Oth.

O, she was foul!-[Rising.

I scarce did know you, uncle. There lies your niece, Whose breath, indeed, these hands have newly stopped. 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 lago knows

That she with Cassio hath the act of shame

A thousand times committed. Cassio confessed it;
And she did gratify his amorous works

With that recognizance 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.

Emil. O heaven! O heavenly powers!
Jago.

Čome, hold your peace.

Emil. "Twill out, 'twill out;-I hold my peace,

sir? no;

No, I will speak as liberal3 as the air;

Let Heaven, and men, and devils, let them all,
All, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak.
Iago. Be wise, and get you home.

Emil.

Gra.

I will not.

[IAGO offers to stab his wife.

Fie!

Your sword upon a woman?

Emil. O thou dull Moor! that handkerchief thou

speak'st of,

I found by fortune, and did give my husband;

The first and the second folio both read reprobance.

2 Dr. Johnson thinks that this and other passages in the play seem to suppose a longer space comprised in the action of this play than the scene includes.

3 The folio reads

"I'll be in speaking liberal as the north;"

the quarto 1622 "liberal as the air." The text is formed out of the two copies. Liberal here means free.

For often, with a solemn earnestness,

More than, indeed, belonged to such a trifle,) He begged of me to steal it.

Iago.

Villanous whore !

Emil. She give it Cassio! no, alas; I found it, And I did give't my husband.

Iago.

Filth, thou liest. Emil. By Heaven, I do not; I do not, gentlemen, O murderous coxcomb! what should such a fool Do with so good a wife?

Oth.

[IAGO stabs EMILIA, then runs out. Are there no stones in heaven,

But what serve for the thunder ?1-Precious villain! Gra. The woman falls; sure, he has killed his wife. Emil. Ay, ay; O, lay me by my mistress' side! Gra. He's gone, but his wife's killed.

Mon. 'Tis a notorious villain. Take you this

weapon,

Which I have here recovered from the Moor.
Come, guard the door without; let him not pass,
But kill him rather. I'll after that same villain,
For 'tis a damned slave.

Oth.

[Exeunt MONTANO and GRATIANO. I am not valiant, neither, But every puny whipster gets my sword.But why should honor outlive honesty? Let it go all.

Emil. What did thy song bode, lady? Hark, canst thou hear me? I will play the swan, And die in music :-Willow, willow, willow.Moor, she was chaste; she loved thee, cruel Moor; So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true; So speaking as I think, I die,-I die.

2

Oth. I have another weapon in this chamber;
It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook's temper;
O, here it is.-Uncle, I must come forth.

[Dies.

1 The meaning appears to be:-"Has not heaven one supernumerary bolt, to hurl directly at the head of this atrocious villain?"

2 The particular name of the ice-brook may be determined from several passages in Martial. (See lib. i. ep. 50, lib. iv. ep. 55.) It was probably

Gra. [Within.] If thou attempt it, it will cost thee

dear;

Thou hast no weapon, and perforce must suffer.
Oth. Look in upon me, then, and speak with me,
Or, naked as I am, I will assault thee.

Re-enter GRATIANO.

Gra. What is the matter?
Oth.

Behold! I have a weapon,

A better never did itself sustain

Upon 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, Ö, vain boast!
Who can control his fate? 'tis not so now.—
Be not afraid, though you do see me weaponed;
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,
And very seamark of my utmost sail.
Do you go back dismayed? '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? O ill-starred wench!1
Pale as thy smock! when we shall meet at compt,
This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven,
And fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my 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!

the brook or rivulet called Salo (now Xalon), near Bilbilis in Celtiberia. In this the Spaniards plunged all their swords and other weapons while hot from the forge; and to the icy quality of the waters thay were supposed to be indebted for their stubborn temper.

This and the six preceding lines are omitted in the first quarto Wench originally signified only a girl or young woman.

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

Lod. Where is this rash and most unfortunate man?
Oth. That's he, that was Othello; here I am.
Lod. Where is that viper? Bring the villain forth.
Oth. I look down towards his feet-but that's
a fable;

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

[OTHELLO Wounds IAGO.

Lod. Wrench his sword from him.

Iago.

I bleed, sir; but not killed.

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

Lod. Ŏ thou Othello, that was once so good,

Fallen in the practice of a cursed slave,

What shall be said to thee?

Oth.

Why, any thing.

An honorable murderer, if you will;

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

Lod. This wretch hath part confessed 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, Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body? lago. Demand me nothing. What you know, you

know;

From this time forth I never will speak word.

Lod. What? not to pray?

Gra.

Torments will ope your lips.

Oth. Well, thou dost best.

Lod. 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

1 To see if, according to the common opinion, his feet be cloven. 2 In the snare, by the stratagem.

The death of Cassio to be undertook

By Roderigo.

Oth. O villain!

Cas.

Most heathenish, and most gross!

Lod. 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, lago, in the interim,'

Came in and satisfied him.

Oth.

O, the pernicious caitiff!

I found it in my chamber:

How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief
That was my wife's?

Cas.

And he himself confessed, but even now,
That there he dropped 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 Iago, 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.

Lod. 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; 2 nothing extenuate,

Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak

1 The first quarto reads, "in the nick.”

2 Thus the folio. The quarto reads, "Speak of them as they are.”