All. O heavens forefend!

Emil. And your reports have set the murder on.
Oth. Nay, stare not, masters; it is true, indeed.
Gra. 'Tis a strange truth.

Mon. O monstrous act!

Emil. Villainy, villainy, villainy !

I think upon't, I think,-Ismell't;-Ovillainy!
I thought so then;-I'll kill myself for grief.—
O villainy, villainy!

Iugo. What, are you mad? I charge you, get 10
you home.
[speak;
Emil. Good gentlemen, let me have leave to
'Tis proper I obey him, but not now:-
Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home.

Which I have here recover'd from the Moor:
Come, guard the door without; let him not pass,
But kill him rather: I'll after that same villain,

Emil. Nay, lay thee down, and roar;
For thou hast kill'd the sweetest innocent,
That e'er did lift up eye.

Oth. O! O! O! [Othello looking on his wife. 15 For 'tis a damned slave. [Exeunt Mon. and Gra.
Oth. I am not valiant neither,
But every puny whipster gets my sword:-
But why should honour out-live honesty?
Let it go all.

:

Oth. O, she was foul!

[Rising. Iscarce did know you, uncle: There lies your niece, 20 Whose breath, indeed, these hands have newly stopp'd:

I know, this act shews 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 Iago knows,
That she with Cassio hath the act of shame
A thousand times committed; Cassio confess'd it;
And she did gratify his amorous works
With that recognizance and pledge of love
Which I once gave her; I saw it in his hand;
It was an handkerchief, an antique token
My father gave my mother.

Emil. O heaven! O heavenly powers!
Jago. Come, hold your peace.

Amil. 'Twill out, 'twill out:-I hold my peace,

sir? no,

10 murd'rous coxcomb! what should such a fool Do with so good a wife?

5

[Iago stabs his wife, then runs out. Oth. Are there no stones in heaven [lain! But what serve for the thunder?-Precious vilGra. The woman falls; sure he has kill'd his

No, I will speak as lib'ral' as the north;
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.
Amil. I will not. [lago offers to stab his wife.
Gra. Fie!

Your sword upon a woman?

Emil. O thou dull Moor! that handkerchief, thou speak'st of,

1 Liberal is free, under no controul. water.

wife.

Emil. Ay, ay; O, lay me by my mistress' side!
Gra. He's gone; but his wife's kill'd.
Mon. 'Tis a notorious villain. Take you this
weapon,

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

[Dies.

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

30

35

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,
40 I have made my way through more impediments
Than twenty times your stop:-But,O vain boast!
Who can controul his fate? 'tis not so now.-
Be not afraid, though you do see me weapon'd;
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,
45 The very sea-mark of my utmost sail.

Do you go back dismay'd? '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-starr'd
wench 3!

50

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.-

I found by fortune, and did give my husband;
For often, with a solemn earnestness,
(More than, indeed, belong'd to such a trifle)
He begg'd of me to steal it.

Iago. Villainous whore !

Emil. She give it Cassio! no, alas; I found it, And I did give it my husband.

[men:

Jago. Filth, thou liest.
Amil. By heaven, I do not; I do not, gentle-60 Dead? O! O! O!

550 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?

2 Steel is hardened by being put red-hot into very cold Wench originally signified only a young woman,

Enter

Enter Lodovico, Cassio brought in; Montano,
with Iago, prisoner; and Officers.
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 kill'd.
Oth. I am not sorry neither; I'd have thee live;
For, in my sense, 'tis happiness to die.

Lod. O thou Othello, that wast once so good,
Fall'n in the practice of a cursed slave,
What shall be said to thee?

Oth. Why, any thing:

An honourable murderer, if you will;
For nought I did in hate, but all in honour.
Lod. This wretch hath part confess'd his vil-
lainy:
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, demand that demi-devil, Why he hath thus ensnar'd 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 befall'n, Which, as I think, you know not: Here is letter,

a

Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo;
And here, another: the one of them imports
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!--
How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief
That was my wife's?

Cas. I found it in my chamber:
And he himself confess'd, but even now,
That there he dropp'd 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
5 That I was cast: And even but now he spake,
After long seeming dead,-Iago hurt him,
Iago set him on.

[us:

Lod. You must forsake this room, and go with
Your power and your command is taken off,
10 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
15 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, 20 When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak Of one, that lov'd not wisely, but too well; Of one, not easily jealous, but, being wrought, 25 Perplex'd in the extreme; of one, whose hand, Like the base Judean', threw a pearl away Richer than all his tribe; of one, whose subdu'd eyes,

Albeit unused to the melting mood, 30 Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees Their med'cinable gum: Set you down this: And say, besides,-that in Aleppo once, Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk Beat a Venetian, and traduc'd the state, 35I took by the throat the circumcised dog, And smote him—thus. [Stabs himself.

401

45

Lod. O bloody period!

Gra. All that is spoke, is marr'd.

Oth. I kiss'd thee, ere I kill'd thee;-No way but this, [Falling upon Desdemona. Killing myself, to die upon a kiss. [Dies. Cas. This did I fear, but thought he had no

weapon;

For he was great of heart.

Lod. O Spartan dog*,

More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea!
Look on the tragic loading of this bed; [To Iago.
This is thy work: the object poisons sight;-
Let it be hid.-Gratiano, keep the house,
50 And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor,

For they succeed on you.-To you, lord governor,
Remains the censure of this hellish villain;
The time, the place, the torture,-O, inforce it!
Myself will straight aboard; and, to the state,
55 This heavy act with heavy heart relate.

[Exeunt.

'To see if, according to the common opinion, his feet be cloven. 2 i. e. in the snare, by the stratagem. 3 By the Judean (which is the reading of the elder quarto, and adopted by Theobald and Warburton), the latter says, is meant Herod, whose usage to Mariamnè is so apposite to the speaker's case, that a more proper instance could not be thought of. Besides, he was the subject of a tragedy at that time, as appears from the words in Hamlet, where an ill player is described "-to out-herod Herod."-The metaphorical term of a pearl for a fine woman, is so common as scarce to need examples. 4 The dogs of Spartan race, says Hanmer, were reckoned among those of the most fierce and savage kind. 5 1. e. the sentence.

B to M m printed by T GILLE", Remainder by J. BRETELL