Is ’t come to this?
IAGO
Has it come to this?
375
OTHELLO
Make me to see ’t, or at the least so prove it That the probation bear no hinge nor loop To hang a doubt on, or woe upon thy life!
OTHELLO
Show me, or at least prove it beyond the shadow of a doubt. If you can’t, your life is worthless!
IAGO My noble lord— IAGO My noble lord— 380 OTHELLO
If thou dost slander her and torture me, Never pray more. Abandon all remorse. On horror’s head horrors accumulate,
Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed, For nothing canst thou to damnation add
Greater than that.
OTHELLO
If you’re slandering her just to torture me, then it’ll be no use to pray for mercy or say you’re sorry. You might as well go ahead and commit every unspeakable crime you can think of, because there’s nothing you could that would top what you’ve already done!
385
390
IAGO
Oh, grace! Oh, heaven forgive me! Are you a man? Have you a soul or sense? God buy you, take mine office. O wretched fool That lov’st to make thine honesty a vice!
O monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world, To be direct and honest is not safe.
I thank you for this profit, and from hence I’ll love no friend, sith love breeds such offence.
IAGO
Oh, heaven help me! Aren’t you a rational human being? Don’t you have any sense at all?
Goodbye. I resign my official position. I’m such an idiot for always telling the truth! What a horrible world we live in! Listen, pay attention, everybody. It’s not safe to be straightforward and honest. I’m glad you’ve taught me this valuable lesson. From now on, I’ll never try to help a friend when it hurts him so much to hear the truth.
OTHELLO
Nay, stay. Thou shouldst be honest.
OTHELLO
No, stop. You should always be honest.
IAGO
I should be wise, for honesty’s a fool And loses that it works for.
IAGO
I should always be wise. Honesty’s stupid, it makes me lose my friends even when I’m trying to help them.
395
400
OTHELLO
By the world,
I think my wife be honest and think she is not. I think that thou art just and think thou art not. I’ll have some proof. Her name, that was as fresh As Dian’s visage, is now begrimed and black As mine own face. If there be cords or knives, Poison, or fire, or suffocating streams, I’ll not endure it. Would I were satisfied!
OTHELLO
I swear, I think my wife’s faithful, and I think she’s not. I think you’re trustworthy one minute and then not the next. I need proof! Her reputation was as pure as the snow, but now it’s as dirty and black as my own face. As long as there are ropes, knives, poison, fire, or streams to drown in , I won’t stand for this. Oh, how I wish I knew the truth!
Act 3, Scene 3, Page 18
IAGOI see, sir, you are eaten up with passion. I do repent me that I put it to you.
IAGO
I see you’re all eaten up with emotion. I’m sorry I said anything. You want proof?
You would be satisfied?
OTHELLO
Would? Nay, and I will.
OTHELLO
Want? Yes, I want it, and I’ll get it.
405
IAGO
And may, but how? How satisfied, my lord? Would you, the supervisor, grossly gape on, Behold her topped?
IAGO
But how? How will you get proof? Are you going to hide and watch them having sex?
OTHELLO
Death and damnation! Oh!
OTHELLO
Death and damnation! Oh!
410
415
IAGO
It were a tedious difficulty, I think,
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 ’t.
IAGO
I think it would be very hard to arrange for them to have sex while you watched. If anyone sees them in bed together besides themselves, I guess we could damn them then. So what can we do? What can I say? What proof is there? It’d be impossible for you to watch them, even if they were as horny as animals in heat and as stupid as drunks. But if you would be willing to accept circumstantial evidence as proof, we can get that.
OTHELLO
Give me a living reason she’s disloyal.
OTHELLO
Give me one good reason to think she’s cheating on me.
420
425
IAGO
I do not like the office.
But, sith I am entered in this cause so far, Pricked to ’t 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
IAGO
I don’t like what you’re asking me to do. But since I’ve gotten myself involved this far, because I’m so stupidly honest and because I like you so much, I’ll keep going. I recently shared a bed with Cassio, and I couldn’t sleep because of a raging toothache. Well, some people talk in their sleep, and Cassio is one of them. I heard him saying, “Sweet Desdemona, let’s be careful and hide our love,” in his sleep. And then he grabbed my hand and said, “Oh, my darling!” and
Act 3, Scene 3, Page 19
430
435
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, lay his leg
Over my thigh, and sigh, and kiss, and then Cry “Cursed fate that gave thee to the Moor!”
kissed me hard, as if he were trying to suck my lips off. Then he put his leg over mine, and sighed and kissed me, and said, “Damn fate for giving you to the Moor!”
OTHELLO
Oh, monstrous! Monstrous!
OTHELLO
Oh, that’s monstrous! Monstrous!
IAGO
Nay, this was but his dream.
IAGO
OTHELLO
But this denoted a foregone conclusion.
OTHELLO
But it shows that something has already happened.
440
IAGO
'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream. And this may help to thicken other proofs That do demonstrate thinly.
IAGO
It’s a reason for suspicion, even though it’s just a dream. And it might back up other evidence that may seem too flimsy.
OTHELLO
I’ll tear her all to pieces!
OTHELLO
I’ll tear her to pieces!
445
IAGO
Nay, yet 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?
IAGO
No, be reasonable. We don’t have any proof yet. She might still be faithful. Just tell me this: have you ever seen her holding a handkerchief with an embroidered strawberry pattern on it?
OTHELLO
I gave her such a one, ’twas my first gift.
OTHELLO
Yes, I gave her one like that. It was my first gift to her.
IAGO
I know not that, but such a handkerchief— I am sure it was your wife’s—did I today See Cassio wipe his beard with.
IAGO
I don’t know about that, but I saw a handkerchief like that today. I’m sure it belongs to your wife, and I saw Cassio use it to wipe his beard.
OTHELLO
If it be that—
OTHELLO
If it’s the same one—
450
IAGO
If it be that, or any that was hers,
It speaks against her with the other proofs.
IAGO
If it’s the same one, or any one that belongs to her, then together with the other evidence it’s pretty strong.
Act 3, Scene 3, Page 20
455
460
OTHELLO
Oh, 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 the hollow hell! Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught, For ’tis of aspics' tongues!
OTHELLO
Oh, I’d kill that bastard Cassio forty thousand times if I could! Killing him once is not enough revenge. Now I see it’s true. Oh, Iago, all the love I felt is gone, vanished in the wind.
Welcome, hatred and vengeance! Get out of my heart, love! My heart feels like it’s full of
poisonous snakes! IAGO Yet be content. IAGO Calm down— OTHELLO
Oh, blood, blood, blood!
OTHELLO
I want blood!
IAGO
Patience, I say. Your mind may change.
IAGO
Be patient, I’m telling you. You may change your mind later.
465
OTHELLO
Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic sea, Whose icy current and compulsive course Ne'er keeps retiring ebb but keeps due on To the Propontic and the Hellespont,
Even so my bloody thoughts with violent pace
OTHELLO
Never, Iago. My thoughts of revenge are flowing through me like a violent river, never turning back to love, only flowing toward full revenge that’ll swallow them up. I swear to God I’ll get
470
Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love Till that a capable and wide revenge
Swallow them up. Now, by yon marble heaven, In the due reverence of a sacred vow
I here engage my words. (he kneels)
475
IAGO
Do not rise yet.
Witness, you ever-burning lights above, You elements that clip us round about, Witness that here Iago 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,
What bloody business ever.
IAGO
Don’t get up yet. Let heaven be my witness—I’m putting my mind, my heart, and my hands in Othello’s control. Let him command me, and I’ll do whatever he asks, no matter how violent.
Act 3, Scene 3, Page 21
480
OTHELLO
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.
OTHELLO
I accept your devotion with my deepest love. I’ll put you to the test right away. Within the next three days I want to hear you tell me that Cassio’s dead.
IAGO
My friend is dead,
'Tis done at your request. But let her live.
IAGO
My friend Cassio is dead. It’s done, because you request it. But let her live.
485
OTHELLO
Damn her, lewd minx! Oh, damn her, 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.
OTHELLO
Damn her, the wicked whore! Oh, damn her, damn her! Come away with me. I’m going inside to think up some way to kill that beautiful devil. You’re my lieutenant now.
IAGO
I am your own for ever.
IAGO
I’m yours forever.
Exeunt They exit.
Act 3, Scene 4
Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, and CLOWN DESDEMONA, EMILIA and the CLOWN enter.
DESDEMONA
Do you know, sirrah, where Lieutenant Cassio lies?
DESDEMONA
Excuse me, do you know which room Lieutenant
Cassio lies in?
CLOWN
I dare not say he lies anywhere.
CLOWN
I wouldn’t dare say he lies anywhere.
DESDEMONA
Why, man?
DESDEMONA
Why do you say that?
CLOWN
He’s a soldier, and for one to say a soldier lies, ’tis stabbing.
CLOWN
He’s a soldier. If I accused a soldier of lying, he’d stab me.
5
DESDEMONA
Go to. Where lodges he?
DESDEMONA
Oh, come on. Where does he sleep?
CLOWN
To tell you where he lodges is to tell you where I lie.
CLOWN
where I’m lying.