Othello, William Shakespeare [classic reads .TXT] 📗

this extremity. Thy husband knew it all.

EMILIA.
My husband!

OTHELLO.
Thy husband.

EMILIA.
That she was false to wedlock?

OTHELLO.
Ay, with Cassio. Nay, had she been true,
If heaven would make me such another world
Of one entire and perfect chrysolite,
I'd not have sold her for it.

EMILIA.
My husband!

OTHELLO.
Ay, 'twas he that told me first:
An honest man he is, and hates the slime
That sticks on filthy deeds.

EMILIA.
My husband!

OTHELLO.
What needs this iterance, woman? I say thy husband.

EMILIA.
O mistress, villainy hath made mocks with love! -
My husband say that she was false!

OTHELLO.
He, woman;
I say thy husband: dost understand the word?
My friend, thy husband, honest, honest Iago.

EMILIA.
If he say so, may his pernicious soul
Rot half a grain a day! he lies to the heart:
She was too fond of her most filthy bargain.

OTHELLO.
Ha!

EMILIA.
Do thy worst:
This deed of thine is no more worthy heaven
Than thou wast worthy her.

OTHELLO.
Peace, you were best.

EMILIA.
Thou hast not half that power to do me harm
As I have to be hurt. O gull! O dolt!
As ignorant as dirt! thou hast done a deed, -
I care not for thy sword; I'll make thee known,
Though I lost twenty lives. - Help! help, ho! help!
The Moor hath kill'd my mistress! murder, murder!

[Enter Montano, Gratiano, and Iago.]

MONTANO.
What is the matter? - How now, general!

EMILIA.
O, are you come, Iago? you have done well,
That men must lay their murders on your neck.

GRATIANO.
What is the matter?

EMILIA.
Disprove this villain, if thou be'st a man:
He says thou told'st him that his wife was false:
I know thou didst not, thou'rt not such a villain:
Speak, for my heart is full.

IAGO.
I told him what I thought; and told no more
Than what he found himself was apt and true.

EMILIA.
But did you ever tell him she was false?

IAGO.
I did.

EMILIA.
You told a lie; an odious, damned lie;
Upon my soul, a lie; a wicked lie: -
She false with Cassio! - Did you say with Cassio?

IAGO.
With Cassio, mistress. Go to, charm your tongue.

EMILIA.
I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to speak:
My mistress here lies murder'd in her bed, -

ALL.
O heavens forfend!

EMILIA.
And your reports have set the murder on.

OTHELLO.
Nay, stare not, masters: it is true, indeed.

GRATIANO.
'Tis a strange truth.

MONTANO.
O monstrous act!

EMILIA.
Villany, villany, villany!
I think upon't, - I think, - I smell't; - O villany! -
I thought so then; - I'll kill myself for grief: -
O villany, villany!

IAGO.
What, are you mad? I charge you, get you home.

EMILIA.
Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak:
'Tis proper I obey him, but not now. -
Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home.

OTHELLO.
O! O! O!

[Hanging over his wife.]

EMILIA.
Nay, lay thee down and roar;
For thou hast kill'd the sweetest innocent
That e'er did lift up eye.

OTHELLO.
[Rising.] O, she was foul! -
I scarce did know you, uncle; there lies your niece,
Whose breath, indeed, these hands have newly stopp'd:
I know this act shows horrible and grim.

GRATIANO.
Poor Desdemona! I am glad thy father's dead:
Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief
Shore his old thread in twain: did he live now,
This sight would make him do a desperate turn,
Yea, curse his better angel from his side,
And fall to reprobance.

OTHELLO.
'Tis pitiful; but yet Iago knows
That she with Cassio hath the act of shame
A thousand times committed; Cassio confess'd it:
And she did gratify his amorous works
With that recognizance and pledge of love
Which I first gave her; I saw it in his hand:
It was a handkerchief, an antique token
My father gave my mother.

EMILIA.
O heaven! O heavenly powers!

IAGO.
Come, hold your peace.

EMILIA.
'Twill out, 'twill out: - I peace!
No, I will speak as liberal as the north:
Let heaven and men and devils, let them all,
All, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak.

IAGO.
Be wise, and get you home.

EMILIA.
I will not.

[Iago offers to stab his wife.]

GRATIANO.
Fie!
Your sword upon a woman?

EMILIA.
O thou dull Moor! that handkerchief thou speak'st of
I found by fortune and did give my husband;
For often with a solemn earnestness, -
More than, indeed, belong'd to such a trifle, -
He begg'd of me to steal it.

IAGO.
Villanous whore!

EMILIA.
She give it Cassio! no, alas, I found it,
And I did give't my husband.

IAGO.
Filth, thou liest!

EMILIA.
By heaven, I do not, I do not, gentlemen. -
O murderous coxcomb! What should such a fool
Do with so good a wife?

OTHELLO.
Are there not stones in heaven
But what serve for thunder? - Precious villain!

[Iago stabs Emilia, and then runs out.]

GRATIANO.
The woman falls; sure, he hath kill'd his wife.

EMILIA.
Ay, ay: - O, lay me by my mistress' side.

GRATIANO.
He's gone, but his wife's kill'd.

MONTANO.
'Tis a notorious villain. Take you this weapon,
Which I have here recover'd from the Moor:
Come, guard the door without; let him not pass,
But kill him rather. I'll after that same villain,
For 'tis a damned slave.

[Exit Montano and Gratiano.]

OTHELLO.
I am not valiant neither,
But every puny whipster gets my sword: -
But why should honour outlive honesty?
Let it go all.

EMILIA.
What did thy song bode, lady?
Hark, canst thou hear me? I will play the swan,
And die in music: -

[Sings.] "Willow, willow, willow."

Moor, she was chaste; she lov'd thee, cruel Moor;
So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true;
So speaking as I think, I die, - I die.

[Dies.]

OTHELLO.
I have another weapon in this chamber;
It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook's temper: -
O, here it is. - Uncle, I must come forth.

GRATIANO.
[Within.] If thou attempt it, it will cost thee dear:
Thou hast no weapon, and perforce must suffer.

OTHELLO.
Look in upon me then, and speak with me,
Or, naked as I am, I will assault thee.

[Re-enter Gratiano.]

GRATIANO.
What is the matter?

OTHELLO.
Behold, I have a weapon;
A better never did itself sustain
Upon a soldier's thigh: I have seen the day
That with this little arm and this good sword
I have made my way through more impediments
Than twenty times your stop: - but, O vain boast!
Who can control his fate? 'tis not so now. -
Be not afraid, though you do see me weapon'd;
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,
And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.
Do you go back dismay'd? 'tis a lost fear;
Man but a rush against Othello's breast,
And he retires: - where should Othello go? -
Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starr'd wench!
Pale as thy smock! When we shall meet at compt,
This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven,
And fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl!
Even like thy chastity. -
O cursed, cursed slave! - Whip me, ye devils,
From the possession of this heavenly sight!
Blow me about in winds! roast me in sulphur!
Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire! -
O Desdemon! dead, Desdemon! dead! O!

[Enter Lodovico, Montano, Cassio carried in a chair,
and Officers with Iago prisoner.]

LODOVICO.
Where is this rash and most unfortunate man?

OTHELLO.
That's he that was Othello; - here I am.

LODOVICO.
Where is that viper? bring the villain forth.

OTHELLO.
I look down towards his feet; - but that's a fable. -
If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee.

[Wounds Iago.]

LODOVICO.
Wrench his sword from him.

IAGO.
I bleed, sir, but not kill'd.

OTHELLO.
I am not sorry neither: I'd have thee live;
For, in my sense, 'tis happiness to die.

LODOVICO.
O thou Othello, that wert once so good,
Fall'n in the practice of a damned slave,
What shall be said to thee?

OTHELLO.
Why, anything;
An honourable murderer, if you will;
For naught did I in hate, but all in honour.

LODOVICO.
This wretch hath part confess'd his villany:
Did you and he consent in Cassio's death?

OTHELLO.
Ay.

CASSIO.
Dear general, I never gave you cause.

OTHELLO.
I do believe it, and I ask your pardon.
Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil
Why he hath thus ensnar'd my soul and body?

IAGO.
Demand me nothing: what you know, you know:
From this time forth I never will speak word.

LODOVICO.
What, not to pray?

GRATIANO.
Torments will ope your lips.

OTHELLO.
Well, thou dost best.

LODOVICO.
Sir, you shall understand what hath befall'n,
Which, as I think, you know not. Here is a letter
Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo,
And here another: the one of them imports
The death of Cassio to be undertook
By Roderigo.

OTHELLO.
O villain!

CASSIO.
Most heathenish and most gross!

LODOVICO.
Now here's another discontented paper,
Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems,
Roderigo meant to have sent this damned villain;
But that, belike, Iago in the interim
Came in and satisfied him.

OTHELLO.
O the pernicious caitiff! -
How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief
That was my wife's?

CASSIO.
I found it in my chamber;
And he himself confess'd but even now
That there he dropp'd it for a special purpose
Which wrought to his desire.

OTHELLO.
O fool! fool! fool!

CASSIO.
There is besides in Roderigo's letter, -
How he upbraids Iago, that he made him
Brave me upon the watch; whereon it came
That I was cast: and even but now he spake,
After long seeming dead, - Iago hurt him,
Iago set him on.

LODOVICO.
You must forsake this room, and go with us:
Your power and your command is taken off,
And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave, -
If there be any cunning cruelty
That can torment him much and hold him long,
It shall be his. You shall close prisoner rest,
Till that the nature of your fault be known
To the Venetian state. - Come, bring away.

OTHELLO.
Soft you; a word or two before you go.
I have done the state some service, and they know't. -
No more of that. - I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely, but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
Perplex'd in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdu'd eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinal gum. Set you down this;
And say besides, - that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and