ALL. O heavens forfend!
EMILIA. And your reports have set the murther on.
OTHELLO. Nay, stare not, masters; it is true indeed.
GRATIANO. 'Tis a strange truth.
MONTANO. O
monstrous act!
EMILIA. Villainy,
villainy,
villainy!
I think upon't, I think, I smell't, O
villainy!
I thought so then. I'll kill myself for grief.
O
villainy,
villainy!
IAGO. What, are you mad? I
charge you, get you home.
EMILIA. Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak;
'Tis proper I obey him, but not now.
Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home.
OTHELLO. O! O! O! Falls on the bed.
EMILIA. Nay, lay thee down and roar;
For thou hast kill'd the sweetest innocent
That e'er did lift up eye.
OTHELLO. [Rises.] O, she was foul!
I
scarce did know you, uncle; there lies your niece,
Whose
breath indeed these hands have newly stopp'd.
I know this act shows
horrible and grim.
GRATIANO 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.
OTHELLO. 'Tis
pitiful, but yet Iago knows
That she with Cassio hath the act of shame
A thousand times committed. Cassio confess'd it,
And she did
gratify his amorous works
With that recognizance 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.
EMILIA. O heaven! O
heavenly powers!
IAGO. 'Zounds! Hold your peace.
EMILIA. 'Twill out, 'twill. I peace?
No, I will speak as
liberal as the north;
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.
EMILIA. I will not.
Iago offers to stab Emilia.
GRATIANO. Fie!
Your sword upon a woman?
EMILIA. O thou dull Moor! That
handkerchief thou speak'st of
I found by fortune and did give my husband,
For often with a
solemn earnestness,
More than indeed belong'd to such a trifle,
He begg'd of me to steal it.
IAGO. Villainous whore!
EMILIA. She give it Cassio? No, alas, I found it,
And I did give't my husband.
IAGO. Filth, thou liest!
EMILIA. By heaven, I do not, I do not, gentlemen.
O murtherous coxcomb! What should such a fool
Do with so good a wife?
OTHELLO. Are there not stones in heaven
But what serve for
thunder? Precious
villain!
He runs at Iago, but Montano
disarms him. Iago stabs Emilia.
GRATIANO. The woman falls; sure, he hath kill'd his wife.
EMILIA. Ay, ay! O, lay me by my mistress' side. Exit Iago.
GRATIANO. He's gone, but his wife's kill'd.
MONTANO. 'Tis a
notoriousvillain. Take you this
weapon,
Which I have here recover'd from the Moor.
Come, guard the door without; let him not pass,
But kill him rather. I'll after that same
villain,
For 'tis a
damned slave.
Exeunt all but Othello and Emilia.
OTHELLO. I am not
valiant neither,
But every puny whipster gets my sword.
But why should honor outlive honesty?
But why should honor outlive honesty?
Let it go all.
EMILIA. What did thy song bode, lady?
Hark, canst thou hear me? I will play the swan,
And die in music. [Sings.] "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.
OTHELLO. 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.
GRATIANO. [Within.] If thou attempt it, it will cost thee dear.
Thou hast no
weapon, and perforce must suffer.
OTHELLO. Look in upon me then, and speak with me,
Or, naked as I am, I will
assault thee.
Re-enter Gratiano.
GRATIANO. What is the matter?
OTHELLO. 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? 'Tis not so now.
Be not afraid, though you do see me
weapon'd;
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt
And very sea-mark of my
utmost sail.
Do you go back dismay'd? 'Tis 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-starr'd 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 cursed, cursed 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 Desdemon! dead, Desdemon! dead!
O! O! O!
Enter Lodovico, Montano, Cassio carried in a chair,
and Officers with Iago, prisoner.
LODOVICO. Where is this rash and most
unfortunate man?
OTHELLO. That's he that was Othello. Here I am.
LODOVICO. Where is that viper? Bring the
villain forth.
OTHELLO. I look down towards his feet; but that's a fable.
If that thou best a devil, I cannot kill thee.
Wounds Iago.
LODOVICO. Wrench his sword from him.
IAGO. I bleed, sir, but not kill'd.
OTHELLO. I am not sorry neither. I'd have thee live,
For, in my sense, 'tis happiness to die.
LODOVICO. O thou Othello, that wert once so good,
Fall'n in the practice of a
damned slave,
What shall be said to thee?
OTHELLO. Why, anything;
An honorable murtherer, if you will,
For
nought did I in hate, but all in honor.
LODOVICO. This
wretch hath part confess'd his
villainy.
Did you and he consent in Cassio's death?
OTHELLO. Ay.
CASSIO. Dear general, I never gave you cause.
OTHELLO. I do believe it, and I ask your pardon.
Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil
Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body?
IAGO. Demand me nothing; what you know, you know.
From this time forth I never will speak word.
LODOVICO. What, not to pray?
GRATIANO. Torments will ope your lips.
OTHELLO. Well, thou dost best.
LODOVICO. Sir, you shall understand what hath befall'n,
Which, as I think, you know not. Here is a letter
Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo,
And here another. The one of them imports
The death of Cassio to be undertook
By Roderigo.
OTHELLO. O
villain!
CASSIO. Most heathenish and most gross!
LODOVICO. Now here's another
discontented paper,
Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems,
Roderigo meant to have sent this
damnedvillain;
But that, belike, Iago in the interim
Came in and satisfied him.
OTHELLO. O the
pernicious caitiff!
How came you, Cassio, by that
handkerchiefThat was my wife's?
CASSIO. I found it in my chamber;
And he himself confess'd but even now
That there he dropp'd it for a special purpose
Which
wrought to his desire.
OTHELLO. O fool! fool! fool!
CASSIO. There is besides in Roderigo's letter,
How he upbraids Iago, that he made him
Brave me upon the watch,
whereon it came
That I was cast. And even but now he spake
After long
seeming dead, Iago hurt him,
Iago set him on.
LODOVICO. You must
forsake this room, and go with us.
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 away.
OTHELLO. Soft you. a word or two before you go.
I have done the state some service, and they know't.
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,
Perplex'd in the
extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes,
Albeit
unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinal gum. Set you down this;
And say besides, that in Aleppo once,
Where a
malignant and a turban'd Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
I took by the
throat the circumcised dog
And smote him, thus. Stabs himself.
LODOVICO. O
bloody period!
GRATIANO. All that's spoke is marr'd.