The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare/Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso/shakes/text/35/04_01

Text File | 1991-04-10 | 14KB | 474 lines

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    If 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 - O, 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
    Convincd or supplied them, cannot choose
    But they must blab-

Othello                                Hath he said anything?

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? Zounds, 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 not, by heaven.
    Would you would bear your fortune like a man!

Othello    A hornd 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'erwhelmd with your grief,
    - A passion most unsuiting such a man-
    Cassio came hither. I shifted him away,
    And laid good 'scuses 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're 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 withdraws.
    Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,
    A huswife 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.

                             Re-enter CASSIO.

                                Here he comes.
    As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;
    And his unbookish jealousy must construe
    Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures, and light behaviours
    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 Bianca's power,
    How quickly should you speed!

Cassio                                Alas, poor caitiff!

Othello    [Aside.] 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    [Aside.] Now he denies it faintly, and laughs it out.

Iago    Do you hear, Cassio?

Othello    [Aside.]                    Now he importunes him
    To tell it o'er. Go to; well said, well said.

Iago    She gives it out that you shall marry her.
    Do you intend it?

Cassio    Ha, ha, ha!

Othello    [Aside.] 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    [Aside.] So, so, so, so; they laugh that wins.

Iago    Faith, the cry goes that you marry her.

Cassio    Prithee say true.

Iago    I am a very villain else.

Othello    [Aside.] 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    [Aside.] 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 falls me thus
    about my neck.

Othello    [Aside.] 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    [Aside.] 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.

                              Enter BIANCA.

Iago    Before me, look where she comes!

Cassio    'Tis such another fitchew! Marry, a perfumed one.
    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    [Aside.] By heaven, that should be my handkerchief!

Bianca    If you'll come to supper tonight, you may; if 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 giv'n 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 tonight, 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, a 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 touche 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 sounds.
                        What trumpet is that same?

Iago    I warrant something from Venice.

                Enter LODOVICO, DESDEMONA, and ATTENDANTS.

                                        'Tis Lodovico.
    This comes from the duke. See, your wife's with him.

Lodovico    God save you, worthy general!

Othello                                With all my heart, sir.

Lodovico    [Giving a letter.]
    The duke and senators of Venice greet you.

Othello    I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.
                                                [Reads.
Desdemona    And what's the news, good cousin Lodovico?

Iago    I am very glad to see you, signor.
    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
    T'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                        Maybe the letter moved him;
    For, as I think, they do command him home,
    Deputing Cassio in his government.

Desdemona    By my troth, I am glad on't.

Othello                                Indeed?

Desdemona                                        My lord?

Othello    I am glad to see you mad.

Desdemona                            Why, sweet Othello!

Othello    Devil!
                                                [Strikes her.
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.

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 noble 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.
                                                [Exeunt.