Act Three scene three part four

 

Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her!

 

Othello Iago

 

IAGO                       Is't possible, my lord?

 

OTHELLO               Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore,
Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof:
Or by the worth of man's eternal soul,
Thou hadst been better have been born a dog
Than answer my waked wrath!

 

IAGO                       Is't come to this?

 

OTHELLO               Make me to see't; or, at the least, so prove it,
That the probation bear no hinge nor loop
To hang a doubt on; or woe upon thy life!

 

IAGO                       My noble lord,--

 

 

OTHELLO               If thou dost slander her and torture me,
Never pray more; abandon all remorse;
For nothing canst thou to damnation add
Greater than that.

 

IAGO                       O grace! O heaven forgive me! Are you a man? 
O monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world,
To be direct and honest is not safe.
I thank you for this profit; and from hence
I'll love no friend, sith love breeds such offence.

 

OTHELLO               Nay, stay: thou shouldst be honest.

 

IAGO                       I should be wise, for honesty's a fool
And loses that it works for.

 

OTHELLO               By the world,
I think my wife be honest and think she is not;
I think that thou art just and think thou art not.
I'll have some proof. Her name, that was as fresh
As Dian's visage, is now begrimed and black
As mine own face. Would I were satisfied!

 

IAGO                       I see, sir, you are eaten up with passion:
I do repent me that I put it to you.
You would be satisfied?

 

OTHELLO               Would! nay, I will.

 

IAGO                       And may: but, how? how satisfied, my lord?
Would you, the supervisor, grossly gape on--
Behold her topp'd?

 

OTHELLO               Death and damnation! O!

 

IAGO                       It were a tedious difficulty, I think,
To bring them to that prospect: What then? how then?
What shall I say? Where's satisfaction?

 

OTHELLO               Give me a living reason she's disloyal.

 

IAGO                       I do not like the office:
But, sith I am enter'd in this cause so far,
Prick'd to't by foolish honesty and love,
I will go on. I lay with Cassio lately;
And, being troubled with a raging tooth,
I could not sleep.
There are a kind of men so loose of soul,
That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs:
One of this kind is Cassio:
In sleep I heard him say 'Sweet Desdemona,
Let us be wary, let us hide our loves;'
And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my hand,
Cry 'O sweet creature!' and then kiss me hard,
As if he pluck'd up kisses by the roots
That grew upon my lips: then laid his leg
Over my thigh, and sigh'd, and kiss'd; and then
Cried 'Cursed fate that gave thee to the Moor!'

 

OTHELLO               O monstrous! monstrous!

 

IAGO                       Nay, this was but his dream.

 

OTHELLO               But this denoted a foregone conclusion:
'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream.

 

IAGO                       And this may help to thicken other proofs
That do demonstrate thinly.

 

OTHELLO               I'll tear her all to pieces.

 

IAGO                       Nay, but be wise: yet we see nothing done;
She may be honest yet. Tell me but this,
Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief
Spotted with strawberries in your wife's hand?

 

OTHELLO               I gave her such a one; 'twas my first gift.

 

IAGO                       I know not that; but such a handkerchief--
I am sure it was your wife's--did I to-day
See Cassio wipe his beard with.

 

OTHELLO               If it be that—

 

IAGO                       If it be that, or any that was hers,
It speaks against her with the other proofs.

 

OTHELLO               O, that the slave had forty thousand lives!
One is too poor, too weak for my revenge.
Now do I see 'tis true. Look here, Iago;
All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven.
'Tis gone.
Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!
Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne
To tyrannous hate!

 

IAGO                       Yet be content.

 

OTHELLO               O, blood, blood, blood!

 

IAGO                       Patience, I say; your mind perhaps may change.

 

OTHELLO               Never, Iago: Like to the Pontic sea,
Whose icy current and compulsive course
Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
To the Propontic and the Hellespont,
Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,
Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love,
Till that a capable and wide revenge
Swallow them up. Now, by yond marble heaven,

                                 [Kneels]

In the due reverence of a sacred vow
I here engage my words.

 

IAGO                       Do not rise yet.

 

                                 [Kneels]

 

Witness, you ever-burning lights above,
You elements that clip us round about,
Witness that here Iago doth give up
The execution of his wit, hands, heart,
To wrong'd Othello's service! Let him command,
And to obey shall be in me remorse,
What bloody business ever.

 

                                 [They rise]

 

OTHELLO               I greet thy love,
Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous,
And will upon the instant put thee to't:
Within these three days let me hear thee say
That Cassio's not alive.

 

IAGO                       My friend is dead; 'tis done at your request:
But let her live.

 

 

OTHELLO               Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her!
Come, go with me apart; I will withdraw,
To furnish me with some swift means of death
For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant.

 

IAGO                       I am your own for ever.