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To have me filch it? lago.

Why, what's that to you?
Snatches it.

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,
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:
Look! where he comes.

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Oth. What sense had I of her stol'n hours of lust?

341

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.
lago. I am sorry to hear this.
Oth. 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 troop and the big wars
That make ambition virtue! O, farewell!
Farewelltheneighing steed, and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,

350

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?

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O grace! O heaven forgive 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 thine 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 hence
I 'll love no friend, sith love breeds such offence.

Oth. Nay, stay; thou should'st be honest.
And loses that it works for.
Iago. I should be wise; for honesty 's a fool,
Oth.

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. 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 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

lago. And may; but how? how satisfied, my
lord?

Would you, the supervisor, grossly gape on;
Behold her tupp'd

Oth.

Death and damnation! 0!

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Iago. It were a tedious difficulty, I think,
If ever mortal eyes do see them bolster
To bring them to that prospect; damn them then
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 have't.
Oth. 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,
I will go on.
Prick'd to 't by foolish honesty and love,
And, being troubled with a raging tooth,
I lay with Cassio lately;
I could not sleep.

Oth. Villain, be sure thou prove my love a One of this kind is Cassio.

410

There are a kind of men so loose of soul

That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs;

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If it be that, -
440

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;

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

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

Exit.

Des. Where should I lose that handkerchief,
Emilia ?

Emil. I know not, madam.

Des. Believe me, I had rather have lost my
purse

Full of cruzadoes; and, but my noble Moor
Yet be content. 450 Is true of mind and made of no such baseness

Oth. O! blood, blood, blood!
Iago. Patience, I say; your mind perhaps may
change.

Oth. Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic sea,
Whose icy current and compulsive course
Ne'er feels 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

Kneels.

Now, by yond marble heaven, 460

Swallow them up.

In the due reverence of a sacred vow

I here engage my words.

Iago.

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How is 't with you, my lord?

Oth. Well, my good lady. Aside. O! hard-
ness to dissemble.

Do not rise yet. Kneels. How do you, Desdemona?

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,

And to obey shall be in me remorse,

What bloody business ever.

Oth.

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.

470

lago. My friend is dead; 'tis done at your request:

But let her live.

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Oth. I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me. | They belch us. Look you! Cassio and my

I have it not about me.

Lend me thy handkerchief.
Des.

Here, my lord.

Oth. That which I gave you.
Des.

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61

'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 loathed, and his spirits should
hunt

After new fancies. She dying gave it me;

And bid me, when my fate would have me wive,
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.

Dos.

Is 't possible ?

Oth. 'Tis true; there's magic in the web of it;
A sibyl, that had number'd in the world
The sun to course two hundred compasses,

In her prophetic fury sew'd the work;

71

husband.

Enter IAGO and CASSIO.

Iago. There is no other way; 'tis she must do't:
And, lo! the happiness: go and importune her.
Des. How now, good Cassio! what's the news
with you?

Cas. 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 delay'd.
If my offence be of such mortal kind
That nor my service past, nor present sorrows.
Nor purpos'd 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 forc'd content,
And shut myself up in some other course
To fortune's alms.

Des.

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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 alter'd.
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 awhile bepatient:

The worms were hallow'd that did breed the What I can do I will, and more I will

silk,

And it was dy'd in mummy which the skilful
Conserv'd of maidens' hearts.
Des.

Indeed! is 't true?

Oth. Most veritable; therefore look to 't well. Des. Then would to God that I had never seen 't!

Oth. Ha! wherefore?

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And certainly in strange unquietness.
lago. 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
Puff'd his own brother and can he be angry!
Something of moment then; I will go meet him;
There's matter in 't indeed, if he be angry.
Des. I prithee, do so.

Exi LAGO
Something, sure, of state.
Either from Venice, or some unhatch'd 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 ev'n to that sense
Of pain. Nay, we must think men are not gods,

Oth. Fetch me the handkerchief; my mind Nor of them look for such observancy

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If I do find him fit, I'll move your suit
And seek to effect it to my uttermost.

Cas. I humbly thank your ladyship.

The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt

heaven.

Iago. If they do nothing, 'tis a venial slip;

Exeunt DESDEMONA and EMILIA. But if I give my wife a handkerchief,

Enter BLANCA.

Bian, Save you, friend Cassio!
Cas.

170

What make you from home?
How is it with you, my most fair Bianca?
I' faith, sweet love, I was coming to your house.
Bian. And I was going to your lodging, Cassio.
What! keep a week away? seven days and nights?
Eight score eight hours? and lovers' absent hours,
More tedious than the dial eight score times?
O weary reckoning!
Cas.

Pardon me, Bianca;

Oth. What then?

10

Iago. Why, then, 'tis hers, my lord; and, being
hers,

She may, I think, bestow 't on any man.
Oth. 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 not:
But for the handkerchief, -

Oth. By heaven, I would most gladly have
forgot it.

I have this while with leaden thoughts been Thou said'st, -O! it comes o'er my memory, 20

press'd,

But I shall, in a more continuate time,
Strike off this score of absence. Sweet Bianca,
Giring her DESDEMONA'S handkerchief.
O Cassio! whence came this?

Take me this work out.
Bian.

This is some token from a newer friend;
To the felt absence now I feel a cause;

Is it come to this? Well, well.
Cas.

181

Go to, woman! Throw your vile guesses in the devil's teeth, From whence you have them. You are jealous

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Iago.

With her?

With her, on her; what you will. Oth. Lie with her! lie on her! We say lie on her when they belieher. 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 instruction. It is not words that shakes me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips. Is't possible ? Confess!-Handkerchief! O devil!

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My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are
caught;

And many worthy and chaste dames even thus,
All guiltless, meet reproach. What, ho! my

lord!

My lord, I say! Othello!

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Iago. My lord is fall'n into an epilepsy;

This is his second fit; he had one yesterday.

Cas. Rub him about the temples.

Iago.

50

No, forbear;

The lethargy 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 occasion speak with you.

Exit CASSIO.
How is it, general? have you hurt your head?
Oth. Dost thou mock me?
Iago.
I mock you! no, by heaven. 61
Would you would bear your fortune like a man!
Oth. A horned man's a monster and a beast.
Iago. There's many a beast then in a populous
city,

And many a civil monster.
Oth. Did he confess it?
Iago.

Good sir, be a man;
Think every bearded fellow that's but yok'd
May draw with you; there's millions now alive
That nightly lie in those unproper beds

Which they dare swear peculiar; your case is
better.

O! 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock,
To lip a wanton in a secure couch,

70

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Iago.

That's not amiss;
But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw?
OTHELLO goes apart.

Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,
A housewife that by selling her desires
Buys herself bread and clothes; it is a creature
That dotes on Cassio; as 'tis the strumpets'

plague

To beguile many and be beguil'd by one.
He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain
From the excess of laughter. Here he comes:

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Cas. Prithee, say true.

Iago. I am a very villain else.

19

Oth. Have you scored me? Well. Cas. This is the monkey's own giving out: she is persuaded I will marry her, out of her own love and flattery, not out of my promise. Oth. Iago beckons me; now he begins the story.

Cas. She was here even now; she haunts me in every place. I was the other day talking on the sea bank with certain Venetians, and thither comes the bauble, and, by this hand, she falls me thus about my neck ;

Oth. Crying 'O dear Cassio!' as it were; his gesture imports it.

10

Cas. So hangs and lolls and weeps upon me;

so hales and pulls me; ha, ha, ha !

Oth. Now he tells how she plucked him to my chamber. O! I see that nose of yours, but not that dog I shall throw it to.

Cas. Well, I must leave her company.
Iago. Before me! look, where she comes.
Cas. 'Tis such another fitchew! marry, a
perfumed one.

Enter BIANCA.

150

What do you mean by this haunting of me? Bian. Let the devil and his dam 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 work, that you should find it in your chamber, and know not who left it there! This is some minx's token, and I must take out the work! There, give it your hobby-horse; wheresoever you had it I'll take out no work on 't. 19

Cas. How now, my sweet Bianca! how now, how now!

Oth. By heaven, that should be my handker.

chief!

Bian. An you'll come to supper to-night, you may; an you will not, come when you are next prepared for.

Exit.

lago. After her, after her.
Cas. Faith, I must; she 'll rail in the street else.
Iago. Will you sup there?

Cas. Faith, I intend so.

Iago. Well, I may chance to see you, for I

would very fain speak with you.
Cas. Prithee, come; will you?
lago. Go to; say no more.
Oth. Advancing. How shall I murder him, lago!

Exit CASSIO.

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