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A housewife that, by selling her desires,

Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature
That dotes on Cassio,-as 't is the strumpet's plague,
To beguile many and be beguil'd by one ;-
He, when he hears of her, cannot restrain
From the excess of laughter:-here he comes:-
As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;
And his unbookisha jealousy must construe*
Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures, and light behaviour,
Quite in the wrong.—

Re-enter CASSIO.

How do you now,† lieutenant?

CAS. 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 Bianca's dower,

How quickly should you speed!

CAS.

[Speaking lower.

Alas, poor caitiff!

OTH. [Aside.] Look, how he laughs already!

IAGO. I never knew woman love man so.

CAS. Alas, poor rogue! I think, i' faith, she loves me.
OTH. [Aside.] Now he denies it faintly, and laughs it out.
IAGO. Do you hear, Cassio?

OTH. [Aside.]

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?

CAS.

Ha, ha, ha!

OTH. [Aside.] Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?

CAS. I marry her!§-what, a customer!b Prythee bear some charity to my wit; do not think it so unwholesome.-Ha, ha, ha! OTH. [Aside.] So, so, so, so:-they laugh that win.

IAGO. Faith, the cry goes that you shall¶ marry her.

CAS. Pr'ythee, say true.

IAGO. I am a very villain else.

OTH. [Aside.] Have you scored me?

Well.

CAS. 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. OTH. [Aside.] Iago beckons** me; now he begins the story. CAS. She was here even now; she haunts me in every place. I

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(**) First folio, becomes.

unbookish jealousy-] Ignorant jealousy.

ba customer!] This was a cant terin for a loose woman. So in "All's Well That Ends Well," Art V. Sc. 3,—

"I think thee now some common customer."

• Have you scored me ?] "Scored" for branded, uniess the word is a misprint. The quartos have stor'd; the folio, scoar'd.

was, the other day, talking on the sea-bank with certain Venetians; and thither comes the bauble, and falls me thus about my neck,— OTH. [Aside.] Crying, O, dear Cassio! as it were: his gesture imports it.

CAS. So hangs, and lolls, and weeps upon me; so hales* and pulls me:-ha, ha, ha!

OTH. [Aside.] 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. CAS. Well, I must leave her company.

LAGO. Before me! look, where she comes.

CAS. "Tis such another fitchew! marry, a perfumed one.

Enter BIANCA.

-What do you mean by this haunting of me?

BIAN. 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 know not who left it there! This is some minx's token, and I must take out the work! There,give it your hobby-horse: wheresoever you had it, I'll take out no work on 't.

CAS. How now, my sweet Bianca! how now! how now! OTH. [Asule.] By heaven, that should be my handkerchief! BIAN. Ant you'll come to supper to-night you may; ant you will not, come when you are next prepared for.

IAGO. After her, after her.

CAS. Faith, I must; she 'll rail in the streets else.

IAGO. Will you sup there?

CAS. Faith, § I intend so.

[Exit.

IAGO. Well, I may chance to see you; for I would very fain speak with you.

CAS. Pr'ythee, come; will you?

IAGO. Go to; say no more.

OTH. [Advancing.] How shall I murder him, Iago?

IAGO. Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice?

OTH. O, Iago!

IAGO. And did you see the handkerchief?

OTH. Was that mine?

[Exit CASSIO.

LAGO. 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. OTH. I would have him nine years a-killing.-A fine woman! a fair woman! a sweet woman!

IAGO. Nay, you must forget that.

71

First folio, shakes.

First folio omits, Faith.

(†) First folio, If.
(S) First folio, Yes.

- hobby-horse:] Another by-word for an abandoned woman. In the "Winter's Tale," Act I. Sc. 2, Leontes says,—

"My wife's a hobby-horse;"

and in "Love's Labour's Lost," Act III. Sc. 1, Armado asks,

"Callest thou my love hobby-horse?" &c.

ОTH. Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be damned to-night; 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.

OTH. 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.

Отн. O, a thousand-thousand times: -and then, of so gentle a condition!

IAGO. Ay, too gentle.

OTH. 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.

Отн. I will chop her into messes:-cuckold me!

IAGO. O, 't is foul in her.

OTH. With mine officer!

IAGO. That's fouler.

Отн. 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.

OTH. Good, good: the justice of it pleases; very good! IAGO. And, for Cassio,-let me be his undertaker: you shall hear more by midnight. [A trumpet without.

OTH. Excellent good.-What trumpet is that same?
IAGO. Something from Venice, sure. "Tis Lodovico,
Come from the duke; and, see, your wife is with him."
Enter LODOVICO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants.

LOD. Save you, worthy general!
Отн.
With all my heart, sir.
LOD. The duke and* senators of Venice greet you.

OTH. I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.

[Gives him a packet.

[Opens the packet, and reads.

DES. And what's the news, good cousin Lodovico?

IAGO. I am very glad to see you, signior;

Welcome to Cyprus.

(*) First folio inserts, the.

O, a thousand-thousand times :-] The folio poorly reads,-" O, a thousand, a thousand times:" &c.

b

Something from Venice, sure. 'Tis Lodovico,
Come from the duke; and, see, your wife is with him.]

We prefer here the lection of the quartos. The folio has,—
"I warrant something from Venice,

'Tis Lodovico this, comes from the Duke.
See, your wife's with him," &c.

LOD. I thank you. How does lieutenant Cassio?
IAGO. Lives, sir.

DES. Cousin, there's fall'n between him and my lord
An unkind breach; but you shall make all well.
OTH. Are you sure of that?

DES. My lord?

OTH. [Reads.] This fail you not to do, as you will
LOD. He did not call: he's busy in the paper.
Is there division 'twixt my lord and Cassio?

DES. A most unhappy one; I would do much
To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio.
ОTH. Fire and brimstone!

DES.

Отн.

DES. What, is he angry?
LOD.

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May be the letter mov'd him;

For, as I think, they do command him home,
Deputing Cassio in his government.

DES. Trust me, I am glad on 't.

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LOD. My lord, this would not be believ'd in Venice,
Though I should swear I saw 't: 't is very much;
Make her amends; she weeps.

Отн.
O, devil, devil!
If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,
Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.-

Out of my sight!

DES.

*

I will not stay to offend you.
LOD. Truly, an obedient lady:-
I do beseech your lordship, call her back.

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Отн. Mistress!

DES.

My lord?

Отн.

What would you with her, sir?

LOD. Who, I, my lord?

[Going.

Отн. Ay; you did wish that I would make her turn:

Sir, she can turn, and turn, and yet go on,

And turn again; and she can weep, sir,-weep!
And she's obedient, as you say,-obedient!—
Very obedient.-Proceed you in your tears.-
Concerning this, sir,-O, well-painted passion!-
I am commanded home.-Get you away;
I'll send for you anon.-Sir, I obey the mandate,
And will return to Venice.-Hence, avaunt!
Cassio shall have my place. And,―sir, to-night,

(*) First folio omits, an.

[Exit DESDEMONA.

I do entreat that we may sup together:

You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.-Goats and monkeys!
LOD. Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate
Call all-in-all sufficient?-Is this the nature
Whom passion could not shake? whose solid virtue
The shot of accident, nor dart of chance,
Could neither graze nor pierce?

IAGO.

He is much chang'd.

LOD. Are his wits safe? is he not light of brain?
IAGO. He's that he is: I may not breathe my censure.
What he might be,-if, what he might, he is not,-

I would to heaven he were !

LOD.

What, strike his wife!

IAGO. Faith, that was not so well; yet would I knew That stroke would prove the worst.

LOD.

Is it his use?

Alas, alas!

Or did the letters work upon his blood,
And new-create this* fault?

IAGO.

It is not honesty in me to speak

What I have seen and known. You shall observe him;

And his own courses will denote him so,

That I may save my speech: do but go after,

And mark how he continues.

LOD. I am sorry that I am deceiv'd in him.

SCENE II.-A Room in the Castle.

Enter OTHELLO and EMILIA.

OTH. You have seen nothing, then?

EMIL. Nor ever heard, nor ever did suspect.
OTH. Yes, you have seen Cassio and she together.
EMIL. But then I saw no harm, and then I heard
Each syllable that breath made up between them.
OTH. What, did they never whisper?
EMIL.

OTH. Nor send you out o' the way?
EMIL.

Never, my lord.

Never.

OTH. To fetch her fan, her gloves, her mask, nor nothing?
EMIL. Never, my lord.

Отн.

That's strange.

EMIL. I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest,
Lay down my soul at stake: if you think other,
Remove your thought,-it doth abuse your bosom.
If any wretch have put this in your head,
Let heaven requite it with the serpent's curse!
For, if she be not honest, chaste, and true,
There's no man happy; the purest of their wives
Is foul as slander.

(*) First folio, his.

Exit.

[Exeunt.

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