Othello Act 4 scene 1 text

Act 4 scene 1

	Act IV Scene I Cyprus. Before the castle.
	[Enter OTHELLO and IAGO]
IAGO	Will you think so?
OTHELLO	Think so, Iago!
IAGO	What, To kiss in private?
OTHELLO	An unauthorized kiss.
IAGO	Or to be naked with her friend in bed An hour or more, not meaning any harm?	5
OTHELLO	Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm! It is hypocrisy against the devil: They that mean virtuously, and yet do so, The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.	10
IAGO	So they do nothing, 'tis a venial slip: But if I give my wife a handkerchief,--
OTHELLO	What then?
IAGO	Why, then, 'tis hers, my lord; and, being hers, She may, I think, bestow't on any man.	15
OTHELLO	She is protectress of her honour too: May she give that?
IAGO	Her honour is an essence that's not seen; They have it very oft that have it not: But, for the handkerchief,--	20
OTHELLO	By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it. Thou said'st, it comes o'er my memory, As doth the raven o'er the infected house, Boding to all--he had my handkerchief.	25
IAGO	Ay, what of that?
OTHELLO	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--	30
OTHELLO	Hath he said any thing?
IAGO	He hath, my lord; but be you well assured, No more than he'll unswear.	35
OTHELLO	What hath he said?
IAGO	'Faith, that he did--I know not what he did.
OTHELLO	What? what?
IAGO	Lie--	40
OTHELLO	With her?
IAGO	With her, on her; what you will.
OTHELLO	Lie with her! lie on her! We say lie on her, when they belie her. Lie with her! that's fulsome. --Handkerchief--confessions--handker- chief!--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 shad- owing passion without some instruction. It is not words that shake me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips. --Is't possible?--Confess--handkerchief!--O devil!--	45 50
	[Falls in a trance]
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! My lord, I say! Othello!	55
	[Enter CASSIO]
	How now, Cassio!
CASSIO	What's the matter?	60
IAGO	My lord is fall'n into an epilepsy: This is his second fit; he had one yesterday.
CASSIO	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.	65 70
	[Exit CASSIO]
	How is it, general? have you not hurt your head?
OTHELLO	Dost thou mock me?
IAGO	I mock you! no, by heaven. Would you would bear your fortune like a man!
OTHELLO	A horned man's a monster and a beast.	75
IAGO	There's many a beast then in a populous city, And many a civil monster.
OTHELLO	Did he confess it?
IAGO	Good sir, be a man; Think every bearded fellow that's but yoked 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.	80 85
OTHELLO	O, thou art wise; 'tis certain.
IAGO	Stand you awhile apart; Confine yourself but in a patient list. Whilst you were here o'erwhelmed 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 promised. 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.	90 95 100
OTHELLO	Dost thou hear, Iago? I will be found most cunning in my patience; But--dost thou hear?--most bloody.	105
IAGO	That's not amiss; But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw?
	[OTHELLO retires]
	Now will I question Cassio of Bianca, A housewife that by selling her desires Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature That dotes on Cassio; as 'tis the strumpet's plague To beguile many and be beguiled by one: He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain From the excess of laughter. Here he comes:	110 115
	[Re-enter CASSIO]
	As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad; And his unbookish jealousy must construe Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures and light behavior, Quite in the wrong. How do you now, lieutenant?	120
CASSIO	The worser that you give me the addition Whose want even kills me.
IAGO	Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on't.
	[Speaking lower]
	Now, if this suit lay in Bianco's power, How quickly should you speed!	125
CASSIO	Alas, poor caitiff!
OTHELLO	Look, how he laughs already!
IAGO	I never knew woman love man so.
CASSIO	Alas, poor rogue! I think, i' faith, she loves me.
OTHELLO	Now he denies it faintly, and laughs it out.	130
IAGO	Do you hear, Cassio?
OTHELLO	Now he importunes him To tell it o'er: go to; well said, well said.
IAGO	She gives it out that you shall marry hey: Do you intend it?	135
CASSIO	Ha, ha, ha!
OTHELLO	Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?
CASSIO	I marry her! what? a customer! Prithee, bear some charity to my wit: do not think it so unwhole- some. Ha, ha, ha!	140
OTHELLO	So, so, so, so: they laugh that win.
IAGO	'Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her.
CASSIO	Prithee, say true.
IAGO	I am a very villain else.
OTHELLO	Have you scored me? Well.	145
CASSIO	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.
OTHELLO	Iago beckons me; now he begins the story.
CASSIO	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 the bauble, and, by this hand, she falls me thus about my neck--	150
OTHELLO	Crying 'O dear Cassio!' as it were: his gesture imports it.	155
CASSIO	So hangs, and lolls, and weeps upon me; so hales, and pulls me: ha, ha, ha!
OTHELLO	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.	160
CASSIO	Well, I must leave her company.
IAGO	Before me! look, where she comes.
CASSIO	'Tis such another fitchew! marry a per- fumed one. What do you mean by this haunting of me?	165
	[Enter BIANCA]
BIANCA	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 work?--A likely piece of work, that you should find it in your chamber, and not know who left it there! This is some minx's token, and I must take out the work? There; give it your hobby-horse: wheresoever you had it, I'll take out no work on't.	170
CASSIO	How now, my sweet Bianca! how now! how now!	175
OTHELLO	By heaven, that should be my handkerchief!
BIANCA	An you'll come to supper to-night, you may; an you will not, come when you are next prepared for.
	[Exit]
IAGO	After her, after her.	180
CASSIO	'Faith, I must; she'll rail in the street else.
IAGO	Will you sup there?
CASSIO	'Faith, I intend so.
IAGO	Well, I may chance to see you; for I would very fain speak with you.	185
CASSIO	Prithee, come; will you?
IAGO	Go to; say no more.
	[Exit CASSIO]
OTHELLO	[Advancing] How shall I murder him, Iago?
IAGO	Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice?	190
OTHELLO	O Iago!
IAGO	And did you see the handkerchief?
OTHELLO	Was that mine?
IAGO	Yours by this hand: and to see how he prizes the foolish woman your wife! she gave it him, and he hath given it his whore.	195
OTHELLO	I would have him nine years a-killing. A fine woman! a fair woman! a sweet woman!
IAGO	Nay, you must forget that.
OTHELLO	Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be damned to-night; for she shall not live: no, my heart is turned to stone; I strike it, and it hurts my hand. O, the world hath not a sweeter creature: she might lie by an emperor's side and command him tasks.	200
IAGO	Nay, that's not your way.	205
OTHELLO	Hang her! I do but say what she is: so delicate with her needle: an admirable musi- cian: O! she will sing the savageness out of a bear: of so high and plenteous wit and invention:--
IAGO	She's the worse for all this.	210
OTHELLO	O, a thousand thousand times: and then, of so gentle a condition!
IAGO	Ay, too gentle.
OTHELLO	Nay, that's certain: but yet the pity of it, Iago! O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!	215
IAGO	If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her patent to offend; for, if it touch not you, it comes near nobody.
OTHELLO	I will chop her into messes: cuckold me!
IAGO	O, 'tis foul in her.	220
OTHELLO	With mine officer!
IAGO	That's fouler.
OTHELLO	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.	225
IAGO	Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated.
OTHELLO	Good, good: the justice of it pleases: very good.
IAGO	And for Cassio, let me be his undertaker: you shall hear more by midnight.	230
OTHELLO	Excellent good.
	[A trumpet within]
	What trumpet is that same?
IAGO	Something from Venice, sure. 'Tis Lodovico Come from the duke: and, see, your wife is with him.	235
	[Enter LODOVICO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants]
LODOVICO	Save you, worthy general!
OTHELLO	With all my heart, sir.
LODOVICO	The duke and senators of Venice greet you.
	[Gives him a letter]
OTHELLO	I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.	240
	[Opens the letter, and reads]
DESDEMONA	And what's the news, good cousin Lodovico?
IAGO	I am very glad to see you, signior Welcome to Cyprus.
LODOVICO	I thank you. How does Lieutenant Cassio?
IAGO	Lives, sir.	245
DESDEMONA	Cousin, there's fall'n between him and my lord An unkind breach: but you shall make all well.
OTHELLO	Are you sure of that?
DESDEMONA	My lord?
OTHELLO	[Reads] 'This fail you not to do, as you will--'	250
LODOVICO	He did not call; he's busy in the paper. Is there division 'twixt my lord and Cassio?
DESDEMONA	A most unhappy one: I would do much To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio.	255
OTHELLO	Fire and brimstone!
DESDEMONA	My lord?
OTHELLO	Are you wise?
DESDEMONA	What, is he angry?
LODOVICO	May be the letter moved him; For, as I think, they do command him home, Deputing Cassio in his government.	260
DESDEMONA	Trust me, I am glad on't.
OTHELLO	Indeed!
DESDEMONA	My lord?	265
OTHELLO	I am glad to see you mad.
DESDEMONA	Why, sweet Othello,--
OTHELLO	[Striking her] Devil!
DESDEMONA	I have not deserved this.
LODOVICO	My lord, this would not be believed in Venice, Though I should swear I saw't: 'tis very much: Make her amends; she weeps.	270
OTHELLO	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!	275
DESDEMONA	I will not stay to offend you.
	[Going]
LODOVICO	Truly, an obedient lady: I do beseech your lordship, call her back.
OTHELLO	Mistress!	280
DESDEMONA	My lord?
OTHELLO	What would you with her, sir?
LODOVICO	Who, I, my lord?
OTHELLO	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!	285 290
	[Exit DESDEMONA]
	Cassio shall have my place. And, sir, tonight, I do entreat that we may sup together: You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.--Goats and monkeys!	295
	[Exit]
LODOVICO	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 The shot of accident, nor dart of chance, Could neither graze nor pierce?	300
IAGO	He is much changed.
LODOVICO	Are his wits safe? is he not light of brain?
IAGO	He's that he is: I may not breathe my censure What he might be: if what he might he is not, I would to heaven he were!	305
LODOVICO	What, strike his wife!
IAGO	'Faith, that was not so well; yet would I knew That stroke would prove the worst!	310
LODOVICO	Is it his use? Or did the letters work upon his blood, And new-create this fault?
IAGO	Alas, alas! It is not honesty in me to speak What I have seen and known. You shall observe him, And his own courses will denote him so That I may save my speech: do but go after, And mark how he continues.	315 320
LODOVICO	I am sorry that I am deceived in him.
	[Exeunt]