Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

And needs no other suitor, bat his likings,
To take the saf'st occasion by the front,
To bring you in again.

Cas. Yet, I beseech you,

If you think fit, or that it may be done,-
Give me advantage of some brief discourse
With Desdemona alone.

Emil. Pray you, come in ;

I will bestow you where you shall have time
To speak your bosom freely.

Cas. I am much bound to you.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

A Room in the Castle. Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Gentlemen.

Oth. These letters give, Iago, to the pilot;

And, by him, do my duties to the state:

That done, I will be walking on the works,

Repair there to me.

Iago. Well, my good lord, I'll do't.

Oth. This fortification, gentlemen,-shall we see't? Gent. We'll wait upon your lordship.

SCENE III.

[Exeunt.

Before the Castle. Enter DESDEMONA, CASSIO, and EMILIA. Des. Be thou assur'd, good Cassio, I will do

All my abilities in thy behalf.

Emil.Good madam, do. I know it grieves my husband, As if the case were his.

Des. O, that's an honest fellow.-do not doubt, Cassio, But I will have my lord and you again

As friendly as you were.

Cas. Bounteous madam,

Whatever shall become of Michael Cassio,

He's never any thing but your true servant.

Des. O, sir, I thank you: You do love my lord: You have known him long; and be you well assur'd, He shall in strangeness stand no further off

Than in a politic distance.

Cas. Ay, but, lady,

That policy may either last so long,

Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet,
Or breed itself so out of circumstance,

That, I being absent, and my place supplied,

My general will forget my love and service.3
Des. Do not doubt that; before Emilia here,
I give thee warrant of thy place: assure thee,
If I do vow a friendship, I'll perform it

To the last article: my lord shall never rest;
I'll watch him tame, 4 and talk him out of patience;
His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift;
I'll intermingle every thing he does

With Cassio's suit: Therefore be merry, Cassio;
For thy solicitor shall rather die,

Than give thy cause away.

Enter OTHELLO and IAGO, at distance.

Emil. Madam, here comes

My lord.

Cas. Madam, I'll take my leave.

Des. Why, stay,

And hear me speak.

Cas. Madam, not now; I am very ill at ease,

Unfit for mine own purposes.

Des. Well, well,

Do your discretion.

Iago. Ha! I like not that.

Oth. What dost thou say?

[Exit CASSIO.

Iago. Nothing, my lord: or if-I know not what. Oth. Was not that Cassio, parted from my wife? Iago. Cassio, my lord? No, sure, I cannot think it, That he would steal away so guilty-like,

Seeing you coming.

Oth. I do believe 'twas he.

Des. How now, my lord?

I have been talking with a suitor here,

A man that languishes in your displeasure.
Oth. Who is't, you mean?

Good my lord,

Des. Why, your lieutenant Cassio.
If I have any grace, or power to move you,
His present reconciliation take;

For, if he be not one that truly loves you,
That errs in ignorance, and not in cunning,
I have no judgment in an honest face :
I pr'ythee, call him back.

[3] He may either of himself think it politic to keep me out of office so long, or he may be satisfied with such slight reasons, or so many accidents may make him think my re-admission at that time improper, that I may be quite forgotten. JOHNSON

[4] It is said that the ferocity of beasts, insuperable and irreclaimable by any other means, is subdued by keeping them from sleep. JOHNSON.

[blocks in formation]

Oth. Went he hence now?

Des. Ay, sooth; so humbled,

That he hath left part of his grief with me;

I suffer with him. Good love, call him back.

Oth. Not now, sweet Desdemona; some other time.
Des. But shall't be shortly?

Oth. The sooner, sweet, for you.
́Des. Shall't be to-night at supper?
Oth. No, not to-night.

Des. To-morrow dinner then?
Oth. I shall not dine at home;)

I meet the captains at the citadel.

Des. Why then, to-morrow night; or Tuesday morn; Or Tuesday noon, or night; or Wednesday morn ;— I pray thee, name the time; but let it not Exceed three days: in faith, he's penitent ; And yet his trespass, in our common reason,

(Save that, they say, the wars must make examples
Out of their best,) is not almost a fault

To incur a private check: When shall he come ?
Tell me, Othello. I wonder in my soul,

What you could ask me that I should deny,

Or stand so mammering on. What! Michael Cassio, That came a wooing with you; and many a time, When I have spoke of you dispraisingly,

Hath ta'en your part; to have so much to do

To bring him in! Trust me, I could do much,

Oth. Pr'ythee, no more: let him come when he will;

I will deny thee nothing.

Des. Why, this is not a boon ;

'Tis as I should intreat you wear your gloves,

Or feed on nourishing dishes, or keep you warm ;

Or sue to you to do peculiar profit

To your own person: Nay, when I have a suit,
Wherein I mean to touch your love indeed,
It shall be full of poise and difficulty,

And fearful to be granted.

Oth. I will deny thee nothing:

Whereon, I do beseech thee, grant me this,

To leave me but a little to myself.

Des. Shall I deny you? No: Farewell, my lord. Oth. Farewell, my Desdemona: I will come to thee straight.

153 The severity of military discipline must not spare the best men of the army, when their punishment may afford a wholesome example. JOHNSON.

Des. Emilia, come :-Be it as your fancies teach you; Whate'er you be, I am obedient. [Exit, with EMIL. Oth. Excellent wretch !6 Perdition catch my soul, But I do love thee! and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.7

Iago. My noble lord,

Oth. What dost thou say, Iago?

Iago. Did Michael Cassio, when you woo'd my lady, Know of your love?

Oth. He did, from first to last. Why dost thou ask? Iago. But for a satisfaction of my thought; No further harm.

Oph. Why of thy thought, Iago;

Iago. I did not think, he had been acquainted with her. Oth. O, yes; and went between us very oft.

Iago. Indeed?

Oth. Indeed! ay, indeed :-Discern'st thou aught in that?

Is he not honest ?

Iago. Honest, my lord?

Oth. Ay, honest.

Iago. My lord, for aught I know.

Oth. What dost thou think?

Iago. Think, my lord?

Oth. Think, my lord!

By heaven, he echoes me,

As if there were some monster in his thought

Too hideous to be shown.-Thou dost mean something:
I heard thee say but now,-Thou lik'st not that,
When Cassio left my wife; What didst not like?
And, when I told thee-he was of my counsel

In my whole course of wooing, thou cry'dst, Indeed?
And didst contract and purse thy brow together,
As if thou then hadst shut up in thy brain
Some horrible conceit: If thou dost love me,

[6] The meaning of the word wretch is not generally understood. It is now, in some parts of England, a term of the softest and fondest tenderness. It expresses the utmost degree of amiableness, joined with an idea, which perhaps all tenderness includes, of feebleness, softness, and want of protection. Othello considering Desdemona as excelling in beauty and virtue, soft and timorous by her sex, and by her situation absolutely in his power, calls her, excellent wretch! It may be expressed.

Dear, harmless, helpless excellence. JOHNSON.

[7] When my love is for a moment suspended by suspicion, I have nothing in my mind but discord, tumult, perturbation and confusion. JOHNSON. There is another meaning possible: When I cease to love thee, the world is at an end; i.e. there remains nothing valuable or important. STEEVENS. He means I think, to say, and ere l'cease to love thee, the world itself shall be reduced to its primitive chaos. MALONE.

Show me thy thought.

Iago. My lord, you know I love you.
Oth. I think, thou dost ;

And, for I know thou art full of love and honesty,
And weigh'st thy words before thou giv'st them breath,—
Therefore these stops of thine fright me the more :
For such things, in a false disloyal knave,

Are tricks of custom; but, in a man that's just,
They are close denotements, working from the heart,
That passion cannot rule.

Iago. For Michael Cassio,

I dare be sworn, I think that he is honest.

Oth. I think so too.

Iago. Men should be what they seem ;

Or, those that be not, 'would they might seem none ! Oth. Certain, men should be what they seem. lago. Why then,

I think that Cassio is an honest man.

Oth. Nay, yet there's more in this :

I pray thee, speak to me as to thy thinkings,

As thou dost ruminate; and give thy worst of thoughts The worst of words.

Iago. Good my lord, pardon me ;

Though I am bound to every act of duty,

I am not bound to that all slaves are free to.

Utter my thoughts? Why, say, they are vile and false-
As where's that palace, whereinto foul things

Sometimes intrude not? who has a breast so pure,
But some uncleanly apprehensions

Keep leets, and law-days, and in session sit

With meditations lawful.8

Oth. Thou dost conspire against thy friend, Iago, If thou but think'st him wrong'd, and mak'st his ear A stranger to thy thoughts.

Iago. I do beseech you,

Though I, perchance, am vicious in my guess,
As, I confess, it is my nature's plague

To spy into abuses; and, oft, my jealousy
Shapes faults that are not,-I entreat you then,
From one that so imperfectly conjects,

You'd take no notice; nor build yourself a trouble
Out of his scattering and unsure observance :-

[8] Leet (says Jacob, in his Law Dictionary) is otherwise called a law-day. The poet's meaning appears plainly to be: Who has a breast so little apt to form ill opinions of others, but that foul suspicion will sometimes mix with his fairest and most candid thoughts, and erect a court in his mind, to eg quire of the offences apprehended STEEVENS.

« AnteriorContinuar »