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To bring them to that prospect. Damn them, then,
If ever mortal eyes do see them bolster,
More than their own! What then? how then?
What shall I say? Where's satisfaction?
It is impossible you should see this,

Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys,
As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross
As ignorance made drunk. But yet, I say,
If imputation, and strong circumstances,
Which lead directly to the door of truth,-
Will give you satisfaction, you may have it.
Oth. Give me a living reason she's disloyal.
Iago. I do not like the office;

1

But, sith I am entered in this cause so far,—
Pricked to it by foolish honesty and love,-
I will go on.
I lay with Cassio lately;
And, being troubled with a raging tooth,
I could not sleep.

There are a kind of men so loose of soul,
That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs;
One of this kind is Cassio.

In sleep I heard him say,-Sweet Desdemona,
Let us be wary, let us hide our loves!

And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my hand,
Cry,-O sweet creature! and then kiss me hard,
As if he plucked up kisses by the roots,
That grew upon my lips; then laid his leg
Over my thigh, and sighed, and kissed; and then
Cried,-Cursed fate, that gave thee to the Moor!
Oth. O, monstrous! monstrous!

Iago.

2

Nay, this was but his dream. Oth. But this denoted a foregone conclusion; 'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream.3 Iago. And this may help to thicken other proofs, That do demonstrate thinly.

1 A living reason is a reason founded on fact and experience.

2 A foregone conclusion is some former experience. Conclusion is used

for erperiment or trial in several other places of these plays.

3 The old quarto gives this line to Iago, as well as the two which in the folio it is given to Othello.

follow;

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Oth. I'll tear her all to pieces. Iago. Nay, but be wise; yet we see nothing done; She may be honest yet. Tell me but this,— Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief, Spotted with strawberries, in your wife's hand? Oth. I gave her such a one; 'twas my first gift. Iago. I know not that; but such a handkerchief (I am sure it was your wife's) did I to-day See Cassio wipe his beard with.

Oth.

If it be that,-
Iago. If it be that, or any that was hers,
It speaks against her with the other proofs.
Óth. O that the slave had forty thousand lives;
One is too poor, too weak for my revenge!
Now do I see 'tis true.'-Look here, Iago;
All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven.
'Tis gone.-

Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!
Yield up, O love, thy crown, and hearted throne,
To tyrannous hate! swell, bosom, with thy fraught;3
For 'tis of aspics' tongues!

Iago. Pray, be content.

Oth.

Iago. Patience, I say;

change.

O blood, Iago, blood!

your mind, perhaps, may

Oth. Never, lago. Like to the Pontic sea,
Whose icy current and compulsive course
Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
To the Propontic and the Hellespont;
Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,
Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love,
Till that a capable 5 and wide revenge

1 The quarto reads, "Now do I see 'tis tune."

2 The heart on which thou wast enthroned.

3 i. e. swell, because the fraught thou art charged with is of poison. 4 From the word Like to marble heaven, inclusively, is not found in the quarto 1622. Pope thinks that it would be better omitted, as an unnatural excursion in this place. Shakspeare probably derived his knowledge upon this subject from the second book and ninety-seventh chapter of Pliny's Natural History, 1601 :-" and the sea Pontus evermore floweth and runneth out into Propontis; but the sea never retireth backe againe within Pontus."

5 Capable seems to be here used for capacious, comprehensive.

Swallow them up.-Now, by yond' marble heaven, In the due reverence of a sacred vow

I here engage my words.
Iago.

[Kneels.

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Witness, you ever-burning lights above!
You elements that clip us round about!
Witness, that here lago doth give up
The execution of his wit, hands, heart,

To wronged Othello's service! Let him command,
And to obey shall be in me remorse,2

What bloody work soever.

Oth.

I

greet thy love,

Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous,
And will upon the instant put thee to't.

Within these three days let me hear thee say
That Cassio's not alive.

Iago. My friend is dead; 'tis done, at your request. But let her live.

Oth.

Damn her, lewd minx; O, damn her! with me apart; I will withdraw

Come, go with me apart;

To furnish me with some swift means of death

For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant.
Iago. I am your own forever.

SCENE IV. The same.

[Exeunt.

Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, and Clown.

Des. Do you know, sirrah, where lieutenant Cassio lies?

Clo. I dare not say he lies any where.

Des. Why, man?

1 The first quarto reads excellency. By execution Shakspeare meant employment or exercise.

"Let

Shakspeare always uses remorse for pity or commiseration. him command whatever bloody business, and in me it shall be an act not of cruelty but of pity or commiseration to obey him." The quarto reads, "What bloody business ever."

Clo. He is a soldier; and for me to say a soldier lies, is stabbing.

Des. Go to; where lodges he?

Clo. To tell you where he lodges, is to tell you where I lie.1

Des. Can any thing be made of this?

Clo. I know not where he lodges; and for me to devise a lodging, and say-he lies here, or he lies there, were to lie in my own throat.

Des. Can you inquire him out, and be edified by report?

Clo. I will catechize the world for him; that is, make questions, and by them answer.2

Des. Seek him, bid him come hither: tell him I have moved my lord in his behalf, and hope all will be well.

Clo. To do this, is within the compass of man's wit; and therefore I will attempt the doing it. [Exit. Des. Where should I lose that handkerchief, Emilia? Emil. I know not, madam.

3

Des. Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse Full of cruzadoes. And, but my noble Moor Is true of mind, and made of no such baseness As jealous creatures are, it were enough

To put him to ill thinking.

Emil. Is he not jealous?.

Des. Who, he? I think the sun, where he was

born,

Drew all such humors from him.

Look, where he comes.

Emil.
Des. I will not leave him now, till Cassio
Be called to him.-How is't with you, my lord?

1 This and the following speech are wanting in the first quarto. 2 i. e. and by them, when answered, form my own answer to you. 3 Cruzadoes were of gold, and weighed from two-pennyweights six grains, to two pennyweights sixteen grains, and differed in value from six shillings and eight pence to nine shillings. The sovereigns who struck these coins were Emanuel and his son John of Portugal.

Enter OTHELlo.

Oth. Well, my good lady. [Aside.] O, hardness to dissemble!

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Well, my good lord.

Oth. Give me your hand; this hand is moist, my

lady.

Des. It yet has felt no age, nor known no sorrow.
Oth. This argues fruitfulness, and liberal heart;
Hot, hot, and moist. This hand of yours requires
A sequester from liberty, fasting and prayer,
Much castigation, exercise devout;

For here's a young and sweating devil here,
That commonly rebels. 'Tis a good hand,
A frank one.

Des.

You may, indeed, say so;
For 'twas that hand that gave away my heart.

Oth. A liberal hand. The hearts, of old, gave hands;

But our new heraldry is-hands, not hearts.

Des. I cannot speak of this. Come, now, your promise.

Oth. What promise, chuck?

Des. I have sent to bid Cassio come speak with

you.

Oth. I have a salt and sullen1 rheum offends me ; Lend me thy handkerchief.

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Did an Egyptian to my mother give:

She was a charmer, and could almost read

1 The folio reads "sorry." Rider explains sullen by acerbus (Latin). 2 Charmer, for enchanter, is of common occurrence in Scripture.

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