SCENE II. A room in the castle. Othello, the Moore of Venice  Shakespeare homepage  |  Othello  | Act 4, Scene 2 

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 Enter OTHELLO and EMILIA  OTHELLO  You have seen nothing then? 

 EMILIA  Nor ever heard, nor ever did suspect. 

 OTHELLO  Yes, you have seen Cassio and she together. 

 EMILIA  But then I saw no harm, and then I heard 

 Each syllable that breath made up between them. 

 OTHELLO  What, did they never whisper? 

 EMILIA  Never, my lord. 

 OTHELLO  Nor send you out o' the way? 

 EMILIA  Never. 

 OTHELLO  To fetch her fan, her gloves, her mask, nor nothing? 

 EMILIA  Never, my lord. 

 OTHELLO  That's strange. 

 EMILIA  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. 

 OTHELLO  Bid her come hither: go. 



 Exit EMILIA  She says enough; yet she's a simple bawd 

 That cannot say as much. This is a subtle whore, 

 A closet lock and key of villanous secrets 

 And yet she'll kneel and pray; I have seen her do't. 



 Enter DESDEMONA with EMILIA  DESDEMONA  My lord, what is your will? 

 OTHELLO  Pray, chuck, come hither. 

 DESDEMONA  What is your pleasure? 

 OTHELLO  Let me see your eyes; 

 Look in my face. 

 DESDEMONA  What horrible fancy's this? 

 OTHELLO  [To EMILIA]  Some of your function, mistress; 

 Leave procreants alone and shut the door; 

 Cough, or cry 'hem,' if any body come: 

 Your mystery, your mystery: nay, dispatch. 



 Exit EMILIA  DESDEMONA  Upon my knees, what doth your speech import? 

 I understand a fury in your words. 

 But not the words. 

 OTHELLO  Why, what art thou? 

 DESDEMONA  Your wife, my lord; your true 

 And loyal wife. 

 OTHELLO  Come, swear it, damn thyself 

 Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves 

 Should fear to seize thee: therefore be double damn'd: 

 Swear thou art honest. 

 DESDEMONA  Heaven doth truly know it. 

 OTHELLO  Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell. 

 DESDEMONA  To whom, my lord? with whom? how am I false? 

 OTHELLO  O Desdemona! away! away! away! 

 DESDEMONA  Alas the heavy day! Why do you weep? 

 Am I the motive of these tears, my lord? 

 If haply you my father do suspect 

 An instrument of this your calling back, 

 Lay not your blame on me: If you have lost him, 

 Why, I have lost him too. 

 OTHELLO  Had it pleased heaven 

 To try me with affliction; had they rain'd 

 All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head. 

 Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips, 

 Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes, 

 I should have found in some place of my soul 

 A drop of patience: but, alas, to make me 

 A fixed figure for the time of scorn 

 To point his slow unmoving finger at! 

 Yet could I bear that too; well, very well: 

 But there, where I have garner'd up my heart, 

 Where either I must live, or bear no life; 

 The fountain from the which my current runs, 

 Or else dries up; to be discarded thence! 

 Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads 

 To knot and gender in! Turn thy complexion there, 

 Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubin,-- 

 Ay, there, look grim as hell! 

 DESDEMONA  I hope my noble lord esteems me honest. 

 OTHELLO  O, ay; as summer flies are in the shambles, 

 That quicken even with blowing. O thou weed, 

 Who art so lovely fair and smell'st so sweet 

 That the sense aches at thee, would thou hadst 

 ne'er been born! 

 DESDEMONA  Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed? 

 OTHELLO  Was this fair paper, this most goodly book, 

 Made to write 'whore' upon? What committed! 

 Committed! O thou public commoner! 

 I should make very forges of my cheeks, 

 That would to cinders burn up modesty, 

 Did I but speak thy deeds. What committed! 

 Heaven stops the nose at it and the moon winks, 

 The bawdy wind that kisses all it meets 

 Is hush'd within the hollow mine of earth, 

 And will not hear it. What committed! 

 Impudent strumpet! 

 DESDEMONA  By heaven, you do me wrong. 

 OTHELLO  Are you not a strumpet? 

 DESDEMONA  No, as I am a Christian: 

 If to preserve this vessel for my lord 

 From any other foul unlawful touch 

 Be not to be a strumpet, I am none. 

 OTHELLO  What, not a whore? 

 DESDEMONA  No, as I shall be saved. 

 OTHELLO  Is't possible? 

 DESDEMONA  O, heaven forgive us! 

 OTHELLO  I cry you mercy, then: 

 I took you for that cunning whore of Venice 

 That married with Othello. 



 Raising his voice  You, mistress, 

 That have the office opposite to Saint Peter, 

 And keep the gate of hell! 



 Re-enter EMILIA  You, you, ay, you! 

 We have done our course; there's money for your pains: 

 I pray you, turn the key and keep our counsel. 



 Exit  EMILIA  Alas, what does this gentleman conceive? 

 How do you, madam? how do you, my good lady? 

 DESDEMONA  'Faith, half asleep. 

 EMILIA  Good madam, what's the matter with my lord? 

 DESDEMONA  With who? 

 EMILIA  Why, with my lord, madam. 

 DESDEMONA  Who is thy lord? 

 EMILIA  He that is yours, sweet lady. 

 DESDEMONA  I have none: do not talk to me, Emilia; 

 I cannot weep; nor answer have I none, 

 But what should go by water. Prithee, tonight 

 Lay on my bed my wedding sheets: remember; 

 And call thy husband hither. 

 EMILIA  Here's a change indeed! 



 Exit  DESDEMONA  'Tis meet I should be used so, very meet. 

 How have I been behaved, that he might stick 

 The small'st opinion on my least misuse? 



 Re-enter EMILIA with IAGO  IAGO  What is your pleasure, madam? 

 How is't with you? 

 DESDEMONA  I cannot tell. Those that do teach young babes 

 Do it with gentle means and easy tasks: 

 He might have chid me so; for, in good faith, 

 I am a child to chiding. 

 IAGO  What's the matter, lady? 

 EMILIA  Alas, Iago, my lord hath so bewhored her. 

 Thrown such despite and heavy terms upon her, 

 As true hearts cannot bear. 

 DESDEMONA  Am I that name, Iago? 

 IAGO  What name, fair lady? 

 DESDEMONA  Such as she says my lord did say I was. 

 EMILIA  He call'd her whore: a beggar in his drink 

 Could not have laid such terms upon his callat. 

 IAGO  Why did he so? 

 DESDEMONA  I do not know; I am sure I am none such. 

 IAGO  Do not weep, do not weep. Alas the day! 

 EMILIA  Hath she forsook so many noble matches, 

 Her father and her country and her friends, 

 To be call'd whore? would it not make one weep? 

 DESDEMONA  It is my wretched fortune. 

 IAGO  Beshrew him for't! 

 How comes this trick upon him? 

 DESDEMONA  Nay, heaven doth know. 

 EMILIA  I will be hang'd, if some eternal villain, 

 Some busy and insinuating rogue, 

 Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office, 

 Have not devised this slander; I'll be hang'd else. 

 IAGO  Fie, there is no such man; it is impossible. 

 DESDEMONA  If any such there be, heaven pardon him! 

 EMILIA  A halter pardon him! and hell gnaw his bones! 

 Why should he call her whore? who keeps her company? 

 What place? what time? what form? what likelihood? 

 The Moor's abused by some most villanous knave, 

 Some base notorious knave, some scurvy fellow. 

 O heaven, that such companions thou'ldst unfold, 

 And put in every honest hand a whip 

 To lash the rascals naked through the world 

 Even from the east to the west! 

 IAGO  Speak within door. 

 EMILIA  O, fie upon them! Some such squire he was 

 That turn'd your wit the seamy side without, 

 And made you to suspect me with the Moor. 

 IAGO  You are a fool; go to. 

 DESDEMONA  O good Iago, 

 What shall I do to win my lord again? 

 Good friend, go to him; for, by this light of heaven, 

 I know not how I lost him. Here I kneel: 

 If e'er my will did trespass 'gainst his love, 

 Either in discourse of thought or actual deed, 

 Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any sense, 

 Delighted them in any other form; 

 Or that I do not yet, and ever did. 

 And ever will--though he do shake me off 

 To beggarly divorcement--love him dearly, 

 Comfort forswear me! Unkindness may do much; 

 And his unkindness may defeat my life, 

 But never taint my love. I cannot say 'whore:' 

 It does abhor me now I speak the word; 

 To do the act that might the addition earn 

 Not the world's mass of vanity could make me. 

 IAGO  I pray you, be content; 'tis but his humour: 

 The business of the state does him offence, 

 And he does chide with you. 

 DESDEMONA  If 'twere no other-- 

 IAGO  'Tis but so, I warrant. 



 Trumpets within  Hark, how these instruments summon to supper! 

 The messengers of Venice stay the meat; 

 Go in, and weep not; all things shall be well. 



 Exeunt DESDEMONA and EMILIA 

 Enter RODERIGO  How now, Roderigo! 

 RODERIGO  I do not find that thou dealest justly with me. 

 IAGO  What in the contrary? 

 RODERIGO  Every day thou daffest me with some device, Iago; 

 and rather, as it seems to me now, keepest from me 

 all conveniency than suppliest me with the least 

 advantage of hope. I will indeed no longer endure 

 it, nor am I yet persuaded to put up in peace what 

 already I have foolishly suffered. 

 IAGO  Will you hear me, Roderigo? 

 RODERIGO  'Faith, I have heard too much, for your words and 

 performances are no kin together. 

 IAGO  You charge me most unjustly. 

 RODERIGO  With nought but truth. I have wasted myself out of 

 my means. The jewels you have had from me to 

 deliver to Desdemona would half have corrupted a 

 votarist: you have told me she hath received them 

 and returned me expectations and comforts of sudden 

 respect and acquaintance, but I find none. 

 IAGO  Well; go to; very well. 

 RODERIGO  Very well! go to! I cannot go to, man; nor 'tis 

 not very well: nay, I think it is scurvy, and begin 

 to find myself fobbed in it. 

 IAGO  Very well. 

 RODERIGO  I tell you 'tis not very well. I will make myself 

 known to Desdemona: if she will return me my 

 jewels, I will give over my suit and repent my 

 unlawful solicitation; if not, assure yourself I 

 will seek satisfaction of you. 

 IAGO  You have said now. 

 RODERIGO  Ay, and said nothing but what I protest intendment of doing. 

 IAGO  Why, now I see there's mettle in thee, and even from 

 this instant to build on thee a better opinion than 

 ever before. Give me thy hand, Roderigo: thou hast 

 taken against me a most just exception; but yet, I 

 protest, I have dealt most directly in thy affair. 

 RODERIGO  It hath not appeared. 

 IAGO  I grant indeed it hath not appeared, and your 

 suspicion is not without wit and judgment. But, 

 Roderigo, if thou hast that in thee indeed, which I 

 have greater reason to believe now than ever, I mean 

 purpose, courage and valour, this night show it: if 

 thou the next night following enjoy not Desdemona, 

 take me from this world with treachery and devise 

 engines for my life. 

 RODERIGO  Well, what is it? is it within reason and compass? 

 IAGO  Sir, there is especial commission come from Venice 

 to depute Cassio in Othello's place. 

 RODERIGO  Is that true? why, then Othello and Desdemona 

 return again to Venice. 

 IAGO  O, no; he goes into Mauritania and takes away with 

 him the fair Desdemona, unless his abode be 

 lingered here by some accident: wherein none can be 

 so determinate as the removing of Cassio. 

 RODERIGO  How do you mean, removing of him? 

 IAGO  Why, by making him uncapable of Othello's place; 

 knocking out his brains. 

 RODERIGO  And that you would have me to do? 

 IAGO  Ay, if you dare do yourself a profit and a right. 

 He sups to-night with a harlotry, and thither will I 

 go to him: he knows not yet of his horrorable 

 fortune. If you will watch his going thence, which 

 I will fashion to fall out between twelve and one, 

 you may take him at your pleasure: I will be near 

 to second your attempt, and he shall fall between 

 us. Come, stand not amazed at it, but go along with 

 me; I will show you such a necessity in his death 

 that you shall think yourself bound to put it on 

 him. It is now high suppertime, and the night grows 

 to waste: about it. 

 RODERIGO  I will hear further reason for this. 

 IAGO  And you shall be satisfied. 



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