Roderigo
It hath not appeared.
Iago
I grant indeed it hath not appeared, and your suspicion is not without wit and judgment. But, Roderigo, if thou hast that in thee indeed, which I have greater reason to believe now than ever, I mean purpose, courage and valour, this night show it: if thou the next night following enjoy not Desdemona, take me from this world with treachery and devise engines for my life.
Roderigo
Well, what is it? is it within reason and compass?
Iago
Sir, there is especial commission come from Venice to depute Cassio in Othello’s place.
Roderigo
Is that true? why, then Othello and Desdemona return again to Venice.
Iago
O, no; he goes into Mauritania and takes away with him the fair Desdemona, unless his abode be lingered here by some accident: wherein none can be so determinate as the removing of Cassio.
Roderigo
How do you mean, removing of him?
Iago
Why, by making him uncapable of Othello’s place; knocking out his brains.
Roderigo
And that you would have me to do?
Iago
Ay, if you dare do yourself a profit and a right. He sups to-night with a harlotry, and thither will I go to him: he knows not yet of his horrorable fortune. If you will watch his going thence, which I will fashion to fall out between twelve and one, you may take him at your pleasure: I will be near to second your attempt, and he shall fall between us. Come, stand not amazed at it, but go along with me; I will show you such a necessity in his death that you shall think yourself bound to put it on him. It is now high suppertime, and the night grows to waste: about it.
Roderigo
I will hear further reason for this.
Iago
And you shall be satisfied.
Exeunt
SCENE III. ANOTHER ROOM IN THE CASTLE.
Enter Othello, Lodovico, Desdemona, Emilia and Attendants
Lodovico
I do beseech you, sir, trouble yourself no further.
Othello
O, pardon me: ’twill do me good to walk.
Lodovico
Madam, good night; I humbly thank your ladyship.
Desdemona
Your honour is most welcome.
Othello
Will you walk, sir?
O,— Desdemona,—
Desdemona
My lord?
Othello
Get you to bed on the instant; I will be returned forthwith: dismiss your attendant there: look it be done.
Desdemona
I will, my lord.
Exeunt Othello, Lodovico, and Attendants
Emilia
How goes it now? he looks gentler than he did.
Desdemona
He says he will return incontinent:
He hath commanded me to go to bed,
And bade me to dismiss you.
Emilia
Dismiss me!
Desdemona
It was his bidding: therefore, good Emilia,.
Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu:
We must not now displease him.
Emilia
I would you had never seen him!
Desdemona
So would not I my love doth so approve him,
That even his stubbornness, his cheques, his frowns —
Prithee, unpin me,— have grace and favour in them.
Emilia
I have laid those sheets you bade me on the bed.
Desdemona
All’s one. Good faith, how foolish are our minds!
If I do die before thee prithee, shroud me
In one of those same sheets.
Emilia
Come, come you talk.
Desdemona
My mother had a maid call’d Barbara:
She was in love, and he she loved proved mad
And did forsake her: she had a song of ‘willow;’
An old thing ’twas, but it express’d her fortune,
And she died singing it: that song to-night
Will not go from my mind; I have much to do,
But to go hang my head all at one side,
And sing it like poor Barbara. Prithee, dispatch.
Emilia
Shall I go fetch your night-gown?
Desdemona
No, unpin me here.
This Lodovico is a proper man.
Emilia
A very handsome man.
Desdemona
He speaks well.
Emilia
I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip.
Desdemona
[Singing] The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
Sing all a green willow:
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing willow, willow, willow:
The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur’d her moans;
Sing willow, willow, willow;
Her salt tears fell from her, and soften’d the stones;
Lay by these:—
Singing
Sing willow, willow, willow;
Prithee, hie thee; he’ll come anon:—
Singing
Sing all a green willow must be my garland.
Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve,-
Nay, that’s not next.— Hark! who is’t that knocks?
Emilia
It’s the wind.
Desdemona
[Singing] I call’d my love false love; but what said he then?
Sing willow, willow, willow:
If I court moe women, you’ll couch with moe men!
So, get thee gone; good night Ate eyes do itch;
Doth that bode weeping?
Emilia
’Tis neither here nor there.
Desdemona
I have heard it said so. O, these men, these men!
Dost thou in conscience think,— tell me, Emilia,—
That there be women do abuse their husbands
In such gross kind?
Emilia
There be some such, no question.
Desdemona
Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?
Emilia
Why, would not you?
Desdemona
No, by this heavenly light!
Emilia
Nor I neither by this heavenly light;
I might do’t as well i’ the dark.
Desdemona
Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?
Emilia
The world’s a huge thing: it is a great price.
For a small vice.
Desdemona
In troth, I think thou wouldst not.
Emilia
In troth, I think I should; and undo’t when I had done. Marry, I would not do such a thing for a joint-ring, nor for measures of lawn, nor for gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any petty exhibition; but for the whole world,— why, who would not make her husband a cuckold to make him a monarch? I should venture purgatory for’t.
Desdemona
Beshrew me, if I would do such a wrong
For the whole world.
Emilia
Why the wrong is but a wrong i’ the world: and having the world for your labour, tis a wrong in your own world, and you might quickly make it right.
Desdemona
I do not think there is any such woman.
Emilia
Yes, a dozen; and as many to the vantage as would store the world they played for.
But I do think it is their husbands’ faults
If wives do fall: say that they slack their duties,
And pour our treasures into foreign laps,
Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,
Or scant our former having in despite;
Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace,
Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
Their wives have sense like them: they see and smell
And have their palates both for sweet and sour,
As husbands have. What is it that they do
When they change us for others? Is it sport?
I think it is: and doth affection breed it?
I think it doth: is’t frailty that thus errs?
It is so too: and have not we affections,
Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
Then let them use us well: else let them know,
The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.
Desdemona
Good night, good night: heaven me such uses send,
Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend!
Exeunt
ACT V
SCENE I. CYPRUS. A STREET.
Enter Iago and Roderigo
Iago
Here, stand behind this bulk; straight will he come:
Wear thy good rapier bare, and put it home:
Quick, quick; fear nothing; I’ll be at thy elbow:
It makes us, or it mars us; think on that,
And fix most firm thy resolution.
Roderigo
Be near at hand; I may miscarry in’t.
Iago
Here, at thy hand: be bold, and take thy stand.
Retires
Roderigo
I have no great devotion to the deed;
And yet he hath given me satisfying reasons:
’Tis but a man gone. Forth, my sword: he dies.
Iago
I have rubb’d this young quat almost to the sense,
And he grows angry. Now, whether he kill Cassio,
Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other,
Every way makes my gain: live Roderigo,
He calls me to a restitution large
Of gold and jewels that I bobb’d from him,
As gifts to Desdemona;
It must not be: if Cassio do remain,
He hath a daily beauty in his life
That makes me ugly; and, besides, the Moor
May unfold me to him; there stand I in much peril:
No, he must die. But so: I hear him coming.
Enter Cassio
Roderigo
I know his gait, ’tis he.— Villain, thou diest!
Makes a pass at Cassio
Cassio
That thrust had been mine enemy indeed,
But that my coat is better than thou know’st
I will make proof of thine.
Draws, and wounds Roderigo
Roderigo
O, I am slain!
Iago from behind wounds Cassio in the leg, and exit
Cassio
I am maim’d for ever. Help, ho! murder! murder!
Falls
Enter Othello
Othello
The voice of Cassio: Iago keeps his word.
Roderigo
O, villain that I am!
Othello
It is even so.
Cassio
O, help, ho! light! a surgeon!
Othello
’Tis he:— O brave Iago, honest and just,
That hast such noble sense of thy friend’s wrong!
Thou teachest me. Minion, your dear lies dead,
And your unblest fate hies: strumpet, I come.
Forth of my heart those charms, thine eyes, are blotted;
Thy bed, lust-stain’d, shall with lust’s blood be spotted.
Exit
Enter Lodovico and Gratiano
Cassio
What, ho! no watch? no passage? murder! murder!
Gratiano
’Tis some mischance; the cry is very direful.
Cassio
O, help!
Lodovico
Hark!
Roderigo
O wretched villain!
Lodovico
Two or three groan: it is a heavy night:
These may be counterfeits: let’s think’t unsafe
To come in to the cry without more help.
Roderigo
Nobody come? then shall I bleed to death.
Lodovico
Hark!
Re-enter Iago, with a light
Gratiano
Here’s one comes in his shirt, with light and weapons.
Iago
Who’s there? whose noise is this that ones on murder?
Lodovico
We do not know.
Iago
Did not you hear a cry?
Cassio
Here, here! for heaven’s sake, help me!
Iago
What’s the matter?
Gratiano
This is Othello’s ancient, as I take it.
Lodovico
The same indeed; a very valiant fellow.
Iago
What are you here that cry so grievously?
Cassio
Iago? O, I am spoil’d, undone by villains!
Give me some help.
Iago
O me, lieutenant! what villains have done this?
Cassio
I think that one of them is hereabout,
And cannot make away.
Iago
O treacherous villains!
What are you there? come in, and give some help.
To Lodovico and Gratiano
Roderigo
O, help me here!
Cassio
That’s one of them.
Iago
O murderous slave! O villain!
Stabs Roderigo
Roderigo
O damn’d Iago! O inhuman dog!
Iago
Kill men i’ the dark!— Where be these bloody thieves?—
How silent is this town!— Ho! murder! murder!—
What may you be? are you of good or evil?
Lodovico
As you shall prove us, praise us.
Iago
Signior Lodovico?
Lodovico
He, sir.
Iago
I cry you mercy. Here’s Cassio hurt by villains.
Gratiano
Cassio!
Iago
How is’t, brother!
Cassio
My leg is cut in two.
Iago
Marry, heaven forbid!
Light, gentlemen; I’ll bind it with my shirt.
Enter Bianca
Bianca
What is the matter, ho? who is’t that cried?
Iago
Who is’t that cried!
Bianca
Cassio, Cassio!
Iago
O notable strumpet! Cassio, may you suspect
Who they should be that have thus many led you?
Cassio
No.
Gratiano
I am to find you thus: I have been to seek you.
Iago
Lend me a garter. So. O, for a chair,
To bear him easily hence!
Bianca
Alas, he faints! O Cassio, Cassio, Cassio!
Iago
Gentlemen all, I do suspect this trash
To be a party in this injury.
Patience awhile, good Cassio. Come, come;
Lend me a light. Know we this face or no?
Alas my friend and my dear countryman
Roderigo! no:— yes, sure: O heaven! Roderigo.
Gratiano
What, of Venice?
Iago
Even he, sir; did you know him?
Gratiano
Know him! ay.
Iago
Signior Gratiano? I cry you gentle pardon;
These bloody accidents must excuse my manners,
That so neglected you.
Gratiano
I am glad to see you.
Ia
go
How do you, Cassio? O, a chair, a chair!
Gratiano
Roderigo!
Iago
He, he ’tis he.
A chair brought in
O, that’s well said; the chair!
Gratiano
Some good man bear him carefully from hence;
I’ll fetch the general’s surgeon.
To Bianca
For you, mistress,
Save you your labour. He that lies slain here, Cassio,
Was my dear friend: what malice was between you?
Cassio
None in the world; nor do I know the man.
Iago
[To Bianca] What, look you pale? O, bear him out o’ the air.
Cassio and Roderigo are borne off
Stay you, good gentlemen. Look you pale, mistress?
Do you perceive the gastness of her eye?
Nay, if you stare, we shall hear more anon.
Behold her well; I pray you, look upon her:
Do you see, gentlemen? nay, guiltiness will speak,
Though tongues were out of use.
Enter Emilia
Emilia
’Las, what’s the matter? what’s the matter, husband?
Iago
Cassio hath here been set on in the dark
By Roderigo and fellows that are scaped:
He’s almost slain, and Roderigo dead.
Emilia
Alas, good gentleman! alas, good Cassio!
Iago
This is the fruit of whoring. Prithee, Emilia,
Go know of Cassio where he supp’d to-night.
To Bianca
What, do you shake at that?
Bianca
He supp’d at my house; but I therefore shake not.
Iago
O, did he so? I charge you, go with me.
Emilia
Fie, fie upon thee, strumpet!
Bianca
I am no strumpet; but of life as honest
As you that thus abuse me.
Emilia
As I! foh! fie upon thee!
Iago
Kind gentlemen, let’s go see poor Cassio dress’d.
Come, mistress, you must tell’s another tale.
Emilia run you to the citadel,
And tell my lord and lady what hath happ’d.
Will you go on? I pray.
Aside
This is the night
That either makes me or fordoes me quite.
Exeunt
SCENE II. A BEDCHAMBER IN THE CASTLE: DESDEMONA IN BED ASLEEP;
a light burning.
Enter Othello
Othello
It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,—
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!—
It is the cause. Yet I’ll not shed her blood;
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow,
And smooth as monumental alabaster.
Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men.
Put out the light, and then put out the light:
If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,