Othello: Act 4, Scene 1
Laurence Fishburne as Othello and Kenneth Branagh as Iago
1995 film
Enter OTHELLO and IAGO.
IAGO
1
Will you think so?
OTHELLO
Think so, Iago!
IAGO
What,
2
To kiss in private?
OTHELLO
An unauthorized kiss.
IAGO
3
Or to be naked with her friend in bed
4
An hour or more, not meaning any harm?
OTHELLO
5
Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm!
6
It is hypocrisy against the devil:
7
They that mean virtuously, and yet do so,
8
The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.
IAGO
9
So they do nothing, 'tis a venial slip;
10
But if I give my wife a handkerchief
OTHELLO
11
What then?
IAGO
12
Why, then, 'tis hers, my lord; and, being hers,
13
She may, I think, bestow't on any man.
OTHELLO
14
She is protectress of her honor too:
15
May she give that?
IAGO
16
Her honor is an essence that's not seen;
17
They have it very oft that have it not:
17. They have it very oft that have it not: i.e., often individuals who have a reputation for honor don't have any honor.
18
But, for the handkerchief
OTHELLO
19
By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it.
20
Thou said'st (O, it comes o'er my memory,
21
As doth the raven o'er the infected house,
21. raven o'er the infected house: This is an allusion to the belief that a raven would hover over a house of sickness or infection, such as one visited by the plague.
22
Boding to all) he had my handkerchief.
IAGO
23
Ay, what of that?
OTHELLO
That's not so good now.
IAGO
What
24
If I had said I had seen him do you wrong?
25
Or heard him say as knaves be such abroad,
25. abroad: around or about.
26
Who having, by their own importunate suit,
27
Or voluntary dotage of some mistress,
28
Convinced or supplied them, cannot choose
28. Convinced or supplied them: Seduced or satisfied them.
29
But they must blab
OTHELLO
Hath he said any thing?
IAGO
30
He hath, my lord; but be you well assured,
31
No more than he'll unswear.
OTHELLO
What hath he said?
IAGO
32
Faith, that he didI know not what he did.
OTHELLO
33
What? what?
IAGO
34
Lie
OTHELLO
With her?
IAGO
With her, on her; what you will.
OTHELLO
35
Lie with her! lie on her! We say lie on her, when
36
they belie her. Lie with her! that's fulsome.
37
Handkerchiefconfessionshandkerchief!To
38
confess, and be hanged for his labor;first, to be
39
hanged, and then to confess.I tremble at it.
40
Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing
41
passion without some instruction. It is not words
40-41. Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing / passion without some instruction: i.e., It is not natural that I would feel such overwhelming ("shadowing") emotion without some foundation in fact. instruction: cause.
42
that shake me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips.
43
Is't possible?Confesshandkerchief!O devil!
Falls in a trance.
"Work on, my medicine, Work!"
Illustrator: H.C. Selous
IAGO
44
Work on,
45
My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught;
46
And many worthy and chaste dames even thus,
47
All guiltless, meet reproach. What, ho! my lord!
48
My lord, I say! Othello!
Enter CASSIO.
48
How now, Cassio!
CASSIO
49
What's the matter?
IAGO
50
My lord is fall'n into an epilepsy.
51
This is his second fit; he had one yesterday.
CASSIO
52
Rub him about the temples.
IAGO
No, forbear;
53
The lethargy must have his quiet course:
53. lethargy: morbid drowsiness. must have his quiet course: run its course quietly.
54
If not, he foams at mouth and by and by
55
Breaks out to savage madness. Look he stirs:
56
Do you withdraw yourself a little while,
57
He will recover straight: when he is gone,
58
I would on great occasion speak with you.
[Exit Cassio.]
59
How is it, general? Have you not hurt your head?
59. hurt your head: Othello takes this as alluding to a cuckold's horns.
OTHELLO
60
Dost thou mock me?
IAGO
I mock you not, by heaven.
61
Would you would bear your fortune like a man!
OTHELLO
62
A horned man's a monster and a beast.
IAGO
63
There's many a beast then in a populous city,
64
And many a civil monster.
64. civil monster: i.e., monster among the citizenry.
OTHELLO
65
Did he confess it?
IAGO
Good sir, be a man;
66
Think every bearded fellow that's but yoked
66. yoked: married.
67
May draw with you. There's millions now alive
67. draw with you: i.e., share your fate as cuckold.
68
That nightly lie in those unproper beds
68. lie in . . . peculiar: lie in beds which are not exclusively their own, which they dare to swear are their own. your case is better: Othello's case is better because he knows the truth.
69
Which they dare swear peculiar: your case is better.
70
O, 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock,
71
To lip a wanton in a secure couch,
71. lip: kiss. secure: unsuspected.
72
And to suppose her chaste! No, let me know;
73
And knowing what I am, I know what she shall be.
OTHELLO
74
O, thou art wise; 'tis certain.
IAGO
Stand you awhile apart;
75
Confine yourself but in a patient list.
75. Confine yourself but in a patient list: hold yourself within the bounds of patience.
76
Whilst you were here o'erwhelmed with your grief
77
A passion most unsuiting such a man
78
Cassio came hither: I shifted him away,
79
And laid good 'scuse upon your ecstasy,
79. laid good 'scuse upon your ecstasy: made a plausible excuse for you trance.
80
Bade him anon return and here speak with me;
81. encave: conceal.
81
The which he promised. Do but encave yourself,
82
And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns,
82. fleers: sneers. notable scorns: obvious instances of disrespect.
83
That dwell in every region of his face,
84
For I will make him tell the tale anew:
85
Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when
86
He hath, and is again to cope your wife.
86. cope: copulate with.
87
I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience;
88
Or I shall say you are all in all in spleen,
88. all in all in spleen: utterly governed by passionate impulses.
89
And nothing of a man.
Illustrator: Kenny Meadows
OTHELLO
Dost thou hear, Iago?
90
I will be found most cunning in my patience;
91
Butdost thou hear?most bloody.
IAGO
That's not amiss;
92
But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw?
[Othello hides himself where he can see
what is happening.]
93
Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,
94
A huswife that by selling her desires
94. huswife: hussy.
95
Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature
96
That dotes on Cassio; as 'tis the strumpet's plague
96. strumpet: prostitute.
97
To beguile many and be beguiled by one:
98
He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain
99
From the excess of laughter. Here he comes:
Enter CASSIO.
100
As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;
101
And his unbookish jealousy must construe
101. unbookish: uninstructed; ignorant. construe: interpret.
102
Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures and light behavior,
103
Quite in the wrong. How do you now, lieutenant?
CASSIO
104
The worser that you give me the addition
104. the addition: the title of "lieutenant."
105
Whose want even kills me.
105. want: lack. Being addressed as "lieutenant" makes Cassio feel "worser" because he is no longer a lieutenant.
IAGO
106
Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on't.
[Speaking "Bianca" lower, so Othello
can't hear.]
107
Now, if this suit lay in Bianca's power,
108
How quickly should you speed!
CASSIO
Alas, poor caitiff!
108. caitiff: wretch.
OTHELLO
109
Look, how he laughs already!
IAGO
110
I never knew woman love man so.
CASSIO
111
Alas, poor rogue! I think, i' faith, she loves me.
OTHELLO
112
Now he denies it faintly, and laughs it out.
112. faintly: not very earnestly.
IAGO
113
Do you hear, Cassio?
OTHELLO
113
Now he importunes him
114
To tell it o'er: go to; well said, well said.
IAGO
115
She gives it out that you shall marry her:
116
Do you intend it?
CASSIO
117
Ha, ha, ha!
OTHELLO
118
Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?
118. Roman: the Romans were noted for their triumphal processions, called "triumphs."
CASSIO
119
I marry her! what? a customer! Prithee,
119. customer: prostitute.
120
bear some charity to my wit: do not think
121
it so unwholesome. Ha, ha, ha!
121. unwholesome: unsound, sick.
OTHELLO
122
So, so, so, so: they laugh that win.
122. they laugh that win: i.e., they that laugh last laugh best.
IAGO
123
Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her.
CASSIO
124
Prithee, say true.
IAGO
125
I am a very villain else.
OTHELLO
126
Have you scor'd me? Well.
126. you: i.e., Cassio. scor'd me: scored off me, made a joke of me
CASSIO
127
This is the monkey's own giving out. She is
127. the monkey's own giving out: i.e., Bianca's own story.
128
persuaded I will marry her, out of her own
128-129. her own / love and flattery: her self-love and self-satisfaction.
129
love and flattery, not out of my promise.
OTHELLO
130
Iago beckons me; now he begins the
130. beckons: signals.
131
story.
CASSIO
132
She was here even now; she haunts me in
133
every place. I was the other day talking on
134
the sea-bank with certain Venetians; and
135
thither comes the bauble, and, by this hand,
135. bauble: plaything; toy.
136
she falls me thus about my neck
OTHELLO
137
Crying "O dear Cassio!" as it were: his gesture
138
imports it.
CASSIO
139
So hangs, and lolls, and weeps upon me; so hales,
139. hales: tugs.
140
and pulls me: ha, ha, ha!
OTHELLO
141
Now he tells how she plucked him to my chamber.
142
O, I see that nose of yours, but not that dog I shall
143
throw it to.
CASSIO
144
Well, I must leave her company.
IAGO
145
Before me! look, where she comes.
145. Before me: i.e., on my soul.
Enter BIANCA.
CASSIO
146
'Tis such another fitchew! marry, a perfumed one.
146. fitchew: polecat (thought to be very lecherous as well as strong smelling); also a slang word for prostitute.
147
What do you mean by this haunting of me?
BIANCA
148
Let the devil and his dam haunt you! What did you
149
mean by that same handkerchief you gave me even
150
now? I was a fine fool to take it. I must take out the
151
work?A likely piece of work, that you should
150-151. take out the work: i.e., sew another handkerchief with the same design.
152
find it in your chamber, and not know who left it
153
there! This is some minx's token, and I must take
154
out the work? There; give it your hobby-horse:
154. hobby-horse: harlot; woman of easy virtue.
155
wheresoever you had it, I'll take out no work on't.
Patrick Vaill as Cassio; Natascia Diaz as Bianca
--Shakespeare Theatre Company, 2016--
CASSIO
156
How now, my sweet Bianca! how now! how
157
now!
OTHELLO
158
By heaven, that should be my handkerchief!
BIANCA
159
An you'll come to supper tonight, you may;
160
an you will not, come when you are next
161
prepared for.
Exit.
IAGO
162
After her, after her.
CASSIO
163
Faith, I must; she'll rail in the street else.
IAGO
164
Will you sup there?
CASSIO
165
Faith, I intend so.
IAGO
166
Well, I may chance to see you; for I would
167
very fain speak with you.
CASSIO
168
Prithee, come; will you?
IAGO
169
Go to; say no more.
[Exit Cassio.]
OTHELLO [Coming out of hiding.]
170
How shall I murder him, Iago?
IAGO
171
Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice?
OTHELLO
172
O Iago!
IAGO
173
And did you see the handkerchief?
OTHELLO
174
Was that mine?
IAGO
175
Yours by this hand: and to see how he prizes the
176
foolish woman your wife! she gave it him, and he
177
hath given it his whore.
OTHELLO
178
I would have him nine years a-killing.
179
A fine woman! a fair woman! a sweet woman!
IAGO
180
Nay, you must forget that.
OTHELLO
181
Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be damned tonight;
182
for she shall not live: no, my heart is turned to
183
stone; I strike it, and it hurts my hand. O, the
184
world hath not a sweeter creature! she might lie by
185
an emperor's side and command him tasks.
IAGO
186
Nay, that's not your way.
186. your way: your proper course, the direction your mind should take; i.e., the way you should think of her.
OTHELLO
187
Hang her! I do but say what she is. So delicate
188
with her needle: an admirable musician! O, she
189
will sing the savageness out of a bear. Of so high
190
and plenteous wit and invention!
IAGO
191
She's the worse for all this.
OTHELLO
192
O, a thousand thousand times: and then, of so
192-193. of so gentle a condition: so nobly born and bred.
193
gentle a condition!
IAGO
194
Ay, too gentle.
194. gentle: i.e., generous with her favors.
OTHELLO
195
Nay, that's certain. But yet the pity of it, Iago!
196
O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!
IAGO
197
If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her
197. fond: dotingly foolish.
198
patent to offend; for, if it touch not you, it comes
198. patent: license.
199
near nobody.
OTHELLO
200
I will chop her into messes. Cuckold me!
200. messes: portions of food. i.e., little pieces.
IAGO
201
O, 'tis foul in her.
OTHELLO
202
With mine officer!
IAGO
203
That's fouler.
OTHELLO
204
Get me some poison, Iago; this night. I'll not
205
expostulate with her, lest her body and beauty
205. body and beauty: physical beauty.
206
unprovide my mind again. This night, Iago.
IAGO
207
Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed,
208
even the bed she hath contaminated.
OTHELLO
209
Good, good: the justice of it pleases: very
210
good.
IAGO
211
And for Cassio, let me be his undertaker: you
211. be his undertaker: be the one to undertake his killing.
212
shall hear more by midnight.
OTHELLO
213
Excellent good.
[A trumpet within.]
What trumpet is that same?
IAGO
214
I warrant something from Venice.
Enter LODOVICO, DESDEMONA,
and ATTENDANTS.
'Tis Lodovico
215
This comes from the Duke. See, your wife's with him.
LODOVICO
216
God save you, worthy general!
OTHELLO
With all my heart, sir.
216. With all my heart: i.e., I heartily thank you.
LODOVICO
217
The duke and senators of Venice greet you.
[Gives him a letter.]
OTHELLO
218
I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.
[Opens the letter, and reads.]
DESDEMONA
219
And what's the news, good cousin Lodovico?
IAGO
220
I am very glad to see you, signior
221
Welcome to Cyprus.
LODOVICO
222
I thank you. How does Lieutenant Cassio?
IAGO
223
Lives, sir.
DESDEMONA
224
Cousin, there's fall'n between him and my lord
225
An unkind breach; but you shall make all well.
OTHELLO
226
Are you sure of that?
DESDEMONA
227
My lord?
OTHELLO [Reads.]
228
"This fail you not to do, as you
229
will"
LODOVICO
230
He did not call; he's busy in the paper.
231
Is there division 'twixt my lord and Cassio?
DESDEMONA
232
A most unhappy one. I would do much
233
To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio.
233. atone them: reconcile them.
OTHELLO
234
Fire and brimstone!
DESDEMONA
My lord?
OTHELLO
Are you wise?
DESDEMONA
235
What, is he angry?
LODOVICO
May be the letter moved him;
236
For, as I think, they do command him home,
237
Deputing Cassio in his government.
237. Deputing Cassio in his government: naming Cassio as his replacement.
DESDEMONA
238
By my troth, I am glad on't.
OTHELLO
Indeed!
DESDEMONA
My lord?
OTHELLO
239
I am glad to see you mad.
DESDEMONA
Why, sweet Othello,
OTHELLO [Striking her.]
240
Devil!
DESDEMONA
241
I have not deserved this.
LODOVICO
242
My lord, this would not be believed in Venice,
243
Though I should swear I saw't: 'tis very much:
244
Make her amends; she weeps.
OTHELLO
O devil, devil!
245
If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,
245. teem with: breed, be made pregnant by.
246
Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.
246. falls: lets fall. crocodile: Crocodiles were supposed to weep hypocritical tears for their victims.
247
Out of my sight!
DESDEMONA
I will not stay to offend you.
[Going.]
LODOVICO
248
Truly, an obedient lady:
249
I do beseech your lordship, call her back.
OTHELLO
250
Mistress!
DESDEMONA
My lord?
OTHELLO
What would you with her, sir?
LODOVICO
251
Who, I, my lord?
OTHELLO
252
Ay; you did wish that I would make her turn:
253
Sir, she can turn, and turn, and yet go on,
254
And turn again; and she can weep, sir, weep;
255
And she's obedient, as you say, obedient,
256
Very obedient. Proceed you in your tears.
257
Concerning this, sir,O well-painted passion!
258
I am commanded home. Get you away;
259
I'll send for you anon. Sir, I obey the mandate,
260
And will return to Venice. Hence, avaunt!
260. avaunt: begone.
[Exit Desdemona.]
261
Cassio shall have my place. And, sir, tonight,
262
I do entreat that we may sup together:
263
You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.Goats and monkeys!
263. Goats and monkeys!: Both animals were known to be extremely lecherous.
Exit.
LODOVICO
264
Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate
265
Call all in all sufficient? Is this the nature
266
Whom passion could not shake? whose solid virtue
267
The shot of accident, nor dart of chance,
268
Could neither graze nor pierce?
IAGO
He is much changed.
LODOVICO
269
Are his wits safe? is he not light of brain?
269. safe: sound.
IAGO
270
He's that he is; I may not breathe my censure
271
What he might be. If what he might he is not,
272
I would to heaven he were!
270-272. I may not . . . he were!: I dare not venture an opinion as to whether he's of unsound mind, as you suggest; but if he isn't, then it might be better to wish he were in fact insane, since only that could excuse his wild behavior.
LODOVICO
What, strike his wife!
IAGO
273
'Faith, that was not so well; yet would I knew
274
That stroke would prove the worst!
LODOVICO
Is it his use?
274. use: custom, habit.
275
Or did the letters work upon his blood,
275. blood: passions.
276
And new-create this fault?
IAGO
Alas, alas!
277
It is not honesty in me to speak
278
What I have seen and known. You shall observe him,
279
And his own courses will denote him so
280
That I may save my speech: do but go after,
281
And mark how he continues.
LODOVICO
282
I am sorry that I am deceived in him.
Exeunt.