Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home.

Oth. O! O! O!

Emi.

[hanging over his wife.

Nay, lay thee down, and roar ;

For thou hast kill'd the sweetest innocent,

That e'er did lift up eye.

Oth.

O, she was foul!— [rising.

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.

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 confess'd it:
And she did gratify his amorous works

With that recognisance 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.

Emi. O heaven! O heavenly powers!

Iago.

Come, hold your peace.

Emi. 'Twill out, 'twill out:-I hold my peace,

sir? no:

328

OTHELLO,

Re-enter GRATIANO.

Gra. What is the matter?

Oth.

Behold! I have a weapon

A better never did itself sustain

pon 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,
my utmost sail.
And very sea-mark of

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?

wench!

O ill-starr'd

Pale as thy smock! when we shall meet at compt, This look of thine will hurt my soul from heaven, Cold, cold, my And fiends will snatch at it.

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 Desdemona! Desdemona! dead?

Dead? O! O! O!

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

Lo. Where is this rash and most unfortunate
man?

Oth. That's he, that was Othello: here I am.
Lo. Where is that viper? bring the villain forth.
Oth. I look down towards his feet; 1-but that's
a fable;

If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee.

[Othello wounds Iago.

Lo. Wrench his sword from him.

Iago. Oth. I am not sorry neither: I'd have thee live; For, in my sense, 'tis happiness to die.

I bleed, sir; but not kill'd.

Lo. O thou Othello, that was once so good, Fallen in the practice 2 of a cursed slave ;— What shall be said to thee?

Oth.

Why, any thing:

An honorable murderer, if you will;

For naught I did in hate, but all in honor.

Lo. This wretch hath part confess'd his villany.Did you and he consent in Cassio's death?

Oth. Ay.

Cas. Dear general, I never gave you cause. Oth. I do believe it, and I ask your pardon. Will you, I pray you, demand that demi-devil,

1 i. e. to see if his feet be clovan.

By the stratagem.

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.

Lo. What? not to pray?

Gra.

Torments will ope your lips.

Oth. Well, thou dost best.

Lo. Sir, you shall understand what hath befallen,

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.

Oth. O villain!

Cas.

Most heathenish, and most gross!

Lo. Now here's another discontented paper,

Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems,

Roderigo meant to have sent this damned villain;

But that, belike, Iago in the interim

Came in and satisfied him.

Oth.

O the pernicious caitiff

How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief

That was my wife's?

Cas.

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.

Oth.

O fool! fool! fool!

Cas. There is, besides, in Roderigo's letter,-
How he upbraids lago, 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.

Lo. 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 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,
Perplex'd in the extreme; of one, whose hand,
Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away

Richer than all his tribe; of one, whose subdued

eyes,

Alheit 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,