That we can call these delicate creatures ours, And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad, For others' uses. Yet, 'tis the plague of great ones; Re-enter DESDEMONA and EMILIA. If she be false, O, then heaven mocks itself! Des. How now, my dear Othello! Your dinner, and the generous islanders Are you not well? Why do you speak so faintly? Oth. I have a pain upon my forehead here. Des. 'Faith, that's with watching; 'twill away again: Let me but bind it hard, within this hour It will be well. Oth. Your napkin is too little: 270 280 [He puts the handkerchief from him; and it drops. Let it alone. Come, I'll go in with you. Des. I am very sorry that you are not well. [Exeunt Othello and Desdemona. Emil. I am glad I have found this napkin: To kiss and talk to. I'll have the work ta'en out, Heaven knows, not I; I nothing but to please his fantasy. Re-enter IAGO. Iago. How now! what do you here alone? Iago. To have a foolish wife. Emil. O, is that all? What will you give me now For that same handkerchief? 290 Iago. What handkerchief? Emil. What handkerchief! Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona; Emil. No, 'faith; she let it drop by negligence, Iago. A good wench; give it me. 310 Emil. What will you do with't, that you have been so earnest To have me filch it? Iago. [Snatching it] Why, what's that to you? Emil. 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. [Exit Emilia. 320 I will in Cassio's lodging lose this napkin, Burn like the mines of sulphur. I did say so: Re-enter OTHELLO. Not poppy, nor mandragora, 330 Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, Oth. Ha! ha! false to me? Iago. Why, how now, general! no more of that. I swear 'tis better to be much abused Than but to know't a little. Iago. How now, my lord! Oth. What sense had I of her stol'n hours of lust? I slept the next night well, was free and merry; 340 Oth. I had been happy, if the general camp, Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war! Oth. Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore, Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof; Or, by the worth of man's eternal soul, Thou hadst been better have been born a dog Iago. Is't come to this? Oth. 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 thy life! Iago. My noble lord, Oth. If thou dost 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 amazed; Iago. O grace! O heaven forgive me! Are you a man? have you a soul or sense? 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 hence I'll love no friend, sith love breeds such offence. Oth. By the world, I think my wife be honest and think she is not; I'll have some proofs. Her name that was as fresh As mine own face. If there be cords, or knives, 850 360 370 380 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? Oth Would! nay, I will. Tago. And may: but, how? how satisfied, my lord? Oth. 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? Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys, Oth. Give me a living reason she's disloyal. But, sith I am enter'd in this cause so far, There are a kind of men so loose of soul, 390 400 410 In sleep I heard him say "Sweet Desdemona, Let us be wary, let us hide our loves;" 420 And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my hand, Cry "O sweet creature!" and then kiss me hard, And grew upon my lips: then laid his leg Over my thigh, and sigh'd and kiss'd; and then, Nay, this was but his dream. Oth. I'll tear her all to pieces. 430 Iago. Nay, but be wise: yet we see nothing done; Oth. If it be that,Iago. If it be that, or any that was hers, It speaks against her with the other proofs. Oth. O, that the slave had forty thousand lives! All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven. Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell! To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught, Iago. Yet be content. Oth. O, blood, blood, blood! 440 450 Iago. Patience, I say; your mind perhaps may change. Whose icy current and compulsive course Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace, Swallow them up. Now, by yond marble heaven, 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 wrong'd Othello's service! Let him command, What bloody business ever. Oth I greet thy love, 460 [They rise. Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous, 470 And will upon the instant put thee to't: Within these three days let me hear thee say That Cassio's not alive. |