Iago. Or to be naked with her friend abed, An hour or more, not meaning any harm?

Oth. Naked abed, 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, 't is a venial slip: But if I give my wife a handkerchief,

Oth. What then?

Iago. Why, then, 'tis hers, my lord; and being hers,

She may, I think, bestow 't on any man.

Oth. 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,

Oth. By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it!

Thou saidst-O, 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?

Oth.

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),—

Oth. Hath he said anything?

Iago. He hath, my lord: but, be you well assured,

No more than he 'll unswear.

Oth.

What hath he said?

Iago. 'Faith, that he did-I know not what

he did.

With her?

Oth. What; what? Iago. LieOth. Iago. With her; on her: what will. you Oth. 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 it possible?-Confess!-Handkerchief!-O devil! [Falls in a trance.

That dotes on Cassio,-as 't is 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.
As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;
And his unbookish jealousy must construe
Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures, and light behaviour,

Re-enter CASSIO.

Quite in the wrong.-How do you now, lieutenant? Cas. The worser that you give me the addition Whose want even kills me.

Iugo. Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure of't. Now, if this suit lay in Bianca's power, [Speaking lower.

How quickly should you speed!

Cas.
Alas, poor caitiff!
Oth. Look, how he laughs already! [Aside.
Iago. I never knew a woman love man so.
Cas. Alas, poor rogue, I think, i'faith, she
loves me.

Oth. Now he denies it faintly, and laughs it out.

[Aside.

Oth. Have you scored me? Well Cus. 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.

Oth. Iago beckons me: now he begins the story. [Aside.

Cas. 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 this bauble: by this hand, she falls thus about my neck,

Oth. Crying, "O dear Cassio!" as it were: his gesture imports it. [Aside.

Cas. So hangs, and lolls, and weeps upon me; so hales and pulls me: ha, ha, ha!

Oth. Now he tells how she plucked him to my chamber:-0, I see that nose of yours, but not that dog I shall throw it to.

[Aside.

Cas. Well, I must leave her company. Iago. Before me! look were she comes.

Enter BIANCA.

Cas. 'Tis such another fitchew! marry, a perfumed one. What do you mean by this haunting of me?

Bian. 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 whole 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. Cas. How now, my sweet Bianca? how now; how now?

Oth. By heaven, that should be my handkerchief! [Aside. Bian. An you'll come to supper to-night, you may: an you will not, come when you are next prepared for.

Iago. After her, after her.

[Exit.

Cas. 'Faith I must, she 'll rail in the street else.
Iago. Will you sup there?

Cas. 'Faith, I intend so.

Iago. Well, I may chance to see you; for I would very fain speak with you.

Cas. Pr'y thee, come: will you?
Iago. Go to; say no more. [Exit CASSIO.
Oth. How shall I murder him, Iago?
Iago. Did you perceive how he laughed at his
vice?
Oth. O, Iago!

Iago. And did you see the handkerchief?
Oth. 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.

Oth. I would have him nine years a killing.— A fine woman! a fair woman! a sweet woman! Iago. Nay, you must forget that.

Oth. 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.

Iago. Nay, that's not your way.

Oth. Hang her! I do but say what she is.-So delicate with her needle! An admirable musician: 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.

Oth. O, a thousand, a thousand times.-And then, of so gentle a condition!

Jago. Ay, too gentle.

Oth. Nay, that's certain. But yet the pity of it, lago!—O, Lago, the pity of it, Iago!

Iago. If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her patent to offend: for if it touch not you, it comes near nobody.

Oth. I will chop her into messes.-Cuckold me!
Iago. O, 't is foul in her.
Oth. With mine officer!
Iago. That's fouler.

Oth. 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.

Iago. Do it not with poison: strangle her in her bed; even the bed she hath contaminated. Oth. Good, good; the justice of it pleases: very good.

Fago. And for Cassio, let me be his undertaker. You shall hear more by midnight.

[A trumpet within. Oth. Excellent good.-What trumpet is that same?

Iago. Something from Venice, sure. "Tis Lodovico,

Come from the Duke: and see, your wife is with him.

Enter LODOVICO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants. Lod. 'Save you, worthy general!

Oth.

My lord?

What would you with her, sir? Who, I, my lord?

Oth. 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.-Şir, I obey the man-
date,

And will return to Venice.-Hence, avaunt!
[Exit DESDEMONA.
Cassio shall have my place.-And, sir, to-night,
I do entreat that we may sup together.
You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.-Goats and
monkeys!
[Exit.
Lod. Is this the noble Moor, whom our full

senate

Call all-in-all sufficient?-This the noble nature
Whom passion could not shake? whose solid virtue
The shot of accident, nor dart of chance,
Could neither graze nor pierce?

What he might be (if what he might he is not), I would to heaven he were.

That stroke would prove the worst.

That's strange.

Emil. I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest, Lay down my soul at stake: if you think other, Remove your thought: it doth abuse your bosom. If any wretch hath put this in your head, Let heaven requite it with the serpent's curse! For if she be not honest, chaste, and true, There's no man happy; the purest of their wives Is foul as slander.

Oth. Bid her come hither: go. [Exit EMILIA.
She says enough: yet she's a simple bawd
That cannot say as much. This is a subtle whore,
A closet-lock-and-key of villanous secrets:
And yet she'll kneel and pray: I have seen her do't.

Re-enter EMILIA, with DESDEMONA.
Des. My lord, what is your will?
Oth. Pray, chuck, come hither.
Des. What is your pleasure?
Oth.

Let me see your eyes:

Look in my face.

Des. What horrible fancy's this? Oth. Some of your function, mistress : [TO EMILIA. Leave procreants alone, and shut the door: Cough or cry "hem," if anybody come. Your mystery, your mystery :-nay, despatch. [Exit EMILIA.

To try me with affliction; had he rained
All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head;
Steeped me in poverty to the very lips;
Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes;
I should have found in some part of my soul
A drop of patience: but, alas! to make me
A fixéd figure for the time of scorn
To point his slow unmoving finger at,-
O! O!

Yet could I bear that too: well, very well;
But there where I have garnered up my heart;
Where either I must live or bear no life;
The fountain from the which my current runs,
Or else dries up: to be discarded thence!
Or keep it as a cistern, for foul toads
To knot and gender in!-turn thy complexion
there!

Patience, thou young and rose-lipped cherubin:
Ay, there, look grim as hell!

Des. I hope my noble lord esteems me honest. Oth. O, ay, as summer flies are in the shambles, That quicken even with blowing. O thou weed, Who art so lovely fair, and smell'st so sweet, That the sense aches at thee,-'would thou hadst ne'er been born!

Des. Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed? Oth. Was this fair paper, this most goodly book, Made to write "whore" upon?-What committed? Committed!-0 thou public commoner, I should make very forges of my cheeks, That would to cinders burn up modesty, Did I but speak thy deeds!—What committed!