An honest man he is, and hates the slime

That sticks on filthy deeds.

My husband!

EMIL. OтH. What needs this iterance, woman? I say thy husband.

EMIL. O, mistress, villany hath made mocks with love!

My husband say that she was false?

Отн. He, woman; I say thy husband: dost understand the word? My friend, thy husband, honest-honest Iago.

EMIL. If he say so, may his pernicious soul Rot half a grain a day! he lies to the heart: She was too fond of her most filthy bargain. Отн. Ha!

EMIL. Do thy worst ;

This deed of thine is no more worthy heaven,
Than thou wast worthy her.

a

EMIL. You told a lie; an odious, damned lie;

(*) First folio omits, that.

charm your tongue.] A familiar expression in the poet's day, meaning restrain, or put a spell upon your tongue. So in "Henry VI." Part III. Act V. Sc. 5,-"Peace, wilful boy, or I will charm your tongue." See also additional examples of the phrase in the Variorum ad l.

ba strange truth.] "Strange" is one of the many words which have lost weight and emphasis since Shakespeare's time. With us, it imports no more than unusual, not customary, &c.; but when Desdemona spoke of the Moor's adventures

as

Отн. Nay, stare not, masters; it is true, deed.

GRA. "Tis a strange truth.
MON. O, monstrous act!
EMIL.

Villany, villany, villany! I think upon't,-I think I smell 't;-0, lany!

I thought so then ;-I'll kill myself for griefO villany, villany!

IAGO. What, are you mad? I charge you you home.

EMIL. Good gentlemen, let me have leave speak:

'Tis proper I obey him, but not now.-
Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home.
ОTH. O! O! O!
EMIL.

[Falling on the

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

Отн.

O, she was foul !—

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."

OтH. '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 first gave her;. I saw it in his hand:
It was a handkerchief, an antique token
My father gave my mother.

strange," she meant they were wonderful, incredible; and it i in this deeper sense of the word that Gratiano employs it here. c I thought so then ;-] "That is, at the instant when sh gave Desdemona's handkerchief to Iago; for even then Ema appears to have suspected it was sought after for no honest pose, and therefore asks her husband

What will you do with it?'" &c.-STEEVENS.

d And fall to reprobation.] So the quartos; the folio has"And fail to reprobance."

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

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 't.

IAGO.
Villanous whore !
EMIL. She give it Cassio! no, alas, I found it,
And I did give't my husband.

IAGO.
Filth, thou liest!
EMIL. By heaven, I do not! I do not, gentle-
men!-

O, murderous coxcomb! what should such a fool
Do with so good a wife?

[IAGO stabs EMILIA, and then runs out. Отн. Are there no stones in heaven, But what serve for the thunder?-Precious villain ! GRA. The woman falls! sure, he hath kill'd his wife!

EMIL. Ay, ay:-0, 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,

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, For 'tis a damned slave.

[Exeunt MONTANO and GRATIANO. Отн. I am not valiant neither, But every puny whipster gets my sword.But why should honour outlive honesty? Let it go all.

EMIL. What did thy song bode, lady? Hark! canst thou hear me? I will play the swan, And die in music;-Willow, willow, willow.

[Singing.

Moor, she was chaste; she lov'd thee, cruel Moor;

(*) First folio, Oh Heaven! oh heavenly powers!
(+) First folio, Come.

(1) First folio omits, hold my, and sir? no!
(§) First folio omits, here.

a No, I will speak as liberal as the north;] Thus the folio; the quarto of 1622 reads,

"I'le be in speaking, liberall as the zyre. And that of 1630 has,

Re-enter GRATIANO.

GRA. What is the matter?
Отн.

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,
I have made my way through more impediments
Than twenty times your stop:-but, O, vain boast!
Who can control 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,
And 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!

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.—

O, 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, Desdemon! dead, Desdemon! dead! O, O!

Отн. Ау.

CAS. Dear general, I never gave you cause.
ОTH. 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?
IAGO. 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. Отн. Well, thou dost best.

LOD. Sir, you shall understand what hath befall'n,

Which, as I think, you know not. Here is a letter,
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.

Отн. О, 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, Iago in the interim

Came in and satisfied him.

Отн. O, thou 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.

Отн. 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 That I was cast: and even but now he spake, After long seeming dead,-Iago hurt him, Iago set him on.

LOD. You must forsake this room, and go with

us;

Your power and your command is taken off, And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave,If there be any cunning cruelty,

(*) First folio inserts, it.

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
To the Venetian state.-Come, bring away.

Oтн. Soft you! a word or two before you go. I have done the state some service,(1) and they know't ;

No more of that.-I pray you, in your letters,
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,
Perplex'd in the extreme; of one, whose hand,
Like the base Indian, (2) threw a pearl away,
Richer than all his tribe; of one, whose subdu'd
eyes,

Albeit unused to the melting mood,

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,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog,
And smote him-thus.

[Stabs himself.

LOD. O, bloody period! GRA. All that is spoke is marr❜d. ОTH. 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. [TO IAGO.] O, Spartan dog,
More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea!
Look on the tragic loading of this bed;
This is thy work-the object poisons sight;--
Let it be hid.-Gratiano, keep the house,
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, enforce it!
Myself will straight aboard; and, to the state,
This heavy act with heavy heart relate. [Exeunt

(1) SCENE I.-Lead to the Sagittary.] By the Sagittary, Mr. Knight says, was meant the "residence at the arsenal of the commanding officers of the navy and army of the republic. The figure of an archer with his drawn bow, over the gates, still indicates the place." Others, however, conceive Iago to mean only some house of resort which bore this sign.

In Lydgate's Auncient Historie, &c. 1555, quoted by Steevens, is found a very circumstantial description of the Sagittary :

"And with hym Guydo sayth that he hadde
A wonder archer of syght mervalous,

Of fourme and shap in maner monstruous:
For lyke myne auctour as I reherse can,
Fro the navel upwarde he was man,
And lower downe lyke a horse yshaped :
And thilke parte that after man was maked,
Of skinne was black and rough as any bere
Covered with here fro colde him for to were,
Passyng foule and horrible of syght,
Whose eyen twain were sparkeling as bright
As is a furneis with his rede levene,
Or the lyghtnyng that falleth from ye heaven;
Dredeful of loke, and rede as fyre of chere,
And, as I reade, he was a goode archer;
And with his bowe both at even and morowe
Upon Grekes he wrought muche sorrowe,
And gasted them with many hydous loke:
So sterne he was that many of them quoke."

(2) SCENE II.--I'll have't disputed on.] This is an allusion to the manner in which causes were debated by the judges according to the custom of Venice formerly, and it affords one of many proofs that before writing "Othello," Shakespeare had attentively perused Lewkenor's translation of "The Commonwealth and Government of Venice, written by the Cardinall Gasper Contareno," &c. 1599. From this work he obtained his information concerning those "officers of night" whom Brabantio directs to be summoned; his knowledge of the Arsenal; as well as several particular expressions, such as Mine cares enclined; doe their countrie service; experience the mistresse of all things; serve the turne; their countrie customs; and others which he has modified and transplanted into the piece. The following is Contareno's account of the way criminal questions were disputed on before judgment could be obtained, in the ancient legal courts of Venice :

"The Councell being assembled, the Advocator plaieth the parte of a bitter accuser, strayning the uttermost invention of his wittes against the offender, first obiecting unto him the offence, confirming the same with witnesses, and then strengthening his obiection with probabilities

and likelihoodes of coniecture: having ended his spee the advocate of the offender pleadeth in the Clyte behalfe: After which if any of the Advocators will ge afresh, before the Iudges give sentence, he hath libertes to do likewise the Lawyers of the defendant have le to auns were and to confute, if they can, the opposed arg ments. And so of eyther side the cause is debated in tossed to and fro, till eyther the offender or the Advo whose turne it is to speake, doth declare that he hath r more to say, which done, the offender and his advoce | are commanded out of the Court, and the Advocators in shutte into a roome apart with the Iudges and their sem taries, not any one else being suffred to be there. It Advocators first doe make a motion unto the ludges? punishing the offender, demaunding their opinions whe they thinke him worthy of punishment or no, not rang or appointing any one certayne kinde of punisha which custome was (in a manner) observed by the Athe nians: for in Athens the Iudges gave two sentences, in the first eyther condemning or absolving the prisoner. E the first hee were condemned, then was the manner of b punishment determined of in the second, as out of Be Apologie of Socrates may plainly bee perceived, the like order of iudgement is that in manner which we do first (as I say) the Advocators make a motion unte t Iudges of punishing the offender. Then the Indes: unto their suffrages, for by suffrages among the Venetic all things are determined. Three pots are brought for by the one of which the offender is condemned: by t other he is absolved in maner without any correction, & the third are known the opinion of those, which doo see yet to doubt whether course is to be taken : the fr condemnation is white, the second of absolution gre the third of doubtfulnes redde. Every of the luc whether the cause be disputed of by the forty (as usmly: is) or els that the senate be consulted with (which sell happeneth) & that only in great and waighty causes whether it be by the Advocators reported over to the s councell, which is most seldome, and never but in matter exceedingly enormous, to the ende to have his sufe undiscerned, letteth fall into whether of these three pa he pleaseth a little linnen ball: which being done, th presidents of the councell doe number the balles, and more then the half be in favour of the prisoners liberty, h is presently pronounced free, and the request of Advocators reiected. But if more then the half of the bals, be found in the pot of condemnation, he is present condemned if neither of both exceede the half, but t the greater part of the Iudges put their suffrages into t pot of doubtfulnes: then his cause is deferred over: another day, & to the better discussion of the Iudges"