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.
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