O, that’s well said, the chair.
Some good man bear him carefully from hence,
I’ll fetch the general’s surgeon. [to Bianca.]
For you, mistress,
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Save you your labour. – He that lies slain here, Cassio,
Was my dear friend. What malice was between you?
CASSIO None in the world, nor do I know the man.
IAGO [to Bianca]
What, look you pale? – O, bear him out o’th’ air.
– Stay you, good gentlemen. – Look you pale,
mistress?
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– Do you perceive the gastness of her eye?
– Nay, if you stare we shall hear more anon.
– Behold her well, I pray you, look upon her:
Do you see, gentlemen? nay, guiltiness will speak
Though tongues were out of use.
Enter EMILIA.
EMILIA ’Las, what’s the matter?
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What’s the matter, husband?
IAGO Cassio hath here been set on in the dark
By Roderigo and fellows that are ’scaped:
He’s almost slain, and Roderigo dead.
EMILIA Alas, good gentleman! alas, good Cassio!
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IAGO This is the fruits of whoring. Prithee, Emilia,
Go know of Cassio where he supped tonight.
What, do you shake at that?
BIANCA
He supped at my house, but I therefore shake not.
IAGO O, did he so? I charge you, go with me.
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EMILIA O fie upon thee, strumpet!
BIANCA I am no strumpet
But of life as honest as you, that thus
Abuse me.
EMILIA As I? Foh, fie upon thee!
IAGO
Kind gentlemen, let’s go see poor Cassio dressed.
Come, mistress, you must tell’s another tale.
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Emilia, run you to the citadel
And tell my lord and lady what hath happed.
– Will you go on afore? – This is the night
That either makes me or fordoes me quite. Exeunt.
5.2 Enter OTHELLO, with a light. DESDEMONA in her bed asleep
OTHELLO It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul!
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars,
It is the cause. Yet I’ll not shed her blood
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow
And smooth as monumental alabaster:
5
Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men.
Put out the light, and then put out the light!
If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,
I can again thy former light restore
Should I repent me. But once put out thy light,
10
Thou cunning’st pattern of excelling nature,
I know not where is that Promethean heat
That can thy light relume: when I have plucked the rose
I cannot give it vital growth again,
It needs must wither. I’ll smell thee on the tree;
15
O balmy breath, that dost almost persuade
Justice to break her sword! Once more, once more:
Be thus when thou art dead and I will kill thee
And love thee after. Once more, and that’s the last.
[He smells, then kisses her.]
So sweet was ne’er so fatal. I must weep,
20
But they are cruel tears. This sorrow’s heavenly,
It strikes where it doth love. She wakes.
DESDEMONA Who’s there? Othello?
OTHELLO Ay, Desdemona.
DESDEMONA Will you come to bed, my lord?
OTHELLO Have you prayed tonight, Desdemon?
DESDEMONA Ay, my lord.
25
OTHELLO If you bethink yourself of any crime
Unreconciled as yet to heaven and grace,
Solicit for it straight.
DESDEMONA
Alack, my lord, what may you mean by that?
OTHELLO
Well, do it, and be brief; I will walk by.
30
I would not kill thy unprepared spirit,
No, heaven forfend, I would not kill thy soul.
DESDEMONA Talk you of killing?
OTHELLO Ay, I do.
DESDEMONA Then, heaven,
Have mercy on me!
OTHELLO Amen, with all my heart.
DESDEMONA If you say so, I hope you will not kill me.
35
OTHELLO Hum!
DESDEMONA And yet I fear you, for you’re fatal then
When your eyes roll so. Why I should fear I know not,
Since guiltiness I know not. But yet I feel I fear.
OTHELLO Think on thy sins.
DESDEMONA They are loves I bear to you.
40
OTHELLO Ay, and for that thou diest.
DESDEMONA
That death’s unnatural that kills for loving.
Alas, why gnaw you so your nether lip?
Some bloody passion shakes your very frame,
These are portents: but yet I hope, I hope
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They do not point on me.
OTHELLO Peace, and be still.
DESDEMONA I will. So: what’s the matter?
OTHELLO That handkerchief
Which I so loved and gave thee, thou gavest
To Cassio.
DESDEMONA No, by my life and soul:
Send for the man and ask him.
OTHELLO Sweet soul, take heed,
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Take heed of perjury. Thou art on thy death-bed.
DESDEMONA I? – but not yet to die!
OTHELLO Yes, presently.
Therefore confess thee freely of thy sin,
For to deny each article with oath
Cannot remove nor choke the strong conception
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That I do groan withal. Thou art to die.
DESDEMONA Then Lord have mercy on me.
OTHELLO I say amen.
DESDEMONA And have you mercy too. I never did
Offend you in my life, never loved Cassio
But with such general warranty of heaven
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As I might love: I never gave him token.
OTHELLO By heaven, I saw my handkerchief in’s hand!
O perjured woman, thou dost stone my heart
And makest me call what I intend to do
A murder, which I thought a sacrifice!
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I saw the handkerchief.
DESDEMONA He found it then,
I never gave it him. Send for him hither,
Let him confess the truth.
OTHELLO He hath confessed.
DESDEMONA What, my lord?
OTHELLO That he hath – ud’s death! – used thee.
DESDEMONA How? unlawfully?
OTHELLO Ay.
DESDEMONA He will not say so.
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OTHELLO No, his mouth is stopped. Honest Iago
Hath ta’en order for’t.
DESDEMONA O, my fear interprets!
What, is he dead?
OTHELLO Had all his hairs been lives
My great revenge had stomach for them all.
DESDEMONA Alas, he is betrayed, and I undone.
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OTHELLO
Out, strumpet, weep’st thou for him to my face?
DESDEMONA O, banish me, my lord, but kill me not!
OTHELLO Down, strumpet!
DESDEMONA Kill me tomorrow, let me live tonight!
OTHELLO Nay, if you strive –
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DESDEMONA But half an hour!
OTHELLO Being done, there is no pause –
DESDEMONA But while I say one prayer!
OTHELLO It is too late.
DESDEMONA O Lord! Lord! Lord
! [He smothers her.]
EMILIA [within]
My lord, my lord! what ho, my lord, my lord!
OTHELLO
What noise is this? Not dead? not yet quite dead?
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I that am cruel am yet merciful,
I would not have thee linger in thy pain.
So, so.
EMILIA [within] What ho! my lord! my lord!
OTHELLO Who’s there?
EMILIA [within]
O good my lord, I’d speak a word with you.
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OTHELLO Yes. ’Tis Emilia. –
[to Emilia] By and by. – She’s dead.
’Tis like she comes to speak of Cassio’s death,
The noise was high. Ha, no more moving?
Still as the grave. Shall she come in? were’t good?
I think she stirs again. No – what’s best to do?
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If she come in, she’ll sure speak to my wife.
My wife, my wife! what wife? I have no wife.
O insupportable, O heavy hour!
Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse
Of sun and moon, and that th’affrighted globe
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Should yawn at alteration.
EMILIA [within] I do beseech you
That I may speak with you! O good my lord!
OTHELLO I had forgot thee: O come in, Emilia.
Soft, by and by. Let me the curtains draw.
Where art thou? What’s the matter with thee now?
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[He unlocks the door.]
Enter EMILIA.
EMILIA O my good lord, yonder’s foul murders done!
OTHELLO What? Now?
EMILIA But now, my lord.
OTHELLO It is the very error of the moon,
She comes more nearer earth than she was wont
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And makes men mad.
EMILIA Cassio, my lord, hath killed
A young Venetian, called Roderigo.
OTHELLO Roderigo killed? and Cassio killed?
EMILIA No, Cassio is not killed.
OTHELLO Not Cassio killed?
Then murder’s out of tune, and sweet revenge
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Grows harsh.
DESDEMONA O falsely, falsely murdered!
EMILIA O lord, what cry is that?
OTHELLO That? what?
EMILIA
Out and alas, that was my lady’s voice:
[She draws the bed-curtains.]
Help, help, ho, help! O lady, speak again,
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Sweet Desdemona, O sweet mistress, speak!
DESDEMONA A guiltless death I die.
EMILIA O, who hath done
This deed?
DESDEMONA Nobody. I myself. Farewell.
Commend me to my kind lord – O, farewell!
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[She dies.]
OTHELLO Why, how should she be murdered?
EMILIA Alas, who knows?
OTHELLO You heard her say herself it was not I.
EMILIA She said so; I must needs report the truth.
OTHELLO She’s like a liar gone to burning hell:
’Twas I that killed her.
EMILIA O, the more angel she,
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And you the blacker devil!
OTHELLO She turned to folly, and she was a whore.
EMILIA Thou dost belie her, and thou art a devil.
OTHELLO She was false as water.
EMILIA Thou art rash as fire to say
That she was false. O, she was heavenly true!
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OTHELLO Cassio did top her: ask thy husband else.
O, I were damned beneath all depth in hell
But that I did proceed upon just grounds
To this extremity. Thy husband knew it all.
EMILIA My husband?
OTHELLO Thy husband.
EMILIA That she was false?
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To wedlock?
OTHELLO Ay, with Cassio. Had she been true,
If heaven would make me such another world
Of one entire and perfect chrysolite,
I’d not have sold her for it.
EMILIA My husband?
OTHELLO
Ay, ’twas he that told me on her first;
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An honest man he is, and hates the slime
That sticks on filthy deeds.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 427
