Puslapio vaizdai
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Will you go on, I pray!-[Aside.]-This is the night

That either makes me or foredoes me quite.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II-A Bedchamber. DESDEMONA in bed, asleep. A light burning.

Enter OTHELLO.

Oth. It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul:Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!It is the cause.-Yet I'll not shed her blood; Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow, And smooth as monumental alabaster.

[Takes off his sword. Yet she must die, else she 'll betray more men. Put out the light, and then-Put out the light!— If I quench thee, thou flaming minister, I can again thy former light restore, Should I repent me :-but once put out thy light, Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature, I know not where is that Promethean heat That can thy light relume. When I have plucked the rose,

I cannot give it vital growth again;

It needs must wither:-I'll smell it on the tree.

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Des. Will you come to bed, my lord?

Oth. Have you prayed to-night, Desdemona?
Des.
Ay, my lord.

Oth. If you bethink yourself of any crime
Unreconciled as yet to heaven and grace,
Solicit for it straight.

Des. Alas, my lord, what may you mean by that? Oth. Well, do it, and be brief: I will walk by. I would not kill thy unpreparéd spirit: No,-Heaven forefend!-I would not kill thy soul. Des. Talk you of killing?

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Therefore confess thee freely of thy sin;
For to deny each article with oath
Cannot remove nor choke the strong conception
That I do groan withal. Thou art to die.
Des. O, heaven have mercy on me!
Oth. I say, amen.

Des. And have you mercy too!-I never did
Offend you in my life never loved Cassio
But with such general warranty of heaven
As I might love. I never gave him token.
Oth. By heaven, I saw my handkerchief in his

hand.

O perjured woman! thou dost stone my heart,
And mak'st me call what I intend to do
A murder, which I thought a sacrifice.
I saw the handkerchief.

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He'll not say so.

No; his mouth is stopped :

Honest Iago hath ta'en order for 't.

Des. My fear interprets, then-what, is he

dead?

Oth. Had all his hairs been lives, my great revenge Had stomach for them all.

Des. Alas! he is betrayed, and I undone. Oth. Out, strumpet! Weep'st thou for him

to my face?

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Oth. It is too late.

[He smothers her. Emil. [within]. My lord, my lord! What ho! my lord, my lord!

Oth. What noise is this?-Not dead! not yet quite dead!

I that am cruel, am yet merciful:

I would not have thee linger in thy pain.-
So, so.

Emil. [within]. What ho! my lord, my lord!
Oth.
Who's there?

Emil. [within]. O, good my lord, I would speak a word with you.

Oth. Yes:-'tis Emilia :-by-and-by.-- She's dead.

'Tis like she comes to speak of Cassio's death: The noise was high.-Ha! no more moving! Still as the grave.-Shall she come in? were 't

good?

I think she stirs again: no.-What's the best?
If she come in, she 'll sure speak to my wife.
My wife! my wife! what wife? I have no
wife!

O, insupportable! O heavy hour!
Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse

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[Dies.

Oth. Why, how should she be murdered?
Emil. Alas, who knows?

Oth. You heard her say herself it was not I.
Emil. She said so: I must needs report the
truth.

Oth. She's, like a liar, gone to burning hell:"T was I that killed her.

Emil. O, the more angel she, And you the blacker devil!

Oth. She turned to folly, and she was a whore. Emil Thou dost belie her, and thou art a devil. Oth. She was false as water. Emil. Thou art rash as fire to say That she was false: O, she was heavenly true! Oth. Cassio did tup her: ask thy husband else.

O, I were damned beneath all depth in hell,

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As I have to be hurt. O gull! O dolt!
As ignorant as dirt! thou hast done a deed,-
I care not for thy sword: I'll make thee known,
Though I lost twenty lives:-Help! help, ho! help!
The Moor has killed my mistress; murder! mur-
der!

Enter MONTANO, GRATIANO, and IAGO. Mon. What is the matter?-How now, general? Emil. O, are you come, Iago? you have done

well,

That men must lay their murders on your neck. Gra. What is the matter?

Emil. Disprove this villain, if thou beest a

man.

He says thou told'st him that his wife was false. I know thou didst not, thou 'rt not such a villain: Speak, for my heart is full.

Iago. I told him what I thought; and told no

more

Than what he found himself was apt and true. Emil. But did you ever tell him she was false? Iago. I did.

Emil. You told a lie; an odious, damnéd lie;

Upon my soul, a lie; a wicked lie.-
She false with Cassio :—did you say, with Cassio?
Iago. With Cassio, mistress. Go to, charm your
tongue.

Emil. I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to speak :

My mistress here lies murdered in her bed.
All. O heavens forefend!

Emil. And your reports have set the murder on.
Oth. Nay, stare not, masters: it is true, indeed.
Gra. 'Tis a strange truth.

Mon. O monstrous act!
Emil.

Villany, villany, villany!

I think upon 't,—I think,—I smell 't. O villany! I thought so then.—I 'll kill myself for grief.— O villany, villany!

Iago. What, are you mad? I charge you, get you home.

Emil. Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak:

'Tis proper I obey him, but not now.
Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home.
Oth. O! O! O!
Emil.

Nay, lay thee down, and roar: For thou hast killed the sweetest innocent

That e'er did lift up eye.

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I know this act shews horrible and grim.

Gra. Poor Desdemona! I am glad thy father's
dead:

Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief
Shore his old thread in twain: did he live now,
This sight would make him do a desperate turn
Yea, curse his better angel from his side,
And fall to reprobation.

Oth. "Tis pitiful: but yet Iago knows
That she with Cassio hath the act of shame
A thousand times committed. Cassio confessed it:
And she did gratify his amorous works
With that recógnizance and pledge of love
Which I first gave her: I saw it in his hand :
It was a handkerchief; an antique token
My father gave my mother.

Emil. O heaven! O heavenly powers!
Iago.
Come, hold your peace.

Emil. "T will out, 't will out!-I hold my peace,

sir? no:

No, I will speak as liberal as the air:

Let heaven, and men, and devils, let them all,
All, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak.
Iago. Be wise, and get you home.
Emil. I will not.

[IAGO offers to stab his Wife. Gra. Fie! your sword upon a woman!

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Which I have here recovered from the Moor. Come, guard the door without: let him not pass But kill him rather. I'll after that same villain, For 't is a damnéd slave.

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[Exeunt MONTANO and GRATIANO. Oth. I am not valiant neither, But every puny whipster gets my sword :But why should honour outlive honesty? Let it go all. Emil. What did thy song bode, lady? Hark, canst thou hear me? I will play the swan, And die in music:-" Willow, willow, willow."Moor, she was chaste: she loved thee, cruel Moor: So come my soul to bliss as I speak true: So speaking as I think, I die ;-I die. [Dies. Oth. I have another weapon in this chamber: It is a sword of Spain; the ice-brook's temper:O, here it is.-Uncle, I must come forth.

Gra. [within]. If thou attempt it, it will cost thee dear:

Thou hast no weapon, and perforce must suffer. Oth. Look in upon me, then, and speak with me; Or, naked as I am, I will assault thee.

Re-enter GRATIANO.

Gra. What is the matter?
Oth.

Behold, I have a weapon:
A better never did itself sustain

Upon a soldier's thigh. I have seen the day
That with this little arm, and this good sword,
I have made my way through more impediments
Than twenty times your stop:-but, O vain boast!
Who can control his fate? 't is not so now.—
Be not afraid, though you do see me weaponed:

Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,
And very seamark of my utmost sail.
Do you go back dismayed? 't is a lost fear:
Man but a rush against Othello's breast,
And he retires-where should Othello go?-
Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starred
wench,

Pale as thy smock! When we shall meet at compt,
This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven,
And fiends will snatch at it! Cold, cold, my girl?
Even like thy chastity.-

O curséd, curséd slave!-Whip me, ye devils,
From the possession of this heavenly sight!
Blow me about in winds! roast me in sulphur!
Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire !—
O Desdemona! Desdemona! dead?
Dead?-O! O! O!

Enter LODOVICO, MONTANO; CASSIO, carried in a chair; and Officers, with IAGO, prisoner.

Lod. Where is this rash and most unfortunate man?

Oth. That's he that was Othello:-here I am. Lod. Where is that viper? bring the villain forth.

Oth. I look down towards his feet;--but that's a fable:

If that thou beest a devil I cannot kill thee.
[OTHELLO wounds IAGO.
Lod. Wrench his sword from him.
Iago.

I bleed, sir; but not killed. Oth. I am not sorry neither: I'd have thee live;

For in my sense, 't is happiness to die.

Lod. O thou Othello, that was once so good, Fallen in the practice of a curséd slave, What shall be said to thee?

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Your power and your command is taken off,
And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave,
If there be any cunning cruelty

That can torment him much and hold him long,
It shall be his. You shall close prisoner rest,
Till that the nature of your fault be known
To the Venetian state.-Come, bring him away.

Oth. Soft you; a word or two before you go. I have done the state some service, and they know it:

No more of that:-I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am: nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you

speak

Of one that loved not wisely, but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Júdean, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose súbdued
eyes,

Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their médicinal gum.-Set you down this:—
And say, besides, that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,

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