Reading Help THE TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO, MOOR OF VENICE
Enter Cassio. `
` `
` How now, Cassio! `
` CASSIO. What's the matter? `
` IAGO. My lord is fall'n into an epilepsy. `
` This is his second fit; he had one yesterday. `
` CASSIO. Rub him about the temples. `
` IAGO. No, forbear; `
` The lethargy must have his quiet course. `
` If not, he foams at mouth, and by and by `
` Breaks out to savage madness. Look, he stirs. `
` Do you withdraw yourself a little while, `
` He will recover straight. When he is gone, `
` I would on great occasion speak with you. Exit `
` Cassio. `
` How is it, general? Have you not hurt your head? `
` OTHELLO. Dost thou mock me? `
` IAGO. I mock you? No, by heaven. `
` Would you would bear your fortune like a man! `
` OTHELLO. A horned man's a monster and a beast. `
` IAGO. There's many a beast then in a populous city, `
` And many a civil monster. `
` OTHELLO. Did he confess it? `
` IAGO. Good sir, be a man; `
` Think every bearded fellow that's but yoked `
` May draw with you. There's millions now alive `
` That nightly lie in those unproper beds `
` Which they dare swear peculiar. Your case is better. `
` O, 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock, `
` To lip a wanton in a secure couch, `
` And to suppose her chaste! No, let me know, `
` And knowing what I am, I know what she shall be. `
` OTHELLO. O, thou art wise; 'tis certain. `
` IAGO. Stand you awhile `
` apart, `
` Confine yourself but in a patient list. `
` Whilst you were here o'erwhelmed with your grief- `
` A passion most unsuiting such a man- `
` Cassio came hither. I shifted him away, `
` And laid good 'scuse upon your ecstasy; `
` Bade him anon return and here speak with me `
` The which he promised. Do but encave yourself `
` And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns, `
` That dwell in every region of his face; `
` For I will make him tell the tale anew, `
` Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when `
` He hath and is again to cope your wife. `
` I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience, `
` Or I shall say you are all in all in spleen, `
` And nothing of a man. `
` OTHELLO. Dost thou hear, Iago? `
` I will be found most cunning in my patience; `
` But (dost thou hear?) most bloody. `
` IAGO. That's not amiss; `
` But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw? `
` Othello `
` retires. `
` Now will I question Cassio of Bianca, `
` A housewife that by selling her desires `
` Buys herself bread and clothes. It is a creature `
` That dotes on Cassio, as 'tis 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. `
` `
` Re-enter Cassio. `
` `
` As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad; `
` And his unbookish jealousy must construe `
` Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures, and light behavior `
` Quite in the wrong. How do you now, lieutenant? `
` CASSIO. The worser that you give me the addition `
` Whose want even kills me. `
` IAGO. Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on't. `
` Now, if this suit lay in Bianco's power, `
` How quickly should you speed! `
` CASSIO. Alas, poor caitiff! `
` OTHELLO. Look, how he laughs already! `
` IAGO. I never knew a woman love man so. `
` CASSIO. Alas, poor rogue! I think, i'faith, she loves me. `
` OTHELLO. Now he denies it faintly and laughs it out. `
` IAGO. Do you hear, Cassio? `
` OTHELLO. Now he importunes him `
` To tell it o'er. Go to; well said, well said. `
` IAGO. She gives it out that you shall marry her. `
` Do you intend it? `
` CASSIO. Ha, ha, ha! `
` OTHELLO. Do you triumph, Roman? Do you triumph? `
` CASSIO. I marry her! What? A customer! I prithee, bear some `
` charity `
` to my wit; do not think it so unwholesome. Ha, ha, ha! `
` OTHELLO. So, so, so, so. They laugh that win. `
` IAGO. Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her. `
` CASSIO. Prithee, say true. `
` IAGO. I am a very villain else. `
` OTHELLO. Have you scored me? Well. `
` CASSIO. 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. `
` OTHELLO. Iago beckons me; now he begins the story. `
` CASSIO. 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 the bauble, and, by this hand, she falls me `
` thus `
` about my neck- `
` OTHELLO. Crying, "O dear Cassio!" as it were; his gesture `
` imports `
` it. `
` CASSIO. So hangs and lolls and weeps upon me; so hales and `
` pulls `
` me. Ha, ha, ha! `
` OTHELLO. Now he tells how she plucked him to my chamber. O, I `
` see `
` that nose of yours, but not that dog I shall throw it to. `
` CASSIO. Well, I must leave her company. `
` IAGO. Before me! look where she comes. `
` CASSIO. 'Tis such another fitchew! marry, a perfumed one. `
` `
` Enter Bianca. `
` `
` What do you mean by this haunting of me? `
` BIANCA. 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 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 hobbyhorse. Wheresoever you had it, I'll `
` take `
` out no work on't. `
` CASSIO. How now, my sweet Bianca! how now! how now! `
` OTHELLO. By heaven, that should be my handkerchief! `
` BIANCA. An you'll come to supper tonight, you may; an you will `
` not, `
` come when you are next prepared for. `
` Exit. `
` IAGO. After her, after her. `
` CASSIO. Faith, I must; she'll rail i' the street else. `
` IAGO. Will you sup there? `
` CASSIO. Faith, I intend so. `
` IAGO. Well, I may chance to see you, for I would very fain `
` speak `
` with you. `
` CASSIO. Prithee, come; will you? `
` IAGO. Go to; say no more. Exit `
` Cassio. `
` OTHELLO. [Advancing.] How shall I murther him, Iago? `
` IAGO. Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice? `
` OTHELLO. O Iago! `
` IAGO. And did you see the handkerchief? `
` OTHELLO. 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. `
` OTHELLO. I would have him nine years akilling. A fine woman! a `
` fair `
` woman! a sweet woman! `
` IAGO. Nay, you must forget that. `
` OTHELLO. Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be damned tonight, `
` 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. `
` OTHELLO. 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. `
` OTHELLO. O, a thousand, a thousand times. And then, of so `
` gentle a `
` condition! `
` IAGO. Ay, too gentle. `
` OTHELLO. Nay, that's certain. But yet the pity of it, Iago! `
` O Iago, 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. `
` OTHELLO. I will chop her into messes. Cuckold me! `
` IAGO. O, 'tis foul in her. `
` OTHELLO. With mine officer! `
` IAGO. That's fouler. `
` OTHELLO. 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. `
` OTHELLO. Good, good, the justice of it pleases, very good. `
` IAGO. And for Cassio, let me be his undertaker. You shall hear `
` more `
`
` `
` How now, Cassio! `
` CASSIO. What's the matter? `
` IAGO. My lord is fall'n into an epilepsy. `
` This is his second fit; he had one yesterday. `
` CASSIO. Rub him about the temples. `
` IAGO. No, forbear; `
` The lethargy must have his quiet course. `
` If not, he foams at mouth, and by and by `
` Breaks out to savage madness. Look, he stirs. `
` Do you withdraw yourself a little while, `
` He will recover straight. When he is gone, `
` I would on great occasion speak with you. Exit `
` Cassio. `
` How is it, general? Have you not hurt your head? `
` OTHELLO. Dost thou mock me? `
` IAGO. I mock you? No, by heaven. `
` Would you would bear your fortune like a man! `
` OTHELLO. A horned man's a monster and a beast. `
` IAGO. There's many a beast then in a populous city, `
` And many a civil monster. `
` OTHELLO. Did he confess it? `
` IAGO. Good sir, be a man; `
` Think every bearded fellow that's but yoked `
` May draw with you. There's millions now alive `
` That nightly lie in those unproper beds `
` Which they dare swear peculiar. Your case is better. `
` O, 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock, `
` To lip a wanton in a secure couch, `
` And to suppose her chaste! No, let me know, `
` And knowing what I am, I know what she shall be. `
` OTHELLO. O, thou art wise; 'tis certain. `
` IAGO. Stand you awhile `
` apart, `
` Confine yourself but in a patient list. `
` Whilst you were here o'erwhelmed with your grief- `
` A passion most unsuiting such a man- `
` Cassio came hither. I shifted him away, `
` And laid good 'scuse upon your ecstasy; `
` Bade him anon return and here speak with me `
` The which he promised. Do but encave yourself `
` And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns, `
` That dwell in every region of his face; `
` For I will make him tell the tale anew, `
` Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when `
` He hath and is again to cope your wife. `
` I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience, `
` Or I shall say you are all in all in spleen, `
` And nothing of a man. `
` OTHELLO. Dost thou hear, Iago? `
` I will be found most cunning in my patience; `
` But (dost thou hear?) most bloody. `
` IAGO. That's not amiss; `
` But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw? `
` Othello `
` retires. `
` Now will I question Cassio of Bianca, `
` A housewife that by selling her desires `
` Buys herself bread and clothes. It is a creature `
` That dotes on Cassio, as 'tis 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. `
` `
` Re-enter Cassio. `
` `
` As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad; `
` And his unbookish jealousy must construe `
` Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures, and light behavior `
` Quite in the wrong. How do you now, lieutenant? `
` CASSIO. The worser that you give me the addition `
` Whose want even kills me. `
` IAGO. Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on't. `
` Now, if this suit lay in Bianco's power, `
` How quickly should you speed! `
` CASSIO. Alas, poor caitiff! `
` OTHELLO. Look, how he laughs already! `
` IAGO. I never knew a woman love man so. `
` CASSIO. Alas, poor rogue! I think, i'faith, she loves me. `
` OTHELLO. Now he denies it faintly and laughs it out. `
` IAGO. Do you hear, Cassio? `
` OTHELLO. Now he importunes him `
` To tell it o'er. Go to; well said, well said. `
` IAGO. She gives it out that you shall marry her. `
` Do you intend it? `
` CASSIO. Ha, ha, ha! `
` OTHELLO. Do you triumph, Roman? Do you triumph? `
` CASSIO. I marry her! What? A customer! I prithee, bear some `
` charity `
` to my wit; do not think it so unwholesome. Ha, ha, ha! `
` OTHELLO. So, so, so, so. They laugh that win. `
` IAGO. Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her. `
` CASSIO. Prithee, say true. `
` IAGO. I am a very villain else. `
` OTHELLO. Have you scored me? Well. `
` CASSIO. 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. `
` OTHELLO. Iago beckons me; now he begins the story. `
` CASSIO. 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 the bauble, and, by this hand, she falls me `
` thus `
` about my neck- `
` OTHELLO. Crying, "O dear Cassio!" as it were; his gesture `
` imports `
` it. `
` CASSIO. So hangs and lolls and weeps upon me; so hales and `
` pulls `
` me. Ha, ha, ha! `
` OTHELLO. Now he tells how she plucked him to my chamber. O, I `
` see `
` that nose of yours, but not that dog I shall throw it to. `
` CASSIO. Well, I must leave her company. `
` IAGO. Before me! look where she comes. `
` CASSIO. 'Tis such another fitchew! marry, a perfumed one. `
` `
` Enter Bianca. `
` `
` What do you mean by this haunting of me? `
` BIANCA. 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 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 hobbyhorse. Wheresoever you had it, I'll `
` take `
` out no work on't. `
` CASSIO. How now, my sweet Bianca! how now! how now! `
` OTHELLO. By heaven, that should be my handkerchief! `
` BIANCA. An you'll come to supper tonight, you may; an you will `
` not, `
` come when you are next prepared for. `
` Exit. `
` IAGO. After her, after her. `
` CASSIO. Faith, I must; she'll rail i' the street else. `
` IAGO. Will you sup there? `
` CASSIO. Faith, I intend so. `
` IAGO. Well, I may chance to see you, for I would very fain `
` speak `
` with you. `
` CASSIO. Prithee, come; will you? `
` IAGO. Go to; say no more. Exit `
` Cassio. `
` OTHELLO. [Advancing.] How shall I murther him, Iago? `
` IAGO. Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice? `
` OTHELLO. O Iago! `
` IAGO. And did you see the handkerchief? `
` OTHELLO. 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. `
` OTHELLO. I would have him nine years akilling. A fine woman! a `
` fair `
` woman! a sweet woman! `
` IAGO. Nay, you must forget that. `
` OTHELLO. Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be damned tonight, `
` 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. `
` OTHELLO. 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. `
` OTHELLO. O, a thousand, a thousand times. And then, of so `
` gentle a `
` condition! `
` IAGO. Ay, too gentle. `
` OTHELLO. Nay, that's certain. But yet the pity of it, Iago! `
` O Iago, 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. `
` OTHELLO. I will chop her into messes. Cuckold me! `
` IAGO. O, 'tis foul in her. `
` OTHELLO. With mine officer! `
` IAGO. That's fouler. `
` OTHELLO. 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. `
` OTHELLO. Good, good, the justice of it pleases, very good. `
` IAGO. And for Cassio, let me be his undertaker. You shall hear `
` more `
`