May fall to match you with her country forms, Oth: Farewell, farewell: If more thou dost perceive, let me know more; [Going. Oth. Why did I marry? This honest creature, doubtless, Sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds. Jago. My lord, I would, I might entreat your honour 9 To scan this thing no further; leave it to time: [Exit. Oth. This fellow's of exceeding honesty, * You shall by that perceive him and his means:] You shall discover whether he thinks his best means, his most powerful interest, is by the solicitation of your lady. 9 strain his entertainment-] Press hard his re-admission to his pay and office. Entertainment was the military term for admission of soldiers. Fear not my government.] Do not distrust my ability to contain my passion. 2 with a learned spirit,] The construction is, He knows with a learned spirit all qualities of human dealings. 3 If I do prove her haggard,] A haggard hawk, is a wild hawk, a hawk unreclaimed, or irreclaimable. Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings,* Enter DESDEMONA and EMILIA. If she be false, O, then heaven mocks itself!- Des. How now, my dear Othello? Your dinner, and the generous islanders By you invited, do attend your presence. Oth. I am to blame. Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings,] Jesses are short straps of leather tied about the foot of a hawk, by which she is held on the fist. "I'd whistle her off, and let her down the wind, To prey at fortune.] The falconers always let fly the hawk against the wind; if she flies with the wind behind her, she sel dom returns. If therefore a hawk was for any reason to be dismissed, she was let down the wind, and from that time shifted for herself, and preyed at fortune. 7 6 chamberers-] i. e. men of intrigue. - forked plague-] In allusion to a barbed or forked arrow, which, once infixed, cannot be extracted. But perhaps the forked plague is the cuckoid's horns. : Des. Why is your speech so faint? are you not well? Oth. I have a pain upon my forehead here. Let me but bind it hard, within this hour Oth. Your napkin is too little; [He puts the Handkerchief from him, and it Let it alone. Come, I'll go in with you. Exeunt ОTH. and DES. Emil. I am glad I have found this napkin; This was her first remembrance from the Moor: My wayward husband hath a hundred times Woo'd me to steal it: but she so loves the token, (For he conjur'd her, she would ever keep it,) That she reserves it evermore about her, To kiss, and talk to. I'll have the work ta'en out, And give it Iago: What he'll do with it, heaven knows, not I; I nothing, but to please his fantasy. Enter IAGO. lago. How now! what do you here alone? Emil. Do not you chide; I have a thing for you. lago. A thing for me?-it is a common thing. Emil. Ha! Iago. To have a foolish wife. I'll have the work ta'en out,] That is, copied. Her first thoughts are, to have a copy made of it for her husband, and restore the original to Desdemona. But the sudden coming in of lago, in a suriy humour, makes her alter her resolution, to please him. Emil. O, is that all? What will you give me now For that same handkerchief? Iago. Emil. What handkerchief? What handkerchief? Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona; Emil. No, faith; she let it drop by negligence; And, to the advantage, I, being here, took't up. Look, here it is, Iago. A good wench; give it me. Emil. What will you do with it, that you have been so earnest To have me filch it? Iago. Why, what's that to you? [Snatching it. Emil. If it be not for some purpose of import, Give it me again: Poor lady! she'll run mad, When she shall lack it. Iago. Be not you known of't;' I have use for it. Go, leave me. [Exit EMILIA. I will in Cassio's lodging lose this napkin, And let him find it: Trifles, light as air, Are, to the jealous, confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ. This may do something. The Moor already changes with my poison:Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons, Which, at the first, are scarce found to distaste; But, with a little act upon the blood, Burn like the mines of sulphur.I did say so:~ 9 -to the advantage, &c.] I being opportunely here, took it up. of the matter. known of't;] i. e. seem as if you knew nothing Enter OTHEllo. Look, where he comes! Not poppy, nor mandra gora,2 Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep Oth. To me? Ha ha! false to me? Jago. Why, how now, general? no more of that. Oth. Avaunt! be gone! thou hast set me on the rack: I swear, 'tis better to be much abus'd, Than but to know't a little. Iago. How now, my lord? Oth. What sense had I of her stolen hours of lust? I saw it not, thought it not, it harm'd not me : He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stolen, Oth. I had been happy, if the general camp, nor mandragora,] The mandragoras or mandrake has a soporifick quality, and the ancients used it when they wanted an opiate of the most powerful kind. 3 Which thou ow'dst yesterday] To owe is, in our author, oftener to possess, than to be indebted, and such is its meaning here. 4 Pioneers and all,] That is, the most abject and vilest of the camp. Pioneers were generally degraded soldiers, appointed to the office of pioneer, as a punishment for misbehaviour. |