Nay, we must think men are not gods,
     Nor of them look for such observancy158
     As fits the bridal
. Beshrew159 me much, Emilia,
     I was — unhandsome160 warrior as I am —
     Arraigning161 his unkindness with my soul,
     But now I find I had suborned the witness162,
     And he’s indicted falsely.

EMILIA   Pray heaven it be state matters, as you think,
     And no conception nor no jealous toy165
     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 upon171 itself, born on itself.

DESDEMONA   Heaven keep the monster from Othello’s mind!

EMILIA   Lady, amen.

DESDEMONA   I will go seek him.— Cassio, walk hereabout:
     If I do find him fit, I’ll move your suit
     And seek to effect it to my uttermost.

Exeunt [Desdemona and Emilia]

CASSIO   I humbly thank your ladyship.

Enter Bianca

BIANCA   Save178 you, friend Cassio!

CASSIO   What make you179 from home?
     How is’t with you, my most fair Bianca?
     Indeed, 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?
     Eight score eight184 hours? And lovers’ absent hours
     More tedious than the dial185 eight score times?
     O weary reck’ning186!

CASSIO   Pardon me, Bianca:

     I have this while with leaden thoughts been pressed:
     But I shall, in a more continuate189 time,
     Strike off this score190 of absence. Sweet Bianca,

Gives her
Desdemona’s handkerchief


     Take me this work out191.

BIANCA   O Cassio, whence came this?
     This is some token from a newer friend193:
     To the felt absence now I feel a cause194.
     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, in good troth, 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 demanded203
     As like enough it will — 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 womaned209.

BIANCA   Why, I pray you?

CASSIO   Not that I love you not.

BIANCA   But that you do not love me.
     I pray you bring213 me on the way a little,
     And say if I shall see you soon at night214.

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 circumstanced217.

Exeunt

Act 4 Scene 1

running scene 8 continues

Enter Othello and Iago

IAGO   Will you think so?

OTHELLO   Think so, Iago?

IAGO   What, to kiss in private?

OTHELLO   An unauthorized kiss!

IAGO   Or to be naked with her friend in bed
     An hour or more, not meaning any harm?

OTHELLO   Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm?
     It is hypocrisy against the devil8:
     They that mean virtuously, and yet do so,
     The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.

IAGO   If they do nothing, ’tis a venial11 slip:
     But if I give my wife a handkerchief—

OTHELLO   What then?

IAGO   Why, then, ’tis hers, my lord, and being hers,
     She may, I think, bestow’t on any man.

OTHELLO   She is protectress of her honour too:
     May she give that?

IAGO   Her honour is an essence that’s not seen:
     They have it very oft that have it not19.
     But, for the handkerchief—

OTHELLO   By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it.
     Thou said’st — O, it comes o’er my memory
     As doth the raven23 o’er the infectious house,
     Boding24 to all — he had my handkerchief.

IAGO   Ay, what of that?

OTHELLO   That’s not so good now.

IAGO   What if I had said I had seen him do you wrong?
     Or heard him say — as knaves be such abroad28,
     Who having by their own importunate29 suit,
     Or voluntary dotage30 of some mistress,
     Convincèd31 or supplied them, cannot choose
     But they must blab—

OTHELLO   Hath he said anything?

IAGO   He hath, my lord, but be you well assured,
     No more than he’ll unswear.

OTHELLO   What hath he said?

IAGO   Why, that he did37: I know not what he did.

OTHELLO   What? What?

IAGO   Lie—

OTHELLO   With her?

IAGO   With her? On her: what you will.

OTHELLO   Lie with her? Lie on her42? We say ‘Lie on her’ when
     they belie43 her. Lie with her! That’s fulsome: handkerchief —
     confessions — handkerchief! To confess and be hanged for
     his labour: first to be hanged and then to confess: I tremble at
     it. Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing
     passion without some instruction46
. It is not words that shakes
     me thus. Pish! Noses48, ears and lips. Is’t possible? Confess?
     Handkerchief? O devil!

Falls in a trance

IAGO   Work on,
     My medicine51 works! Thus credulous fools are caught,
     And many worthy and chaste dames even thus,
     All guiltless, meet reproach53.— What, ho? My lord?
     My lord, I say! Othello!—

Enter Cassio

How now, Cassio?

CASSIO   What’s the matter?

IAGO   My lord is fall’n into an epilepsy.
     This is his second fit: he had one yesterday.

CASSIO   Rub him about the temples.

IAGO   The lethargy59 must have his quiet course:
     If not, he foams at mouth and by and by
     Breaks out to savage madness. Look he stirs:
     Do you withdraw yourself a little while,
     He will recover straight. When he is gone,
     I would on great occasion64 speak with you.

[Exit Cassio]

     How is it, general? Have you not hurt your head?

OTHELLO   Dost thou mock me66?

IAGO   I mock you not, by heaven.
     Would you would bear your fortune like a man!

OTHELLO   A hornèd69 man’s a monster and a beast.

IAGO   There’s many a beast then in a populous city,
     And many a civil71 monster.

OTHELLO   Did he confess it?

IAGO   Good sir, be a man.
     Think every bearded74 fellow that’s but yoked
     May draw75 with you: there’s millions now alive
     That nightly lie in those unproper76 beds
     Which they dare swear peculiar77: your case is better.
     O, ’tis the spite of hell, the fiend’s arch-mock,
     To lip79 a wanton in a secure couch
     And to suppose her chaste! No, let me know,
     And knowing what I am, I know what she shall be.

OTHELLO   O, thou art wise: ’tis certain.

IAGO   Stand you awhile apart,
     Confine yourself but in a patient list84.
     Whilst you were here o’erwhelmèd with your grief —
     A passion most unsuiting such a man —
     Cassio came hither: I shifted him away87,
     And laid good ’scuses upon your ecstasy88,
     Bade him anon89 return and here speak with me,
     The which he promised. Do but encave90 yourself
     And mark the fleers91, the gibes and notable scorns
     That dwell in every region of his face,
     For I will make him tell the tale anew,
     Where, how, how oft, how long ago and when
     He hath and is again to cope95 your wife.
     I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience,
     Or I shall say you’re all in all in spleen97,
     And nothing of a man.

OTHELLO   Dost thou hear, Iago?
     I will be found most cunning in my patience,
     But — dost thou hear? — most bloody.

IAGO   That’s not amiss,
     But yet keep time103 in all. Will you withdraw?

Othello withdraws

     Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,
     A housewife105 that by selling her desires
     Buys herself bread and cloth: it is a creature
     That dotes on Cassio — as ’tis the strumpet107’s plague
     To beguile108 many and be beguiled by one.
     He, when he hears of her, cannot restrain109
     From the excess of laughter. Here he comes.

Enter Cassio

     As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad,
     And his unbookish112 jealousy must conster
     Poor Cassio’s smiles, gestures and light113 behaviours
     Quite in the wrong.— How do you, lieutenant?

CASSIO   The worser that you give me the addition115
     Whose want116 even kills me.

IAGO   Ply Desdemona well, and you are

Lowers his voice

       sure on’t117.
     Now, if this suit lay in Bianca’s power,
     How quickly should you speed119!

CASSIO   Alas, poor caitiff120!

He laughs

OTHELLO   Look how he laughs already!

IAGO   I never knew woman love man so.

CASSIO   Alas, poor rogue, I think, indeed, she loves me.

OTHELLO   Now he denies it faintly124, and laughs it out.

IAGO   Do you hear, Cassio?

OTHELLO   Now he importunes him
     To tell it o’er: go to, well said127, well said.

IAGO   She gives it out that you shall marry her:
     Do you intend it?

CASSIO   Ha, ha, ha!

OTHELLO   Do ye triumph131, Roman? Do you triumph?

CASSIO   I marry? What? A customer?132 Prithee bear some
     charity to my wit: do not think it so unwholesome133. Ha,
     ha, ha!

OTHELLO   So, so, so, so: they laugh that wins.

IAGO   Why, the cry136 goes that you marry her.

CASSIO   Prithee say true.

IAGO   I am a very villain else138.

OTHELLO   Have you scored me139? Well.

CASSIO   This is the monkey’s own giving out: she is
     persuaded I will marry her, out of her own love and flattery141,
     not out of my promise.

OTHELLO   Iago beckons me: now he begins the story.

CASSIO   She was here even now: she haunts144 me in every
     place. I was the other day talking on the sea-bank145 with
     certain Venetians, and thither comes the bauble146, and falls
     me thus about my neck—

Embraces him

OTHELLO   Crying, ‘O dear Cassio!’ as it were: his gesture
     imports149 it.

CASSIO   So hangs and lolls and weeps upon me, so shakes
     and pulls me. Ha, ha, ha!

OTHELLO   Now he tells how she plucked152 him to my chamber.
     O, I see that nose153 of yours, but not that dog I shall throw it to.

CASSIO   Well, I must leave her company.

IAGO   Before me, look where she comes.

Enter Bianca

CASSIO   ’Tis such another156 fitchew! Marry, a perfumed
     one!— What do you mean by this haunting of me?

BIANCA   Let the devil and his dam158 haunt you! What did you
     mean by that same handkerchief you gave me even now? I
     was a fine fool to take it. I must take out the work? A likely
     piece of work161, that you should find it in your chamber and
     know not who left it there. This is some minx162’s token, and I
     must take out the work? There, give it your hobby-horse163:
     wheresoever you had it, I’ll take out no work
     on’t.

She gives him
the handkerchief


CASSIO   How now, my sweet Bianca? How now? How now?

OTHELLO   By heaven, that should167 be my handkerchief!

BIANCA   If you’ll come to supper168 tonight, you may: if you
     will not, come when you are next prepared for.

Exit

IAGO   After her, after her.

CASSIO   I must: she’ll rail171 in the streets else.

IAGO   Will you sup there?

CASSIO   Yes, I intend so.

IAGO   Well, I may chance to see you, for I would very fain
     speak with you.

CASSIO   Prithee come. Will you?

IAGO   Go to: say no more.

[Exit Cassio]

OTHELLO   How shall I murder him, Iago?

Comes forward

IAGO   Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice?

OTHELLO   O, Iago!

IAGO   And did you see the handkerchief?

OTHELLO   Was that mine?

IAGO   Yours by this hand: and to see how he prizes the
     foolish184 woman your wife! She gave it him, and he hath giv’n
     it his whore.

OTHELLO   I would have him nine years a-killing. A fine
     woman! A fair woman! A sweet woman!

IAGO   Nay, you must forget that.

OTHELLO   Ay, let her rot and perish, and be damned tonight,
     for she shall not live. No, my heart is turned to stone: I strike
     it, and it hurts my hand. O, the world hath not a sweeter
     creature: she might lie by an emperor’s side and command
     him tasks.

IAGO   Nay, that’s not your way194.

OTHELLO   Hang her! I do but say what she is: so delicate with
     her needle, an admirable musician. O, she will sing the
     savageness out of a bear. Of so high and plenteous wit and
     invention198!

IAGO   She’s the worse for all this.

OTHELLO   O, a thousand, a thousand times! And then, of so200
     gentle a condition!

IAGO   Ay, too gentle202.

OTHELLO   Nay, that’s certain. But yet the pity of it, Iago! O,
     Iago, the pity of it, Iago!

IAGO   If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her patent205
     to offend, for if it touch206 not you, it comes near nobody.

OTHELLO   I will chop her into messes207. Cuckold me?

IAGO   O, ’tis foul in her.

OTHELLO   With mine officer?

IAGO   That’s fouler.

OTHELLO   Get me some poison, Iago, this night: I’ll not
     expostulate212 with her, lest her body and beauty unprovide my
     mind again: this night, Iago.

IAGO   Do it not with poison: strangle her in her bed, even
     the bed she hath contaminated.

OTHELLO   Good, good: the justice of it pleases. Very good.

IAGO   And for Cassio, let me be his undertaker217: you shall
     hear more by midnight.

Enter Lodovico, Desdemona and Attendants

OTHELLO   Excellent good.

A trumpet within

     What trumpet is that same?

IAGO   I warrant something from Venice.
     ’Tis Lodovico: this comes from the duke.
     See, your wife’s with him.

LODOVICO   Save you, worthy general!

OTHELLO   With all my heart, sir.

LODOVICO   The duke and the senators of Venice

Gives a letter

       greet you.

OTHELLO   I kiss the instrument of their pleasures227.

Opens letter
and reads


DESDEMONA   And what’s the news, good cousin228
       Lodovico?

IAGO   I am very glad to see you, signior.
     Welcome to Cyprus.

LODOVICO   I thank you.