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And knows all qualities, with a learned spirit,
Of human dealings. If I do prove her haggard,
Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings,
I'ld whistle her off, and let her down the wind,
To prey at fortune. Haply, for I am black,
And have not those soft parts of conversation
That chamberers have; or, for I am declin'd
Into the vale of years—yet that's not much ;-
She's gone; I am abus'd; and my relief
Must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage,
That we can call these delicate creatures our's,
And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad,
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon,

Than keep a corner in the thing I love

For others' uses. Yet 'tis the plague of great ones;
Prerogativ'd are they less than the base;

'Tis destiny unshunnable, like death:

Even then this forked plague is fated to us
When we do quicken. Look, where she comes:

Re-enter DESDEMONA and EMILIA.

If she be false, O, then Heaven mocks itself!
I'll not believe 't.

DES.

260

270

How now, my dear Othello!

280

Your dinner, and the generous islanders By you invited, do attend your presence. Отн. I am to blame.

DES.

Why do

you speak so faintly?

Are you not well?

ACT III

Sc. III

Отн. I have a pain upon my forehead, here.

DES. 'Faith, that's with watching; 'twill away again :

Let me but bind it hard, within this hour

It will be well.

Отн.

Your napkin is too little;

[He puts the handkerchief from
him; and it drops.

go

Let it alone. Come, I'll in with you. DES. I am very sorry that you are not well. [Exeunt OTHELLO and DESDEMONA.

EMIL. I am glad I have found this napkin.

290

ACT III
Sc. III

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 should 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 't Iago:

What he will do with it Heaven knows, not I;

I nothing but to please his fantasy.

Re-enter IAGO.

IAGO. How now! what do you here alone?
EMIL. Do not you chide; I have a thing for you.
IAGO. A thing for me! It is a common thing-
EMIL. Ha!

IAGO. To have a foolish wife.

EMIL. O, is that all? What will you give me now

For that same handkerchief?

IAGO.

EMIL. What handkerchief!

What handkerchief?

Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona;
That which so often you did bid me steal.

IAGO. Hast stol'n it from her?

EMIL. No, 'faith; she let it drop by negligence,

And, to the advantage, I, being here, took 't up.
Look, here it is.

IAGO.

A good wench; give it me.

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310

EMIL. What will you do with 't, that you have been so

earnest

To have me filch it?

IAGO.

Why, what's that to you?

[snatching it.

EMIL. If it be not for some purpose of import,

Give 't me again: poor Lady, she'll run mad
When she shall lack it.

IAGO. Be not acknown on 't; I have use for it.

Go, leave me.

[Exit EMILIA.

321

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:

Re-enter ОTHELLO.

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.

Отн.

331

Ha ha! false to me?

IAGO. Why, how now, General! no more of that.

Oтн. Avaunt! be gone! thou hast set me on the

rack:

I swear 'tis better to be much abus'd

Than but to know 't a little.

IAGO.

How now, my Lord!
OTн. What sense had I of her stol'n hours of lust?
I saw 't 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 that is robb'd, not wanting what is stol'n,

Let him not know 't, and he's not robb'd at all.

IAGO. I am sorry to hear this.

Oтн. I had been happy, if the general camp,

Pioners 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 't possible, my Lord?

340

350

ACT III

Sc. III

ACT III
Sc. III

OTH. Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore,
Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof;
Or, by the worth of man's eternal soul,
Thou hadst been better have been born a dog
Than answer my wak'd wrath!

IAGO.

Is 't come to this?
Отн. Make me to see 't; 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

Отн. 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 amaz’d;
For nothing canst thou to damnation add

Greater than that.

IAGO.

O Grace! O Heaven forgive me!

Are you a man? have you a soul or sense?

God be wi' you! take mine office. O wretched Fool,
That liv'st to make thine honesty a vice!

360

370

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, sith love breeds such offence.

Отн. Nay, stay: thou should'st be honest.

IAGO. I should be wise; for honesty's a fool,

And loses that it works for.

Отн.

By the World,

I think my wife be honest, and think she is not;
I think that thou art just, and think thou art not:
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 passion:
I do repent me that I put it to you.

You would be satisfied?

Отн.

Would! nay, I will.

IAGO. And may; but how? how satisfied, my Lord?

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390

Would you, the supervisor, grossly gape on—

Behold her tupp'd?

Отн.

Death and damnation! O!

IAGO. It were a tedious difficulty, I think,

To bring them to that prospect: damn them, then,

If ever mortal eyes do see them bolster

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't.
Oтн. Give me a living reason she's disloyal.
IAGO. I do not like the office:

But, sith I am enter'd in this cause so far,
Prick'd to 't 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

Of their affairs: one of this kind is Cassio.

In sleep I heard him say Sweet Desdemona,

Let us be wary, let us hide our loves;

400

410

And then, Sir, would he gripe and wring my hand, 420

Cry O 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 Cried Cursed fate that gave thee to the Moor! ОTH. O monstrous! monstrous !

Nay, this was but his dream.

IAGO.
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.

Отн.

I'll tear her all to pieces.

ACT III
Sc. III

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