Othello. William Shakespeare
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Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys,
As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross
As ignorance made drunk. But yet, I say,
If imputation and strong circumstances,—
Which lead directly to the door of truth,—
Will give you satisfaction, you may have’t.
OTHELLO
Give me a living reason she’s disloyal.
IAGO
I do not like the office;
But, sith I am enter’d in this cause so far,—
Prick’d to it by foolish honesty and love,—
I will go on. I lay with Cassio lately;
And, being troubled with a raging tooth,
I could not sleep.
There are a kind of men so loose of soul,
That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs:
One of this kind is Cassio:
In sleep I heard him say, “Sweet Desdemona,
Let us be wary, let us hide our loves”;
And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my hand,
Cry, “O sweet creature!” and then kiss me hard,
As if he pluck’d up kisses by the roots,
That grew upon my lips: then laid his leg
Over my thigh, and sigh’d and kiss’d; and then
Cried, “Cursed fate that gave thee to the Moor!”
OTHELLO
O monstrous! monstrous!
IAGO
Nay, this was but his dream.
OTHELLO
But this denoted a foregone conclusion:
‘Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream.
IAGO
And this may help to thicken other proofs
That do demónstrate thinly.
OTHELLO
I’ll tear her all to pieces.
IAGO
Nay, but be wise: yet we see nothing done;
She may be honest yet. Tell me but this,—
Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief
Spotted with strawberries in your wife’s hand?
OTHELLO
I gave her such a one; ‘twas my first gift.
IAGO
I know not that: but such a handkerchief,—
I am sure it was your wife’s,—did I today
See Cassio wipe his beard with.
OTHELLO
If it be that,—
IAGO
If it be that, or any that was hers,
It speaks against her with the other proofs.
OTHELLO
O, that the slave had forty thousand lives,—
One is too poor, too weak for my revenge!
Now do I see ‘tis true.—Look here, Iago;
All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven:
‘Tis gone.—
Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow hell!
Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne
To tyrannous hate! swell, bosom, with thy fraught,
For ‘tis of aspics’ tongues!
IAGO
Yet be content.
OTHELLO
O, blood, Iago, blood!
IAGO
Patience, I say; your mind perhaps may change.
OTHELLO
Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic Sea,
Whose icy current and compulsive course
Ne’er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
To the Propontic and the Hellespont;
Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,
Shall ne’er look back, ne’er ebb to humble love,
Till that a capable and wide revenge
Swallow them up.—Now, by yond marble heaven,
In the due reverence of a sacred vow [Kneels.]
I here engage my words.
IAGO
Do not rise yet.— [Kneels.]
Witness, you ever-burning lights above,
You elements that clip us round about,—
Witness that here Iago doth give up
The execution of his wit, hands, heart,
To wrong’d Othello’s service! Let him command,
And to obey shall be in me remorse,
What bloody business ever. [They rise.]
OTHELLO
I greet thy love,
Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous,
And will upon the instant put thee to’t:
Within these three days let me hear thee say
That Cassio’s not alive.
IAGO
My friend is dead; ‘tis done at your request:
But let her live.
OTHELLO
Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her!
Come, go with me apart; I will withdraw
To furnish me with some swift means of death
For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant.
IAGO
I am your own for ever.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE IV. Cyprus. Before the Castle.
[Enter Desdemona, Emilia, and Clown.]
DESDEMONA
Do you know, sirrah, where Lieutenant Cassio lies?
CLOWN
I dare not say he lies anywhere.
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 anything be made of this?
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 catechize