DESDEMONA
Be assured, good Cassio, I will do
All my abilities in behalf.
EMILIA
Good madam, do. I warrant it grieves my husband
As if the cause were his.
DESDEMONA
O, that’s an honest fellow. Do not doubt, Cassio,
But I will have my lord and you again
As friendly as you were.
CASSIO
Bounteous madam,
Whatever shall become of Michael Cassio,
He’s never anything but your true servant.
DESDEMONA
I know’t. I thank you. You do love my lord.
You have known him long; and be you well assur’d
He shall in strangeness stand no farther off
Than in a politic distance.
CASSIO
Ay, but, lady,
That policy may either last so long,
Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet,
Or breed itself so out of circumstance,
That, I being absent, and my place supplied,
My general will forget my love and service.
DESDEMONA
Do not doubt that. Before Emilia here
I give warrant of place. Assure ,
If I do vow a friendship, I’ll perform it
To the last article. My lord shall never rest,
I’ll watch him tame, and talk him out of patience;
His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift;
I’ll intermingle everything he does
With Cassio’s suit. Therefore be merry, Cassio,
For solicitor shall rather die
Than give cause away.
EMILIA
Madam, here comes my lord.
CASSIO
Madam, I’ll take my leave.
DESDEMONA
Why, stay, and hear me speak.
CASSIO
Madam, not now. I am very ill at ease,
Unfit for mine own purposes.
DESDEMONA
Well, do your discretion.
IAGO
Ha, I like not that.
OTHELLO
What say?
IAGO
Nothing, my lord; or if—I know not what.
OTHELLO
Was not that Cassio parted from my wife?
IAGO
Cassio, my lord? No, sure, I cannot think it,
That he would steal away so guilty-like,
Seeing you coming.
OTHELLO
I do believe he.
DESDEMONA
How now, my lord?
I have been talking with a suitor here,
A man that languishes in your displeasure.
OTHELLO
Who is’t you mean?
DESDEMONA
Why, your lieutenant, Cassio. Good my lord,
If I have any grace or power to move you,
His present reconciliation take;
For if he be not one that truly loves you,
That errs in ignorance and not in cunning,
I have no judgement in an honest face.
I call him back.
OTHELLO
Went he now?
DESDEMONA
Ay, sooth; so humbled
That he left part of his grief with me
To suffer with him. Good love, call him back.
OTHELLO
Not now, sweet Desdemon, some other time.
DESDEMONA
But shall’t be shortly?
OTHELLO
The sooner, sweet, for you.
DESDEMONA
Shall’t be tonight at supper?
OTHELLO
No, not tonight.
DESDEMONA
Tomorrow dinner then?
OTHELLO
I shall not dine at home;
I meet the captains at the citadel.
DESDEMONA
Why then tomorrow night, or Tuesday morn,
On Tuesday noon, or night; on Wednesday morn.
I name the time, but let it not
Exceed three days. In faith, he’s penitent;
And yet his trespass, in our common reason,
(Save that, they say, the wars must make examples
Out of their best) is not almost a fault
To incur a private check. When shall he come?
Tell me, Othello: I wonder in my soul,
What you would ask me, that I should deny,
Or stand so mammering on. What? Michael Cassio,
That came a-wooing with you, and so many a time,
When I have spoke of you dispraisingly,
ta’en your part, to have so much to do
To bring him in! Trust me, I could do much.
OTHELLO
no more. Let him come when he will;
I will deny nothing.
DESDEMONA
Why, this is not a boon;
as I should entreat you wear your gloves,
Or feed on nourishing dishes, or keep you warm,
Or sue to you to do a peculiar profit
To your own person: nay, when I have a suit
Wherein I mean to touch your love indeed,
It shall be full of poise and difficult weight,
And fearful to be granted.
OTHELLO
I will deny nothing.
Whereon, I do beseech , grant me this,
To leave me but a little to myself.
DESDEMONA
Shall I deny you? No, farewell, my lord.
OTHELLO
Farewell, my Desdemona. I’ll come to straight.
DESDEMONA
Emilia, come. Be as your fancies teach you.
Whate’er you be, I am obedient.
OTHELLO
Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul,
But I do love ! And when I love not,
Chaos is come again.
IAGO
My noble lord,—
OTHELLO
What say, Iago?
IAGO
Did Michael Cassio, when you woo’d my lady,
Know of your love?
OTHELLO
He did, from first to last. Why ask?
IAGO
But for a satisfaction of my thought.
No further harm.
OTHELLO
Why of thought, Iago?
IAGO
I did not think he had been acquainted with her.
OTHELLO
O yes, and went between us very .
IAGO
Indeed?
OTHELLO
Indeed? Ay, indeed. Discern’st in that?
Is he not honest?
IAGO
Honest, my lord?
OTHELLO
Honest? ay, honest.
IAGO
My lord, for I know.
OTHELLO
What think?
IAGO
Think, my lord?
OTHELLO
Think, my lord? By heaven, he echoes me,
As if there were some monster in his thought
Too hideous to be shown. mean something.
I heard say even now, lik’st not that,
When Cassio left my wife. What not like?
And when I told he was of my counsel
In my whole course of wooing, criedst, “Indeed?”
And contract and purse brow together,
As if then hadst shut up in brain
Some horrible conceit: if love me,
Show me thought.
IAGO
My lord, you know I love you.
OTHELLO
I think ;
And for I know thou’rt full of love and honesty
And weigh’st words before giv’st them breath,
Therefore these stops of fright me the more:
For such things in a false disloyal
Are tricks of custom; but in a man that’s just,
They’re close dilations, working from the heart,
That passion cannot rule.
IAGO
For Michael Cassio,
I dare be sworn I think that he is honest.
OTHELLO
I think so too.
IAGO
Men should be what they seem;
Or those that be not, would they might seem none!
OTHELLO
Certain, men should be what they seem.
IAGO
Why then, I think Cassio’s an honest man.
OTHELLO
Nay, yet there’s more in this:
I , speak to me as to thinkings,
As ruminate, and give worst of thoughts
The worst of words.
IAGO
Good my lord, pardon me.
Though I am bound to every act of duty,
I am not bound to that all slaves are free to.
Utter my thoughts? Why, say they are vile and false:
As where’s that palace whereinto foul things
Sometimes intrude not? Who has a breast so pure
But some uncleanly apprehensions
Keep leets and law-days, and in session sit
With meditations lawful?
OTHELLO
conspire against friend, Iago,
If but think’st him wrong’d and mak’st his ear
A stranger to thoughts.
IAGO
I do beseech you,
Though I am vicious in my guess,
As, I confess, it is my nature’s plague
To spy into abuses, and of my jealousy
Shapes faults that are not,—that your wisdom
From one that so imperfectly conceits,
Would take no notice; nor build yourself a trouble
Out of his scattering and unsure observance.
It were not for your quiet nor your good,
Nor for my manhood, honesty, or wisdom,
To let you know my thoughts.
OTHELLO
What mean?
IAGO
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse steals trash. something, nothing;
mine, his, and has been slave to thousands.
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.
OTHELLO
By heaven, I’ll know thoughts.
IAGO
You cannot, if my heart were in your hand,
Nor shall not, whilst in my custody.
OTHELLO
Ha?
IAGO
O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-ey’d monster which mock
The meat it feeds on. That cuckold lives in bliss
Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;
But O, what damned minutes tells he
Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!
OTHELLO
O misery!
IAGO
Poor and content is rich, and rich enough;
But riches fineless is as poor as winter
To him that ever fears he shall be poor.
Good heaven, the souls of all my tribe defend
From jealousy!
OTHELLO
Why, why is this?
Think’st I’d make a life of jealousy,
To follow still the changes of the moon
With fresh suspicions? No. To be once in doubt
Is once to be resolv’d: exchange me for a goat
When I shall turn the business of my soul
To such exsufflicate and blown surmises,
Matching inference. not to make me jealous,
To say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company,
Is free of speech, sings, plays, and dances well;
Where virtue is, these are more virtuous:
Nor from mine own weak merits will I draw
The smallest fear or doubt of her revolt,
For she had eyes, and chose me. No, Iago,
I’ll see before I doubt; when I doubt, prove;
And on the proof, there is no more but this:
Away at once with love or jealousy!
IAGO
I am glad of it, for now I shall have reason
To show the love and duty that I bear you
With franker spirit: therefore, as I am bound,
Receive it from me. I speak not yet of proof.
Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio;
Wear your eye thus, not jealous nor secure.
I would not have your free and noble nature,
Out of self-bounty, be abus’d. Look to’t.
I know our country disposition well;
In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks
They dare not show their husbands. Their best conscience
Is not to leave undone, but keep unknown.
OTHELLO
say so?
IAGO
She did deceive her father, marrying you;
And when she seem’d to shake and fear your looks,
She loved them most.
OTHELLO
And so she did.
IAGO
Why, go to then.
She that so young could give out such a seeming,
To seal her father’s eyes up close as oak,
He thought witchcraft. But I am much to blame.
I humbly do beseech you of your pardon
For too much loving you.
OTHELLO
I am bound to for ever.
IAGO
I see this a little dash’d your spirits.
OTHELLO
Not a jot, not a jot.
IAGO
Trust me, I fear it has.
I hope you will consider what is spoke
Comes from my love. But I do see you’re mov’d.
I am to pray you not to strain my speech
To grosser issues nor to larger reach
Than to suspicion.
OTHELLO
I will not.
IAGO
Should you do so, my lord,
My speech should fall into such vile success
Which my thoughts aim’d not. Cassio’s my worthy friend.
My lord, I see you’re mov’d.
OTHELLO
No, not much mov’d.
I do not think but Desdemona’s honest.
IAGO
Long live she so! And long live you to think so!
OTHELLO
And yet, how nature erring from itself—
IAGO
Ay, there’s the point. As, to be bold with you,
Not to affect many proposed matches,
Of her own clime, complexion, and degree,
Whereto we see in all things nature tends;
Foh! One may smell in such a will most rank,
Foul disproportion, thoughts unnatural.
But pardon me: I do not in position
Distinctly speak of her, though I may fear
Her will, recoiling to her better judgement,
May fall to match you with her country forms,
And happily repent.
OTHELLO
Farewell, farewell:
If more perceive, let me know more;
Set on wife to observe. Leave me, Iago.
IAGO
My lord, I take my leave.
OTHELLO
Why did I marry? 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 further. Leave it to time:
Though it be fit that Cassio have his place,
For sure he fills it up with great ability,
Yet if you please to hold him off awhile,
You shall by that perceive him and his means.
Note if your lady strain his entertainment
With any strong or vehement importunity,
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.
IAGO
I once more take my leave.
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 heartstrings,
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 declin’d
Into the vale of years,—yet that’s not much—
She’s gone, I am abus’d, 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,
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others’ uses. Yet, the plague of great ones,
Prerogativ’d are they less than the base,
destiny unshunnable, like death:
Even then this forked plague is fated to us
When we do quicken. Desdemona 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.
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
It will be well.
OTHELLO
Your napkin is too little;
OTHELLO
Let it alone. Come, I’ll go in with you.
DESDEMONA
I am very sorry that you are not well.
EMILIA
I am glad I have found this napkin;
This was her first remembrance from the Moor.
My wayward husband a hundred times
Woo’d me to steal it. But she so loves the token,
For he conjur’d 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,
And give’t Iago. What he will do with it
Heaven knows, not I,
I nothing but to please his fantasy.
IAGO
How now? What do you here alone?
EMILIA
Do not you chide. I have a thing for you.
IAGO
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?
EMILIA
What handkerchief?
Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona,
That which so often you did bid me steal.
IAGO
stol’n it from her?
EMILIA
No, faith, she let it drop by negligence,
And, to the advantage, I being here, took ’t up.
Look, here it is.
IAGO
A good , give it me.
EMILIA
What will you do with’t, that you have been so earnest
To have me filch it?
IAGO
Why, what’s that to you?
EMILIA
If it be not for some purpose of import,
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.
IAGO
I will in Cassio’s lodging lose this napkin,
And let him find it. Trifles light as air
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,
But with a little act upon the blood
Burn like the mines of sulphur. I did say so.
IAGO
Look, where he comes. Not poppy, nor mandragora,
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
Shall ever medicine to that sweet sleep
Which ow’dst yesterday.
OTHELLO
Ha! ha! false to me?
IAGO
Why, how now, general? No more of that.
OTHELLO
Avaunt! be gone! set me on the rack.
I swear better to be much abus’d
Than but to know’t a little.
IAGO
How now, my lord?
OTHELLO
What sense had I of her stol’n hours of lust?
I saw’t not, thought it not, it harm’d not me.
I slept the next night well, was free and merry;
I found not Cassio’s kisses on her lips.
He that is robb’d, not wanting what is stol’n,
Let him not know’t, and he’s not robb’d at all.
IAGO
I am sorry to hear this.
OTHELLO
I had been happy if the general camp,
Pioners and all, had tasted her sweet body,
So I had nothing known. O, now, for ever
Farewell the tranquil mind! Farewell content!
Farewell the plumed troops and the big wars
That make ambition virtue! O, farewell,
Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!
And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats
The immortal Jove’s dread clamours counterfeit,
Farewell! Othello’s occupation’s gone!
IAGO
Is’t possible, my lord?
OTHELLO
Villain, be sure prove my love a whore;
Be sure of it. Give me the ocular proof,
Or, by the worth of man’s eternal soul,
hadst been better have been born a dog
Than answer my wak’d 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 life!
IAGO
My noble lord,—
OTHELLO
If 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 amaz’d;
For nothing canst to damnation add
Greater than that.
IAGO
O grace! O heaven defend me!
Are you a man? Have you a soul or sense?
God be wi’ you. Take mine office.—O wretched fool,
That liv’st to make honesty a vice!
O monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world,
To be direct and honest is not safe.
I thank you for this profit, and from
I’ll love no friend, sith love breeds such offence.
OTHELLO
Nay, stay. be honest.
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 art just, and think art not.
I’ll have some proof: her name, that was as fresh
As Dian’s visage, is now begrim’d and black
As mine own face. If there be cords or knives,
Poison or fire, or suffocating streams,
I’ll not endure ’t. 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, I will.
IAGO
And may; but how? How satisfied, my lord?
Would you, the supervisor, grossly gape on,
Behold her topp’d?
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 may have’t.
OTHELLO
Give me a living reason she’s disloyal.
IAGO
I do not like the office,
But sith I am enter’d in this cause so far,
Prick’d 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 gripe and wring my hand,
Cry “O sweet creature!” and then kiss me hard,
As if he pluck’d up kisses by the roots,
That grew upon my lips, then laid his leg
Over my thigh, and sigh’d and kiss’d, and then
Cried “Cursed fate that gave to the Moor!”
OTHELLO
O monstrous! monstrous!
IAGO
Nay, this was but his dream.
OTHELLO
But this denoted a foregone conclusion.
a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream.
IAGO
And this may help to thicken other proofs
That do demonstrate thinly.
OTHELLO
I’ll tear her all to pieces.
IAGO
Nay, but 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, 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 true. Look here, Iago;
All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven.
gone.
Arise, black vengeance, from hollow hell!
Yield up, O love, crown and hearted throne
To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with fraught,
For of aspics’ tongues!
IAGO
Yet be content.
OTHELLO
O, blood, Iago, blood!
IAGO
Patience, I say. Your mind perhaps may change.
OTHELLO
Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic Sea,
Whose icy current and compulsive course
feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
To the Propontic and the Hellespont;
Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace
Shall look back, ebb to humble love,
Till that a capable and wide revenge
Swallow them up. Now by yond marble heaven,
In the due reverence of a sacred vow
I here engage my words.
IAGO
Do not rise yet.
Witness, you ever-burning lights above,
You elements that clip us round about,
Witness that here Iago give up
The execution of his wit, hands, heart,
To wrong’d Othello’s service! Let him command,
And to obey shall be in me remorse,
What bloody business ever.
OTHELLO
I greet love,
Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous,
And will upon the instant put to ’t.
Within these three days let me hear say
That Cassio’s not alive.
IAGO
My friend is dead. 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 my lieutenant.
IAGO
I am your own for ever.