Othello
If she come in, she'll sure speak to my wife.
My wife! my wife! what wife? I have no wife.
O, insupportable! O heavy hour!
Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse
Of sun and moon, and that th' affrighted globe
Did yawn at alteration.
EMILIA [Within] I do beseech you
That I may speak with you, O good my lord!
OTHELLO
I had forgot thee. O, come in, Emilia.
Soft, by and by. - Let me the curtains draw. -
[Closes the bed curtains.] 92 By and by coming, just a moment (to Emilia) 94 high loud 102 yawn at alteration split open (in an earthquake) at the change brought on by Desdemona's death
Where art thou?
[Opens the door.]
Enter Emilia.
What's the matter with thee now?
EMILIA
O my good lord, yonder's foul murders done!
OTHELLO What? Now?
EMILIA But now, my lord.
OTHELLO
It is the very error of the moon.
She comes more nearer earth than she was wont
And makes men mad.
EMILIA
Cassio, my lord, hath killed a young Venetian
Called Roderigo.
OTHELLO Roderigo killed?
And Cassio killed?
EMILIA No, Cassio is not killed.
OTHELLO
Not Cassio killed? Then murder's out of tune,
And sweet revenge grows harsh.
DESDEMONA
O, falsely, falsely murdered!
EMILIA O Lord! what cry is that?
OTHELLO That? What?
EMILIA
Out and alas! that was my lady's voice.
Help! help, ho! help! O lady, speak again!
Sweet Desdemona! O sweet mistress, speak!
DESDEMONA
A guiltless death I die.
EMILIA
O, who hath done this deed?
109 But just 110 error wandering, errancy, with dire earthly consequences 111 was wont was formerly accustomed to do
DESDEMONA
Nobody - I myself. Farewell.
Commend me to my kind lord. O, farewell!
[She dies.]
OTHELLO
Why, how should she be murdered?
EMILIA Alas, who knows?
OTHELLO
You heard her say herself, it was not I.
EMILIA
She said so. I must needs report the truth.
OTHELLO
She's like a liar gone to burning hell!
'Twas I that killed her.
EMILIA O, the more angel she,
And you the blacker devil!
OTHELLO
She turned to folly, and she was a whore.
EMILIA
Thou dost belie her, and thou art a devil.
OTHELLO
She was false as water.
EMILIA Thou art rash as fire to say
That she was false. O, she was heavenly true!
OTHELLO
Cassio did top her. Ask thy husband else.
O, I were damned beneath all depth in hell
But that I did proceed upon just grounds
To this extremity. Thy husband knew it all.
EMILIA My husband?
OTHELLO Thy husband.
EMILIA
That she was false to wedlock? 126 Commend remember, speak of 135 water (considered unstable or changing) 137 top (see tupping, I.1.88); else i.e., if you want to know more (else) 139 But that . . . grounds i.e., if I had acted without justification
OTHELLO
Ay, with Cassio. Had she been true,
If heaven would make me such another world
Of one entire and perfect chrysolite,
I'd not have sold her for it.
EMILIA
My husband?
OTHELLO Ay, 'twas he that told me on her first.
An honest man he is, and hates the slime
That sticks on filthy deeds.
EMILIA My husband?
OTHELLO
What needs this iterance, woman? I say thy husband.
EMILIA
O mistress, villainy hath made mocks with love!
My husband say she was false?
OTHELLO He, woman.
I say, thy husband. Dost understand the word?
My friend, thy husband; honest, honest Iago.
EMILIA
If he say so, may his pernicious soul
Rot half a grain a day! he lies to th' heart.
She was too fond of her most filthy bargain.
OTHELLO Ha!
EMILIA Do thy worst.
This deed of thine is no more worthy heaven
Than thou wast worthy her.
OTHELLO Peace, you were best.
EMILIA
Thou hast not half that power to do me harm
As I have to be hurt. O gull! O dolt!
As ignorant as dirt! thou has done a deed - 145 such another world i.e., another world like this one 146 chrysolite precious gem 151 iterance repetition 152 made mocks with played games with 157 half a grain a day i.e., slowly and painfully 158 fond . . . bargain i.e., devoted to her vows to you 164 to be hurt to endure pain; gull (common word for a dupe, someone easy to cheat)
I care not for thy sword; I'll make thee known,
Though I lost twenty lives. Help! help! ho! help!
The Moor hath killed my mistress! Murder! murder!
Enter Montano, Gratiano, and Iago [with others].
MONTANO
What is the matter? How now, general?
EMILIA
O, are you come, Iago? You have done well,
That men must lay their murders on your neck.
GRATIANO
What is the matter?
EMILIA
Disprove this villain, if thou be'st a man.
He says thou told'st him that his wife was false.
I know thou didst not; thou'rt not such a villain.
Speak, for my heart is full.
IAGO
I told him what I thought, and told no more
Than what he found himself was apt and true.
EMILIA
But did you ever tell him she was false?
IAGO I did.
EMILIA
You told a lie, an odious damned lie!
Upon my soul, a lie! a wicked lie!
She false with Cassio? Did you say with Cassio?
IAGO
With Cassio, mistress. Go to, charm your tongue.
EMILIA
I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to speak:
My mistress here lies murdered in her bed -
ALL
O heavens forfend!
171 lay . . . neck charge you with murder 184 charm cast a spell on (i.e., silence)
EMILIA
And your reports have set the murder on.
OTHELLO
Nay, stare not, masters. It is true indeed.
GRATIANO
'Tis a strange truth.
MONTANO
O monstrous act!
EMILIA Villainy, villainy, villainy!
I think upon't - I think I smell't! - O villainy!
I thought so then. - I'll kill myself for grief. -
O villainy, villainy!
IAGO
What, are you mad? I charge you get you home.
EMILIA
Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak.
'Tis proper I obey him, but not now.
Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home.
OTHELLO
O! O! O!
[Falls on the bed.]
EMILIA Nay, lay thee down and roar!
For thou hast killed the sweetest innocent
That e'er did lift up eye.
OTHELLO O, she was foul!
[Rises.]
I scarce did know you, uncle. There lies your niece,
Whose breath, in
deed, these hands have newly stopped.
I know this act shows horrible and grim.
GRATIANO
Poor Desdemon! I am glad thy father's dead.
Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief
Shore his old thread in twain. Did he live now,
This sight would make him do a desperate turn, 201 lift up eye i.e., to heaven in prayer 204 shows appears 207 Shore cut 208 turn act
Yea, curse his better angel from his side,
And fall to reprobance.
OTHELLO
'Tis pitiful; but yet Iago knows
That she with Cassio hath the act of shame
A thousand times committed. Cassio confessed it,
And she did gratify his amorous works
With that recognizance and pledge of love
Which I first gave her. I saw it in his hand.
It was a handkerchief, an antique token
My father gave my mother.
EMILIA
O God! O heavenly God!
IAGO
Zounds, hold your peace!
EMILIA 'Twill out, 'twill out! I peace?
No, I will speak as liberal as the north.
Let heaven and men and devils, let them all,
All, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak.
IAGO
Be wise, and get you home.
EMILIA I will not.
[Iago draws and threatens Emilia.]
GRATIANO Fie!
Your sword upon a woman?
EMILIA
O thou dull Moor, that handkerchief thou speak'st of
I found by fortune, and did give my husband;
For often with a solemn earnestness -
More than indeed belonged to such a trifle -
He begged of me to steal't.
IAGO Villainous whore!
210 reprobance the state of rejection by God 214 gratify . . . works reward his sexual acts 215 recognizance token 221 as liberal as the north as freely as the north wind blows
EMILIA
She give it Cassio? No, alas, I found it,
And I did give't my husband.
IAGO Filth, thou liest!
EMILIA
By heaven, I do not, I do not, gentlemen.
O murd'rous coxcomb! what should such a fool
Do with so good a wife?
OTHELLO Are there no stones in heaven
But what serves for the thunder? Precious villain!
[The Moor runs at Iago but is disarmed.
Iago stabs his wife.]
GRATIANO
The woman falls. Sure he hath killed his wife.
EMILIA
Ay, ay. O, lay me by my mistress' side. [Exit Iago.]
GRATIANO
He's gone, but his wife's killed.
MONTANO
'Tis a notorious villain. Take you this weapon,
Which I have here recovered from the Moor.
Come, guard the door without. Let him not pass,
But kill him rather. I'll after that same villain,
For 'tis a damned slave.
Exit [Montano, with all but Othello and Emilia].
OTHELLO I am not valiant neither;
But every puny whipster gets my sword.
But why should honor outlive honesty?
Let it go all.
EMILIA What did thy song bode, lady? 234 coxcomb jester, fool (i.e., Othello) 235-36 Are there . . . the thunder i.e., why doesn't heaven rain down stones on this villain 236 Precious utter 240 a notorious an extraordinary, incredible (i.e., not the modern "well-known") 245 puny whipster foolish, insignificant person (cf. whippersnapper) 246 honor i.e., military achievement; honesty chastity
Hark, canst thou hear me? I will play the swan,
And die in music. [Sings.] "Willow, willow, willow."
Moor, she was chaste. She loved thee, cruel Moor:
So come my soul to bliss as I speak true.
So speaking as I think, alas, I die.
[She dies.]
OTHELLO
I have another weapon in this chamber;
It was a sword of Spain, the ice brook's temper.
O, here it is. - Uncle, I must come forth.
GRATIANO [Within]
If thou attempt it, it will cost thee dear.
Thou hast no weapon, and perforce must suffer.
OTHELLO
Look in upon me then and speak with me,
Or, naked as I am, I will assault thee.
[Enter Gratiano.]
GRATIANO
What is the matter?
OTHELLO Behold, I have a weapon;
A better never did itself sustain
Upon a soldier's thigh. I have seen the day
That with this little arm and this good sword
I have made my way through more impediments
Than twenty times your stop. But O vain boast!
Who can control his fate? 'Tis not so now.
Be not afraid, though you do see me weaponed.
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt
And very seamark of my utmost sail:
Do you go back dismayed? 'Tis a lost fear.
Man but a rush against Othello's breast 248-49 swan . . . music (according to legend, the ordinarily mute swan sang beautifully just before death) 254 sword . . . temper i.e., Spanish sword hardened or tempered in freezing water 259 naked unarmed 265 your stop i.e., the obstacle you impose 268 butt target (from archery) 269 seamark . . . sail beacon or destination of my last voyage 270 lost wasted 271 Man but a rush i.e., use only a reed
And he retires. Where should Othello go?
Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starred wench!
Pale as thy smock! When we shall meet at compt,
This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven,
And fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl?
Even like thy chastity.
O cursed, cursed slave! Whip me, ye devils,
From the possession of this heavenly sight!
Blow me about in winds! roast me in sulphur!
Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!
Oh Desdemon! dead Desdemon! dead! Oh! Oh!
Enter Lodovico, Cassio [in a litter], Montano, and
Iago, with Officers.
LODOVICO
Where is this rash and most unfortunate man?
OTHELLO
That's he that was Othello. Here I am.
LODOVICO
Where is that viper? Bring the villain forth.
OTHELLO
I look down towards his feet - but that's a fable.
If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee.
[Wounds Iago.]
LODOVICO
Wrench his sword from him.
[Othello is disarmed.]
IAGO I bleed, sir, but not killed.
OTHELLO
I am not sorry neither. I'd have thee live,
For in my sense, 'tis happiness to die.
LODOVICO
O thou Othello that was once so good,
Fall'n in the practice of a damned slave, 272 retires withdraws, retreats (a military term) 274 compt i.e., final accounting (Last Judgment) 286 I . . . fable (Othello inspects Iago's feet to test the legend that the devil's feet are cloven) 292 practice plot
What shall be said to thee?
OTHELLO Why, anything:
An honorable murderer, if you will;
For nought I did in hate, but all in honor.
LODOVICO
This wretch hath part confessed his villainy.
Did you and he consent in Cassio's death?
OTHELLO Ay.
CASSIO
Dear general, I never gave you cause.
OTHELLO
I do believe it, and I ask your pardon.
Will you, I pray, demand that demidevil
Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body?
IAGO
Demand me nothing. What you know, you know.
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From this time forth I never will speak word.
LODOVICO
What, not to pray?
GRATIANO Torments will ope your lips.
OTHELLO
Well, thou dost best.
LODOVICO
Sir, you shall understand what hath befall'n,
Which, as I think, you know not. Here is a letter
Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo,
And here another. The one of them imports
The death of Cassio to be undertook
By Roderigo.
OTHELLO
O villain!
CASSIO Most heathenish and most gross!
LODOVICO
Now here's another discontented paper 297 consent in agree (in planning) 301 demidevil half demon, almost a devil 313 gross monstrous
Found in his pocket too, and this, it seems,
Roderigo meant t' have sent this damned villain;
But that, belike, Iago in the interim
Came in and satisfied him.
OTHELLO O thou pernicious caitiff ! -
How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief
That was my wife's?
CASSIO I found it in my chamber;
And he himself confessed it but even now
That there he dropped it for a special purpose
Which wrought to his desire.
OTHELLO O fool! fool! fool!
CASSIO
There is besides in Roderigo's letter,
How he upbraids Iago that he made him
Brave me upon the watch, whereon it came
That I was cast; and even but now he spake,
After long seeming dead - Iago hurt him,
Iago set him on.
LODOVICO
You must forsake this room and go with us.
Your power and your command is taken off,
And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave,
If there be any cunning cruelty
That can torment him much and hold him long,
It shall be his. You shall close prisoner rest
Till that the nature of your fault be known
To the Venetian state. Come, bring away.
OTHELLO
Soft you! a word or two before you go.
I have done the state some service, and they know't.
No more of that. I pray you, in your letters, 318 caitiff villain 326 Brave defy, challenge 327 cast dismissed 334 hold him long i.e., keep him alive through torture 335 close prisoner rest i.e., remain closely guarded, confined 338 Soft you one moment, wait
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely, but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drops tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinable gum. Set you down this.
And say besides that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
I took by th' throat the circumcised dog
And smote him - thus.
[He stabs himself.]
LODOVICO
O bloody period!
GRATIANO All that is spoke is marred.
OTHELLO