Is free of speech; sings, plays, and dances well:
Where virtue is, these are more virtuous.
Nor from mine own weak merits will I draw
The smallest fear or doubt of her revolt:
For she had eyes, and chose me. No, Iago:
I'll see before I doubt; when I doubt, prove:
And, on the proof, there is no more but this,—
Away at once with love or jealousy.

Iago. I am glad of this; for now I shall have

reason

To shew the love and duty that I bear you
With franker spirit: therefore, as I am bound,
Receive it from me :-I speak not yet of proof:
Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio:
Wear your eye thus,-not jealous, nor secure.
I would not have your free and noble nature,
Out of self-bounty, be abused: look to 't.
I know our country disposition well :

In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks They dare not shew their husbands: their best conscience

Is not to leave undone, but keep unknown.
Oth. Dost thou say so?

Iago. She did deceive her father, marrying you; And when she seemed to shake and fear your looks, She loved them most.

[Exit.

To scan this thing no further: leave it to time.
And though it be fit that Cassio have his place
(For sure he fills it up with great ability),
Yet if you please to hold him off awhile,
You shall by that perceive him and his means.
Note, if your lady strain his entertainment
With any strong or vehement importunity :
Much will be seen in that. In the meantime,
Let me be thought too busy in my fears
(As worthy cause I have to fear I am),
And hold her free, I do beseech your honour.
Oth. Fear not my government.
Iago. I once more take my leave.
Oth. This fellow's of exceeding honesty,
And knows all qualities, with a learnéd spirit,
Of human dealings.-If I do prove her haggard,
Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings,
I'd 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 declined
Into the vale of years;-yet that's not much :-
She's gone; I am abused; and my relief
Must be to loath her. O curse of marriage,
That we can call these delicate creatures ours,
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;
Prerogatived are they less than the base:
'Tis destiny unshunnable, like death:
Even then this forkéd plague is fated to us,
When we do quicken.-Desdemona comes:

Enter DESDEMONA and EMILIA.

If she be false, O then heaven mocks itself!-I'll not believe it.

Des. How now, my dear Othello?

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

Des. Why is your speech so faint? are you not well?

Oth. I have a pain upon my forehead here. Des. Faith, that 's with watching; 't will away again :

Let me but bind it hard, within this hour
It will be well.

Oth.

Your napkin is too little :

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

Let it alone. Come, I'll go 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 : This was her first remembrance from the Moor. My wayward husband hath a hundred times Wooed me to steal it; but she so loves the token (For he conjúred her she would 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 it Iago:

What he 'll do with it, heaven knows, not I;
I nothing, but to please his fantasy.

I saw it not, thought it not, it harmed not me:
I slept the next night well, was free and merry:
I found not Cassio's kisses on her lips.

He that is robbed, not wanting what is stolen,
Let him not know it, and he 's not robbed at all,
Iago. I am sorry to hear this.

Oth. I had been happy if the general camp, Pioneers and all, had tasted her sweet body, So I had nothing known.-O now, for ever, Farewell the tranquil mind: farewell content! Farewell the pluméd 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 it possible? My lord,—

Oth. Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore :

Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof;
[Taking him by the throat.
Or, by the worth of mine eternal soul,
Thou hadst been better have been born a dog,
Than answer my waked wrath.

On horror's head horrors accumulate :
Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed:
For nothing canst thou to damnation add
Greater than that!

Iago. O grace! O heaven defend me!
Are you a man? have you a soul or sense?-
God be with you: take mine office.-O wretched
fool,

That liv'st to make thine honesty a vice!-
O monstrous world! Take note, take note, world,
To be direct and honest is not safe.-

I thank you for this profit; and from hence
I'll love no friend, since love breeds such offence.
Oth. Nay, stay.-Thou shouldst be honest.
Iago. I should be wise; for honesty's a fool,
And loses that it works for.
By the world,

Oth

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 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 it.
Oth. Give me a living reason she's disloyal.
Iago. I do not like the office:

But sith I am entered in this cause so far,
Pricked to it 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 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!"
And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my hand,
Cry,-"O, sweet creature!" and then kiss me hard,
As if he plucked up kisses by the roots,
That grew upon my lips: then laid his leg
Over my thigh, and sighed and kissed; and then
Cried,-"Cursed fate, that gave thee to the Moor!"
Oth. O monstrous! monstrous!
Iago. Nay, this was but his dream.
Oth. But this denoted a foregone conclusion.
Iago. "T is a shrewd doubt, though it be but a
dream:

And this may help to thicken other proofs,
That do demonstrate thinly.

Iago. If it be that, or any that was her's,
It speaks against her with the other proofs.
Oth. O, that the slave had forty thousand lives:
One is too poor, too weak for my revenge!
Now do I see 't is true.-Look here, Iago;
All my fond love thus I do blow to heaven:
'Tis gone.-

Arise, black vengeance, from the hollow hell !
Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne,
To tyrannous hate ! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught,
For 't is of aspics' tongues!
Iago. Pray, be content.
Oth.

O, blood, Iago, blood!

Iago. Patience, I say: your mind, perhaps, may change.

Oth. Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic sea, Whose icy current and compulsive course

SCENE IV.-The same.

[Exeunt.

Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, and Clown. Des. Do you know, sirrah, where Lieutenant Cassio lies?

Clo. I dare not say he lies any where.
Des. Why, man?

Clo. He is a soldier; and for me to say a soldier lies, is stabbing.

Des. Go to: where lodges he!

Clo. To tell you where he lodges, is to tell you where I lie.

Des. Can anything be made of this?

Clo. I know not where he lodges; and for me to devise a lodging, and say he lies here, or he lies there, were to lie in my own throat.

Des. Can you inquire him out, and be edified by report ?

Clo. I will catechise the world for him: that is, make questions, and by them answer.

Des. Seek him; bid him come hither: tell him I have moved my lord in his behalf, and hope all will be well.

Clo. To do this is within the compass of man's wit; and therefore I will attempt the doing it. [Exit.

Oth. Well, my good lady :-[Aside] O, hardness to dissemble !--

How do you, Desdemona?
Des. Well, my good lord.

Oth. Give me your hand. - This hand is moist, my lady.

Des. It yet has felt no age, nor known no sorrow. Oth. This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart: Hot, hot, and moist. This hand of yours requires A sequester from liberty, fasting and prayer, Much castigation, exercise devout:

For here's a young and sweating devil here,
That commonly rebels. "Tis a good hand;
A frank one.

Des. Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now: This is a trick to put me from my suit.

I pray, let Cassio be received again.

Oth. Fetch me that handkerchief.-My mind misgives.

Des. Come, come:

You'll never meet a more sufficient man.

Oth. The handkerchief!

Hath founded his good fortune on your love; Shared dangers with you;—

Sure there's some wonder in this handkerchief: I am most unhappy in the loss of it.

Emil. 'Tis not a year or two shews us a man: They are all but stomachs, and we all but food: They eat us hungrily, and when they are full, They belch us.-Look you! Cassio and my husband.

Enter IAGO and CASSIO.

Iago. There is no other way; 't is she must do 't: And lo, the happiness! Go, and importune her.