Oth.

I'll tear her all to pieces.

Iago. Nay, but be wise; yet we see nothing done; She may be honest 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.
Oth. 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;
fond love thus do I blow to heaven.

All my
'Tis gone.

Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!
Yield up,
O love, thy crown, and hearted throne,2
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, Iago. 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 knowl edge 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.

Do not rise yet.—

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,

[Kneels.

[Kneels.

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! Come, go with me apart; I will withdraw To furnish me with some swift means of death For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant. Iago. I am your own forever.

[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

2 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.

Des. Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse Full of cruzadoes. And, but my noble Moor

3

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.

Emil.

Look, where he comes.

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 Cruzadocs 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!

How do you, Desdemona?

Des.

Well, my good lord.

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

lady.

prayer,

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 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 sullen' rheum offends me; Lend me thy handkerchief.

Des.

Here, my lord.

Oth. That which I gave you.

Des.

Oth. Not?

Des.

Oth.

That handkerchief

I have it not about me.

No, indeed, my lord.

Did an Egyptian to my mother give:

2

That is a fault.

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.

The thoughts of people. She told her, while she kept it, "Twould make her amiable, and subdue my father Entirely to her love; but if she lost it,

Or made a gift of it, my father's eye

Should hold her loathly, and his spirits should hunt
After new fancies. She, dying, gave it me;
And bid me, when my fate would have me wive,
To give it her. I did so; and take heed of't,
Make it a darling like your precious eye:
To lose or give't away, were such perdition,
As nothing else could match.

Des. Is it possible?

Oth. 'Tis true; there's magic in the web of it. A sibyl, that had numbered in the world

The sun to make two hundred compasses,

In her prophetic fury sewed the work.

The worms were hallowed that did breed the silk;
And it was dyed in mummy,' which the skilful
Conserved of maidens' hearts.2

Des.

Indeed! is't true?

Oth. Most veritable; therefore look to't well.
Des. Then 'would to Heaven that I had never

seen it.

Oth. Ha! wherefore?

Des. Why do you speak so startingly and rash?

Oth. Is't lost? is't gone?

way?

Des. Heaven bless us!

Oth.

Speak, is it out of the

Say you?

Des. It is not lost; but what an if it were?

Oth. Ha!

Des. I say it is not lost.

Oth.

Fetch't; let me see it.

Des. Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now;

This is a trick to put me from my suit;

I

pray, let Cassio be received again.

1 The balsamic liquor running from mummies was formerly celebrated for its anti-epileptic virtues. This fanciful medicine held a place in the druggists' shops till lately.

2 The quarto reads "with the skilful conserves," &c.