTHELLO.
235 You heard her say herself, it was not I.
236 EMILIA.
237 She said so. I must needs report the truth.
238 OTHELLO.
239 She’s like a liar, gone to burning hell.
240 ’Twas I that kill’d her.
241 EMILIA.
242 O, the more angel she,
243 And you the blacker devil!
244 OTHELLO.
245 She turn’d to folly, and she was a whore.
246 EMILIA.
247 Thou dost belie her, and thou art a devil.
248 OTHELLO.
249 She was false as water.
250 EMILIA.
251 Thou art rash as fire, to say
252 That she was false: O, she was heavenly true!
253 OTHELLO.
254 Cassio did top her; ask thy husband else.
255 O, I were damn’d beneath all depth in hell,
256 But that I did proceed upon just grounds
257 To this extremity. Thy husband knew it all.
258 EMILIA.
259 My husband?
260 OTHELLO.
261 Thy husband.
262 EMILIA.
263 That she was false to wedlock?
264 OTHELLO.
265 Ay, with Cassio. Nay, had she been true,
266 If heaven would make me such another world
267 Of one entire and perfect chrysolite,
268 I’d not have sold her for it.
269 EMILIA.
270 My husband?
271 OTHELLO.
272 Ay, ’twas he that told me first.
273 An honest man he is, and hates the slime
274 That sticks on filthy deeds.
275 EMILIA.
276 My husband?
277 OTHELLO.
278 What needs this iterance, woman? I say thy husband.
279 EMILIA.
280 O mistress, villainy hath made mocks with love!
281 My husband say that she was false?
282 OTHELLO.
283 He, woman;
284 I say thy husband: dost understand the word?
285 My friend, thy husband, honest, honest Iago.
286 EMILIA.
287 If he say so, may his pernicious soul
288 Rot half a grain a day! he lies to the heart.
289 She was too fond of her most filthy bargain.
290 OTHELLO.
291 Ha!
292 EMILIA.
293 Do thy worst:
294 This deed of thine is no more worthy heaven
295 Than thou wast worthy her.
296 OTHELLO.
297 Peace, you were best.
298 EMILIA.
299 Thou hast not half that power to do me harm
300 As I have to be hurt. O gull! O dolt!
301 As ignorant as dirt! Thou hast done a deed
302 (I care not for thy sword) I’ll make thee known,
303 Though I lost twenty lives. Help! help, ho! help!
304 The Moor hath kill’d my mistress! Murder, murder!
305 Enter Montano, Gratiano and Iago.
306 MONTANO.
307 What is the matter? How now, general?
308 EMILIA.
309 O, are you come, Iago? You have done well,
310 That men must lay their murders on your neck.
311 GRATIANO.
312 What is the matter?
313 EMILIA.
314 Disprove this villain, if thou be’st a man.
315 He says thou told’st him that his wife was false.
316 I know thou didst not, thou’rt not such a villain.
317 Speak, for my heart is full.
318 IAGO.
319 I told him what I thought, and told no more
320 Than what he found himself was apt and true.
321 EMILIA.
322 But did you ever tell him she was false?
323 IAGO.
324 I did.
325 EMILIA.
326 You told a lie, an odious, damned lie;
327 Upon my soul, a lie; a wicked lie.
328 She false with Cassio? Did you say with Cassio?
329 IAGO.
330 With Cassio, mistress. Go to, charm your tongue.
331 EMILIA.
332 I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to speak.
333 My mistress here lies murder’d in her bed.
334 ALL.
335 O heavens forfend!
336 EMILIA.
337 And your reports have set the murder on.
338 OTHELLO.
339 Nay, stare not, masters, it is true indeed.
340 GRATIANO.
341 ’Tis a strange truth.
342 MONTANO.
343 O monstrous act!
344 EMILIA.
345 Villany, villany, villany!
346 I think upon’t, I think I smell’t; O villany!
347 I thought so then. I’ll kill myself for grief.
348 O villany, villany!
349 IAGO.
350 What, are you mad? I charge you, get you home.
351 EMILIA.
352 Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak.
353 ’Tis proper I obey him, but not now.
354 Perchance, Iago, I will ne’er go home.
355 OTHELLO.
356 O! O! O!
357 [_Hanging over his wife._]
358 EMILIA.
359 Nay, lay thee down and roar;
360 For thou hast kill’d the sweetest innocent
361 That e’er did lift up eye.
362 OTHELLO.
363 [_Rising._] O, she was foul!
364 I scarce did know you, uncle, there lies your niece,
365 Whose breath indeed these hands have newly stopp’d.
366 I know this act shows horrible and grim.
367 GRATIANO.
368 Poor Desdemona! I am glad thy father’s dead.
369 Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief
370 Shore his old thread in twain: did he live now,
371 This sight would make him do a desperate turn,
372 Yea, curse his better angel from his side,
373 And fall to reprobance.
374 OTHELLO.
375 ’Tis pitiful. But yet Iago knows
376 That she with Cassio hath the act of shame
377 A thousand times committed; Cassio confess’d it,
378 And she did gratify his amorous works
379 With that recognizance and pledge of love
380 Which I first gave her; I saw it in his hand.
381 It was a handkerchief, an antique token
382 My father gave my mother.
383 EMILIA.
384 O heaven! O heavenly powers!
385 IAGO.
386 Come, hold your peace.
387 EMILIA.
388 ’Twill out, ’twill out. I peace?
389 No, I will speak as liberal as the north.
390 Let heaven and men and devils, let them all,
391 All, all, cry shame against me, yet I’ll speak.
392 IAGO.
393 Be wise, and get you home.
394 EMILIA.
395 I will not.
396 [_Iago offers to stab his wife._]
397 GRATIANO.
398 Fie!
399 Your sword upon a woman?
400 EMILIA.
401 O thou dull Moor, that handkerchief thou speak’st of
402 I found by fortune and did give my husband;
403 For often with a solemn earnestness,
404 More than indeed belong’d to such a trifle,
405 He begg’d of me to steal it.
406 IAGO.
407 Villanous whore!
408 EMILIA.
409 She give it Cassio! no, alas, I found it,
410 And I did give’t my husband.
411 IAGO.
412 Filth, thou liest!
413 EMILIA.
414 By heaven, I do not, I do not, gentlemen.
415 O murderous coxcomb! What should such a fool
416 Do with so good a wife?
417 OTHELLO
418 Are there not stones in heaven
419 But what serve for thunder? Precious villain!
420 [_Iago stabs Emilia and then runs out._]
421 GRATIANO.
422 The woman falls. Sure, he hath kill’d his wife.
423 EMILIA.
424 Ay, ay. O, lay me by my mistress’ side.
425 GRATIANO.
426 He’s gone, but his wife’s kill’d.
427 MONTANO.
428 ’Tis a notorious villain. Take you this weapon,
429 Which I have here recover’d from the Moor.
430 Come, guard the door without, let him not pass,
431 But kill him rather. I’ll after that same villain,
432 For ’tis a damned slave.
433 [_Exit Montano and Gratiano._]
434 OTHELLO.
435 I am not valiant neither,
436 But every puny whipster gets my sword.
437 But why should honour outlive honesty?
438 Let it go all.
439 EMILIA.
440 What did thy song bode, lady?
441 Hark, canst thou hear me? I will play the swan,
442 And die in music.
443 [_Sings._] _Willow, willow, willow._
444 Moor, she was chaste. She lov’d thee, cruel Moor,
445 So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true;
446 So speaking as I think, I die, I die.
447 [_She dies._]
448 OTHELLO.
449 I have another weapon in this chamber,
450 It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook’s temper.
451 O, here it is. Uncle, I must come forth.
452 GRATIANO.
453 [_Within._] If thou attempt it, it will cost thee dear;
454 Thou hast no weapon, and perforce must suffer.
455 OTHELLO.
456 Look in upon me then, and speak with me,
457 Or, naked as I am, I will assault thee.
458 Enter Gratiano.
459 GRATIANO.
460 What is the matter?
461 OTHELLO.
462 Behold, I have a weapon.
463 A better never did itself sustain
464 Upon a soldier’s thigh: I have seen the day
465 That with this little arm and this good sword
466 I have made my way through more impediments
467 Than twenty times your stop. But, O vain boast!
468 Who can control his fate? ’Tis not so now.
469 Be not afraid, though you do see me weapon’d.
470 Here is my journey’s end, here is my butt,
471 And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.
472 Do you go back dismay’d? ’Tis a lost fear.
473 Man but a rush against Othello’s breast,
474 And he retires. Where should Othello go?
475 Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starr’d wench,
476 Pale as thy smock, when we shall meet at compt,
477 This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven,
478 And fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl!
479 Even like thy chastity.
480 O cursed, cursed slave! Whip me, ye devils,
481 From the possession of this heavenly sight!
482 Blow me about in winds, roast me in sulphur,
483 Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!
484 O Desdemon! Dead, Desdemon! dead! Oh, oh!
485 Enter Lodovico, Montano, Cassio carried in a chair, and Officers with
486 Iago prisoner.
487 LODOVICO.
488 Where is this rash and most unfortunate man?
489 OTHELLO.
490 That’s he that was Othello. Here I am.
491 LODOVICO.
492 Where is that viper? Bring the villain forth.
493 OTHELLO.
494 I look down towards his feet; but that’s a fable.
495 If that thou be’st a devil, I cannot kill thee.
496 [_Wounds Iago._]
497 LODOVICO.
498 Wrench his sword from him.
499 IAGO.
500 I bleed, sir, but not kill’d.
501 OTHELLO.
502 I am not sorry neither. I’d have thee live,
503 For in my sense ’tis happiness to die.
504 LODOVICO.
505 O thou Othello, that wert once so good,
506 Fall’n in the practice of a damned slave,
507 What shall be said to thee?
508 OTHELLO.
509 Why, anything;
510 An honourable murderer, if you will.
511 For naught did I in hate, but all in honour.
512 LODOVICO.
513 This wretch hath part confess’d his villany.
514 Did you and he consent in Cassio’s death?
515 OTHELLO.
516 Ay.
517 CASSIO.
518 Dear general, I never gave you cause.
519 OTHELLO.
520 I do believe it, and I ask your pardon.
521 Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil
522 Why he hath thus ensnar’d my soul and body?
523 IAGO.
524 Demand me nothing. What you know, you know.
525 From this time forth I never will speak word.
526 LODOVICO.
527 What, not to pray?
528 GRATIANO.
529 Torments will ope your lips.
530 OTHELLO.
531 Well, thou dost best.
532 LODOVICO.
533 Sir, you shall understand what hath befall’n,
534 Which, as I think, you know not. Here is a letter
535 Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo,
536 And here another. The one of them imports
537 The death of Cassio, to be undertook
538 By Roderigo.
539 OTHELLO.
540 O villain!
541 CASSIO.
542 Most heathenish and most gross!
543 LODOVICO.
544 Now here’s another discontented paper,
545 Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems,
546 Roderigo meant to have sent this damned villain,
547 But that, belike, Iago in the interim
548 Came in and satisfied him.
549 OTHELLO.
550 O the pernicious caitiff!
551 How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief
552 That was my wife’s?
553 CASSIO.
554 I found it in my chamber.
555 And he himself confess’d but even now,
556 That there he dropp’d it for a special purpose
557 Which wrought to his desire.
558 OTHELLO.
559 O fool! fool! fool!
560 CASSIO.
561 There is besides in Roderigo’s letter,
562 How he upbraids Iago, that he made him
563 Brave me upon the watch, whereon it came
564 That I was cast. And even but now he spake,
565 After long seeming dead, Iago hurt him,
566 Iago set him on.
567 LODOVICO.
568 You must forsake this room, and go with us.
569 Your power and your command is taken off,
570 And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave,
571 If there be any cunning cruelty
572 That can torment him much and hold him long,
573 It shall be his. You shall close prisoner rest,
574 Till that the nature of your fault be known
575 To the Venetian state. Come, bring away.
576 OTHELLO.
577 Soft you; a word or two before you go.
578 I have done the state some service, and they know’t.
579 No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,
580 When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
581 Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate,
582 Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak
583 Of one that loved not wisely, but too well;
584 Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought,
585 Perplex’d in the extreme; of one whose hand,
586 Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away
587 Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdu’d eyes,
588 Albeit unused to the melting mood,
589 Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
590 Their medicinal gum. Set you down this.
591 And say besides, that in Aleppo once,
592 Where a malignant and a turban’d Turk
593 Beat a Venetian and traduc’d the state,
594 I took by the throat the circumcised dog,
595 And smote him, thus.
596 [_Stabs himself._]
597 LODOVICO.
598 O bloody period!
599 GRATIANO.
600 All that’s spoke is marr’d.
601 OTHELLO.
602 I kiss’d thee ere I kill’d thee. No way but this,
603 Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.
604 [_Falling upon Desdemona._]
605 CASSIO.
606 This did I fear, but thought he had no weapon,
607 For he was great of heart.
608 LODOVICO.
609 [_To Iago._] O Spartan dog,
610 More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea,
611 Look on the tragic loading of this bed.
612 This is thy work. The object poisons sight,
613 Let it be hid. Gratiano, keep the house,
614 And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor,
615 For they succeed on you. To you, lord governor,
616 Remains the censure of this hellish villain.
617 The time, the place, the torture, O, enforce it!
618 Myself will straight aboard, and to the state
619 This heavy act with heavy heart relate.
620 [_Exeunt._]