TPTT The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice: ACT IV
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
SCENE I. Cyprus. Before the castle.
SCENE II. A room in the castle.
SCENE III. Another room In the castle.
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE II. A room in the castle.
Enter OTHELLO and EMILIA
OTHELLO
      You have seen nothing then?
EMILIA
      Nor ever heard, nor ever did suspect.
OTHELLO
      Yes, you have seen Cassio and she together.
EMILIA
      But then I saw no harm, and then I heard
5     Each syllable that breath made up between them.
OTHELLO
      What, did they never whisper?
EMILIA
      Never, my lord.
OTHELLO
      Nor send you out o' the way?
EMILIA
      Never.
OTHELLO
10    To fetch her fan, her gloves, her mask, nor nothing?
EMILIA
      Never, my lord.
OTHELLO
      That's strange.
EMILIA
      I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest,
      Lay down my soul at stake: if you think other,
15    Remove your thought; it doth abuse your bosom.
      If any wretch have 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
20    Is foul as slander.
OTHELLO
      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
25    And yet she'll kneel and pray; I have seen her do't.
Enter DESDEMONA with EMILIA
DESDEMONA
      My lord, what is your will?
OTHELLO
      Pray, chuck, come hither.
DESDEMONA
      What is your pleasure?
OTHELLO
      Let me see your eyes;
30    Look in my face.
DESDEMONA
      What horrible fancy's this?
OTHELLO
      (To EMILIA) Some of your function, mistress;
      Leave procreants alone and shut the door;
      Cough, or cry 'hem,' if any body come:
35    Your mystery, your mystery: nay, dispatch.
Exit EMILIA
DESDEMONA
      Upon my knees, what doth your speech import?
      I understand a fury in your words.
      But not the words.
OTHELLO
      Why, what art thou?
DESDEMONA
40    Your wife, my lord; your true
      And loyal wife.
OTHELLO
      Come, swear it, damn thyself
      Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves
      Should fear to seize thee: therefore be double damn'd:
45    Swear thou art honest.
DESDEMONA
      Heaven doth truly know it.
OTHELLO
      Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell.
DESDEMONA
      To whom, my lord? with whom? how am I false?
OTHELLO
      O Desdemona! away! away! away!
DESDEMONA
50    Alas the heavy day! Why do you weep?
      Am I the motive of these tears, my lord?
      If haply you my father do suspect
      An instrument of this your calling back,
      Lay not your blame on me: If you have lost him,
55    Why, I have lost him too.
OTHELLO
      Had it pleased heaven
      To try me with affliction; had they rain'd
      All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head.
      Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips,
60    Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes,
      I should have found in some place of my soul
      A drop of patience: but, alas, to make me
      A fixed figure for the time of scorn
      To point his slow unmoving finger at!
65    Yet could I bear that too; well, very well:
      But there, where I have garner'd 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!
70    Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads
      To knot and gender in! Turn thy complexion there,
      Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubin,--
      Ay, there, look grim as hell!
DESDEMONA
      I hope my noble lord esteems me honest.
OTHELLO
75    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!
DESDEMONA
80    Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed?
OTHELLO
      Was this fair paper, this most goodly book,
      Made to write 'whore' upon? What committed!
      Committed! O thou public commoner!
      I should make very forges of my cheeks,
85    That would to cinders burn up modesty,
      Did I but speak thy deeds. What committed!
      Heaven stops the nose at it and the moon winks,
      The bawdy wind that kisses all it meets
      Is hush'd within the hollow mine of earth,
90    And will not hear it. What committed!
      Impudent strumpet!
DESDEMONA
      By heaven, you do me wrong.
OTHELLO
      Are you not a strumpet?
DESDEMONA
      No, as I am a Christian:
95    If to preserve this vessel for my lord
      From any other foul unlawful touch
      Be not to be a strumpet, I am none.
OTHELLO
      What, not a whore?
DESDEMONA
      No, as I shall be saved.
OTHELLO
100   Is't possible?
DESDEMONA
      O, heaven forgive us!
OTHELLO
      I cry you mercy, then:
      I took you for that cunning whore of Venice
      That married with Othello.

Raising his voice

105   You, mistress,
      That have the office opposite to Saint Peter,
      And keep the gate of hell!

Re-enter EMILIA

      You, you, ay, you!
      We have done our course; there's money for your pains:
110   I pray you, turn the key and keep our counsel.
Exit
EMILIA
      Alas, what does this gentleman conceive?
      How do you, madam? how do you, my good lady?
DESDEMONA
      'Faith, half asleep.
EMILIA
      Good madam, what's the matter with my lord?
DESDEMONA
115   With who?
EMILIA
      Why, with my lord, madam.
DESDEMONA
      Who is thy lord?
EMILIA
      He that is yours, sweet lady.
DESDEMONA
      I have none: do not talk to me, Emilia;
120   I cannot weep; nor answer have I none,
      But what should go by water. Prithee, tonight
      Lay on my bed my wedding sheets: remember;
      And call thy husband hither.
EMILIA
      Here's a change indeed!
Exit
DESDEMONA
125   'Tis meet I should be used so, very meet.
      How have I been behaved, that he might stick
      The small'st opinion on my least misuse?
Re-enter EMILIA with IAGO
IAGO
      What is your pleasure, madam?
      How is't with you?
DESDEMONA
130   I cannot tell. Those that do teach young babes
      Do it with gentle means and easy tasks:
      He might have chid me so; for, in good faith,
      I am a child to chiding.
IAGO
      What's the matter, lady?
EMILIA
135   Alas, Iago, my lord hath so bewhored her.
      Thrown such despite and heavy terms upon her,
      As true hearts cannot bear.
DESDEMONA
      Am I that name, Iago?
IAGO
      What name, fair lady?
DESDEMONA
140   Such as she says my lord did say I was.
EMILIA
      He call'd her whore: a beggar in his drink
      Could not have laid such terms upon his callat.
IAGO
      Why did he so?
DESDEMONA
      I do not know; I am sure I am none such.
IAGO
145   Do not weep, do not weep. Alas the day!
EMILIA
      Hath she forsook so many noble matches,
      Her father and her country and her friends,
      To be call'd whore? would it not make one weep?
DESDEMONA
      It is my wretched fortune.
IAGO
150   Beshrew him for't!
      How comes this trick upon him?
DESDEMONA
      Nay, heaven doth know.
EMILIA
      I will be hang'd, if some eternal villain,
      Some busy and insinuating rogue,
155   Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office,
      Have not devised this slander; I'll be hang'd else.
IAGO
      Fie, there is no such man; it is impossible.
DESDEMONA
      If any such there be, heaven pardon him!
EMILIA
      A halter pardon him! and hell gnaw his bones!
160   Why should he call her whore? who keeps her company?
      What place? what time? what form? what likelihood?
      The Moor's abused by some most villanous knave,
      Some base notorious knave, some scurvy fellow.
      O heaven, that such companions thou'ldst unfold,
165   And put in every honest hand a whip
      To lash the rascals naked through the world
      Even from the east to the west!
IAGO
      Speak within door.
EMILIA
      O, fie upon them! Some such squire he was
170   That turn'd your wit the seamy side without,
      And made you to suspect me with the Moor.
IAGO
      You are a fool; go to.
DESDEMONA
      O good Iago,
      What shall I do to win my lord again?
175   Good friend, go to him; for, by this light of heaven,
      I know not how I lost him. Here I kneel:
      If e'er my will did trespass 'gainst his love,
      Either in discourse of thought or actual deed,
      Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any sense,
180   Delighted them in any other form;
      Or that I do not yet, and ever did.
      And ever will--though he do shake me off
      To beggarly divorcement--love him dearly,
      Comfort forswear me! Unkindness may do much;
185   And his unkindness may defeat my life,
      But never taint my love. I cannot say 'whore:'
      It does abhor me now I speak the word;
      To do the act that might the addition earn
      Not the world's mass of vanity could make me.
IAGO
190   I pray you, be content; 'tis but his humour:
      The business of the state does him offence,
      And he does chide with you.
DESDEMONA
      If 'twere no other--
IAGO
      'Tis but so, I warrant.

Trumpets within

195   Hark, how these instruments summon to supper!
      The messengers of Venice stay the meat;
      Go in, and weep not; all things shall be well.

Exeunt DESDEMONA and EMILIA

Enter RODERIGO

      How now, Roderigo!
RODERIGO
      I do not find that thou dealest justly with me.
IAGO
200   What in the contrary?
RODERIGO
      Every day thou daffest me with some device, Iago;
      and rather, as it seems to me now, keepest from me
      all conveniency than suppliest me with the least
      advantage of hope. I will indeed no longer endure
205   it, nor am I yet persuaded to put up in peace what
      already I have foolishly suffered.
IAGO
      Will you hear me, Roderigo?
RODERIGO
      'Faith, I have heard too much, for your words and
      performances are no kin together.
IAGO
210   You charge me most unjustly.
RODERIGO
      With nought but truth. I have wasted myself out of
      my means. The jewels you have had from me to
      deliver to Desdemona would half have corrupted a
      votarist: you have told me she hath received them
215   and returned me expectations and comforts of sudden
      respect and acquaintance, but I find none.
IAGO
      Well; go to; very well.
RODERIGO
      Very well! go to! I cannot go to, man; nor 'tis
      not very well: nay, I think it is scurvy, and begin
220   to find myself fobbed in it.
IAGO
      Very well.
RODERIGO
      I tell you 'tis not very well. I will make myself
      known to Desdemona: if she will return me my
      jewels, I will give over my suit and repent my
225   unlawful solicitation; if not, assure yourself I
      will seek satisfaction of you.
IAGO
      You have said now.
RODERIGO
      Ay, and said nothing but what I protest intendment of doing.
IAGO
      Why, now I see there's mettle in thee, and even from
230   this instant to build on thee a better opinion than
      ever before. Give me thy hand, Roderigo: thou hast
      taken against me a most just exception; but yet, I
      protest, I have dealt most directly in thy affair.
RODERIGO
      It hath not appeared.
IAGO
235   I grant indeed it hath not appeared, and your
      suspicion is not without wit and judgment. But,
      Roderigo, if thou hast that in thee indeed, which I
      have greater reason to believe now than ever, I mean
      purpose, courage and valour, this night show it: if
240   thou the next night following enjoy not Desdemona,
      take me from this world with treachery and devise
      engines for my life.
RODERIGO
      Well, what is it? is it within reason and compass?
IAGO
      Sir, there is especial commission come from Venice
245   to depute Cassio in Othello's place.
RODERIGO
      Is that true? why, then Othello and Desdemona
      return again to Venice.
IAGO
      O, no; he goes into Mauritania and takes away with
      him the fair Desdemona, unless his abode be
250   lingered here by some accident: wherein none can be
      so determinate as the removing of Cassio.
RODERIGO
      How do you mean, removing of him?
IAGO
      Why, by making him uncapable of Othello's place;
      knocking out his brains.
RODERIGO
255   And that you would have me to do?
IAGO
      Ay, if you dare do yourself a profit and a right.
      He sups to-night with a harlotry, and thither will I
      go to him: he knows not yet of his horrorable
      fortune. If you will watch his going thence, which
260   I will fashion to fall out between twelve and one,
      you may take him at your pleasure: I will be near
      to second your attempt, and he shall fall between
      us. Come, stand not amazed at it, but go along with
      me; I will show you such a necessity in his death
265   that you shall think yourself bound to put it on
      him. It is now high suppertime, and the night grows
      to waste: about it.
RODERIGO
      I will hear further reason for this.
IAGO
      And you shall be satisfied.
Exeunt
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