ARKCODEX
Act IV, Scene 2
1A room in the castle.
2Enter Othello and Emilia.
3OthelloYou have seen nothing then?
4EmiliaNor ever heard, nor ever did suspect.
5OthelloYes, you have seen Cassio and she together.
6EmiliaBut then I saw no harm, and then I heard
Each syllable that breath made up between them.
7OthelloWhat, did they never whisper?
8EmiliaNever, my lord.
9OthelloNor send you out o’ the way?
10EmiliaNever.
11OthelloTo fetch her fan, her gloves, her mask, nor nothing?
12EmiliaNever, my lord.
13OthelloThat’s strange.
14EmiliaI durst, my lord, to wager she is honest,
Lay down my soul at stake: if you think other,
Remove your thought; it doth abuse your bosom.
If any wretch have put this in your head,
Let heaven requite it with the serpent’s curse!
For, if she be not honest, chaste, and true,
There’s no man happy; the purest of their wives
Is foul as slander.
15OthelloBid her come hither: go. Exit Emilia.
She says enough; yet she’s a simple bawd
That cannot say as much. This is a subtle whore,
A closet lock and key of villainous secrets
And yet she’ll kneel and pray; I have seen her do’t.
16Enter Desdemona with Emilia.
17DesdemonaMy lord, what is your will?
18OthelloPray, chuck, come hither.
19DesdemonaWhat is your pleasure?
20OthelloLet me see your eyes;
Look in my face.
21DesdemonaWhat horrible fancy’s this?
22OthelloTo Emilia. Some of your function, mistress;
Leave procreants alone and shut the door;
Cough, or cry “hem,” if any body come:
Your mystery, your mystery: nay, dispatch. Exit Emilia.
23DesdemonaUpon my knees, what doth your speech import?
I understand a fury in your words.
But not the words.
24OthelloWhy, what art thou?
25DesdemonaYour wife, my lord; your true
And loyal wife.
26OthelloCome, swear it, damn thyself
Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves
Should fear to seize thee: therefore be double damn’d:
Swear thou art honest.
27DesdemonaHeaven doth truly know it.
28OthelloHeaven truly knows that thou art false as hell.
29DesdemonaTo whom, my lord? with whom? how am I false?
30OthelloO Desdemona! away! away! away!
31DesdemonaAlas the heavy day! Why do you weep?
Am I the motive of these tears, my lord?
If haply you my father do suspect
An instrument of this your calling back,
Lay not your blame on me: If you have lost him,
Why, I have lost him too.
32OthelloHad it pleased heaven
To try me with affliction; had they rain’d
All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head.
Steep’d me in poverty to the very lips,
Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes,
I should have found in some place of my soul
A drop of patience: but, alas, to make me
A fixed figure for the time of scorn
To point his slow unmoving finger at!
Yet could I bear that too; well, very well:
But there, where I have garner’d up my heart,
Where either I must live, or bear no life;
The fountain from the which my current runs,
Or else dries up; to be discarded thence!
Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads
To knot and gender in! Turn thy complexion there,
Patience, thou young and rose-lipp’d cherubin—
Ay, there, look grim as hell!
33DesdemonaI hope my noble lord esteems me honest.
34OthelloO, ay; as summer flies are in the shambles,
That quicken even with blowing. O thou weed,
Who art so lovely fair and smell’st so sweet
That the sense aches at thee, would thou hadst ne’er been born!
35DesdemonaAlas, what ignorant sin have I committed?
36OthelloWas this fair paper, this most goodly book,
Made to write “whore” upon? What committed!
Committed! O thou public commoner!
I should make very forges of my cheeks,
That would to cinders burn up modesty,
Did I but speak thy deeds. What committed!
Heaven stops the nose at it and the moon winks,
The bawdy wind that kisses all it meets
Is hush’d within the hollow mine of earth,
And will not hear it. What committed!
Impudent strumpet!
37DesdemonaBy heaven, you do me wrong.
38OthelloAre you not a strumpet?
39DesdemonaNo, as I am a Christian:
If to preserve this vessel for my lord
From any other foul unlawful touch
Be not to be a strumpet, I am none.
40OthelloWhat, not a whore?
41DesdemonaNo, as I shall be saved.
42OthelloIs’t possible?
43DesdemonaO, heaven forgive us!
44OthelloI cry you mercy, then:
I took you for that cunning whore of Venice
That married with Othello. Raising his voice.
You, mistress,
That have the office opposite to Saint Peter,
And keep the gate of hell!
45Reenter Emilia.
46You, you, ay, you!
We have done our course; there’s money for your pains:
I pray you, turn the key and keep our counsel. Exit.
47EmiliaAlas, what does this gentleman conceive?
How do you, madam? how do you, my good lady?
48Desdemona’Faith, half asleep.
49EmiliaGood madam, what’s the matter with my lord?
50DesdemonaWith who?
51EmiliaWhy, with my lord, madam.
52DesdemonaWho is thy lord?
53EmiliaHe that is yours, sweet lady.
54DesdemonaI have none: do not talk to me, Emilia;
I cannot weep; nor answer have I none,
But what should go by water. Prithee, tonight
Lay on my bed my wedding sheets: remember;
And call thy husband hither.
55EmiliaHere’s a change indeed! Exit.
56Desdemona’Tis meet I should be used so, very meet.
How have I been behaved, that he might stick
The small’st opinion on my least misuse?
57Reenter Emilia with Iago.
58IagoWhat is your pleasure, madam?
How is’t with you?
59DesdemonaI cannot tell. Those that do teach young babes
Do it with gentle means and easy tasks:
He might have chid me so; for, in good faith,
I am a child to chiding.
60IagoWhat’s the matter, lady?
61EmiliaAlas, Iago, my lord hath so bewhored her.
Thrown such despite and heavy terms upon her,
As true hearts cannot bear.
62DesdemonaAm I that name, Iago?
63IagoWhat name, fair lady?
64DesdemonaSuch as she says my lord did say I was.
65EmiliaHe call’d her whore: a beggar in his drink
Could not have laid such terms upon his callat.
66IagoWhy did he so?
67DesdemonaI do not know; I am sure I am none such.
68IagoDo not weep, do not weep. Alas the day!
69EmiliaHath she forsook so many noble matches,
Her father and her country and her friends,
To be call’d whore? would it not make one weep?
70DesdemonaIt is my wretched fortune.
71IagoBeshrew him for’t!
How comes this trick upon him?
72DesdemonaNay, heaven doth know.
73EmiliaI will be hang’d, if some eternal villain,
Some busy and insinuating rogue,
Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office,
Have not devised this slander; I’ll be hang’d else.
74IagoFie, there is no such man; it is impossible.
75DesdemonaIf any such there be, heaven pardon him!
76EmiliaA halter pardon him! and hell gnaw his bones!
Why should he call her whore? who keeps her company?
What place? what time? what form? what likelihood?
The Moor’s abused by some most villainous knave,
Some base notorious knave, some scurvy fellow.
O heaven, that such companions thou’ldst unfold,
And put in every honest hand a whip
To lash the rascals naked through the world
Even from the east to the west!
77IagoSpeak within door.
78EmiliaO, fie upon them! Some such squire he was
That turn’d your wit the seamy side without,
And made you to suspect me with the Moor.
79IagoYou are a fool; go to.
80DesdemonaO good Iago,
What shall I do to win my lord again?
Good friend, go to him; for, by this light of heaven,
I know not how I lost him. Here I kneel:
If e’er my will did trespass ’gainst his love,
Either in discourse of thought or actual deed,
Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any sense,
Delighted them in any other form;
Or that I do not yet, and ever did.
And ever will—though he do shake me off
To beggarly divorcement—love him dearly,
Comfort forswear me! Unkindness may do much;
And his unkindness may defeat my life,
But never taint my love. I cannot say “whore:”
It does abhor me now I speak the word;
To do the act that might the addition earn
Not the world’s mass of vanity could make me.
81IagoI pray you, be content; ’tis but his humour:
The business of the state does him offence,
And he does chide with you.
82DesdemonaIf ’twere no other—
83Iago’Tis but so, I warrant. Trumpets within.
Hark, how these instruments summon to supper!
The messengers of Venice stay the meat;
Go in, and weep not; all things shall be well. Exeunt Desdemona and Emilia.
84Enter Roderigo.
85How now, Roderigo!
86RoderigoI do not find that thou dealest justly with me.
87IagoWhat in the contrary?
88RoderigoEvery day thou daffest me with some device, Iago; and rather, as it seems to me now, keepest from me all conveniency than suppliest me with the least advantage of hope. I will indeed no longer endure it, nor am I yet persuaded to put up in peace what already I have foolishly suffered.
89IagoWill you hear me, Roderigo?
90Roderigo’Faith, I have heard too much, for your words and performances are no kin together.
91IagoYou charge me most unjustly.
92RoderigoWith nought but truth. I have wasted myself out of my means. The jewels you have had from me to deliver to Desdemona would half have corrupted a votarist: you have told me she hath received them and returned me expectations and comforts of sudden respect and acquaintance, but I find none.
93IagoWell; go to; very well.
94RoderigoVery well! go to! I cannot go to, man; nor ’tis not very well: nay, I think it is scurvy, and begin to find myself fobbed in it.
95IagoVery well.
96RoderigoI tell you ’tis not very well. I will make myself known to Desdemona: if she will return me my jewels, I will give over my suit and repent my unlawful solicitation; if not, assure yourself I will seek satisfaction of you.
97IagoYou have said now.
98RoderigoAy, and said nothing but what I protest intendment of doing.
99IagoWhy, now I see there’s mettle in thee, and even from this instant to build on thee a better opinion than ever before. Give me thy hand, Roderigo: thou hast taken against me a most just exception; but yet, I protest, I have dealt most directly in thy affair.
100RoderigoIt hath not appeared.
101IagoI grant indeed it hath not appeared, and your suspicion is not without wit and judgment. But, Roderigo, if thou hast that in thee indeed, which I have greater reason to believe now than ever, I mean purpose, courage and valour, this night show it: if thou the next night following enjoy not Desdemona, take me from this world with treachery and devise engines for my life.
102RoderigoWell, what is it? is it within reason and compass?
103IagoSir, there is especial commission come from Venice to depute Cassio in Othello’s place.
104RoderigoIs that true? why, then Othello and Desdemona return again to Venice.
105IagoO, no; he goes into Mauritania and takes away with him the fair Desdemona, unless his abode be lingered here by some accident: wherein none can be so determinate as the removing of Cassio.
106RoderigoHow do you mean, removing of him?
107IagoWhy, by making him uncapable of Othello’s place; knocking out his brains.
108RoderigoAnd that you would have me to do?
109IagoAy, if you dare do yourself a profit and a right. He sups to-night with a harlotry, and thither will I go to him: he knows not yet of his honourable fortune. If you will watch his going thence, which I will fashion to fall out between twelve and one, you may take him at your pleasure: I will be near to second your attempt, and he shall fall between us. Come, stand not amazed at it, but go along with me; I will show you such a necessity in his death that you shall think yourself bound to put it on him. It is now high suppertime, and the night grows to waste: about it.
110RoderigoI will hear further reason for this.
111IagoAnd you shall be satisfied. Exeunt.