Othello, William Shakespeare [best books for students to read .TXT] 📗

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
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,
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 prithee, do so. Exit Iago.
Something, sure, of state,
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 fit 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, 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:
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 circumstanced. 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 unauthorized 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, 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 any thing? Iago

He hath, my lord; but be you well assured,
No