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And think it no addition, nor my wish,
To have him see me woman'd.
Bian. Why, I pray you?

Cas. Not that I love you not.

Bian. But that you do not love me.

I pray you, bring me on the way a little;
And say, if I shall see you soon at night.

Cas. 'Tis but a little way, that I can bring you,
For I attend here: but I'll see you soon.

Bian. 'Tis very good; I must be circumstanc'd.

ACT IV.

[Exeunt

SCENE I.-The same. Enter OTHELLO and Iago.

Iago. WILL you think so?

Oth. Think so, Iago?

Iago. What,

To kiss in private ?

Oth. An unauthoriz'd kiss.

Iago. Or to be naked with her friend abed,

An hour, or more, not meaning any harm?
Oth. Naked abed, lago, 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. So they do nothing, 'tis a venial slip :

But if I give my wife a handkerchief,

Oth. What then?

Iago. Why, then 'tis hers, my lord; and, being hers,

She may, I think, bestow't on any man.

Oth. She is protectress of her honour too;

May she give that?

lago. Her honour is an essence that's not seen; They have it very oft, that have it not :

But, for the handkerchief,

Oth. By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it : Thou saidst,-O, it comes o'er my memory,

As doth the raven o'er the infected house,

Boding to all,--he had my

Iago. Ay, what of that?

handkerchief.

Oth. 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,
Convinced or supplied them, cannot choose
But they must blab-

Oth. Hath he said any thing?

Iago. He hath, my lord; but be you well assur'd, No more than he'll unswear.

Oth. What hath he said?

Iago. 'Faith, that he did,-I know not what he did.
Oth. What? what?

ago. Lie

Oth. With her?

Iago. With her, on her; what you will.

Oth. Lie with her! lie on her!-We say, lie on her, when they belie her: Lie with her! 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 it 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!
Enter CASSIO.

My lord, I say! Othello!-How now, Cassio ?
Cas. What is the matter?

Iago. My lord is fallen into an epilepsy;
This is his second fit; he had one yesterday.
Cas. 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 CAS.

--How is it, general? have you not hurt your head?

Oth. Dost thou mock me?

Iago. I mock you! no, by heaven :

'Would, you would bear your fortunes like a man. Oth. A horned man's a monster, and a beast.

Iago. There's many a beast then in a populous city,
And many a civil monster.
Oth. Did he confess it?

Iago. Good sir, be a man ;

Think, every bearded fellow that's hot

w the cut yok'd,

May draw with you there's millions now alive,

That nightly me 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.
Oth. O, thou art wise; 'tis certain.

Iago. Stand you awhile apart;
Confine yourself but in a patient list.

Whilst you were here, ere while mad with your grief,
(A passion most unsuiting such a man,)
Cassio came hither: I shifted him away,
And laid good 'scuse upon your ecstasy ;

Bade him anon return, and here speak with me ;
The which he promis'd. Do but encave yourself,3
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;

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I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience;
Or I shall say, you are all in all in spleen,
And nothing of a man.

Oth. Dost thou hear, Iago?

I will be found most cunning in my patience;
But (dost thou hear ?) most bloody.

lago. That's not amiss ;

But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw?

Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,

181

[OTHELLO withdraws.

A housewife, 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 beguil'd by one ;-

He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain

[1] Unproper for common.

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COLLINS.

WARBURTON.

List, or lists, is barriers, bounds. Keep your temper, says Iago, within the bounds of patience. [3] Hide yourself in a private place.

JOHNSON.

From the excess of laughter :-Here he comes :~~
Re-enter CASSIO.

A he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;
And his bookish jealousy' must construe
Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures, aud light behaviour,
Quite in the wrong.-How do you no lieutenant?
Cas. The worser, that you give me the addition,
Whose want even kills me.

Iago. Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure of't.
Now, if this suit lay in Bianca's power,

How quickly should you speed?

Cas. Alas, poor caitiff!

Oth. Look, how he laughs already!

[Speaking lower.

[Aside.

lago. I never knew a woman love man so.

Cas. Alas, poor rogue! I think, I'faith, she loves me. Oth. Now he denies it faintly, and laughs it out. [Aside. lago. Do you hear, Cassio?

Oth. Now he importunes him

To tell it o'er: Go to; well said, well said.

lago. She gives it out, that you shall marry her :

Do you intend it?

Cas. Ha, ha, ha!

[Aside

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 unwholesome. Ha, ha, ha!

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? Well.

[Aside.

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 ;

Unbookish, for ignorant.

WARBURTON.

[5] Othello calls him Roman ironically. Triumph, which was a Roman ceremony, brought Roman into his thoughts. What, says he, you are now triumphing us great as a Roman.

JOHNSON.

[6] A common woman, one that invites custom.

STEEVENS.

[7] Have you made my reckoning? have you settled the term of my life. See Illustrations.

JOHNSON.

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 chamber. O, I see that nose of yours, but not that dog I shall throw it to.[Aside.

Cas. Well, I must leave her company.

Iago. Before me! look, where she comes.
Enter BIANCA.

Cas. 'Tis such another fitchew!8 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! [Asi. 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!

[8] Fitchew, a pole-cat. So in King Lear:

"The fitchew, nor the soiled horse," &c.

A pole-cat was anciently one of the cant terms for a strumpet.

STEEVENS.

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