Othello

Please see the bottom of this page for full explanatory notes.

ACT III SCENE IV	Before the castle.
	Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, and Clown.
DESDEMONA	Do you know, sirrah, where Lieutenant Cassio lies?
Clown	I dare not say he lies any where.
DESDEMONA	Why, man?
Clown	He's a soldier, and for one to say a soldier lies,
	is stabbing.
DESDEMONA	Go to: where lodges he?
Clown	To tell you where he lodges, is to tell you where I lie.
DESDEMONA	Can any thing be made of this?		10
Clown	I know not where he lodges, and for me to devise a
	lodging and say he lies here or he lies there, were
	to lie in mine own throat.
DESDEMONA	Can you inquire him out, and be edified by report?
Clown	I will catechise the world for him; that is, make
	questions, and by them answer.
DESDEMONA	Seek him, bid him come hither: tell him I have
	moved my lord on his behalf, and hope all will be well.		20
Clown	To do this is within the compass of man's wit: and
	therefore I will attempt the doing it.
	Exit
DESDEMONA	Where should I lose that handkerchief, Emilia?
EMILIA	I know not, madam.
DESDEMONA	Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse
	Full of crusadoes: and, but my noble Moor
	Is true of mind and made of no such baseness
	As jealous creatures are, it were enough
	To put him to ill thinking.
EMILIA	Is he not jealous?
DESDEMONA	Who, he? I think the sun where he was born		30
	Drew all such humours from him.
EMILIA	Look, where he comes.
DESDEMONA	I will not leave him now till Cassio
	Be call'd to him.
	Enter OTHELLO.
	How is't with you, my lord
OTHELLO	Well, my good lady.
	Aside
	O, hardness to dissemble!--
	How do you, Desdemona?
DESDEMONA	Well, my good lord.
OTHELLO	Give me your hand: this hand is moist, my lady.
DESDEMONA	It yet hath felt no age nor known no sorrow.
OTHELLO	This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart:
	Hot, hot, and moist: this hand of yours requires
	A sequester from liberty, fasting and prayer,		40
	Much castigation, exercise devout;
	For here's a young and sweating devil here,
	That commonly rebels. 'Tis a good hand,
	A frank one.
DESDEMONA	You may, indeed, say so;
	For 'twas that hand that gave away my heart.
OTHELLO	A liberal hand: the hearts of old gave hands;
	But our new heraldry is hands, not hearts.
DESDEMONA	I cannot speak of this. Come now, your promise.
OTHELLO	What promise, chuck?
DESDEMONA	I have sent to bid Cassio come speak with you.		50
OTHELLO	I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me;
	Lend me thy handkerchief.
DESDEMONA	Here, my lord.
OTHELLO	That which I gave you.
DESDEMONA	I have it not about me.
OTHELLO	Not?
DESDEMONA	No, indeed, my lord.
OTHELLO	That is a fault.
	That handkerchief
	Did an Egyptian to my mother give;
	She was a charmer, and could almost read
	The thoughts of people: she told her, while
	she kept it,
	'Twould make her amiable and subdue my father
	Entirely to her love, but if she lost it		60
	Or made 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.
DESDEMONA	Is't possible?
OTHELLO	'Tis true: there's magic in the web of it:
	A sibyl, that had number'd in the world		70
	The sun to course two hundred compasses,
	In her prophetic fury sew'd the work;
	The worms were hallow'd that did breed the silk;
	And it was dyed in mummy which the skilful
	Conserved of maidens' hearts.
DESDEMONA	Indeed! is't true?
OTHELLO	Most veritable; therefore look to't well.
DESDEMONA	Then would to God that I had never seen't!
OTHELLO	Ha! wherefore?
DESDEMONA	Why do you speak so startingly and rash?
OTHELLO	Is't lost? is't gone? speak, is it out		80
	o' the way?
DESDEMONA	Heaven bless us!
OTHELLO	Say you?
DESDEMONA	It is not lost; but what an if it were?
OTHELLO	How!
DESDEMONA	I say, it is not lost.
OTHELLO	Fetch't, let me see't.
DESDEMONA	Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now.
	This is a trick to put me from my suit:
	Pray you, let Cassio be received again.
OTHELLO	Fetch me the handkerchief: my mind misgives.
DESDEMONA	Come, come;		90
	You'll never meet a more sufficient man.
OTHELLO	The handkerchief!
DESDEMONA	I pray, talk me of Cassio.
OTHELLO	The handkerchief!
DESDEMONA	A man that all his time
	Hath founded his good fortunes on your love,
	Shared dangers with you,--
OTHELLO	The handkerchief!
DESDEMONA	In sooth, you are to blame.
OTHELLO	Away!
	Exit.
EMILIA	Is not this man jealous?
DESDEMONA	I ne'er saw this before.		100
	Sure, there's some wonder in this handkerchief:
	I am most unhappy in the loss of it.
EMILIA	'Tis not a year or two shows us a man:
	They are all but stomachs, and we all but food;
	To eat us hungerly, and when they are full,
	They belch us. Look you, Cassio and my husband!
	Enter CASSIO and IAGO.
IAGO	There is no other way; 'tis she must do't:
	And, lo, the happiness! go, and importune her.
DESDEMONA	How now, good Cassio! what's the news with you?
CASSIO	Madam, my former suit: I do beseech you		110
	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 purposed 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 forced content,		120
	And shut myself up in some other course,
	To fortune's alms.
DESDEMONA	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 be patient:
	What I can do I will; and more I will		130
	Than for myself I dare: let that suffice you.
IAGO	Is my lord angry?
EMILIA	He went hence but now,
	And certainly in strange unquietness.
IAGO	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.
DESDEMONA	I prithee, do so.
	Exit IAGO.
	Something, sure, of state,		140
	Either from Venice, or some unhatch'd practise
	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 even to that sense
	Of pain: nay, we must think men are not gods,
	Nor of them look for such observances
	As fits the bridal. Beshrew me much, Emilia,		150
	I was, unhandsome warrior as I am,
	Arraigning his unkindness with my soul;
	But now I find I had suborn'd the witness,
	And he's indicted falsely.
EMILIA	Pray heaven it be state-matters, as you think,
	And no conception nor no jealous toy
	Concerning you.
DESDEMONA	Alas the day! I never gave him cause.
EMILIA	But jealous souls will not be answer'd so;
	They are not ever jealous for the cause,		160
	But jealous for they are jealous: 'tis a monster
	Begot upon itself, born on itself.
DESDEMONA	Heaven keep that monster from Othello's mind!
EMILIA	Lady, amen.
DESDEMONA	I will go seek him. Cassio, walk hereabout:
	If I do find him fit, I'll move your suit
	And seek to effect it to my uttermost.
CASSIO	I humbly thank your ladyship.
	Exeunt DESDEMONA and EMILIA.
	Enter BIANCA.
BIANCA	Save you, friend Cassio!
CASSIO	What make you from home?
	How is it with you, my most fair Bianca?		170
	I' faith, sweet love, I was coming to your house.
BIANCA	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!
CASSIO	Pardon me, Bianca:
	I have this while with leaden thoughts been press'd:
	But I shall, in a more continuate time,
	Strike off this score of absence. Sweet Bianca,
	Giving her DESDEMONA's handkerchief.
	Take me this work out.
BIANCA	O Cassio, whence came this?		180
	This is some token from a newer friend:
	To the felt absence now I feel a cause:
	Is't come to this? Well, well.
CASSIO	Go to, woman!
	Throw your vile guesses in the devil's teeth,
	From whence you have them. You are jealous now
	That this is from some mistress, some remembrance:
	No, in good troth, Bianca.
BIANCA	Why, whose is it?
CASSIO	I know not, sweet: I found it in my chamber.
	I like the work well: ere it be demanded--
	As like enough it will--I'ld have it copied:		190
	Take it, and do't; and leave me for this time.
BIANCA	Leave you! wherefore?
CASSIO	I do attend here on the general;
	And think it no addition, nor my wish,
	To have him see me woman'd.
BIANCA	Why, I pray you?
CASSIO	Not that I love you not.
BIANCA	But that you do not love me.
	I pray you, bring me on the way a little,
	And say if I shall see you soon at night.
CASSIO	'Tis but a little way that I can bring you;
	For I attend here: but I'll see you soon.		200
BIANCA	'Tis very good; I must be circumstanced.
	Exeunt

Othello, Act 4, Scene 1

___________

Explanatory Notes for Act 3, Scene 4

From Othello. Ed. Brainerd Kellogg. New York: Clark & Maynard.

Abbreviations. — A.-S. = Anglo-Saxon: M.E. = Middle English (from the 13th to the 15th century) ; Fr. = French ; Ger. = German ; Gr. = Greek ; Cf. = compare (Lat. confer) ; Abbott refers to the excellent Shakespearean Grammar of Dr. Abbott; Schmidt, to Dr. Schmidt's invaluable Shakespeare Lexicon.

____

22. The doing it. The frequently precedes a transitive participle. Cf, "In the delaying death." - Measure for Measure, iv.2.172. "The locking up the spirits." - Cymbeline, i.5.41. It is still so used.

26. Crusadoes, a Portuguese coin bearing a cross. But, unless.

38. Argues, proves.

40. Sequester, seclusion from liberty. The word originally meant a trustee, to whom property was devised.

49. Chuck, chicken.

51.Rheum, a flowing discharge. Often tears.

66. Darling, a diminutive, little dear.

73. Fury, madness.

83. An. Shakespeare's an is nothing but the Scandinavian use of the common word and. When the force of an grew misty, it was reduplicated by the addition of if; so that an if = if-if. SKEAT.

119, sq. Simply to know that would be a satisfaction, and I would make the best of it.

123. Advocation, pleading.

128. Blank, centre of target.

143. Puddled, make muddy.

152. With my soul as judge. Suborn. Especially used of providing a perjured witness.

157. Toy, idle fancy.

178. Continuate, unbroken by other business.

194. And think it will not add to my benefit, nor is it my desire, to be seen with a woman.

How to cite the explanatory notes:

Shakespeare, William. Othello. Ed. Brainerd Kellogg. New York: Clark & Maynard, 1892. Shakespeare Online. 20 Feb. 2010. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/othello_3_4.html >.

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