IAGO. O, 'tis foul in her.

ОTH. With mine officer!
IAGO. That's fouler.

Отн. Get me some poison, Iago; this night: -I'll not expostulate with her, lest her body and beauty unprovide my mind again :-this night, Iago.

IAGO. Do it not with poison; strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated.

OтH. Good, good: the justice of it pleases; very good!

IAGO. And, for Cassio,-let me be his undertaker: you shall hear more by midnight.

[A trumpet without. Отн. Excellent good.-What trumpet is that same?

IAGO. Something from Venice, sure. "Tis Lodovico,

Come from the duke; and, see, your wife is with him."

My lord? Why, sweet Othello? [Striking her.

DES.
Oтн. I am glad to see you mad.
DES.
Oтн. Devil!
DES.

I have not deserv'd this.

LOD. My lord, this would not be believ'd in Venice,

Though I should swear I saw 't: 't is very much; Make her amends; she weeps.

Отн. O, devil, devil! If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.— Out of my sight! DES.

I will not stay to offend you.

LOD. Truly, an* obedient lady :I do beseech your lordship, call her back. Отн. Mistress !

[Going

What would you with her, sir?

LOD. Who, I, my lord?

Отн. Ay; you did wish that I would make

her turn:

Sir, she can turn, and turn, and yet go on,
And turn again; and she can weep, sir,-weep!
And she's obedient, as you say,―obedient!—
Very obedient.-Proceed you in your tears.-
Concerning this, sir,-O, well-painted passion !—
I am commanded home.-Get you away;
I'll send for you anon.-Sir, I obey the mandate,
And will return to Venice.-Hence, avaunt!

[Exit DESDEMONA. Cassio shall have my place. And,―sir, to-night, I do entreat that we may sup together: You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.--Goats and [Exit.

monkeys!

LOD. Is this the noble Moor whom our full

senate

Call all-in-all sufficient ?-Is this the nature Whom passion could not shake? whose solid virtue

(*) First folio omits, an.

"I warrant something from Venice,

'Tis Lodovico this, comes from the Duke. See, your wife's with him," &c.

Pray you, chuck, come hither.

Let me see your eyes;

DES. My lord, what is your will?
Отн.
DES. What is your pleasure?
Отн.
Look in my face.
DES.
What horrible fancy's this?
ОTH. Some of your function, mistress;
[To EMILIA.
Leave procreants alone, and shut the door;
Cough, or cry hem, if any body come:
Your mystery, your mystery;-nay, despatch!
[Exit EMILIA.
DES. Upon my knees, what doth your speech
import?

I understand a fury in your words,
But not the words.

Отн.

Why, what art thou?

Lay not your blame on me; if you have lost him, Why, I have lost him too.

Отн. Had it pleas'd heaven To try me with affliction; had he† rain'd All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head; Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips; Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes; I should have found in some place of my soul A drop of patience: but, alas, to make me The fixed figure of the time, for Scorn To point his slow and moving finger at !Yet could I bear that too; well, very well: But there, where I have garner'd up my heart, Where either I must live, or bear no life,— The fountain from the which my current runs, O else dries up; to be discarded thence! Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads

b

To knot and gender in!-turn thy complexion

there,

Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubin !— Ay, there, look grim as hell!

DES. I hope my noble lord esteems me honest. Отн. О, aу; as summer flies are in the shambles,

That quicken even with blowing. O, thou weed,
Who art so lovely fair, and smell'st so sweet,
That the sense aches at thee,-would thou hadst
ne'er been born!

DES. Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed? ОтH. Was this fair paper, this most goodly book,

Made to write whore upon ?-What committed !
Committed! O, thou public commoner!

I should make very forges of my cheeks,
That would to cinders burn up modesty,
Did I but speak thy deeds.-What committed!
Heaven stops the nose at it, and the moon winks ;
The bawdy wind, that kisses all it meets,
Is hush'd within the hollow mine of earth,
And will not hear it. What committed !—
Impudent strumpet!"

DES.

By heaven, you do me wrong Отн. Are not you a strumpet ? DES.

No, as I am a Christian! If to preserve this vessel for my lord From any other foul unlawful touch, Be not to be a strumpet, I am none.

(*) First folio omits, Why.

!

(t) First folio, they. (†) Old text, I heere. Corrected by Theobald. except that the second quarto reads "finger" for "fingers." Mr. Collier's annotator, availing himself of the obvious alteration hand for "time," which Rowe first made, and the equally obvious suggestion of Mason,-slowly moving finger at,-presents us with the following, which Mr. Collier says "we may reasonably believe to have been what the poet wrote, "

"A fixed figure, for the hand of scorn
To point his slowly moving finger at."

c Impudent strumpet!] These words are omitted in the

folio.

Oтн. What, not a whore? DES.

Отн. Is't possible?

DES. O, heaven forgive us!
Отн.

I cry your mercy, then;
I took you for that cunning whore of Venice,
That married with Othello.-You, mistress,
That have the office opposite to St. Peter,
And keep the gate of hell!

Here's a change, indeed! [Exit. DES. 'Tis meet I should be us'd so, very meet. How have I been behav'd, that he might stick The small'st opinion on my great'st abuse?*

DES. I do not know; I am sure I am none such. IAGO. Do not weep, do not weep:-alas the day!

EMIL. Hath she forsook so many noble matches, Her father, and her country, and her friends, To be called whore ? would it not make one weep? DES. It is my wretched fortune. IAGO.

Beshrew him for't! How comes this trick upon him? DES. Nay, heaven doth know. EMIL. I will be hang'd, if some eternal villain, Some busy and insinuating rogue, Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office, Have not devis'd this slander; I'll be hang'd else. IAGO. Fie, there is no such man; it is impossible.

DES. If a any such there be, heaven pardon him! EMIL. A halter pardon him! and hell gnaw his bones!

Why should he call her whore? who keeps her company?

What place? what time? what form? what likelihood?

The Moor's abus'd by some most villanous knave, Some base notorious knave, some scurvy fellow :O, heaven, that such companions" thou'dst unfold,

:

a companions-] Companion was often used in Shakespeare's time as a term of contempt, in the same sense that we now employ fellow. So in "Henry IV." Part II. Act II. Sc. 4,"I scorn you, scurvy companion;" and again in "The Merry

And put in every honest hand a whip,

To lash the rascals naked through the world Even from the east to the west!

IAGO.

Speak within door. EMIL. O, fie upon them! Some such squire he

was

[Aside to IAGO.
That turn'd your wit the seamy side without,
And made you to suspect me with the Moor.
IAGO. You are a fool; go to. [Aside to EMILIA.
DES.
Alas, Iago!
What shall I do to win my lord again?
Good friend, go to him; for, by this light of
heaven,

I know not how I lost him. Here I kneel:-
:-
If e'er my will did trespass 'gainst his love,
Either in discourse of thought or actual deed;
Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any sense,
Delighted them in* any other form;
Or that I do not yet, and ever did,
And ever will, though he do shake me off
To beggarly divorcement,-love him dearly,
Comfort forswear me! Unkindness may do much ;
And his unkindness may defeat my life,
But never taint my love. I cannot say whore-
It does abhor me now I speak the word;
To do the act that might the addition earn,
Not the world's mass of vanity could make me.

(*) First folio, or.

Wives of Windsor," Act III. Sc. 1,-"This same scall, scurry, cogging companion."