Lod. O thou Othello, that wert once so good,
Fall'n in the practice of a damned slave,
What shall be said to thee?

Oth.

Why, any thing:
An honorable murderer, if you will;

For nought did I in hate, but all in honor.
Lod. This wretch hath part confess'd his villainy:
Did you and he consent in Cassio's death?
Oth. Aye.

Cas. Dear general, I never gave you cause.
Oth. I do believe it, and I ask your pardon.

300

Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body? Iago. Demand me nothing; what you know, you know:

From this time forth I never will speak word. Lod. What, not to pray?

Gra.

Torments will ope your lips.

Oth. Well, thou dost best.

Lod. Sir, you shall understand what hath befall'n, Which, as I think, you know not. Here is a letter

Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo,

And here another: the one of them imports 310
The death of Cassio to be undertook

By Roderigo.

Oth. O villain!

Cas.

Most heathenish and most gross! Lod. Now here's another discontented paper, Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems, Roderigo meant to have sent this damned vil

lain;

AM

Oth.

Cas.

But that, belike, Iago in the interim
Came in and satisfied him.

O the pernicious caitiff! How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief That was my wife's?

I found it in my chamber: 320
And he himself confess'd but even now

That there he dropp'd it for a special purpose
Which wrought to his desire.

Oth.
O fool! fool! fool!
Cas. There is besides in Roderigo's letter,
How he upbraids Iago, that he made him
Brave me upon the watch; whereon it came
That I was cast: and even but now he spake
After long seeming dead, Iago hurt him,
Iago set him on.

Lod. You must forsake this room, and go with us:
Your power and your command is taken off, 331
And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave,
If there be any cunning cruelty

That can torment him much and hold him long,
It shall be his. You shall close prisoner rest,
Till that the nature of your fault be known
To the Venetian state. Come, bring away.
Oth. Soft you; a word or two before you go.

I have done the state some service, and they
know 't.

No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, 341
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,

337. "bring away"; Qq., “bring him away"; Collier MS., "bring them away."-I. G.

Nor set down aught in malice: then must you

speak

Of one that loved not wisely but too well;

Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
Perplex'd in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away

Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued
eyes,

Albeit unused to the melting mood,

Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinal gum. Set you down this;
And say besides, that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog
And smote him, thus.
Lod. O bloody period!

Gra.

350

[Stabs himself.

All that's spoke is marr❜d. Oth. I kiss'd thee ere I kill'd thee: no way but this, Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.

[Falls on the bed, and dies.

347. “Indian”; F. 1, “Iudean"; Theobald proposed "Judian,” adding, “I am satisfied in his Judian he is alluding to Herod, who, in a fit of blind jealosie, threw away such a jewel of a wife as Mariamne was to him." This interpretation was Warburton's. "This it is," as Coleridge put it, "for no-poets to comment on the greatest of poets! To make Othello say that he, who had killed his wife, was like Herod who had killed Mariamne!" Boswell aptly quotes from Habington's Castara:

"So the unskilful Indian those bright gems
Which might add majesty to diadems,
'Mong the waves scatters."-I. G.

350. "Arabian trees"; the acacia Arabica.-C. H. H.

352. "in Aleppo once"; it is said to have been immediate death for a Christian to strike a Turk in Aleppo.-H. N. H.

Cas. This did I fear, but thought he had no

weapon;

For he was great of heart.

Lod.

360

[To Iago] O Spartan dog,
More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea!
Look on the tragic loading of this bed;
This is thy work: the object poisons sight;
Let it be hid. Gratiano, keep the house,
And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor
For they succeed on you. To you, lord gov-

ernor,

Remains the censure of this hellish villain,

The time, the place, the torture: O, enforce it!
Myself will straight aboard, and to the state 370
This heavy act with heavy heart relate.

[Exeunt.

GLOSSARY

By ISRAEL GOLLANCZ, M.A.