ACT 4. SCENE I. Cyprus. Before the castle.

by William Shakespeare

　　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 bedAn hour or more, not meaning any harm?Othello

　　Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm!It is hypocrisy against the devil:They that mean virtuously, and yet do so,The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.Iago

　　So they do nothing, 'tis a venial 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 not:But, for the handkerchief,--Othello

　　By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it.Thou said'st, it comes o'er my memory,As doth the raven o'er the infected house,Boding 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 abroad,Who having, by their own importunate suit,Or voluntary dotage of some mistress,Convinced or supplied them, cannot chooseBut they must blab--Othello

　　Hath he said any thing?Iago

　　He hath, my lord; but be you well assured,No more than he'll unswear.Othello

　　What hath he said?Iago

　　'Faith, that he did--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 her! We say lie on her, whenthey belie her. Lie with her! that's fulsome.--Handkerchief--confessions--handkerchief!--Toconfess, and be hanged for his labour;--first, to behanged, and then to confess.--I tremble at it.Nature would not invest herself in such shadowingpassion without some instruction. It is not wordsthat shake me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips.--Is't possible?--Confess--handkerchiefFalls in a trance

　　Iago

　　Work on,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!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

　　No, forbear;The lethargy must have his quiet course:If not, he foams at mouth and by and byBreaks 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 not hurt your head?Othello

　　Dost thou mock me?Iago

　　I mock you! no, by heaven.Would you would bear your fortune like a man!Othello

　　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.Othello

　　Did he confess it?Iago

　　Good sir, be a man;Think every bearded fellow that's but yokedMay draw with you: there's millions now aliveThat nightly lie in those unproper bedsWhich 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,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 list.Whilst you were here o'erwhelmed with your grief--A passion most unsuiting such a man--Cassio came hither: I shifted him away,And laid good 'scuse upon your ecstasy,Bade him anon return and here speak with me;The which he promised. Do but encave yourself,And mark the fleers, 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 whenHe hath, and is again to cope your wife:I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience;Or I shall say you are all in all in spleen,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 time in all. Will you withdraw?OTHELLO retires

　　Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,A housewife that by selling her desiresBuys herself bread and clothes: it is a creatureThat dotes on Cassio; as 'tis the strumpet's plagueTo beguile many and be beguiled by one:He, when he hears of her, cannot refrainFrom the excess of laughter. Here he comes:Re-enter CASSIO

　　As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;And his unbookish jealousy must construePoor Cassio's smiles, gestures and light behavior,Quite in the wrong. How do you now, lieutenant?Cassio

　　The worser that you give me the additionWhose want even kills me.Iago

　　Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on't.Speaking lower

　　Now, if this suit lay in Bianca's power,How quickly should you speed!Cassio

　　Alas, poor caitiff!Othello

　　Look, how he laughs already!Iago

　　I never knew woman love man so.Cassio

　　Alas, poor rogue! I think, i' faith, she loves me.Othello

　　Now he denies it faintly, and laughs it out.Iago

　　Do you hear, Cassio?Othello

　　Now he importunes himTo tell it o'er: go to; well said, well said.Iago

　　She gives it out that you shall marry her:Do you intend it?Cassio

　　Ha, ha, ha!Othello

　　Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?Cassio

　　I marry her! what? a customer! Prithee, bear somecharity to my wit: do not think it so unwholesome.Ha, ha, ha!Othello

　　So, so, so, so: they laugh that win.Iago

　　'Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her.Cassio

　　Prithee, say true.Iago

　　I am a very villain else.Othello

　　Have you scored me? Well.Cassio

　　This is the monkey's own giving out: she ispersuaded I will marry her, out of her own love andflattery, not out of my promise.Othello

　　Iago beckons me; now he begins the story.Cassio

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

　　Crying 'O dear Cassio!' as it were: his gestureimports it.Cassio

　　So hangs, and lolls, and weeps upon me; so hales,and pulls me: ha, ha, ha!Othello

　　Now he tells how she plucked him to my chamber. O,I see that nose of yours, but not that dog I shallthrow it to.Cassio

　　Well, I must leave her company.Iago

　　Before me! look, where she comes.Cassio

　　'Tis such another fitchew! marry a perfumed one.Enter BIANCA

　　What do you mean by this haunting of me?Bianca

　　Let the devil and his dam haunt you! What did youmean by that same handkerchief you gave me even now?I was a fine fool to take it. I must take out thework?--A likely piece of work, that you should findit in your chamber, and not know who left it there!This is some minx's token, and I must take out thework? There; give it your hobby-horse: wheresoeveryou had it, I'll take out no work on't.Cassio

　　How now, my sweet Bianca! how now! how now!Othello

　　By heaven, that should be my handkerchief!Bianca

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

　　Iago

　　After her, after her.Cassio

　　'Faith, I must; she'll rail in the street else.Iago

　　Will you sup there?Cassio

　　'Faith, I intend so.Iago

　　Well, I may chance to see you; for I would very fainspeak with you.Cassio

　　Prithee, come; will you?Iago

　　Go to; say no more.Exit CASSIO

　　Othello

　　Advancing How shall I murder him, Iago?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 thefoolish woman your wife! she gave it him, and hehath given 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 to-night;for she shall not live: no, my heart is turned tostone; I strike it, and it hurts my hand. O, theworld hath not a sweeter creature: she might lie byan emperor's side and command him tasks.Iago

　　Nay, that's not your way.Othello

　　Hang her! I do but say what she is: so delicatewith her needle: an admirable musician: O! shewill sing the savageness out of a bear: of so highand plenteous wit and invention:--Iago

　　She's the worse for all this.Othello

　　O, a thousand thousand times: and then, of sogentle a condition!Iago

　　Ay, too gentle.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 herpatent to offend; for, if it touch not you, it comesnear nobody.Othello

　　I will chop her into messes: 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 notexpostulate with her, lest her body and beautyunprovide my mind again: this night, Iago.Iago

　　Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed, eventhe bed she hath contaminated.Othello

　　Good, good: the justice of it pleases: very good.Iago

　　And for Cassio, let me be his undertaker: youshall hear more by midnight.Othello

　　Excellent good.A trumpet within

　　What trumpet is that same?Iago

　　Something from Venice, sure. 'Tis LodovicoCome from the duke: and, see, your wife is with him.Enter LODOVICO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants

　　Lodovico

　　Save you, worthy general!Othello

　　With all my heart, sir.Lodovico

　　The duke and senators of Venice greet you.Gives him a letter

　　Othello

　　I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.Opens the letter, and reads

　　Desdemona

　　And what's the news, good cousin Lodovico?Iago

　　I am very glad to see you, signiorWelcome to Cyprus.Lodovico

　　I thank you. How does Lieutenant Cassio?Iago

　　Lives, sir.Desdemona

　　Cousin, there's fall'n between him and my lordAn unkind breach: but you shall make all well.Othello

　　Are you sure of that?Desdemona

　　My lord?Othello

　　Reads 'This fail you not to do, as you will--'Lodovico

　　He did not call; he's busy in the paper.Is there division 'twixt my lord and Cassio?Desdemona

　　A most unhappy one: I would do muchTo atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio.Othello

　　Fire and brimstone!Desdemona

　　My lord?Othello

　　Are you wise?Desdemona

　　What, is he angry?Lodovico

　　May be the letter moved him;For, as I think, they do command him home,Deputing Cassio in his government.Desdemona

　　Trust me, I am glad on't.Othello

　　Indeed!Desdemona

　　My lord?Othello

　　I am glad to see you mad.Desdemona

　　Why, sweet Othello,--Othello

　　Striking her Devil!Desdemona

　　I have not deserved this.Lodovico

　　My lord, this would not be believed in Venice,Though I should swear I saw't: 'tis very much:Make her amends; she weeps.Othello

　　O devil, devil!If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.Out of my sight!Desdemona

　　I will not stay to offend you.Going

　　Lodovico

　　Truly, an obedient lady:I do beseech your lordship, call her back.Othello

　　Mistress!Desdemona

　　My lord?Othello

　　What would you with her, sir?Lodovico

　　Who, I, my lord?Othello

　　Ay; you did wish that I would make her turn:Sir, she can turn, and turn, and yet go on,And turn again; and she can weep, sir, weep;And she's obedient, as you say, obedient,Very obedient. Proceed you in your tears.Concerning this, sir,--O well-painted passion!--I am commanded home. Get you away;I'll send for you anon. Sir, I obey the mandate,And will return to Venice. Hence, avaunt!Exit DESDEMONA

　　Cassio shall have my place. And, sir, tonight,I do entreat that we may sup together:You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.--Goats and monkeys!Exit

　　Lodovico

　　Is this the noble Moor whom our full senateCall all in all sufficient? Is this the natureWhom passion could not shake? whose solid virtueThe shot of accident, nor dart of chance,Could neither graze nor pierce?Iago

　　He is much changed.Lodovico

　　Are his wits safe? is he not light of brain?Iago

　　He's that he is: I may not breathe my censureWhat he might be: if what he might he is not,I would to heaven he were!Lodovico

　　What, strike his wife!Iago

　　'Faith, that was not so well; yet would I knewThat stroke would prove the worst!Lodovico

　　Is it his use?Or did the letters work upon his blood,And new-create this fault?Iago

　　Alas, alas!It is not honesty in me to speakWhat I have seen and known. You shall observe him,And his own courses will denote him soThat I may save my speech: do but go after,And mark how he continues.Lodovico

　　I am sorry that I am deceived in him.Exeunt