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 | |