Do you go back dismay'd? 't is a lost fear;
Man but a rush against Othello's breast,
And he retires.-Where should Othello go?
Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starr'd wench!
Pale as thy smock! when we shall meet at compt,
This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven,
And fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl!
Even like thy chastity.—

O, cursed, cursed slave !

Whip me, ye devils,

From the possession of this heavenly sight!
Blow me about in winds! roast me in sulphur!
Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!

O Desdemona! Desdemona! dead!

Oh! Oh! Oh!

270

280

Enter LODOVICO, MONTANO, CASSIO carried in a chair, and Officers with IAGO, prisoner.

Lodovico. Where is this rash and most unfortunate man?

Othello. That's he that was Othello; here I am.

Lodovico. Where is that viper? bring the villain forth. Othello. I look down towards his feet; but that's a fable. If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee. [Wounds Iago. Lodovico. Wrench his sword from him.

I bleed, sir, but not kill'd.

Iago.
Othello. I am not sorry neither: I'd have thee live;
For, in my sense, 't is happiness to die.

Lodovico. O thou Othello, that wert once so good,

Fall'n in the practice of a damned slave,

What shall be said to thee?

Othello.

Why, any thing:

An honourable murtherer, if you will;

For naught I did in hate, but all in honour.

Lodovico. This wretch hath part confess'd his villany.

Did you and he consent in Cassio's death?

290

Othello. Ay.
Cassio. Dear general, I never gave you cause.
Othello. I do believe it, and I ask you pardon.
Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil

Why he hath thus ensnar'd my soul and body?

Iago. Demand me nothing: what you know, you know; From this time forth I never will speak word.

Lodovico. What, not to pray?
Gratiano.

Othello. Well, thou dost best.

300

Torments will ope your lips.

Lodovico. 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

The death of Cassio to be undertook

By Roderigo.

310

Othello. O villain!

Cassio.

Most heathenish and most gross!

Lodovico. Now here's another discontented paper,
Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems,

Roderigo meant to have sent this damned villain,
But that, belike, Iago in the interim

Came in and satisfied him.

Othello.

How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief

That was my wife's?

Cassio.

O the pernicious caitiff!-

I found it in my chamber;

320

And he himself confess'd but even now
That there he dropt it for a special purpose
Which' wrought to his desire.

Othello.

O fool! fool! fool!

Cassio. 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.

Lodovico. You must forsake this room, and go with us; Your power and your command is taken off,

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 him away.

Othello. 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,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,

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

down this;

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 medicinable gum. Set you
And say besides, that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduc'd the state,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog.
And smote him—thus.

Lodovico. O bloody period!
Gratiano.

331

340

350

[Stabs himself.

All that's spoke is marr'd.

Othello. 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. Cassio. This did I fear, but thought he had no weapon;

For he was great of heart.

361

Lodovico.

[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 governor,
Remains the censure of this hellish villain,
The time, the place, the torture; O, enforce it!
Myself will straight aboard, and to the state
This heavy act with heavy heart relate.

149

370

[Exeunt.