Gra. What is the matter?

Emil. Disprove this, villain, if thou beest a man. He says thou told'st him that his wife was false: I know thou didst not; thou'rt not such a villain. Speak, for my heart is full.

Iago. I told him what I thought; and told no more Than what he found himself was apt and true.

Emil. But did you ever tell him she was false?
Iago. I did.

Emil. You told a lie; an odious, damned lie;
Upon my soul, a lie; a wicked lie.-

She false with Cassio!-Did you say with Cassio? Iago. With Cassio, mistress; go to, charm your tongue.1

Emil. I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to

speak;

My mistress here lies murdered in her bed.2

All. O Heavens forefend!

Emil. And your reports have set the murder on.
Oth. Nay, stare not, masters; it is true, indeed.
Gra. 'Tis a strange truth.

Mon. O monstrous act!

Emil.

Villany, villany, villany!I think upon't, I think,—I smell❜t ;—O villany! I thought so then; 3-I'll kill myself for grief.— O villany, villany!

Iago. What, are you mad? I charge you, get you

home.

Emil. Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak; 'Tis proper I obey him, but not now.—

Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home.

Oth. O! O! O!
Emil.

[Hanging over his wife. Nay, lay thee down, and roar;

For thou hast killed the sweetest innocent,

That e'er did lift up eye.

1 To charm is to conjure, to enchant, to lay or still as with a charm.

2 This line, and the six following speeches, are wanting in the first quarto.

3 That is, at the instant when she gave Desdemona's handkerchief to Iago.

Oth.

O, she was foul!—[Rising.

I scarce did know you, uncle. There lies your niece, Whose breath, indeed, these hands have newly stopped. I know this act shows horrible and grim.

Gra. Poor Desdemona! I am glad thy father's dead; 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.1

Oth. 'Tis pitiful: but yet Iago knows

That she with Cassio hath the act of shame

A thousand times committed.2 Cassio confessed 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.

Emil. O heaven! O heavenly powers!
Iago.

Čome, hold your peace.

Emil. 'Twill out, 'twill out;-I hold my peace, sir? no;

No, I will speak as liberal3 as the air;

Let Heaven, and men, and devils, let them all,
All, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak.
Iago. Be wise, and get you home.

Emil.

Gra.

I will not.

Your sword upon a woman?

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

I found by fortune, and did give my husband;

1 The first and the second folio both read reprobance.

2 Dr. Johnson thinks that this and other passages in the play seem to suppose a longer space comprised in the action of this play than the scene includes.

the quarto 1622 "liberal as the air." The text is formed out of the two copies. Liberal here means free.

For often, with a solemn earnestness,

(More than, indeed, belonged to such a trifle,) He begged of me to steal it.

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, gentlemen; O murderous coxcomb! what should such a fool

Do with so good a wife?

Oth.

[IAGO stabs EMILIA, then runs out. Are there no stones in heaven,

But what serve for the thunder?1-Precious villain! Gra. The woman falls; sure, he has killed his wife. Emil. Ay, ay; O, lay me by my mistress' side! Gra. He's gone, but his wife's killed.

Mon. 'Tis a notorious villain. Take you this

weapon,

Which I have here recovered 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.

Oth.

[Exeunt MONTANO and GRATIANO.
I am not valiant, neither,

But every puny whipster gets my sword.-
But why should honor 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.—
Moor, she was chaste; she loved thee, cruel Moor;
So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true;

So speaking as I think, I die,-I die.

Oth. I have another weapon in this chamber; It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook's temper; 2 O, here it is.-Uncle, I must come forth.

[Dies.

1 The meaning appears to be:-" Has not heaven one supernumerary bolt, to hurl directly at the head of this atrocious villain?"

2 The particular name of the ice-brook may be determined from several passages in Martial. (See lib. i. ep. 50, lib. iv. ep. 55.) It was probably

Gra. [Within.] If thou attempt it, it will cost thee dear;

Thou hast no weapon, and perforce must suffer.
Oth. Look in upon me, then, and speak with me,
Or, naked as I am, I will assault thee.

Re-enter GRATIANO.

Gra. What is the matter?

Oth.

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, Ó, vain boast!
Who can control his fate? 'tis not so now.-
Be not afraid, though you do see me weaponed;
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,
And very seamark of my utmost sail.
Do you go back dismayed? '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-starred wench!1
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 Desdemona! Desdemona! dead?
Dead? O! O! O!

the brook or rivulet called Salo (now Xalon), near Bilbilis in Celtiberia. In this the Spaniards plunged all their swords and other weapons while hot from the forge; and to the icy quality of the waters thay were supposed to be indebted for their stubborn temper.

1 This and the six preceding lines are omitted in the first quarto. Wench originally signified only a girl or young woman.

VOL. VII.

65

Enter LODOVICO, MONTANO, CASSIO, carried in a chair, and Officers, with IAGO, prisoner.

Lod. Where is this rash and most unfortunate man?
Oth. That's he, that was Othello; here I am.
Lod. Where is that viper? Bring the villain forth.
Oth. I look down towards his feet1-but that's
a fable;

If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee.

[OTHELLO Wounds Iago,

Lod. Wrench his sword from him.

Iago.

I bleed, sir; but not killed. Oth. I am not sorry, neither; I'd have thee live e; For, in my sense, 'tis happiness to die.

Lod. Ŏ thou Othello, that was once so good,

Fallen in the practice 2 of a cursed slave,

What shall be said to thee?

Oth.

Why, any thing.

An honorable murderer, if you will

1;

For nought I did in hate, but all in honor.

Lod. This wretch hath part confessed his villany. Did you and he consent in Cassio's death? Oth. Ay.

Cas. Dear general, I never gave you cause. Oth. I do believe it; and I ask your pardon. Will you, I pray you, demand that demi-devil, Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body? lago. 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.

Oth. Well, thou dost best.

Lod. Sir, you shall understand what hath befallen, 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

1 To see if, according to the common opinion, his feet be cloven, 2 In the snare, by the stratagem.