Othello

Excerpt

ACT IV

SCENE I.   Cyprus.  Before the Castle.

IAGO
Will you think so?

OTHELLO
                              Think so, Iago?

IAGO
                                                         What,
To kiss in private?

OTHELLO
                               An unauthoriz'd kiss.

IAGO
Or to be naked with her friend in bed
An hour or more, not meaning any harm?

OTHELLO
Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm!
It is hypocrisy against the devil:
They that mean virtuously and yet do so,
The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.

IAGO
So they do nothing, 'tis a venial slip:
But if I give my wife a handkerchief,—

OTHELLO
What then?

IAGO
Why, then, 'tis hers, my lord, and being hers,
She may, I think, bestow't on any man.

OTHELLO
She is protectress of her honour too:
May she give that?

IAGO
Her honour is an essence that's not seen;
They have it very oft that have it not:
But, for the handkerchief,—

OTHELLO
By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it:—
Thou said'st,—O, it comes o'er my memory,
As doth the raven o'er the infected house,
Boding to all,—he had my handkerchief.

IAGO
Ay, what of that?

OTHELLO
                             That's not so good now.

IAGO
                                                                     What,
If I had said I had seen him do you wrong?
Or heard him say,—as knaves be such abroad,
Who having, by their own importunate suit,
Or voluntary dotage of some mistress,
Convincèd or supplied them, cannot choose
But they must blab,—

OTHELLO
                                  Hath he said anything?

IAGO
He hath, my lord; but be you well assur'd,
No more than he'll unswear.

OTHELLO
                                              What hath he said?

IAGO
Faith, that he did,—I know not what he did.

OTHELLO
What? what?

IAGO
Lie,—

OTHELLO
         With her?

IAGO
                           With her, on her, what you will.

OTHELLO
Lie with her! lie on her!—We say lie on her when they belie her.—Lie with her! that's fulsome.—Handkerchief—confessions—handkerchief!—To confess, and be hanged for his labour,—first, to be hanged, and then to confess.—I tremble at it. Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without some instruction. It is not words that shake me thus:—pish!—noses, ears, and lips.—Is't possible?—Confess,—handkerchief!—O devil!—

IAGO
Work on,
My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught;
And many worthy and chaste dames even thus,
All guiltless, meet reproach.—What, ho! my lord!
My lord, I say! Othello!

                                      How now, Cassio...!