SCENE I. Cyprus. Before the castle. Othello, the Moore of Venice  Shakespeare homepage  |  Othello  | Act 4, Scene 1 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE I. Cyprus. Before the castle. 

 Enter OTHELLO and IAGO  IAGO  Will you think so? 

 OTHELLO  Think so, Iago! 

 IAGO  What, 

 To kiss in private? 

 OTHELLO  An unauthorized kiss. 

 IAGO  Or to be naked with her friend in bed 

 An hour or more, not meaning any harm? 

 OTHELLO  Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm! 

 It is hypocrisy against the devil: 

 They that mean virtuously, and yet do so, 

 The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven. 

 IAGO  So they do nothing, 'tis a venial slip: 

 But if I give my wife a handkerchief,-- 

 OTHELLO  What then? 

 IAGO  Why, then, 'tis hers, my lord; and, being hers, 

 She may, I think, bestow't on any man. 

 OTHELLO  She is protectress of her honour too: 

 May she give that? 

 IAGO  Her honour is an essence that's not seen; 

 They have it very oft that have it not: 

 But, for the handkerchief,-- 

 OTHELLO  By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it. 

 Thou said'st, it comes o'er my memory, 

 As doth the raven o'er the infected house, 

 Boding to all--he had my handkerchief. 

 IAGO  Ay, what of that? 

 OTHELLO  That's not so good now. 

 IAGO  What, 

 If I had said I had seen him do you wrong? 

 Or heard him say,--as knaves be such abroad, 

 Who having, by their own importunate suit, 

 Or voluntary dotage of some mistress, 

 Convinced or supplied them, cannot choose 

 But they must blab-- 

 OTHELLO  Hath he said any thing? 

 IAGO  He hath, my lord; but be you well assured, 

 No more than he'll unswear. 

 OTHELLO  What hath he said? 

 IAGO  'Faith, that he did--I know not what he did. 

 OTHELLO  What? what? 

 IAGO  Lie-- 

 OTHELLO  With her? 

 IAGO  With her, on her; what you will. 

 OTHELLO  Lie with her! lie on her! We say lie on her, when 

 they belie her. Lie with her! that's fulsome. 

 --Handkerchief--confessions--handkerchief!--To 

 confess, and be hanged for his labour;--first, to be 

 hanged, and then to confess.--I tremble at it. 

 Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing 

 passion without some instruction. It is not words 

 that shake me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips. 

 --Is't possible?--Confess--handkerchief!--O devil!-- 



 Falls in a trance  IAGO  Work on, 

 My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught; 

 And many worthy and chaste dames even thus, 

 All guiltless, meet reproach. What, ho! my lord! 

 My lord, I say! Othello! 



 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. 



 Speaking lower  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 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 hey: 

 Do you intend it? 

 CASSIO  Ha, ha, ha! 

 OTHELLO  Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph? 

 CASSIO  I marry her! what? a customer! 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 hobby-horse: 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 to-night, 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 in 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 murder 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 a-killing. 

 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 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. 

 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 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 by midnight. 

 OTHELLO  Excellent good. 



 A trumpet within  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  LODOVICO  Save you, worthy general! 

 OTHELLO  With all my heart, sir. 

 LODOVICO  The duke and senators of Venice greet you. 



 Gives him a letter  OTHELLO  I kiss the instrument of their pleasures. 



 Opens the letter, and reads  DESDEMONA  And what's the news, good cousin Lodovico? 

 IAGO  I am very glad to see you, signior 

 Welcome to Cyprus. 

 LODOVICO  I thank you. How does Lieutenant Cassio? 

 IAGO  Lives, sir. 

 DESDEMONA  Cousin, there's fall'n between him and my lord 

 An unkind breach: but you shall make all well. 

 OTHELLO  Are you sure of that? 

 DESDEMONA  My lord? 

 OTHELLO  [Reads]  'This fail you not to do, as you will--' 

 LODOVICO  He did not call; he's busy in the paper. 

 Is there division 'twixt my lord and Cassio? 

 DESDEMONA  A most unhappy one: I would do much 

 To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio. 

 OTHELLO  Fire and brimstone! 

 DESDEMONA  My lord? 

 OTHELLO  Are you wise? 

 DESDEMONA  What, is he angry? 

 LODOVICO  May be the letter moved him; 

 For, as I think, they do command him home, 

 Deputing Cassio in his government. 

 DESDEMONA  Trust me, I am glad on't. 

 OTHELLO  Indeed! 

 DESDEMONA  My lord? 

 OTHELLO  I am glad to see you mad. 

 DESDEMONA  Why, sweet Othello,-- 

 OTHELLO  [Striking her]  Devil! 

 DESDEMONA  I have not deserved this. 

 LODOVICO  My lord, this would not be believed in Venice, 

 Though I should swear I saw't: 'tis very much: 

 Make her amends; she weeps. 

 OTHELLO  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! 

 DESDEMONA  I will not stay to offend you. 



 Going  LODOVICO  Truly, an obedient lady: 

 I do beseech your lordship, call her back. 

 OTHELLO  Mistress! 

 DESDEMONA  My lord? 

 OTHELLO  What would you with her, sir? 

 LODOVICO  Who, I, my lord? 

 OTHELLO  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! 



 Exit DESDEMONA  Cassio shall have my place. And, sir, tonight, 

 I do entreat that we may sup together: 

 You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.--Goats and monkeys! 



 Exit  LODOVICO  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 changed. 

 LODOVICO  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! 

 LODOVICO  What, strike his wife! 

 IAGO  'Faith, that was not so well; yet would I knew 

 That stroke would prove the worst! 

 LODOVICO  Is it his use? 

 Or did the letters work upon his blood, 

 And new-create this fault? 

 IAGO  Alas, alas! 

 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. 

 LODOVICO  I am sorry that I am deceived in him. 



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