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Des. Faith, that's with watching; 'twill away

again :

Let me but bind it hard, within this hour

It will be well.

Oth

Your napkin is too 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:
I slept the next night well, was free and merry;
I found not Cassio's kisses on her lips:

[He puts the handkerchief from him, and it He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stolen,

drops.

Let it alone. Come, I'll go in with you.,
Des. I am very sorry that you are not well.
[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."

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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:-
Enter OTHELLO.

Look, where he comes! Not poppy, nor mandragora,
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou ow'dst yesterday.

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, han but to know't a little.

Let him not know it, and he's not robb'd at all. Iago. I am sorry to hear this.

Oth. I had been happy, if the general camp, Pioneers and all, had tasted her sweet body, So I had nothing known: O now, for ever, Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content! Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars, That make ambition virtue! O, farewell! Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump, The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife, The royal banner; and all quality,

Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war! And O you mortal engines, whose rude throats The immortal Jove's dread clamours counterfeit, Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone!

Iago. Is it possible? My lord,

Oth. Villain, be sure thou prove my love a where; Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof;

[Taking him by the thrust. Or, by the worth of mine eternal soul, Thou hadst been better have been born a dog, Than answer my wak'd wrath. Iago. Is it come to this? Oth. Make me to see it; or (at the least) so prove it, That the probation bear no hinge, nor loop, To hang a doubt on: or, woe upon thy life! Iago. My noble lord, ·

Oth. If thou dost slander her, and torture me, Never pray more: abandon all remorse;

On horror's head horrors accumulate:

Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amar'd, For nothing canst thou to damnation add, Greater than that.

Iago.
O grace! O heaven defend me!
Are you a man? have you a soul, or sense?-
God be wi' you; take mine office. -O wretched fuel,
That liv'st to make thine honesty a vice! -
O monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world;
To be direct and honest, is not safe. —

I thank you for this profit; and, from hence,
I'll love no friend, since love breeds such offence.
Oth. Nay, stay-Thou should'st be honest.
Iago. I should be wise; for honesty's a fool,
And loses that it works for.

Oth.

By the world,

I think my wife be honest, and think she is not;
I think that thou art just, and think thou art net;
I'll have some proof: Her name, that was as fresh
As Dian's visage, is now begrim'd and black
As mine own face. - If there be cords, or knives,
Poison, or fire, or suffocating streams,
I'll not endure it. - Would, I were satisfied!
Iago. I see, sir, you are eaten up with passin
I do repent me, that I put it to you.
You would be satisfied?

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More than their own! What then? how then?
What shall I say? Where's satisfaction?
It is impossible, you should see this,
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 it.
Oth. Give me a living reason she's disloyal.
Jago. 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:

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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, 0, 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
Cry'd, Cursed fate! that gave thee to the Moor!
Oth. O monstrous! monstrous!
Iago.

Nay, this was but his dream.
Oth. 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 demonstrate thinly.

Oth.

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?

Oth. 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 to-day See Cassio wipe his beard with.

Oth.

If it be that, Iago. If it be that, or any that was her's, It speaks against her, with the other proofs.

Oth. 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 I do blow to heaven: 'Tis gone.

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Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell! Yield up, O love, thy crown, and hearted throne, To tyrannous hate! swell, bosom, with thy fraught, For 'tis of aspicks' tongues!

O, blood, Iago, blood!

Iago. Pray, be content.
Oth.
Iago. Patience, I say; your mind, perhaps, may
change,

Oth. Never, Iago. Like to the Pontick sea,
Whose icy current and compulsive course
Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
To the Propontick, 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
I here engage my words.
Iago.

[Kneels.

Do not rise yet.

[Kneels.

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Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, and Clown.
Des. Do you know, sirrah, where lieutenant
Cassio lies?

Clo. I dare not say, he lies any where.
Des. Why, man?

Clo. He is a soldier; and for me to say a soldier lies, is stabbing.

Des. Go to; Where lodges he?

Clo. To tell you where he lodges, is to tell you where I lie.

Des. Can any thing be made of this?

Clo. 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 my own throat.

Des. Can you enquire him out, and be edified by report?

Clo. I will catechize the world for him; that is, make questions, and by them answer.

Des. Seek him, bid him come hither; tell him, I have moved my lord in his behalf, and hope, all will be well,

Clo. To do this, is within the compass of man's wit; and therefore I will attempt the doing it.

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Oth. That which I gave you.
Des.

Oth. Not?

1

Des.

Oth.

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Iago. There is no other way; 'tis she must do't; I have it not about me. And, lo, the happiness! go, and impórtune her. Des. How now, good Cassio? what's the news

No, indeed, my lord.

That handkerchief

That is a fault:

Did an Egyptian to my mother give;
She was a charmer, and could almost read
The thoughts of people: she told her, while she
kept it,

'Twould make her amiable, and subdue my father
Entirely to her love; but if she lost it,

Or made a gift of it, my father's eye

Should hold her loathly, and his spirits should hunt
After new fancies: She, dying, gave it me;
And bid me, when my fate would have me wive,
To give it her. I did so and take heed of't,
Make it a darling like your precious eye;
To lose or give't away, were such perdition,
As nothing else could match.

Des.

Is it possible?

Oth. 'Tis true: There's magick in the web of it:
A sibyl, that had number'd in the world
The sun to make two hundred compasses,
In her prophetick fury sew'd the work:
The worms were hallow'd, that did breed the silk;
And it was dy'd in mummy, which the skilful
Conserv'd of maidens' hearts.

Des.

Indeed! is't true? Oth. Most veritable; therefore look to't well. Des. Then 'would to heaven, that I had never seen it.

Oth. Ha! wherefore?

Des. Why do you speak so startingly and rash? Oth. Is't lost? is't gone? speak, is it out of the way?

Des. Heaven bless us !

Oth.

Say you

?

Des. It is not lost; But what an if it were?
Oth. Ha!

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with you?

Cas. 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 duty of my heart,
Entirely honour; I would not be delay'd:
If my offence be of such mortal kind,
That neither service past, nor present sorrows,
Nor purpos'd merit in futurity,
Can ransome me into his love again,
But to know so must be my benefit;
So shall I clothe me in a forc'd content,
And shut myself up in some other course,
To fortune's alms.

Des.
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 a while 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?

Emil.

He went hence but now, And, certainly, in strange unquietness.

Jago. Can he be angry? I have seen the cannan,
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.

Des. I pr'ythee, do so. Something, sure, of
state, -
[Erit Lac
Either from Venice; or some unhatch'd practice,
Made démonstrable 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 w;
For let our finger ache, and it indues
Our other healthful members ev'n to that sense

Oth. Fetch me that handkerchief: my mind Of pain: Nay, we must think, men are not gods,

misgives.

Nor of them look for such observances

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Des. Alas, the day! I never gave him cause...
Emil. 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.

Des. Heaven keep that monster from Othello's

mind!

Emil. Lady, amen.

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Woman, go to!

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, Biança.
Bian.
Why, whose is it?
Cas. I know not, sweet: I found it in my chamber.

Des. I will go seek him. — Cassio, walk here- I like the work well; ere it be demanded,

about:

If I do find him fit, I'll move your suit,
And seek to effect it to my uttermost.
Cas. I humbly thank your ladyship.

[Exeunt DESDEMONA and EMILIA.
Enter BIANCA.

Bian. Save you, friend Cassio!

Cas.
What make you from home?
How is it with you, my most fair Bianca ?
I'faith, sweet love, I was coming to your house."

Bian. 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!

(As like enough, it will,) I'd have it copied :
Take it, and do't; and leave me for this time.
Bian. Leave you! wherefore?

Cas. I do attend here on the general;
And think it no addition, nor my wish,
To have him see me woman'd.

Bian.

Why, I pray you?

Cas. Not that I love you not.
Bian.
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.
Cas. 'Tis but a little way, that I can bring you,'
For I attend here: but I'll see you soon.
Bian. 'Tis very good; I must be circumstanc'd.
[Exeunt.

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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.-

Oth.

Hath he said any thing? Iago. He hath, my lord; but be you well assur'd, No more than he'll unswear.

Oth.

What hath he said?

Iago. 'Faith, that he did, I know not what he

did.
Oth. What? what?
Iago. Lie.

With her?

Oth.. Iago. With her, on her; what you will. Oth. Lie with her! lie on her! We say, lie on her, when they belie her: Lie with her! that's fulsome.- Handkerchief,-confessions,-handkerchief. - To confess, and be hanged for his labour. First, to be hanged, and then to confess : - I tremble at it. Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion, without some instruction. It is not words, that shake me thus:- - Pish! Noses, ears, and lips: Is it possible? . ConHandkerchief! O devil!

fess!

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Iago, Work on,

My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught;

And many worthy and chaste dames, even thus,
All guiltless meet reproach.—What, ho! my lord!
Enter CASSIO.

My lord, I say! Othello! How now, Cassio?
Cas. What is the matter?

Jago. My lord is fallen into an epilepsy; This is his second fit; he had one yesterday. Cas. Rub him about the temples.. Iago. No, forbear! The lethargy must have his quiet course: If not, he foams at mouth; and, by and by, Breaks out to savage madness. Look, he stirs : Do you withdraw yourself a little while, He will recover straight; when he is gone, I would on great occasion speak with you.

[Exit CASSIO. How is it, general? have you not hurt your head? Oth. Dost thou mock me? Iago. I mock you! no, by heaven : 'Would, you would bear your fortunes like a man. Oth. A horned man's a monster, and a beast. Iago. There's many a beast then in a populous city, And many a civil monster.

Oth. Did he confess it? Iago. Good sir, be a man ; Think, every bearded fellow, that's but yok'd, May draw with you: there's millions now alive, That nightly lie in those unproper beds, Which they dare swear peculiar; your case is better. O, 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock, To lip a wanton in a secure couch, And to suppose her chaste! No, let me know; And, knowing what I am, I know what she shall be. Oth. O, thou art wise; 'tis certain. Iago.

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Stand you awhile apart;
Confine yourself but in a patient list.
Whilst you were here, ere while mad with your grief,
(A passion most unsuiting such a man,)
Cassio came hither: I shifted him away,
And laid good 'scuse upon your ecstasy;
Bade him anon return, and here speak with me;
The which he promis'd. Do but encave yourself,
And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns,
That dwell in every region of his face;
For I will make him tell the tale anew,
Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when
He hath, and is again to cope your wife;

I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience;
Or I shall say, you are all in all in spleen,
And nothing of a man.

Oth.

Dost thou hear, Iago? I will be found most cunning in my patience; But (dost thou hear ?) most bloody.

Lago.
That's not amiss;
But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw?
[OTHELLO withdraws.

Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,
A housewife, that, by selling her desires,
Buys herself bread and cloathes: it is a creature,
That dotes on Cassio, as 'tis the strumpet's plague,
To beguile many, and be beguil'd by one;·
He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain

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From the excess of laughter: - Here he comes: Re-enter CASSIO.

As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;

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Oth. Now he denies it faintly, and laughs it out. [Anide.

Iago. Do you hear, Cassio?

Oth.

Now he importunes him
To tell it o'er: Go to; well said, well said. [Aside,
Iago. She gives it out, that you shall marry her:
Do you intend it?
Ha, ha, ha!

Cas.
Oth. Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?

Cas. I marry her! - what? a customer! I pr'ythee, bear some charity to my wit; do not think it so unwholesome. Ha, ha, ha!

Oth. So, so, so, so: They laugh that win. [de Iago. "Faith, the cry goes, that you shall marry her. Cas. Pr'ythee, say true.

Iago. I am a very villain else.

Oth. Have you scored me? Well.

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Cas. This is the monkey's own giving out: she is persuaded I will marry her, out of her own love and flattery, not out of my promise.

Oth. Iago beckons me; now he begins the story.

[Aside

Cas. She was here even now; she haunts me in every place. I was, the other day, talking on the sea-bank with certain Venetians; and thither comes this bauble; by this hand, she falls thus about my neck;

Oth. Crying, O dear Cassio! as it were: his ges ture imports it. (Aside Cas. So hangs, and lolls, and weeps upon me; so hales, and pulls me: ha, ha, ha!

Oth. Now he tells, how she plucked him to my chamber: O, I see that nose of yours, but not that dog I shall throw it to.

Cas. Well, I must leave her company.
Iago. Before me! look, where she comes.

Enter BIANCA.

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Cas. 'Tis such another fitchew! marry, a perfumed one. -What do you mean by this haunting

of me?

Bian. Let the devil and his dam haunt you! What did you mean by that same handkerchief, you gave me even now? I was a fine fool to take it. I must take out the whole work? A likely piece of work, that you should find it in your chamber, and not know who left it there! This is some mint's token, and I must take out the work? There,-gr it your hobby horse: wheresoever you had it, I take out no work on't.

Cas. How now, my sweet Bianca? how now' how now?

Oth. By heaven, that should be my handkerchie

Bian. An you'll come to supper to-night, pus

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