Set on thy wife to observe. Leave me, Iago.
IAGO My lord, I take my leave.
OTHELLO Why did I marry?
245
This honest creature doubtless
Sees and knows more – much more – than he unfolds.
IAGO My lord, I would I might entreat your honour
To scan this thing no farther. Leave it to time;
Although ’tis fit that Cassio have his place,
250
For sure he fills it up with great ability,
Yet if you please to hold him off a while
You shall by that perceive him, and his means:
Note if your lady strain his entertainment
With any strong or vehement importunity,
255
Much will be seen in that. In the meantime
Let me be thought too busy in my fears
– As worthy cause I have to fear I am –
And hold her free, I do beseech your honour.
OTHELLO Fear not my government.
260
IAGO I once more take my leave. Exit.
OTHELLO
This fellow’s of exceeding honesty
And knows all qualities, with a learned spirit,
Of human dealings. If I do prove her haggard,
Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings,
265
I’d whistle her off and let her down the wind
To prey at fortune. Haply for I am black
And have not those soft parts of conversation
That chamberers have, or for I am declined
Into the vale of years – yet that’s not much –
270
She’s gone, I am abused, and my relief
Must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage
That we can call these delicate creatures ours
And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon
275
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others’ uses. Yet ’tis the plague of great ones,
Prerogatived are they less than the base;
’Tis destiny unshunnable, like death –
Even then this forked plague is fated to us
280
When we do quicken.
Enter DESDEMONA and EMILIA.
Look where she comes:
If she be false, O then heaven mocks itself,
I’ll not believe’t.
DESDEMONA How now, my dear Othello?
Your dinner, and the generous islanders
By you invited, do attend your presence.
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OTHELLO I am to blame.
DESDEMONA Why do you speak so faintly?
Are you not well?
OTHELLO I have a pain upon my forehead, here.
DESDEMONA
Faith, that’s with watching, ’twill away again.
Let me but bind it hard, within this hour
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It will be well.
OTHELLO Your napkin is too little.
[She drops her handkerchief.]
Let it alone. Come, I’ll go in with you.
DESDEMONA
I am very sorry that you are not well.
Exeunt Othello and Desdemona.
EMILIA
I am glad I have found this napkin,
This was her first remembrance from the Moor.
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My wayward husband hath a hundred times
Wooed me to steal it, but she so loves the token
– For he conjured her she should ever keep it –
That she reserves it evermore about her
To kiss and talk to. I’ll have the work ta’en out
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And give’t Iago: what he will do with it
Heaven knows, not I,
I nothing, but to please his fantasy.
Enter IAGO.
IAGO How now! What do you here alone?
EMILIA Do not you chide, I have a thing for you –
305
IAGO You have a thing for me? it is a common thing –
EMILIA Ha?
IAGO To have a foolish wife.
EMILIA O, is that all? What will you give me now
For that same handkerchief?
IAGO What handkerchief?
310
EMILIA What handkerchief?
Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona,
That which so often you did bid me steal.
IAGO Hast stolen it from her?
EMILIA No, faith, she let it drop by negligence
315
And, to th’advantage, I being here, took’t up.
Look, here it is.
IAGO A good wench, give it me.
EMILIA
What will you do with’t, that you have been so
earnest
To have me filch it?
IAGO [snatching it] Why, what’s that to you?
EMILIA If it be not for some purpose of import
320
Give’t me again. Poor lady, she’ll run mad
When she shall lack it.
IAGO Be not acknown on’t,
I have use for it. Go, leave me. Exit Emilia.
I will in Cassio’s lodging lose this napkin
And let him find it. Trifles light as air
325
Are to the jealous confirmations strong
As proofs of holy writ. This may do something.
The Moor already changes with my poison:
Dangerous conceits are in their natures poisons
Which at the first are scarce found to distaste
330
But with a little art upon the blood
Burn like the mines of sulphur.
Enter OTHELLO.
I did say so:
Look where he comes. Not poppy nor mandragora
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
335
Which thou owedst yesterday.
OTHELLO Ha! Ha! false to me?
IAGO Why, how now, general? No more of that.
OTHELLO
Avaunt, be gone, thou hast set me on the rack!
I swear ’tis better to be much abused
Than but to know’t a little.
IAGO How now, my lord?
340
OTHELLO
What sense had I of her stolen hours of lust?
I saw’t not, thought it not, it harmed not me,
I slept the next night well, fed well, was free and
merry;
I found not Cassio’s kisses on her lips;
He that is robbed, not wanting what is stolen,
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Let him not know’t, and he’s not robbed at all.
IAGO I am sorry to hear this.
OTHELLO I had been happy if the general camp,
Pioneers and all, had tasted her sweet body,
So I had nothing known. O now for ever
350
Farewell the tranquil mind, farewell content!
Farewell the plumed troops and the big wars
That makes ambition virtue! O farewell,
Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, th’ear-piercing fife,
355
The royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war!
And, O you mortal engines whose rude throats
Th’immortal Jove’s dread clamours counterfeit,
Farewell: Othello’s occupation’s gone.
360
IAGO Is’t possible? my lord?
OTHELLO Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore,
Be sure of it, give me the ocular proof,
[catching hold of him]
Or by the worth of man’s eternal soul
Thou hadst been better have been born a
dog
365
Than answer my waked wrath!
IAGO Is’t come to this?
OTHELLO Make me to see’t, or at the least so prove it
That the probation bear no hinge nor loop
To hang a doubt on, or woe upon thy life!
IAGO My noble lord –
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OTHELLO If thou dost slander her and torture me
Never pray more, abandon all remorse;
On horror’s head horrors accumulate,
Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed,
For nothing canst thou to damnation add
375
Greater than that!
IAGO O grace! O heaven forgive me!
Are you a man? have you a soul, or sense?
God buy you, take mine office. O wretched fool
That lov’st to make thine honesty a vice!
O monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world,
380
To be direct and honest is not safe.
I thank you for this profit, and from hence
I’ll love no friend, sith love breeds such offence.
OTHELLO Nay, stay, thou shouldst be honest.
IAGO I should be wise, for honesty’s a fool
385
And loses that it works for.
OTHELLO By the world,
I think my wife be honest, and think she is not,
I think that thou art just, and think thou art not.
I’ll have some proof. Her name, that was as fresh
As Dian’s visage, is now begrimed and black
390
As mine own face. If there be cords or knives,
Poison, or fire, or suffocating streams,
I’ll not endure it. Would I were satisfied!
IAGO I see, sir, you are eaten up with passion.
I do repent me that I put it to you.
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You would be satisfied?
OTHELLO Would? nay, and I will!
IAGO And may – but how? how satisfied, my lord?
Would you, the supervisor, grossly gape on?
Behold her topped?
OTHELLO Death and damnation! O!
IAGO It were a tedious difficulty, I think,
400
To bring them to that prospect. Damn them then
If ever mortal eyes do see them bolster
More than their own. What then? how then?
What shall I say? where’s satisfaction?
It is impossible you should see this
405
Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys,
As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross
As ignorance made drunk. But yet, I say,
If imputation and strong circumstances
Which lead directly to the door of truth
410
Will give you satisfaction, you may have’t.
OTHELLO Give me a living reason she’s disloyal.
IAGO I do not like the office.
But sith I am entered in this cause so far,
Pricked to’t by foolish honesty and love,
415
I will go on. I lay with Cassio lately
And being troubled with a raging tooth
I could not sleep. There are a kind of men
So loose of soul that in their sleeps will mutter
Their affairs – one of this kind is Cassio.
420
In sleep I heard him say ‘Sweet Desdemona,
Let us be wary, let us hide our loves,’
And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my hand,
Cry ‘O sweet creature!’ and then kiss me hard
As if he plucked up kisses by the roots
425
That grew upon my lips, lay his leg o’er my thigh,
And sigh, and kiss, and then cry ‘Cursed fate
That gave thee to the Moor!’
OTHELLO O monstrous! monstrous!
IAGO Nay, this was but his dream.
OTHELLO But this denoted a foregone conclusion.
430
IAGO ’Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream,
And this may help to thicken other proofs
That do demonstrate thinly.
OTHELLO I’ll tear her all to pieces!
IAGO Nay, yet be wise, yet we see nothing done,
435
She may be honest yet. Tell me but this,
Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief
Spotted with strawberries, in your wife’s hand?
OTHELLO I gave her such a one, ’twas my first gift.
IAGO I know not that, but such a handkerchief,
440
I am sure it was your wife’s, did I today
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 421
