Enter Othello and Iago.IAGO Will you think so?OTHELLO Think so, Iago?IAGO What, To kiss in private?OTHELLO 5 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!10 They that mean virtuously, and yet do so, The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.IAGO If they do nothing, ’tis a venial slip. But if I give my wife a handkerchief—OTHELLO 15What 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 honor, too. May she give that?
IAGO 20 Her honor 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 saidst—O, it comes o’er my memory25 As doth the raven o’er the infectious house, Boding to all—he had my handkerchief.IAGO Ay, what of that?OTHELLO That’s not so good now.IAGO What30 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, Convincèd or supplied them, cannot choose35 But they must blab)—OTHELLO Hath he said anything?IAGO He hath, my lord, but be you well assured, No more than he’ll unswear.OTHELLO What hath he said?IAGO 40 ⟨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 45Lie with her? Lie on her? We say “lie on her” when they belie her. Lie with her—⟨Zounds,⟩ that’s fulsome! Handkerchief—confessions—handkerchief. [To confess and be hanged for his labor. First to be hanged and then to confess—I tremble50 at it. Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without some instruction. It is not
words that shakes me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips—is ’t possible? Confess—handkerchief—O, devil!]⟨He⟩ falls in a trance.IAGO 55Work 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!60 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 65 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.70 Do you withdraw yourself a little while. He will recover straight. When he is gone, I would on great occasion speak with you.⌜Cassio exits.⌝ How is it, general? Have you not hurt your head?OTHELLO Dost thou mock me?IAGO 75 I mock you not, by heaven! Would you would bear your fortune like a man!OTHELLO A hornèd man’s a monster and a beast.IAGO There’s many a beast, then, in a populous city, And many a civil monster.
OTHELLO 80 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 beds85 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 90O, thou art wise, ’tis certain.IAGO Stand you awhile apart. Confine yourself but in a patient list. Whilst you were here, o’erwhelmèd with your grief— A passion most ⟨unsuiting⟩ such a man—95 Cassio came hither. I shifted him away And laid good ’scuses 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 scorns100 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,105 Or I shall say you’re 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 110 That’s not amiss. But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw?⌜Othello withdraws.⌝ Now will I question Cassio of Bianca, A huswife that by selling her desires Buys herself bread and ⟨clothes.⟩ It is a creature
115 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 restrain From the excess of laughter. Here he comes.Enter Cassio. As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad,120 And his unbookish jealousy must ⟨construe⟩ Poor Cassio’s smiles, gestures, and light behaviors Quite in the wrong.—How do you, lieutenant?CASSIO The worser that you give me the addition Whose want even kills me.IAGO 125 Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on ’t. Now, if this suit lay in Bianca’s ⟨power,⟩ How quickly should you speed!CASSIO, ⌜laughing⌝ Alas, poor caitiff!OTHELLO Look how he laughs already!IAGO 130I 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 him135 To tell it o’er. Go to, well said, well said.IAGO She gives it out that you shall marry her. Do you intend it?CASSIO Ha, ha, ha!OTHELLO Do you triumph, Roman? Do you triumph?CASSIO 140I 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 wins.IAGO ⟨Faith,⟩ the cry goes that you marry her.CASSIO 145Prithee 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 and150 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 comes155 the bauble. ⟨By this hand, she falls⟩ 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, so160 shakes 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 165Before me, look where she comes.Enter Bianca.CASSIO ’Tis such another fitchew—marry, a perfumed one!—What do you mean by this haunting of me?BIANCA Let the devil and his dam haunt you! What did170 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 know not who
left it there! This is some minx’s token, and I must175 take out the work! There, give it your hobbyhorse. 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 If you’ll come to supper tonight you may. If180 you will not, come when you are next prepared for.She exits.IAGO After her, after her!CASSIO ⟨Faith,⟩ I must. She’ll rail in the streets else.IAGO Will you sup there?CASSIO 185⟨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.⟨Cassio exits.⟩OTHELLO, ⌜coming forward⌝ 190How 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 195Was 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 giv’n it his whore.]OTHELLO I would have him nine years a-killing! A fine200 woman, a fair woman, a sweet woman!IAGO Nay, you must forget that.OTHELLO Ay, let her rot and perish and be damned tonight, for she shall not live. No, my heart is turned to stone. I strike it, and it hurts my hand. O, the205 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—210 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, a thousand times!—And then of so gentle a condition!IAGO 215Ay, 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 comes220 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 225Get 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 230Good, 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 sounds.⟩235 What trumpet is that same?IAGO I warrant something from Venice.Enter Lodovico, Desdemona, and Attendants. ’Tis Lodovico. This comes from the Duke. See, your wife’s with him.LODOVICO ⟨God⟩ save you, worthy general.
OTHELLO 240With all my heart, sir.LODOVICO The Duke and the Senators of Venice greet you.⌜He hands Othello a paper.⌝OTHELLO I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.DESDEMONA And what’s the news, good cousin Lodovico?IAGO I am very glad to see you, signior.245 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 250Are you sure of that?DESDEMONA My lord?OTHELLO, ⌜reading⌝ “This fail you not to do, as you will”—LODOVICO He did not call; he’s busy in the paper.255 Is there division ’twixt my lord and Cassio?DESDEMONA A most unhappy one. I would do much T’ atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio.OTHELLO Fire and brimstone!DESDEMONA My lord?OTHELLO 260Are 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 265⟨By my troth,⟩ 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⌝ 270Devil!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 275 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.⌜She begins to leave.⌝LODOVICO 280Truly ⟨an⟩ obedient lady. I do beseech your Lordship call her back.OTHELLO Mistress.DESDEMONA, ⌜turning back⌝ My lord?OTHELLO What would you with her, sir?LODOVICO 285Who, 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.290 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!⌜Desdemona exits.⌝295 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!He exits.LODOVICO Is this the noble Moor, whom our full senate300 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 much305 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 310 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 blood315 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,320 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.They exit.
