Reading Help THE TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO, MOOR OF VENICE
Cried, "Cursed fate that gave thee to the Moor!" `
` OTHELLO. O monstrous! monstrous! `
` IAGO. Nay, this was but his dream. `
` OTHELLO. But this denoted a foregone conclusion. `
` 'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream. `
` IAGO. And this may help to thicken other proofs `
` That do demonstrate thinly. `
` OTHELLO. I'll tear her all to pieces. `
` IAGO. Nay, but be wise; yet we see nothing done; `
` She may be honest yet. Tell me but this; `
` Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief `
` Spotted with strawberries in your wife's hand? `
` OTHELLO. I gave her such a one; 'twas my first gift. `
` IAGO. I know not that; but such a handkerchief- `
` I am sure it was your wife's- did I today `
` See Cassio wipe his beard with. `
` OTHELLO. If it be that- `
` IAGO. If it be that, or any that was hers, `
` It speaks against her with the other proofs. `
` OTHELLO. O, that the slave had forty thousand lives! `
` One is too poor, too weak for my revenge. `
` Now do I see 'tis true. Look here, Iago, `
` All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven. `
` 'Tis gone. `
` Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow hell! `
` Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne `
` To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught, `
` For 'tis of aspics' tongues! `
` IAGO. Yet be content. `
` OTHELLO. O, blood, blood, blood! `
` IAGO. Patience, I say; your mind perhaps may change. `
` OTHELLO. Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic Sea, `
` Whose icy current and compulsive course `
` Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on `
` `
` To the Propontic and the Hellespont, `
` Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace, `
` Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love, `
` Till that a capable and wide revenge `
` Swallow them up. Now, by yond marble heaven, `
` In the due reverence of a sacred vow `
` Kneels. `
` I here engage my words. `
` IAGO. Do not rise yet. `
` Kneels. `
` Witness, you ever-burning lights above, `
` You elements that clip us round about, `
` Witness that here Iago doth give up `
` The execution of his wit, hands, heart, `
` To wrong'd Othello's service! Let him command, `
` And to obey shall be in me remorse, `
` What bloody business ever. They `
` rise. `
` OTHELLO. I greet thy love, `
` Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous, `
` And will upon the instant put thee to't: `
` Within these three days let me hear thee say `
` That Cassio's not alive. `
` IAGO. My friend is dead, 'tis done at your request; `
` But let her live. `
` OTHELLO. Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her! `
` Come, go with me apart; I will withdraw, `
` To furnish me with some swift means of death `
` For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant. `
` IAGO. I am your own forever. `
` Exeunt. `
` `
` `
` `
` `
` SCENE IV. `
` Before the castle. `
` `
` Enter Desdemona, Emilia, and Clown. `
` `
` DESDEMONA. Do you know, sirrah, where Lieutenant Cassio lies? `
` CLOWN. I dare not say he lies anywhere. `
` DESDEMONA. Why, man? `
` CLOWN. He's a soldier; and for one to say a soldier lies, is `
` stabbing. `
` DESDEMONA. Go to! Where lodges he? `
` CLOWN. To tell you where he lodges, is to tell you where I lie. `
` DESDEMONA. Can anything be made of this? `
` CLOWN. 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 mine `
` own `
` throat. `
` DESDEMONA. Can you inquire him out and be edified by report? `
` CLOWN. I will catechize the world for him; that is, make `
` questions `
` and by them answer. `
` DESDEMONA. Seek him, bid him come hither. Tell him I have moved `
` my `
` lord on his behalf and hope all will be well. `
` CLOWN. To do this is within the compass of man's wit, and `
` therefore `
` I will attempt the doing it. `
` Exit. `
` DESDEMONA. Where should I lose that handkerchief, Emilia? `
` EMILIA. I know not, madam. `
` DESDEMONA. Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse `
` Full of crusadoes; and, but my noble Moor `
` Is true of mind and made of no such baseness `
` As jealous creatures are, it were enough `
` To put him to ill thinking. `
` EMILIA. Is he not jealous? `
` DESDEMONA. Who, he? I think the sun where he was born `
` Drew all such humors from him. `
` EMILIA. Look, where he comes. `
` DESDEMONA. I will not leave him now till Cassio `
` Be call'd to him. `
` `
` Enter Othello. `
` `
` How is't with you, my lord? `
` OTHELLO. Well, my good lady. [Aside.] O, hardness to dissemble! `
` How do you, Desdemona? `
` DESDEMONA. Well, my good lord. `
` OTHELLO. Give me your hand. This hand is moist, my lady. `
` DESDEMONA. It yet has felt no age nor known no sorrow. `
` OTHELLO. 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. `
` DESDEMONA. You may, indeed, say so; `
` For 'twas that hand that gave away my heart. `
` OTHELLO. A liberal hand. The hearts of old gave hands; `
` But our new heraldry is hands, not hearts. `
` DESDEMONA. I cannot speak of this. Come now, your promise. `
` OTHELLO. What promise, chuck? `
` DESDEMONA. I have sent to bid Cassio come speak with you. `
` OTHELLO. I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me; `
` Lend me thy handkerchief. `
` DESDEMONA. Here, my lord. `
` OTHELLO. That which I gave you. `
` DESDEMONA. I have it not about me. `
` OTHELLO. Not? `
` DESDEMONA. No, faith, my lord. `
` OTHELLO. That's a fault. That handkerchief `
` Did an Egyptian to my mother give; `
` She was a charmer, and could almost read `
` The thoughts of people. She told her, while she kept it, `
` 'Twould make her amiable and subdue my father `
` Entirely to her love, but if she lost it `
` Or made a gift of it, my father's eye `
` Should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt `
` After new fancies. She dying gave it me, `
` And bid me, when my fate would have me wive, `
` To give it her. I did so, and take heed on't; `
` Make it a darling like your precious eye; `
` To lose't or give't away were such perdition `
` As nothing else could match. `
` DESDEMONA. Is't possible? `
` OTHELLO. 'Tis true; there's magic in the web of it. `
` A sibyl, that had number'd in the world `
` The sun to course two hundred compasses, `
` In her prophetic fury sew'd the work; `
` The worms were hallow'd that did breed the silk, `
` And it was dyed in mummy which the skillful `
` Conserved of maiden's hearts. `
` DESDEMONA. Indeed! is't true? `
` OTHELLO. Most veritable; therefore look to't well. `
` DESDEMONA. Then would to God that I had never seen't! `
` OTHELLO. Ha! wherefore? `
` DESDEMONA. Why do you speak so startingly and rash? `
` OTHELLO. Is't lost? is't gone? speak, is it out o' the way? `
` DESDEMONA. Heaven bless us! `
` OTHELLO. Say you? `
` DESDEMONA. It is not lost; but what an if it were? `
` OTHELLO. How? `
` DESDEMONA. I say, it is not lost. `
` OTHELLO. Fetch't, let me see it. `
` DESDEMONA. Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now. `
` This is a trick to put me from my suit. `
` Pray you, let Cassio be received again. `
` OTHELLO. Fetch me the handkerchief, my mind misgives. `
` DESDEMONA. Come, come, `
` You'll never meet a more sufficient man. `
` OTHELLO. The handkerchief! `
` DESDEMONA. I pray, talk me of Cassio. `
` OTHELLO. The handkerchief! `
` DESDEMONA. A man that all his time `
` Hath founded his good fortunes on your love, `
` Shared dangers with you- `
` OTHELLO. The handkerchief! `
` DESDEMONA. In sooth, you are to blame. `
` OTHELLO. Away! `
` Exit. `
` EMILIA. Is not this man jealous? `
` DESDEMONA. I ne'er saw this before. `
` Sure there's some wonder in this handkerchief; `
` I am most unhappy in the loss of it. `
` EMILIA. 'Tis not a year or two shows us a man. `
` They are all but stomachs and we all but food; `
` They eat us hungerly, and when they are full `
` They belch us. Look you! Cassio and my husband. `
` `
`
` OTHELLO. O monstrous! monstrous! `
` IAGO. Nay, this was but his dream. `
` OTHELLO. But this denoted a foregone conclusion. `
` 'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream. `
` IAGO. And this may help to thicken other proofs `
` That do demonstrate thinly. `
` OTHELLO. I'll tear her all to pieces. `
` IAGO. Nay, but be wise; yet we see nothing done; `
` She may be honest yet. Tell me but this; `
` Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief `
` Spotted with strawberries in your wife's hand? `
` OTHELLO. I gave her such a one; 'twas my first gift. `
` IAGO. I know not that; but such a handkerchief- `
` I am sure it was your wife's- did I today `
` See Cassio wipe his beard with. `
` OTHELLO. If it be that- `
` IAGO. If it be that, or any that was hers, `
` It speaks against her with the other proofs. `
` OTHELLO. O, that the slave had forty thousand lives! `
` One is too poor, too weak for my revenge. `
` Now do I see 'tis true. Look here, Iago, `
` All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven. `
` 'Tis gone. `
` Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow hell! `
` Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne `
` To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught, `
` For 'tis of aspics' tongues! `
` IAGO. Yet be content. `
` OTHELLO. O, blood, blood, blood! `
` IAGO. Patience, I say; your mind perhaps may change. `
` OTHELLO. Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic Sea, `
` Whose icy current and compulsive course `
` Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on `
` `
` To the Propontic and the Hellespont, `
` Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace, `
` Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love, `
` Till that a capable and wide revenge `
` Swallow them up. Now, by yond marble heaven, `
` In the due reverence of a sacred vow `
` Kneels. `
` I here engage my words. `
` IAGO. Do not rise yet. `
` Kneels. `
` Witness, you ever-burning lights above, `
` You elements that clip us round about, `
` Witness that here Iago doth give up `
` The execution of his wit, hands, heart, `
` To wrong'd Othello's service! Let him command, `
` And to obey shall be in me remorse, `
` What bloody business ever. They `
` rise. `
` OTHELLO. I greet thy love, `
` Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous, `
` And will upon the instant put thee to't: `
` Within these three days let me hear thee say `
` That Cassio's not alive. `
` IAGO. My friend is dead, 'tis done at your request; `
` But let her live. `
` OTHELLO. Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her! `
` Come, go with me apart; I will withdraw, `
` To furnish me with some swift means of death `
` For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant. `
` IAGO. I am your own forever. `
` Exeunt. `
` `
` `
` `
` `
` SCENE IV. `
` Before the castle. `
` `
` Enter Desdemona, Emilia, and Clown. `
` `
` DESDEMONA. Do you know, sirrah, where Lieutenant Cassio lies? `
` CLOWN. I dare not say he lies anywhere. `
` DESDEMONA. Why, man? `
` CLOWN. He's a soldier; and for one to say a soldier lies, is `
` stabbing. `
` DESDEMONA. Go to! Where lodges he? `
` CLOWN. To tell you where he lodges, is to tell you where I lie. `
` DESDEMONA. Can anything be made of this? `
` CLOWN. 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 mine `
` own `
` throat. `
` DESDEMONA. Can you inquire him out and be edified by report? `
` CLOWN. I will catechize the world for him; that is, make `
` questions `
` and by them answer. `
` DESDEMONA. Seek him, bid him come hither. Tell him I have moved `
` my `
` lord on his behalf and hope all will be well. `
` CLOWN. To do this is within the compass of man's wit, and `
` therefore `
` I will attempt the doing it. `
` Exit. `
` DESDEMONA. Where should I lose that handkerchief, Emilia? `
` EMILIA. I know not, madam. `
` DESDEMONA. Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse `
` Full of crusadoes; and, but my noble Moor `
` Is true of mind and made of no such baseness `
` As jealous creatures are, it were enough `
` To put him to ill thinking. `
` EMILIA. Is he not jealous? `
` DESDEMONA. Who, he? I think the sun where he was born `
` Drew all such humors from him. `
` EMILIA. Look, where he comes. `
` DESDEMONA. I will not leave him now till Cassio `
` Be call'd to him. `
` `
` Enter Othello. `
` `
` How is't with you, my lord? `
` OTHELLO. Well, my good lady. [Aside.] O, hardness to dissemble! `
` How do you, Desdemona? `
` DESDEMONA. Well, my good lord. `
` OTHELLO. Give me your hand. This hand is moist, my lady. `
` DESDEMONA. It yet has felt no age nor known no sorrow. `
` OTHELLO. 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. `
` DESDEMONA. You may, indeed, say so; `
` For 'twas that hand that gave away my heart. `
` OTHELLO. A liberal hand. The hearts of old gave hands; `
` But our new heraldry is hands, not hearts. `
` DESDEMONA. I cannot speak of this. Come now, your promise. `
` OTHELLO. What promise, chuck? `
` DESDEMONA. I have sent to bid Cassio come speak with you. `
` OTHELLO. I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me; `
` Lend me thy handkerchief. `
` DESDEMONA. Here, my lord. `
` OTHELLO. That which I gave you. `
` DESDEMONA. I have it not about me. `
` OTHELLO. Not? `
` DESDEMONA. No, faith, my lord. `
` OTHELLO. That's a fault. That handkerchief `
` Did an Egyptian to my mother give; `
` She was a charmer, and could almost read `
` The thoughts of people. She told her, while she kept it, `
` 'Twould make her amiable and subdue my father `
` Entirely to her love, but if she lost it `
` Or made a gift of it, my father's eye `
` Should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt `
` After new fancies. She dying gave it me, `
` And bid me, when my fate would have me wive, `
` To give it her. I did so, and take heed on't; `
` Make it a darling like your precious eye; `
` To lose't or give't away were such perdition `
` As nothing else could match. `
` DESDEMONA. Is't possible? `
` OTHELLO. 'Tis true; there's magic in the web of it. `
` A sibyl, that had number'd in the world `
` The sun to course two hundred compasses, `
` In her prophetic fury sew'd the work; `
` The worms were hallow'd that did breed the silk, `
` And it was dyed in mummy which the skillful `
` Conserved of maiden's hearts. `
` DESDEMONA. Indeed! is't true? `
` OTHELLO. Most veritable; therefore look to't well. `
` DESDEMONA. Then would to God that I had never seen't! `
` OTHELLO. Ha! wherefore? `
` DESDEMONA. Why do you speak so startingly and rash? `
` OTHELLO. Is't lost? is't gone? speak, is it out o' the way? `
` DESDEMONA. Heaven bless us! `
` OTHELLO. Say you? `
` DESDEMONA. It is not lost; but what an if it were? `
` OTHELLO. How? `
` DESDEMONA. I say, it is not lost. `
` OTHELLO. Fetch't, let me see it. `
` DESDEMONA. Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now. `
` This is a trick to put me from my suit. `
` Pray you, let Cassio be received again. `
` OTHELLO. Fetch me the handkerchief, my mind misgives. `
` DESDEMONA. Come, come, `
` You'll never meet a more sufficient man. `
` OTHELLO. The handkerchief! `
` DESDEMONA. I pray, talk me of Cassio. `
` OTHELLO. The handkerchief! `
` DESDEMONA. A man that all his time `
` Hath founded his good fortunes on your love, `
` Shared dangers with you- `
` OTHELLO. The handkerchief! `
` DESDEMONA. In sooth, you are to blame. `
` OTHELLO. Away! `
` Exit. `
` EMILIA. Is not this man jealous? `
` DESDEMONA. I ne'er saw this before. `
` Sure there's some wonder in this handkerchief; `
` I am most unhappy in the loss of it. `
` EMILIA. 'Tis not a year or two shows us a man. `
` They are all but stomachs and we all but food; `
` They eat us hungerly, and when they are full `
` They belch us. Look you! Cassio and my husband. `
` `
`