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? 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. 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. 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,-- 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. 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-- OTHELLO Hath he said any thing? IAGO He hath, my lord; but be you well assured, No more than he'll unswear. OTHELLO What hath he said? IAGO 'Faith, that he did--I know not what he did. OTHELLO What? what? IAGO Lie-- 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--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't possible?--Confess--handkerchief!--O devil!--
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!
Enter CASSIO
How now, Cassio! CASSIO What's the matter? 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.
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. 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. 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. OTHELLO Dost thou hear, Iago?
I will be found most cunning in my patience;
But--dost thou hear?--most bloody. 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:
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? 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! 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. 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? 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 unwholesome.
Ha, ha, ha! 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. 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.