Othello by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 1
Cyprus. Before the castle.
Iago : Will you think so?
Othello : Think so, Iago!
Iago : What,
[p]To kiss in private?
Othello : An unauthorized kiss.
Iago : Or to be naked with her friend in bed
[p]An hour or more, not meaning
any harm?
Othello : Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm!
[p]It is hypocrisy against the
devil:
[p]They that mean virtuously, and yet do so,
[p]The devil their
virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.
Iago : So they do nothing, 'tis a venial slip:
[p]But if I give my wife a
handkerchief,--
Othello : What then?
Iago : Why, then, 'tis hers, my lord; and, being hers,
[p]She may, I think,
bestow't on any man.
Othello : She is protectress of her honour too:
[p]May she give that?
Iago : Her honour is an essence that's not seen;
[p]They have it very oft
that have it not:
[p]But, for the handkerchief,--
Othello : By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it.
[p]Thou said'st, it
comes o'er my memory,
[p]As doth the raven o'er the infected
house,
[p]Boding to all--he had my handkerchief.
Iago : Ay, what of that?
Othello : That's not so good now.
Iago : What,
[p]If I had said I had seen him do you wrong?
[p]Or heard him
say,--as knaves be such abroad,
[p]Who having, by their own
importunate suit,
[p]Or voluntary dotage of some
mistress,
[p]Convinced or supplied them, cannot choose
[p]But they
must blab--
Othello : Hath he said any thing?
Iago : He hath, my lord; but be you well assured,
[p]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
[p]they belie her.
Lie with her! that's
fulsome.
[p]--Handkerchief--confessions--handkerchief!--To
[p]confess,
and be hanged for his labour;--first, to be
[p]hanged, and then to
confess.--I tremble at it.
[p]Nature would not invest herself in such
shadowing
[p]passion without some instruction. It is not words
[p]that
shake me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips.
[p]--Is't
possible?--Confess--handkerchief!--O devil!--
Iago : Work on,
[p]My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught;
[p]And
many worthy and chaste dames even thus,
[p]All guiltless, meet
reproach. What, ho! my lord!
[p]My lord, I say! Othello!
[p][Enter
CASSIO]
[p]How now, Cassio!
Cassio : What's the matter?
Iago : My lord is fall'n into an epilepsy:
[p]This is his second fit; he had
one yesterday.
Cassio : Rub him about the temples.
Iago : No, forbear;
[p]The lethargy must have his quiet course:
[p]If not, he
foams at mouth and by and by
[p]Breaks out to savage madness. Look he
stirs:
[p]Do you withdraw yourself a little while,
[p]He will recover
straight: when he is gone,
[p]I would on great occasion speak with
you.
[p][Exit CASSIO]
[p]How is it, general? have you not hurt your
head?
Othello : Dost thou mock me?
Iago : I mock you! no, by heaven.
[p]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,
[p]And many a civil
monster.
Othello : Did he confess it?
Iago : Good sir, be a man;
[p]Think every bearded fellow that's but
yoked
[p]May draw with you: there's millions now alive
[p]That nightly
lie in those unproper beds
[p]Which they dare swear peculiar: your
case is better.
[p]O, 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's
arch-mock,
[p]To lip a wanton in a secure couch,
[p]And to suppose her
chaste! No, let me know;
[p]And knowing what I am, I know what she
shall be.
Othello : O, thou art wise; 'tis certain.
Iago : Stand you awhile apart;
[p]Confine yourself but in a patient
list.
[p]Whilst you were here o'erwhelmed with your grief--
[p]A
passion most unsuiting such a man--
[p]Cassio came hither: I shifted
him away,
[p]And laid good 'scuse upon your ecstasy,
[p]Bade him anon
return and here speak with me;
[p]The which he promised. Do but encave
yourself,
[p]And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable
scorns,
[p]That dwell in every region of his face;
[p]For I will make
him tell the tale anew,
[p]Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and
when
[p]He hath, and is again to cope your wife:
[p]I say, but mark
his gesture. Marry, patience;
[p]Or I shall say you are all in all in
spleen,
[p]And nothing of a man.
Othello : Dost thou hear, Iago?
[p]I will be found most cunning in my
patience;
[p]But--dost thou hear?--most bloody.
Iago : That's not amiss;
[p]But yet keep time in all. Will you
withdraw?
[p][OTHELLO retires]
[p]Now will I question Cassio of
Bianca,
[p]A housewife that by selling her desires
[p]Buys herself
bread and clothes: it is a creature
[p]That dotes on Cassio; as 'tis
the strumpet's plague
[p]To beguile many and be beguiled by
one:
[p]He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain
[p]From the excess of
laughter. Here he comes:
[p][Re-enter CASSIO]
[p]As he shall smile,
Othello shall go mad;
[p]And his unbookish jealousy must
construe
[p]Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures and light
behavior,
[p]Quite in the wrong. How do you now, lieutenant?
Cassio : The worser that you give me the addition
[p]Whose want even kills me.
Iago : Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on't.
[p][Speaking lower]
[p]Now,
if this suit lay in Bianco's power,
[p]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
[p]To tell it o'er: go to; well said, well
said.
Iago : She gives it out that you shall marry hey:
[p]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
[p]charity to my
wit: do not think it so unwholesome.
[p]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
[p]persuaded I will marry
her, out of her own love and
[p]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.
[p]I was the
other day talking on the sea-bank with
[p]certain Venetians; and
thither comes the bauble,
[p]and, by this hand, she falls me thus
about my neck--
Othello : Crying 'O dear Cassio!' as it were: his gesture
[p]imports it.
Cassio : So hangs, and lolls, and weeps upon me; so hales,
[p]and pulls me: ha,
ha, ha!
Othello : Now he tells how she plucked him to my chamber. O,
[p]I see that nose
of yours, but not that dog I shall
[p]throw it to.
Cassio : Well, I must leave her company.
Iago : Before me! look, where she comes.
Cassio : 'Tis such another fitchew! marry a perfumed one.
[p][Enter
BIANCA]
[p]What do you mean by this haunting of me?
Bianca : Let the devil and his dam haunt you! What did you
[p]mean by that same
handkerchief you gave me even now?
[p]I was a fine fool to take it. I
must take out the
[p]work?--A likely piece of work, that you should
find
[p]it in your chamber, and not know who left it there!
[p]This is
some minx's token, and I must take out the
[p]work? There; give it
your hobby-horse: wheresoever
[p]you had it, I'll take out no work
on't.
Cassio : How now, my sweet Bianca! how now! how now!
Othello : By heaven, that should be my handkerchief!
Bianca : An you'll come to supper to-night, you may; an you
[p]will not, come
when you are next prepared for.
Iago : After her, after her.
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
[p]speak with
you.
Cassio : Prithee, come; will you?
Iago : Go to; say no more.
Othello : [Advancing] How shall I murder him, Iago?
Iago : Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice?
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
[p]foolish woman your
wife! she gave it him, and he
[p]hath given it his whore.
Othello : I would have him nine years a-killing.
[p]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;
[p]for she shall
not live: no, my heart is turned to
[p]stone; I strike it, and it
hurts my hand. O, the
[p]world hath not a sweeter creature: she might
lie by
[p]an emperor's side and command him tasks.
Iago : Nay, that's not your way.
Othello : Hang her! I do but say what she is: so delicate
[p]with her needle: an
admirable musician: O! she
[p]will sing the savageness out of a bear:
of so high
[p]and plenteous wit and invention:--
Iago : She's the worse for all this.
Othello : O, a thousand thousand times: and then, of so
[p]gentle a condition!
Iago : Ay, too gentle.
Othello : Nay, that's certain: but yet the pity of it, Iago!
[p]O Iago, the pity
of it, Iago!
Iago : If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her
[p]patent to offend;
for, if it touch not you, it comes
[p]near nobody.
Othello : I will chop her into messes: cuckold me!
Iago : O, 'tis foul in her.
Othello : With mine officer!
Iago : That's fouler.
Othello : Get me some poison, Iago; this night: I'll not
[p]expostulate with
her, lest her body and beauty
[p]unprovide my mind again: this night,
Iago.
Iago : Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed, even
[p]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
[p]shall hear more by
midnight.
Othello : Excellent good.
[p][A trumpet within]
[p]What trumpet is that same?
Iago : Something from Venice, sure. 'Tis Lodovico
[p]Come from the duke: and,
see, your wife is with him.
Lodovico : Save you, worthy general!
Othello : With all my heart, sir.
Lodovico : The duke and senators of Venice greet you.
Othello : I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.
Desdemona : And what's the news, good cousin Lodovico?
Iago : I am very glad to see you, signior
[p]Welcome to Cyprus.
Lodovico : I thank you. How does Lieutenant Cassio?
Iago : Lives, sir.
Desdemona : Cousin, there's fall'n between him and my lord
[p]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--'
Lodovico : He did not call; he's busy in the paper.
[p]Is there division 'twixt
my lord and Cassio?
Desdemona : A most unhappy one: I would do much
[p]To atone them, for the love I
bear to Cassio.
Othello : Fire and brimstone!
Desdemona : My lord?
Othello : Are you wise?
Desdemona : What, is he angry?
Lodovico : May be the letter moved him;
[p]For, as I think, they do command him
home,
[p]Deputing Cassio in his government.
Desdemona : Trust me, I am glad on't.
Othello : Indeed!
Desdemona : My lord?
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,
[p]Though I should
swear I saw't: 'tis very much:
[p]Make her amends; she weeps.
Othello : O devil, devil!
[p]If that the earth could teem with woman's
tears,
[p]Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.
[p]Out of my
sight!
Desdemona : I will not stay to offend you.
Lodovico : Truly, an obedient lady:
[p]I do beseech your lordship, call her
back.
Othello : Mistress!
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:
[p]Sir, she can turn, and
turn, and yet go on,
[p]And turn again; and she can weep, sir,
weep;
[p]And she's obedient, as you say, obedient,
[p]Very obedient.
Proceed you in your tears.
[p]Concerning this, sir,--O well-painted
passion!--
[p]I am commanded home. Get you away;
[p]I'll send for you
anon. Sir, I obey the mandate,
[p]And will return to Venice. Hence,
avaunt!
[p][Exit DESDEMONA]
[p]Cassio shall have my place. And, sir,
tonight,
[p]I do entreat that we may sup together:
[p]You are welcome,
sir, to Cyprus.--Goats and monkeys!
Lodovico : Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate
[p]Call all in all
sufficient? Is this the nature
[p]Whom passion could not shake? whose
solid virtue
[p]The shot of accident, nor dart of chance,
[p]Could
neither graze nor pierce?
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
[p]What he might be: if
what he might he is not,
[p]I would to heaven he were!
Lodovico : What, strike his wife!
Iago : 'Faith, that was not so well; yet would I knew
[p]That stroke would
prove the worst!
Lodovico : Is it his use?
[p]Or did the letters work upon his blood,
[p]And
new-create this fault?
Iago : Alas, alas!
[p]It is not honesty in me to speak
[p]What I have seen
and known. You shall observe him,
[p]And his own courses will denote
him so
[p]That I may save my speech: do but go after,
[p]And mark how
he continues.
Lodovico : I am sorry that I am deceived in him.
Previous: Act 3 - Scene 4
Next: Act 4 - Scene 2
