ARKCODEX
Act IV, Scene 1
1Cyprus. Before the castle.
2Enter Othello and Iago.
3IagoWill you think so?
4OthelloThink so, Iago!
5IagoWhat,
To kiss in private?
6OthelloAn unauthorized kiss.
7IagoOr to be naked with her friend in bed
An hour or more, not meaning any harm?
8OthelloNaked 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.
9IagoSo they do nothing, ’tis a venial slip:
But if I give my wife a handkerchief—
10OthelloWhat then?
11IagoWhy, then, ’tis hers, my lord; and, being hers,
She may, I think, bestow’t on any man.
12OthelloShe is protectress of her honour too:
May she give that?
13IagoHer honour is an essence that’s not seen;
They have it very oft that have it not:
But, for the handkerchief—
14OthelloBy 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.
15IagoAy, what of that?
16OthelloThat’s not so good now.
17IagoWhat,
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—
18OthelloHath he said any thing?
19IagoHe hath, my lord; but be you well assured,
No more than he’ll unswear.
20OthelloWhat hath he said?
21Iago’Faith, that he did—I know not what he did.
22OthelloWhat? what?
23IagoLie—
24OthelloWith her?
25IagoWith her, on her; what you will.
26OthelloLie 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.
27IagoWork 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!
28Enter Cassio.
29How now, Cassio!
30CassioWhat’s the matter?
31IagoMy lord is fall’n into an epilepsy:
This is his second fit; he had one yesterday.
32CassioRub him about the temples.
33IagoNo, 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?
34OthelloDost thou mock me?
35IagoI mock you! no, by heaven.
Would you would bear your fortune like a man!
36OthelloA horned man’s a monster and a beast.
37IagoThere’s many a beast then in a populous city,
And many a civil monster.
38OthelloDid he confess it?
39IagoGood 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.
40OthelloO, thou art wise; ’tis certain.
41IagoStand 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.
42OthelloDost thou hear, Iago?
I will be found most cunning in my patience;
But—dost thou hear?—most bloody.
43IagoThat’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:
44Reenter Cassio.
45As 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?
46CassioThe worser that you give me the addition
Whose want even kills me.
47IagoPly Desdemona well, and you are sure on’t.
Speaking lower. Now, if this suit lay in Bianca’s power,
How quickly should you speed!
48CassioAlas, poor caitiff!
49OthelloLook, how he laughs already!
50IagoI never knew woman love man so.
51CassioAlas, poor rogue! I think, i’ faith, she loves me.
52OthelloNow he denies it faintly, and laughs it out.
53IagoDo you hear, Cassio?
54OthelloNow he importunes him
To tell it o’er: go to; well said, well said.
55IagoShe gives it out that you shall marry hey:
Do you intend it?
56CassioHa, ha, ha!
57OthelloDo you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?
58CassioI marry her! what? a customer! Prithee, bear some charity to my wit: do not think it so unwholesome. Ha, ha, ha!
59OthelloSo, so, so, so: they laugh that win.
60Iago’Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her.
61CassioPrithee, say true.
62IagoI am a very villain else.
63OthelloHave you scored me? Well.
64CassioThis 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.
65OthelloIago beckons me; now he begins the story.
66CassioShe 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—
67OthelloCrying “O dear Cassio!” as it were: his gesture imports it.
68CassioSo hangs, and lolls, and weeps upon me; so hales, and pulls me: ha, ha, ha!
69OthelloNow 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.
70CassioWell, I must leave her company.
71IagoBefore me! look, where she comes.
72Cassio’Tis such another fitchew! marry a perfumed one.
73Enter Bianca.
74What do you mean by this haunting of me?
75BiancaLet 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.
76CassioHow now, my sweet Bianca! how now! how now!
77OthelloBy heaven, that should be my handkerchief!
78BiancaAn you’ll come to supper to-night, you may; an you will not, come when you are next prepared for. Exit.
79IagoAfter her, after her.
80Cassio’Faith, I must; she’ll rail in the street else.
81IagoWill you sup there?
82Cassio’Faith, I intend so.
83IagoWell, I may chance to see you; for I would very fain speak with you.
84CassioPrithee, come; will you?
85IagoGo to; say no more. Exit Cassio.
86OthelloAdvancing. How shall I murder him, Iago?
87IagoDid you perceive how he laughed at his vice?
88OthelloO Iago!
89IagoAnd did you see the handkerchief?
90OthelloWas that mine?
91IagoYours 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.
92OthelloI would have him nine years a-killing. A fine woman! a fair woman! a sweet woman!
93IagoNay, you must forget that.
94OthelloAy, 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.
95IagoNay, that’s not your way.
96OthelloHang 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:—
97IagoShe’s the worse for all this.
98OthelloO, a thousand thousand times: and then, of so gentle a condition!
99IagoAy, too gentle.
100OthelloNay, that’s certain: but yet the pity of it, Iago! O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!
101IagoIf you are so fond over her iniquity, give her patent to offend; for, if it touch not you, it comes near nobody.
102OthelloI will chop her into messes: cuckold me!
103IagoO, ’tis foul in her.
104OthelloWith mine officer!
105IagoThat’s fouler.
106OthelloGet me some poison, Iago; this night: I’ll not expostulate with her, lest her body and beauty unprovide my mind again: this night, Iago.
107IagoDo it not with poison, strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated.
108OthelloGood, good: the justice of it pleases: very good.
109IagoAnd for Cassio, let me be his undertaker: you shall hear more by midnight.
110OthelloExcellent good. A trumpet within. What trumpet is that same?
111IagoSomething from Venice, sure. ’Tis Lodovico
Come from the duke: and, see, your wife is with him.
112Enter Lodovico, Desdemona, and Attendants.
113LodovicoSave you, worthy general!
114OthelloWith all my heart, sir.
115LodovicoThe duke and senators of Venice greet you. Gives him a letter.
116OthelloI kiss the instrument of their pleasures. Opens the letter, and reads.
117DesdemonaAnd what’s the news, good cousin Lodovico?
118IagoI am very glad to see you, signior;
Welcome to Cyprus.
119LodovicoI thank you. How does Lieutenant Cassio?
120IagoLives, sir.
121DesdemonaCousin, there’s fall’n between him and my lord
An unkind breach: but you shall make all well.
122OthelloAre you sure of that?
123DesdemonaMy lord?
124OthelloReads. “This fail you not to do, as you will—”
125LodovicoHe did not call; he’s busy in the paper.
Is there division ’twixt my lord and Cassio?
126DesdemonaA most unhappy one: I would do much
To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio.
127OthelloFire and brimstone!
128DesdemonaMy lord?
129OthelloAre you wise?
130DesdemonaWhat, is he angry?
131LodovicoMay be the letter moved him;
For, as I think, they do command him home,
Deputing Cassio in his government.
132DesdemonaTrust me, I am glad on’t.
133OthelloIndeed!
134DesdemonaMy lord?
135OthelloI am glad to see you mad.
136DesdemonaWhy, sweet Othello—
137OthelloStriking her. Devil!
138DesdemonaI have not deserved this.
139LodovicoMy lord, this would not be believed in Venice,
Though I should swear I saw’t: ’tis very much:
Make her amends; she weeps.
140OthelloO devil, devil!
If that the earth could teem with woman’s tears,
Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.
Out of my sight!
141DesdemonaI will not stay to offend you. Going.
142LodovicoTruly, an obedient lady:
I do beseech your lordship, call her back.
143OthelloMistress!
144DesdemonaMy lord?
145OthelloWhat would you with her, sir?
146LodovicoWho, I, my lord?
147OthelloAy; 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.
148LodovicoIs 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?
149IagoHe is much changed.
150LodovicoAre his wits safe? is he not light of brain?
151IagoHe’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!
152LodovicoWhat, strike his wife!
153Iago’Faith, that was not so well; yet would I knew
That stroke would prove the worst!
154LodovicoIs it his use?
Or did the letters work upon his blood,
And new-create this fault?
155IagoAlas, 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.
156LodovicoI am sorry that I am deceived in him. Exeunt.