Oth. What needs this iteration, woman? I say, thy husband. Emil. O mistress! villainy hath made mocks with love. My husband say, that she was false? He, woman; I say, thy husband: dost understand the word? My friend, thy husband, honest, honest Iago. Emil. 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. Oth. Ha! [Threatening her. Emil. Do thy worst: Peace! you were best. Enter MONTANO, GRATIANO, and IAGO. Emil. Disprove this villain, if thou be'st a man : Iago. I told him what I thought; and told no more Than what he found himself was apt and true. Emil. But did you ever tell him, she was false? Emil. You told a lie; an odious, damned lie; She false with Cassio!-Did you say with Cassio? Iago. With Cassio, mistress. Go to, charm your tongue. Emil. I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to speak. My mistress here lies murder'd in her bed. Emil. And your reports have set the murderer on. Mon. O monstrous act! Emil. Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak: "Tis proper I obey him, but not now.— Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home. Oth. O! O! O! [Falling on the Ground. Emil. Nay, lay thee down and roar, For thou hast kill'd the sweetest innocent, That e'er did lift up eye. Oth. O! she was foul.- [Starting up. I scarce did know you, uncle: there lies your niece, Whose breath, indeed, these hands have newly stopp'd. I know, this act shows terrible and grim. Gra. Poor Desdemona! I am glad thy father's dead. Oth. 'Tis pitiful; but yet Iago knows, Emil. O heaven! O heavenly powers! Come, hold your peace. Iago. No, I will speak as liberal as the wind. Gra. [Drawing. I will not. [IAGO offers to stab EMIL Fie! Your sword upon a woman? I found by fortune, and did give my husband: Iago. Villainous whore! [They hold him. Emil. She give it Cassio! no, alas! I found it, And I did give 't my husband. Iago. Filth, thou liest. [Stabs her, and exit instantly. Emil. By heaven, I do not; I do not, gentlemen. O murderous coxcomb! what should such a fool Do with so good a wife? Oth. Are there no stones in heaven, But what serve for the thunder?-Precious villain! Gra. The woman falls: sure, he has kill'd his wife. Emil. Ay, ay.-O, lay me by my mistress' side! Gra. He's gone, but his wife's kill'd. Mon. '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. [Exeunt MONTANO and GRATIANO. Oth. I am not valiant neither, But every puny whipster gets my sword. But why should honour outlive honesty? Let it go all. Emil. What did thy song bode, lady? Hark, canst thou hear me? I will play the swan, And die in music:-Willow, willow, willow.Moor, she was chaste; she lov'd thee, cruel Moor: Gra. [Within.] If thou attempt it, it will cost thee dear: Thou hast no weapon, and perforce must suffer. Gra. What is the matter! Behold! I have a weapon; From the possession of this heavenly sight! Lod. Where is this rash and most unfortunate man? Lod. O thou Othello! that wert once so good, Oth. Why, any thing: An honourable murderer, if you will; For nought I did in hate, but all in honour. Lod. This wretch hath part confess'd his villainy. Did you and he consent in Cassio's death? Oth. Ay. Cas. Dear general, I never gave you cause. Oth. I do believe it, and I ask you pardon. O, the pernicious caitiff!- Cas. Oth. O fool! fool! fool! Lod. You must forsake this room, and go with us: That can torment him much, and hold him long, I have done the state some service, and they know it; I took by the throat the circumcised dog, [Stabs himself. Lod. O bloody period! Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil, know. [TO IAGO. This is thy work: the object poisons sight; [Exeunt. Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO. Phi. Nay, but this dotage of our general's Take but good note, and you shall see in him Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see. Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Fulvia, perchance, is angry; or, who knows Ant. Both ? Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's queen, Ant. Let Rome in Tyber melt, and the wide arch | Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair, [Embracing. Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be And such a twain can do't, in which I bind, reckon'd. Let's not confound the time with conference harsh: Without some pleasure now. What sport to-night? [Exeunt ANT. and CLEOP. with their Train. I am full sorry, That he approves the common liar, who Thus speaks of him at Rome; but I will hope Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy. [Exeunt. SCENE II.-The Same. Another Room. Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer. Char. Lord Alexas, most sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that you praised so to the queen? O! that I knew this husband, which, you say, must charge his horns with garlands! Alex. Soothsayer! Sooth. Your will? Char. Is this the man?-Is't you, sir, that know things? Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secrecy A little I can read. Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than belov'd. Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking. Alex. Nay, hear him. Char. Good now, some excellent fortune. Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage: find me to marry me with Octavius Cæsar, and companion me with my mistress. Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve. Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs. Sooth. You have seen, and proved a fairer former fortune, Than that which is to approach. Char. Then, belike, my children shall have no names. Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches must I have? Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb, And fruitful every wish, a million. Char. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch. Alex. We'll know all our fortunes. Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall be, drunk to bed. Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else. Char. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine. Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay. Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear.-Pr'ythee, tell her but a worky-day fortune. Sooth. Your fortunes are alike. Iras. But how? but how? give me particulars. Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she? Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it? Iras. Not in my husband's nose. Char. Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas, -come, his fortune, his fortune.-O! let him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee: and let her die too, and give him a worse; and let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold. Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight, good Isis, I beseech thee! Iras. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people; for, as it is a heart-breaking to see a handsome man loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded: therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly! Char. Amen. Alex. Lo, now! if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'd do't. Eno. Hush! here comes Antony. Cleo. Was he not here? Char. No, madam. Not he, the queen. Cleo. He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sudden, A Roman thought hath struck him.-Enobarbus !— Eno. Madam. Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alex. Here, at your service.-My lord approaches. Mess. Ay: But soon that war had end, and the time's state Labienus (This is stiff news) hath with his Parthian force Alex. You think, none but your sheets are privy to Extended Asia from Euphrates; your wishes. Char. Nay, come; tell Iras hers. His conquering banner shook from Syria To Lydia, and to Ionia; whilst Ant. Antony, thou would'st say, Mess. O, my lord! more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the case to be lamented: this grief is crowned with Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general consolation; your old smock brings forth a new petti tongue; 2 Mess. In Sicyon : Her length of sickness, with what else more serious Importeth thee to know, this bears. [Giving a Letter. Ant. Forbear me.[Exit Messenger. There's a great spirit gone. Thus did I desire it: What our contempts do often hurl from us, We wish it ours again; the present pleasure, By repetition souring, does become The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone; The hand would pluck her back, that shov'd her on. Eno. What's your pleasure, sir? Ant. I must with haste from hence. Eno. Why, then, we kill all our women. We see coat; and, indeed, the tears live in an onion, that should water this sorrow. Ant. The business she hath broached in the state Cannot endure my absence. Eno. And the business you have broached here cannot be without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your abode. Ant. No more light answers. Let our officers Have notice what we purpose. I shall break The cause of our expedience to the queen, And get her leave to part: for not alone The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches, Do strongly speak to us, but the letters, too, Of many our contriving friends in Rome Petition us at home. Sextus Pompeius Hath given the dare to Cæsar, and commands The empire of the sea: our slippery people (Whose love is never link'd to the deserver, Till his deserts are past) begin to throw Pompey the great, and all his dignities, Upon his son who, high in name and power, Higher than both in blood and life, stands up For the main soldier; whose quality, going on, The sides o' the world may danger. Much is breeding, Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life, And not a serpent's poison. Say, our pleasure, To such whose place is under us, requires Our quick remove from hence. Eno. I shall do it. [Exeunt. SCENE III. Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAs, and ALEXAS. Cleo. Where is he? Cleo. See where he is, who's with him, what he does: how mortal an unkindness is to them: if they suffer I did not send you. If you find him sad, our departure, death's the word. Ant. I must be gone. Eno. Under a compelling occasion, let women die : it were pity to cast them away for nothing; though, between them and a great cause, they should be esteemed nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dies instantly: I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment. I do think, there is mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon her, she hath such a celerity in dying. Ant. She is cunning past man's thought. Eno. Alack, sir! no; her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love. We cannot call her winds and waters, sighs and tears; they are greater storms and tempests than almanacs can report: this cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a shower of rain as well as Jove. Ant. Would I had never seen her! Eno. O, sir! you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work, which not to have been blessed withal would have discredited your travel. Ant. Fulvia is dead. Eno. Sir? Ant. Fulvia is dead. Eno. Fulvia! Ant. Dead. Eno. Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth: comforting therein, that when old robes are worn out, there are members to make new. If there were no Say, I am dancing; if in mirth, report That I am sudden sick: quick, and return. [Erit ALEX. Cleo. Cleo. Thou teachest, like a fool, the way to lose him. |