Act Four scene 1 part two

 

Othello, Iago, Cassio, Bianca

 

I see that nose of yours, but not that dog I shall throw it to.

 

OTHELLO         Did he confess it?

 

IAGO                 Stand you awhile apart;
Confine yourself but in a patient list.
Whilst you were here o'erwhelmed with your grief--
Cassio came hither: I shifted him away,
And laid good 'scuse upon your ecstasy,
Bade him anon return and here speak with me;
The which he promised. Do but encave yourself,
And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns,
That dwell in every region of his face;
For I will make him tell the tale anew,
Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when
He hath, and is again to cope your wife:
I say, but mark his gesture. 

 

OTHELLO         Dost thou hear, Iago?
I will be found most cunning in my patience;
But--dost thou hear?--most bloody.

 

IAGO                 That's not amiss;
But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw?

 

                           [OTHELLO retires]

 

Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,
A housewife that by selling her desires
Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature
That dotes on Cassio; as 'tis the strumpet's plague
To beguile many and be beguiled by one:
He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain
From the excess of laughter. Here he comes:

 

                           [Re-enter CASSIO]

 

As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;
How do you now, lieutenant?

 

CASSIO             The worser that you give me the addition
Whose want even kills me.

 

IAGO                 Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on't.

 

                           [Speaking lower]

 

Now, if this suit lay in Bianco's power,
How quickly should you speed!

 

CASSIO             Alas, poor caitiff!

 

OTHELLO         Look, how he laughs already!

 

IAGO                 I never knew woman love man so.

 

CASSIO             Alas, poor rogue! I think, i' faith, she loves me.

 

OTHELLO         Now he denies it faintly, and laughs it out.

 

IAGO                 Do you hear, Cassio?

 

OTHELLO         Now he importunes him
To tell it o'er: go to; well said, well said.

 

IAGO                 She gives it out that you shall marry hey:
Do you intend it?

 

CASSIO             Ha, ha, ha!

 

OTHELLO         Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?

 

IAGO                 'Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her.

 

CASSIO             Prithee, say true.

 

IAGO                 I am a very villain else.

 

OTHELLO         Have you scored me? Well.

 

CASSIO             This is the monkey's own giving out: she is
persuaded I will marry her, out of her own love and
flattery, not out of my promise.

 

OTHELLO         Iago beckons me; now he begins the story.

 

CASSIO             She was here even now; she haunts me in every place.
I was the other day talking on the sea-bank with
certain Venetians; and thither comes the bauble,
and, by this hand, she falls me thus about my neck—

 

OTHELLO         Crying 'O dear Cassio!' as it were: his gesture imports it.

 

CASSIO             So hangs, and lolls, and weeps upon me; so hales,
and pulls me: ha, ha, ha!

 

OTHELLO         Now he tells how she plucked him to my chamber. O,
I see that nose of yours, but not that dog I shall
throw it to.

 

CASSIO             Well, I must leave her company.

 

IAGO                 Before me! look, where she comes.

 

CASSIO             'Tis such another fitchew! marry a perfumed one.

 

                           [Enter BIANCA]

 

                           What do you mean by this haunting of me?

 

BIANCA            Let the devil and his dam haunt you! What did you
mean by that same handkerchief you gave me even now?
I was a fine fool to take it. I must take out the
work? This is some minx's token, and I must take out the
work? There; give it your hobby-horse: wheresoever
you had it, I'll take out no work on't.

 

CASSIO             How now, my sweet Bianca! how now! how now!

 

OTHELLO         By heaven, that should be my handkerchief!

BIANCA            An you'll come to supper to-night, you may; an you
will not, come when you are next prepared for.

 

                           [Exit]

 

IAGO                 After her, after her.

 

CASSIO             'Faith, I must; she'll rail in the street else.

 

IAGO                 Will you sup there?

 

CASSIO             'Faith, I intend so.

 

IAGO                 Well, I may chance to see you; for I would very fain
speak with you.

 

CASSIO             Prithee, come; will you?

 

IAGO                 Go to; say no more.

 

                           [Exit CASSIO]

 

OTHELLO         [Advancing] How shall I murder him, Iago?

 

IAGO                 Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice?

 

OTHELLO         O Iago!

 

IAGO                 And did you see the handkerchief?

 

OTHELLO         Was that mine?

 

IAGO                 Yours by this hand: and to see how he prizes the
foolish woman your wife! she gave it him, and he
hath given it his whore.

 

OTHELLO          Let her rot, and perish, and be damned to-night;
for she shall not live: no, my heart is turned to
stone; I strike it, and it hurts my hand. O, the
world hath not a sweeter creature: she might lie by
an emperor's side and command him tasks.

 

IAGO                 Nay, that's not your way.

 

OTHELLO         Hang her! I do but say what she is: so delicate
with her needle: an admirable musician: O! she
will sing the savageness out of a bear: of so high
and plenteous wit and invention:--

 

IAGO                 She's the worse for all this.

 

OTHELLO         O, a thousand thousand times: and then, of so
gentle a condition!

 

IAGO                 Ay, too gentle.

 

OTHELLO         Nay, that's certain: but yet the pity of it, Iago!
O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!

 

IAGO                 If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her
patent to offend; for, if it touch not you, it comes
near nobody.

 

OTHELLO         I will chop her into messes: cuckold me!

 

IAGO                 O, 'tis foul in her.

 

OTHELLO         With mine officer!

 

IAGO                 That's fouler.

 

OTHELLO         Get me some poison, Iago; this night: this night, Iago.

 

 

IAGO                 Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed, even
the bed she hath contaminated.

 

OTHELLO         Good, good: the justice of it pleases: very good.

 

IAGO                 And for Cassio, let me be his undertaker: you
shall hear more by midnight.

 

OTHELLO         Excellent good.