I hope you will consider what is spoke

Comes from my love :-But, I do see you are mov'd :-
I am to pray you not to strain my speech

To grosser issues, nor to larger reach,

Than to suspicion.

ОTн. I will not.

IAGO.

Should you do so, my lord,

My speech should fall into such vile success

Which my thoughts aim'd not. Cassio's my worthy friend :— My lord, I see you are mov'd.

Отн.

No, not much mov'd:

I do not think but Desdemona 's honest.

IAGO. Long live she so! and long live you to think so! Отн. And yet, how nature erring from itself,—

IAGO. Ay, there's the point:-As,-to be bold with

you,

Not to affect many proposed matches

Of her own clime, complexion, and degree ;-
Whereto, we see, in all things nature tends:
Foh! one may smell in such a will most rank,
Foul disproportions, thoughts unnatural,-
But, pardon me: I do not in position
Distinctly speak of her: though I may fear,
Her will, recoiling to her better judgment,
May fall to match you with her country forms,
And, happily, repent.

Отн.

Farewell, farewell:

If more thou dost perceive let me know more ;
Set on thy wife to observe: Leave me, Iago.

IAGO. My lord, I take my leave.

[Going.

OTH. Why did I marry?—This honest creature, doubtless,

Sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds.

IAGO. My lord, I would I might entreat your honour

To scan this thing no farther; leave it to time:
Although 't is 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 mean time,
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.
ОTH. Fear not my government.
IAGO. I once more take my leave.

ОTH. This fellow's of exceeding honesty,
And knows all qualities, with a learned 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 declin'd
Into the vale of years;-yet that's not much ;-
She's gone; I am abus'd; and my relief
Must be to loathe 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 other's uses. Yet 't is the plague of great ones;
Prerogativ'd are they less than the base;

'Tis destiny unshunnable, like death;

Even then this forked plague is fated to us,
When we do quicken. Look, where she comes:

Enter DESDEMONA and EMILIA.

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

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.

Are you not well?

Why do you speak so faintly?

ОтH. I have a pain upon my forehead here.

{Exit

DES. Why, that's with watching; 't will away again:

Let me but bind it hard, within this hour

[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 DESD.

EMIL. I am glad I have found this napkin;
This was her first remembrance from the Moor:
My wayward husband hath a hundred times
Woo'd me to steal it: but she so loves the token,
(For he conjur'd her she should 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 't Iago.

What he will do with it heaven knows, not I.

I nothing, but to please his fantasy.

Enter IAGO.

IAGO. How now! what do you here alone?
EMIL. Do not you chide; I have a thing for you.
IAGO. A thing for me?—it is a common thing—
EMIL. Ha!

IAGO. To have a foolish wife.

EMIL. O, is that all? What will you give me now For that same handkerchief?

IAGO.

EMIL. What handkerchief?

What handkerchief?

Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona ;
That which so often you did bid me steal.

IAGO. Hast stolen it from her?

EMIL. No; but she let it drop by negligence: And, to the advantage, I, being here, took 't up. Look, here it is.

IAGO.

A good wench; give it me.

EMIL. What will you do with 't, that you have been so

earnest

To have me filch it?

IAGO. Why, what's that to you? [Snatching it. EMIL. If it be not for some purpose of import, Give 't me again: Poor lady! she 'll run mad When she shall lack it.

IAGO. Be not acknown on 't; I have use for it. Go, leave me.

I will in Cassio's lodging lose this napkin,

[Exit EMILIA

And let him find it. Trifles, light as air,
Are to the jealous confirmations strong
As proofs of holy writ. This may do something.
The Moor already changes with my poison:
Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons,
Which, at the first, are scarce found to distaste;
But, with a little act upon the blood,
Burn like the mines of sulphur.—I did say so-
Look, where he comes! Not poppy, nor mandragora.
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou ow'dst yesterday.

Отн.

Enter OTHELLO.

Ha ha! false to me?

IAGO. Why, how now, general? no more of that.

ОTH. Avaunt! be gone! thou hast set me on the rack. I swear, 't is better to be much abus'd,

Than but to know 't a little.

IAGO.

How now, my lord?

Отн. What sense had I of her stolen hours of lust? I saw 't not, thought it not, it harm'd not me:

I slept the next night well, fed well, was free and merry ; I found not Cassio's kisses on her lips:

He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stolen,

Let him not know 't, and he 's not robb'd at all.
IAGO. I am sorry to hear this.

OTн. 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 plumed troops, 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 't possible, my lord?

ОTH. 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 wak'd wrath.

IAGO.

Is 't come to this?

Oтн. Make me see 't; or, at the least, so prove it, That the probation bear no hinge, nor loop,

To hang a doubt on: or woe upon thy life!

IAGO. My noble lord,

ОTH. If thou dost slander her, and torture me, Never pray more: abandon all remorse;

On horror's head horrors accumulate:

Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amaz'd,
For nothing canst thou to damnation add,
Greater than that.

IAGO.

O grace ! O heaven forgive me!
Are you a man? have you a soul, or sense ?—
God be wi' you; take mine office.-O wretched foo.
That lov'st to make thine honesty a vice!-

O monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world,
To be direct and honest is not safe.

I thank you for this profit; and, from hence,
I'll love no friend, sith love breeds such offence.
Отн. 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,

Отн.
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: My name, that was as fresh
As Dian's visage, is now begrim'd and black
As mine own face. If there be cords, or knives,
Poison, or fire, or suffocating streams,

I'll not endure it.-Would I were satisfied!