The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  IAGO

  I should be wise, for honesty’s a fool,

  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. My name, that was as fresh

  As Dian’s visage, is now begrimed and black

  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.

  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,

  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,

  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,

  Will give you satisfaction, you might ha’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,

  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.

  In sleep I heard him say ‘Sweet Desdemona,

  Let us be wary, let us hide our loves’,

  And then, sir, would he grip and wring my hand,

  Cry ‘O, sweet creature!’, then kiss me hard,

  As if he plucked up kisses by the roots,

  That grew upon my lips, lay his leg o‘er my thigh,

  And sigh, and kiss, and then cry ‘Cursèd 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.

  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.

  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—

  I am sure it was your wife’s—did I today

  See Cassio wipe his beard with.

  OTHELLO If it be that—

  IAGO

  If it be that, or any that was hers,

  It speaks against her with the other proofs.

  OTHELLO

  O that the slave had forty thousand lives!

  One is too poor, too weak for my revenge.

  Now do I see ‘tis true. Look here, Iago.

  All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven—’tis gone.

  Arise, black vengeance, from the hollow hell.

  Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne

  To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy freight,

  For ’tis of aspics’ tongues.

  IAGO Yet be content.

  OTHELLO

  O, blood, blood, blood!

  IAGO Patience, I say. Your mind may change.

  OTHELLO

  Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic Sea,

  Whose icy current and compulsive course

  Ne‘er knows retiring ebb, but keeps due on

  To the Propontic and the Hellespont,

  Even so my bloody thoughts with violent pace

  Shall ne’er look back, ne’er ebb to humble love,

  Till that a capable and wide revenge

  Swallow them up.

  ⌈He kneels⌉

  Now, by yon marble heaven,

  In the due reverence of a sacred vow

  I here engage my words.

  IAGO Do not rise yet.

  Iago kneels

  Witness you ever-burning lights above,

  You elements that clip us round about,

  Witness that here Iago doth give up

  The execution of his wit, hands, heart

  To wronged Othello’s service. Let him command,

  And to obey shall be in me remorse,

  What bloody business ever.

  ⌈They rise⌉

  OTHELLO I greet thy love,

  Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous,

  And will upon the instant put thee to’t.

  Within these three days let me hear thee say

  That Cassio’s not alive.

  IAGO My friend is dead.

  ’Tis done at your request; but let her live.

  OTHELLO

  Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her, damn her!

  Come, go with me apart. I will withdraw

  To furnish me with some swift means of death

  For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant.

  IAGO I am your own for ever.

  Exeunt

  3.4 Enter Desdemona, Emilia, and the Clown

  DESDEMONA Do you know, sirrah, where Lieutenant Cassio lies?

  CLOWN I dare not say he lies anywhere.

  DESDEMONA Why, man?

  CLOWN He’s a soldier, and for me to say a soldier lies, ’tis stabbing.

  DESDEMONA Go to. Where lodges he?

  CLOWN To tell you where he lodges is to tell you where I lie.

  DESDEMONA Can anything be made of this?

  CLOWN I know not where he lodges, and for me to devise a lodging and say he lies here, or he lies there, were to lie in mine own throat.

  DESDEMONA Can you enquire him out, and be edified by report?

  CLOWN I will catechize the world for him; that is, make questions, and by them answer.

  DESDEMONA Seek him, bid him come hither, tell him I have moved my lord on his behalf, and hope all will be well.

  CLOWN To do this is within the compass of man’s wit, and therefore I will attempt the doing it.

  Exit

  DESDEMONA

  Where should I lose the handkerchief, Emilia?

  EMILIA I know not, madam.

  DESDEMONA

  Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse

  Full of crusadoes, and but my noble Moor

  Is true of mind, and made of no such baseness

  As jealous creatures are, it were enough

  To put him to ill thinking.

  EMILIA Is he not jealous?

  DESDEMONA

  Who, he? I think the sun where he was born

  Drew all such humours from him.

  Enter Othello

  EMILIA Look where he comes.

  DESDEMONA

  I will not leave him now till Cassio

  Be called to him. How is’t with you, my lord?

  OTHELLO

  Well, my good lady. (Aside) O hardness to dissemble!—

  How do you, Desdemona?

  DES
DEMONA Well, my good lord.

  OTHELLO

  Give me your hand. This hand is moist, my lady.

  DESDEMONA

  It hath felt no age, nor known no sorrow.

  OTHELLO

  This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart.

  Hot, hot and moist—this hand of yours requires

  A sequester from liberty; fasting, and prayer,

  Much castigation, exercise devout,

  For here’s a young and sweating devil here

  That commonly rebels. ’Tis a good hand,

  A frank one.

  DESDEMONA You may indeed say so,

  For ’twas that hand that gave away my heart.

  OTHELLO

  A liberal hand. The hearts of old gave hands,

  But our new heraldry is hands, not hearts.

  DESDEMONA

  I cannot speak of this. Come now, your promise.

  OTHELLO What promise, chuck?

  DESDEMONA

  I have sent to bid Cassio come speak with you.

  OTHELLO

  I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me.

  Lend me thy handkerchief.

  DESDEMONA (offering a handkerchief) Here, my lord.

  OTHELLO

  That which I gave you.

  DESDEMONA I have it not about me.

  OTHELLO Not?

  DESDEMONA

  No, faith, my lord.

  OTHELLO That’s a fault. That handkerchief

  Did an Egyptian to my mother give.

  She was a charmer, and could almost read

  The thoughts of people. She told her, while she kept it

  ’Twould make her amiable, and subdue my father

  Entirely to her love; but if she lost it,

  Or made a gift of it, my father’s eye

  Should hold her loathèd, and his spirits should hunt

  After new fancies. She, dying, gave it me,

  And bid me, when my fate would have me wived,

  To give it her. I did so, and take heed on’t.

  Make it a darling, like your precious eye.

  To lose’t or give’t away were such perdition

  As nothing else could match.

  DESDEMONA Is’t possible?

  OTHELLO

  ’Tis true. There’s magic in the web of it.

  A sibyl that had numbered in the world

  The sun to course two hundred compasses

  In her prophetic fury sewed the work.

  The worms were hallowed that did breed the silk,

  And it was dyed in mummy, which the skilful

  Conserved of maidens’ hearts.

  DESDEMONA I’faith, is’t true?

  OTHELLO

  Most veritable. Therefore look to’t well.

  DESDEMONA

  Then would to God that I had never seen it!

  OTHELLO Ha, wherefore?

  DESDEMONA

  Why do you speak so startingly and rash?

  OTHELLO

  Is’t lost? Is’t gone? Speak, is’t out o’th’ way?

  DESDEMONA Heaven bless us!

  OTHELLO Say you?

  DESDEMONA

  It is not lost, but what an if it were?

  OTHELLO HOW?

  DESDEMONA

  I say it is not lost.

  OTHELLO Fetch’t, let me see’t.

  DESDEMONA

  Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now.

  This is a trick to put me from my suit.

  Pray you let Cassio be received again.

  OTHELLO

  Fetch me the handkerchief. My mind misgives.

  DESDEMONA

  Come, come, you’ll never meet a more sufficient man.

  OTHELLO

  The handkerchief.

  DESDEMONA I pray, talk me of Cassio.

  OTHELLO

  The handkerchief.

  DESDEMONA A man that all his time

  Hath founded his good fortunes on your love,

  Shared dangers with you—

  OTHELLO The handkerchief.

  DESDEMONA I’faith, you are to blame.

  OTHELLO ’Swounds! Exit

  EMILIA

  Is not this man jealous?

  DESDEMONA I ne’er saw this before.

  Sure there’s some wonder in this handkerchief.

  I am most unhappy in the loss of it.

  EMILIA

  ’Tis not a year or two shows us a man.

  They are all but stomachs, and we all but food.

  They eat us hungrily, and when they are full,

  They belch us.

  Enter Iago and Cassio

  Look you, Cassio and my husband.

  IAGO (to Cassio)

  There is no other way. ‘Tis she must do’t,

  And lo, the happiness! Go and importune her.

  DESDEMONA

  How now, good Cassio? What’s the news with you?

  CASSIO

  Madam, my former suit. I do beseech you

  That by your virtuous means I may again

  Exist and be a member of his love

  Whom I, with all the office of my heart,

  Entirely honour. I would not be delayed.

  If my offence be of such mortal kind

  That nor my service past, nor present sorrows,

  Nor purposed merit in futurity

  Can ransom me into his love again,

  But to know so must be my benefit.

  So shall I clothe me in a forced content,

  And shut myself up in some other course

  To fortune’s alms.

  DESDEMONA Alas, thrice-gentle Cassio!

  My advocation is not now in tune.

  My lord is not my lord, nor should I know him

  Were he in favour as in humour altered.

  So help me every spirit sanctified

  As I have spoken for you all my best,

  And stood within the blank of his displeasure

  For my free speech! You must a while be patient.

  What I can do I will, and more I will

  Than for myself I dare. Let that suffice you.

  IAGO

  Is my lord angry?

  EMILIA He went hence but now,

  And certainly in strange unquietness.

  IAGO

  Can he be angry? I have seen the cannon

  When it hath blown his ranks into the air,

  And, like the devil, from his very arm

  Puffed his own brother; and is he angry?

  Something of moment then. I will go meet him.

  There’s matter in’t indeed, if he be angry.

  DESDEMONA

  I prithee do so.

  Exit Iago

  Something sure of state,

  Either from Venice or some unhatched practice

  Made demonstrable here in Cyprus to him,

  Hath puddled his clear spirit; and in such cases

  Men’s natures wrangle with inferior things,

  Though great ones are their object. ’Tis even so;

  For let our finger ache and it indues

  Our other, healthful members even to a sense

  Of pain. Nay, we must think men are not gods,

  Nor of them look for such observancy

  As fits the bridal. Beshrew me much, Emilia,

  I was—unhandsome warrior as I am—

  Arraigning his unkindness with my soul;

  But now I find I had suborned the witness,

  And he’s indicted falsely.

  EMILIA Pray heaven it be

  State matters, as you think, and no conception

  Nor no jealous toy concerning you.

  DESDEMONA

  Alas the day, I never gave him cause.

  EMILIA

  But jealous souls will not be answered so.

  They are not ever jealous for the cause,

  But jealous for they’re jealous. It is a monster

  Begot upon itself, born on itself.

  DESDEMONA

  H
eaven keep the monster from Othello’s mind.

  EMILIA Lady, amen.

  DESDEMONA

  I will go seek him. Cassio, walk here about.

  If I do find him fit I’ll move your suit,

  And seek to effect it to my uttermost.

  CASSIO

  I humbly thank your ladyship.

  Exeunt Desdemona and Emilia

  Enter Bianca

  BIANCA

  Save you, friend Cassio.

  CASSIO What make you from home?

  How is’t with you, my most fair Bianca?

  I’faith, sweet love, I was coming to your house.

  BIANCA

  And I was going to your lodging, Cassio.

  What, keep a week away? Seven days and nights,

  Eightscore-eight hours, and lovers’ absent hours

  More tedious than the dial eightscore times!

  O weary reckoning!

  CASSIO Pardon me, Bianca,

  I have this while with leaden thoughts been pressed,

  But I shall in a more continuate time

  Strike off this score of absence. Sweet Bianca,

  Take me this work out.

  He gives her Desdemona’s napkin

  BIANCA O Cassio, whence came this?

  This is some token from a newer friend.

  To the felt absence now I feel a cause.

  Is’t come to this? Well, well.

  CASSIO Go to, woman.

  Throw your vile guesses in the devil’s teeth,

  From whence you have them. You are jealous now

  That this is from some mistress, some remembrance.

  No, by my faith, Bianca.

  BIANCA Why, whose is it?

  CASSIO

  I know not, neither. I found it in my chamber.

  I like the work well. Ere it be demanded—

  As like enough it witt—I would have it copied.

  Take it, and do’t, and leave me for this time.

  BIANCA Leave you? Wherefore?

  CASSIO

  I do attend here on the general,

  And think it no addition, nor my wish,

  To have him see me womaned.

  BIANCA Why, I pray you?

  CASSIO

  Not that I love you not.

  BIANCA But that you do not love me.

  I pray you bring me on the way a little,

  And say if I shall see you soon at night.

  CASSIO

  ’Tis but a little way that I can bring you,

  For I attend here; but I’ll see you soon.

  BIANCA

  ’Tis very good. I must be circumstanced. Exeunt

  4.1 Enter Iago and Othello

  IAGO

  Will you think so?

  OTHELLO Think so, Iago?

  IAGO

  What, to kiss in private?

  OTHELLO An unauthorized kiss.