Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

Oth. Look, how he laughs already!

Jago. I never knew a woman love man so.

[Aside.

Cas. Alas, poor rogue! I think i'faith, she loves me.
Oth. Now he denies it faintly, and laughs it out.

Iago. Do you hear, Cassio?

Oth.

[Aside.

Now he importunes him To tell it o'er: Go to; well said, well said. [Aside. Iago. She gives it out, that you shall marry her: Do you intend it?

[blocks in formation]

Oth. Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?

[Aside.

Cas. I marry her!-what? a customer! I pr'ythee, bear some charity to my wit; do not think it so unwholeHa, ha, ha!

some.

Oth. So, so, so, so: They laugh that win.

[Aside.

Iago. 'Faith, the cry goes, that you shall marry her.

Cas. Pr'ythee, say true.

Iago. I am a very villain else.

Oth. Have you scored me?s Well.

Cas. 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.

Oth. Iago beckons me; now he begins the story.

[Aside. Cas. 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 this bauble; by this hand, she falls thus about my neck;

Oth. Crying, O dear Cassio! as it were: his gesture imports it. [Aside. Cas. So hangs, and lolls, and weeps upon me; so hales, and pulls me ha, ha, ha !—

Oth. Now he tells, how she plucked him to my chama Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?] Othello calls him Roman ironically. Triumph, which was a Roman ceremony, brought Roman into his thoughts. What, (says he,) you are now triumphing as great as a Roman ?— JOHNSON.

T a customer!] i. e. A common woman, one that invites custom.

• Have you scored me?] Have you made my reckoning? have you settled the term of my life?-JOHNSON.

ber: O, I see that nose of yours, but not that dog I shall throw it to.

Cas. Well, I must leave her company.

Iago. Before me! look, where she comes.

Enter BIANCA.

[Aside.

Cas. 'Tis such another fitchew! marry, a perfumed one. What do you mean by this haunting of me?

Bian. 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 whole 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.

Cas. How now, my sweet Bianca? how now? how now? Oth. By heaven, that should be my handkerchief!

[Aside. Bian. An you'll come to supper to-night, you may: an you will not, come when you are next prepared for. [Exit. Iago. After her, after her.

Cas. 'Faith, I must, she'll rail in the street else.
Iago. Will you sup there?

Cas. 'Faith, I intend so.

Iago. Well, I may chance to see you; for I would very

fain speak with you.

Cas. Pr'ythee, come; Will you?

Iago. Go to; say no more.

Oth. How shall I murder him, Iago?

[Exit CASSIO.

Iago. Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice?

Oth. O, Iago!

Iago. And did you see the handkerchief?

Oth. 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 given it his whore.

Oth. I would have him nine years a killing :

A fine woman! a fair woman! a sweet woman!

[ocr errors][merged small]

Iago Nay, you must forget that.

Oth. 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.

Oth. 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.

Oth. O, a thousand, a thousand times :-And then, of so gentle a condition!"

Iugo. Ay, too gentle.

Oth. 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 touch not you, it comes near nobody.

Oth. I will chop her into messes:-Cuckold me!
Iago. O, 'tis foul in her.

Oth. With mine officer!

Iago. That's fouler.

Oth. 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.

Oth. Good, good: the justice of it pleases; very good. Iago. And, for Cassio,-let me be his undertaker : You shall hear more by midnight. [A Trumpet within. Oth. Excellent good.-What trumpet is that same? Iago. Something from Venice, sure. 'Tis Lodovico, Come from the duke; and, see, your wife is with him.

Enter LODOVICO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants. Lod. 'Save you, worthy general!

[ocr errors]

of so gentle a condition!] i. e. Of so sweet a disposition.—MALONE.

Oth.

With all my heart, sir.*

Lod. The duke and senators of Venice greet you.

[Gives him a Packet.

Oth. I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.

[Opens the Packet, and reads.

Des. And what's the news, good cousin Lodovico?
Iago. I am very glad to see you, signior;

Welcome to Cyprus.

Lod. I thank you: how does lieutenant Cassio?
Iago. Lives, sir.

Des. Cousin, there's fallen between him and my lord An unkind breach: but you shall make all well.

Oth. Are you sure of that?

Des. My lord?

Oth.

This fail you not to do, as you will—

Lod. He did not call: he's busy in the paper, Is there division 'twixt thy lord and Cassio? Des. A most unhappy one; I would do much To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio. Oth. Fire and brimstone!

Des.

[Reads.

My lord?

Oth.

Are you wise?

Des. What, is he angry?

'May be, the letter mov'd him;

Lod.

For, as I think, they do command him home,

Deputing Cassio in his government.

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

[blocks in formation]

Lod. My lord, this would not be believ'd in Venice, Though I should swear I saw it: 'Tis very much; Make her amends, she weeps.

[ocr errors]

With all my heart, sir.] This does not relate to what Lodovico has just said, but is spoken by Othello while he salutes him.-MALONE. atone- i. e. Reconcile.

Y

Oth.

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!

Des.

I will not stay to offend you.

Lod. Truly, an obedient lady :—

I do beseech your lordship, call her back.

Oth. Mistress

[Going.

Des.

My lord?

Oth.

What would you with her, sir?

Lod. Who, I, my lord?

.

Oth. 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, to-night, I do entreat that we may sup together. You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus. Goats and monkies!

[Exit.

Lod. Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate
Call-all-in-all sufficient?-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?

He is much chang'd.

lago, Lod. Are his wits safe? is he not light of brain? Iago. He is that he is; I may not breathe my censure.

If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, &c.] By the doctrine of equivocal generation, new animals were supposed producible by new combinations of matter. Shakspeare here alludes to the fabulous accounts of crocodiles. Each tear (says Othello) which falls from the false Desdemona, would generate a crocodile; the most deceitful of all animals, and whose own tears are proverbially fallacious. Falls is here used actively for lets fall.-JOHNSON, MALONE, and STEEVENS.

« ElőzőTovább »