Othello, William Shakespeare [classic reads .TXT] 📗

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.

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, faith, 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
Or made a 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
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 dy'd in mummy which the skillful
Conserv'd of maiden's 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 of 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 receiv'd again.

OTHELLO.
Fetch me the handkerchief: my mind misgives.

DESDEMONA.
Come, come;
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,
Shar'd 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.
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:
They 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
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 purpos'd 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 forc'd content,
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
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 pr'ythee, do so.

[Exit Iago.]

Something sure of state, -
Either from Venice or some unhatch'd practice
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 observancy
As fits the bridal. - Beshrew me much, Emilia,
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,
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?
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?
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 neither: I found it in my chamber.
I like the work well: ere it be demanded, -
As like enough it will, - I'd have it copied:
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.

BIANCA.
'Tis very good; I must be circumstanc'd.

[Exeunt.]


ACT IV.

SCENE I. Cyprus. Before the Castle.

[Enter Othello and Iago.]

IAGO.
Will you think so?

OTHELLO.
Think so, Iago?

IAGO.
What,
To kiss in private?

OTHELLO.
An unauthoriz'd kiss.

IAGO.
Or to be naked with her friend in bed
An 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, - O, 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 choose
But they must blab, -

OTHELLO.
Hath he said anything?

IAGO.
He hath, my lord; but be you well assur'd,
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 when they belie
her. - Lie with her! that's fulsome. - Handkerchief - confessions -
handkerchief! - To confess, and be hanged for his labour, - first,
to be hanged, and then to confess. - I tremble at it. Nature
would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without some
instruction. It is not words that shake me thus: - pish! - noses,
ears, and lips. - Is't possible? - Confess, - handkerchief! - O
devil! -

[Falls 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 fallen 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 by
Breaks 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