And this may help to thicken other proofs
That do demónstrate 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 today
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 hell!
Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne
To tyrannous hate! swell, bosom, with thy fraught,
For 'tis of aspics' tongues!
IAGO
Yet be content.
OTHELLO
O, blood, Iago, 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,
In the due reverence of a sacred vow [Kneels.]
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.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE IV. Cyprus. Before the Castle
[Enter Desdemona, Emilia, and Clown.]
DESDEMONA
Do you know, sirrah, where Lieutenant Cassio lies?
CLOWN
I dare not say he lies anywhere.
DESDEMONA
Why, man?
CLOWN
He's a soldier; and for one to say a soldier lies is stabbing.
DESDEMONA
Go to: where lodges he?
CLOWN
To tell you where he lodges is to tell you where I lie.
DESDEMONA
Can anything be made of this?
CLOWN
I know not where he lodges; and for me to devise a lodging, and say he lies here or he lies there were to lie in mine own throat.
DESDEMONA
Can you inquire him out, and be edified by report?
CLOWN
I will catechize the world for him; that is, make questions and by them answer.
DESDEMONA
Seek him, bid him come hither: tell him I have moved my lord on his behalf, and hope all will be well.
CLOWN
To do this is within the compass of man's wit; and therefore I will attempt the doing it.
[Exit.]
DESDEMONA
Where should I lose that handkerchief, Emilia?
EMILIA
I know not, madam.
DESDEMONA
Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse
Full of crusadoes: and, but my noble Moor
Is true of mind and made of no such baseness
As jealous creatures are, it were enough
To put him to ill thinking.
EMILIA
Is he not jealous?
DESDEMONA
Who, he? I think the sun where he was born
Drew all such humours from him.
EMILIA
Look, where he comes.
DESDEMONA
I will not leave him now till Cassio
Be call'd to him.
[Enter Othello.]
How is't with you, my lord?
OTHELLO
Well, my good lady. – [Aside.] O, hardness to dissemble! —
How do you, Desdemona?
DESDEMONA
Well, my good lord.
OTHELLO
Give me your hand: this hand is moist, my lady.
DESDEMONA
It yet hath felt no age nor known no sorrow.
OTHELLO
This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart: —
Hot, hot, and moist: this hand of yours requires
A sequester from liberty, fasting, and prayer,
Much castigation, exercise devout;
For here's a young and sweating devil here
That commonly rebels. 'Tis a good hand,
A frank one.
DESDEMONA
You may, indeed, say so;
For 'twas that hand that gave away my heart.
OTHELLO
A liberal hand: the hearts of old gave hands;
But our new heraldry is hands, not hearts.
DESDEMONA
I cannot speak of this. Come now, your promise.
OTHELLO
What promise, chuck?
DESDEMONA
I have sent to bid Cassio come speak with you.
OTHELLO
I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me;
Lend me thy handkerchief.
DESDEMONA
Here, my lord.
OTHELLO
That which I gave you.
DESDEMONA
I have it not about me.
OTHELLO
Not?
DESDEMONA
No, faith, my lord.
OTHELLO
That is a fault. That handkerchief
Did an Egyptian to my mother give;
She was a charmer, and could almost read
The thoughts of people: she told her, while she kept it,
'Twould make her amiable and subdue my father
Entirely to her love; but if she lost it
Or made a gift of it, my father's eye
Should hold her loathed, and his spirits should hunt
After new fancies: she, dying, gave it me;
And bid me, when my fate would have me wive,
To give it her. I did so: and take heed on't;
Make it a darling like your precious eye;
To lose't or give't away were such perdition
As nothing else could match.
DESDEMONA
Is't possible?
OTHELLO
'Tis true: there's magic in the web of it:
A sibyl, that had number'd in the world
The sun to course two hundred compasses,
In her prophetic fury sew'd the work;
The worms were hallow'd that did breed the silk;
And it was dy'd in mummy which the skillful
Conserv'd of maiden's hearts.
DESDEMONA
Indeed! is't true?
OTHELLO
Most veritable; therefore look to't well.
DESDEMONA
Then would to God that I had never seen't!
OTHELLO
Ha! wherefore?
DESDEMONA
Why do you speak so startingly and rash?
OTHELLO
Is't lost? is't gone? speak, is it out of the way?
DESDEMONA
Heaven bless us!
OTHELLO
Say you?
DESDEMONA
It is not lost; but what an if it were?
OTHELLO
How!
DESDEMONA
I say, it is not lost.
OTHELLO
Fetch't, let me see't.
DESDEMONA
Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now.
This is a trick to put me from my suit:
Pray you, let Cassio be receiv'd again.
OTHELLO
Fetch me the handkerchief: my mind misgives.
DESDEMONA
Come, come;
You'll never meet a more sufficient man.
OTHELLO
The handkerchief!
DESDEMONA
I pray, talk me of Cassio.
OTHELLO
The handkerchief!
DESDEMONA
A man that all his time
Hath founded his good fortunes on your love,
Shar'd dangers with you, —
OTHELLO
The handkerchief!
DESDEMONA
In sooth, you are to blame.
OTHELLO
Away!
[Exit.]
EMILIA
Is not this man jealous?
DESDEMONA
I ne'er saw this before.
Sure there's some wonder in this handkerchief;
I am most unhappy in the loss of it.
EMILIA
'Tis not a year or two shows us a man:
They are all but stomachs and we all but food:
They eat us hungerly, and when they are full,
They belch us. – Look you, – Cassio and my husband.
[Enter Cassio and Iago.]
IAGO
There is no other way; 'tis she must do't:
And, lo, the happiness! go and impórtune her.
DESDEMONA
How now, good Cassio! what's the news with you?
CASSIO
Madam, my former suit: I do beseech you
That by your virtuous means I may again
Exist, and be a member of his love,
Whom I, with all the office of my heart,
Entirely honour: I would not be delay'd.
If my offence be of such mortal kind
That nor my service past, nor present sorrows,
Nor purpos'd merit in futurity,
Can ransom me into his love again,
But to know so must be my benefit;
So shall I clothe me in a forc'd content,
And shut myself up in some other course,
To fortune's alms.
DESDEMONA
Alas, thrice-gentle Cassio!
My advocation is not now in tune;
My lord is not my lord; nor should I know him
Were he in favour as in humour alter'd.
So help me every spirit sanctified,
As I have spoken for you all my best,
And stood within the blank of his displeasure
For my free speech! You must awhile be patient:
What I can do I will; and more I will
Than for myself I dare: let that suffice you.
IAGO
Is my lord angry?
EMILIA
He went hence but now,
And certainly in strange unquietness.
IAGO
Can he be angry? I have seen the cannon,
When it hath blown his ranks into the air
And, like the devil, from his very arm
Puff'd his own brother; – and can he be angry?
Something of moment, then: I will go meet him:
There's matter in't indeed if he be angry.
DESDEMONA
I pr'ythee, do so.
[Exit Iago.]
Something sure of state, —
Either from Venice or some unhatch'd practice
Made demonstrable here in Cyprus to him, —
Hath puddled his clear spirit, and in such cases
Men's natures wrangle with inferior things,
Though great ones are their object. 'Tis even so;
For let our finger ache, and it indues
Our other healthful members even to that sense
Of pain: nay, we must think men are not gods,
Nor of them look for such observancy
As fits the bridal. – Beshrew me much, Emilia,
I was, – unhandsome warrior as I am, —
Arraigning his unkindness with my soul;
But now I find I had suborn'd the witness,
And he's indicted falsely.
EMILIA
Pray heaven it be state matters, as you think,
And no conception nor no jealous toy
Concerning you.
DESDEMONA
Alas the day, I never gave him cause!
EMILIA
But jealous souls will not be answer'd so;
They are not ever jealous for the cause,
But jealous for they are jealous: 'tis a monster
Begot upon itself, born on itself.
DESDEMONA
Heaven keep that monster from Othello's mind!
EMILIA
Lady, amen.
DESDEMONA
I will go seek him. – Cassio, walk hereabout:
If I do find him fit, I'll move your suit,
And seek to effect it to my uttermost.
CASSIO
I humbly thank your ladyship.
[Exeunt Desdemona and Emilia.]
[Enter Bianca.]
BIANCA
Save you, friend Cassio!
CASSIO
What make you from home?
How is it with you, my most fair Bianca?
I'faith, sweet love, I was coming to your house.
BIANCA
And I was going to your lodging, Cassio.
What, keep a week away? seven days and nights?
Eight score eight hours? and lovers' absent hours,
More tedious than the dial eight score times?
O weary reckoning!
CASSIO
Pardon me, Bianca:
I have this while with leaden thoughts been press'd;
But I shall in a more continuate time
Strike off this score of absence. Sweet Bianca,
[Giving her Desdemona's handkerchief.]
Take me this work out.
BIANCA
O Cassio, whence came this?
This is some token from a newer friend.
To the felt absence now I feel a cause:
Is't come to this? Well, well.
CASSIO
Go to, woman!
Throw your vile guesses in the devil's teeth,
From whence you have them. You are jealous now
That this is from some mistress, some remembrance:
No, in good troth, Bianca.
BIANCA
Why, whose is it?
CASSIO
I know not neither: I found it in my chamber.
I like the work well: ere it be demanded, —
As like enough it will, – I'd have it copied:
Take it, and do't; and leave me for this time.
BIANCA
Leave you! wherefore?
CASSIO
I do attend here on the general;
And think it no addition, nor my wish,
To have him see me woman'd.
BIANCA
Why, I pray you?
CASSIO
Not that I love you not.
BIANCA
But that you do not love me.
I pray you, bring me on the way a little;
And say if I shall see you soon at night.
CASSIO
'Tis but a little way that I can bring you,
For I attend here: but I'll see you soon.
BIANCA
'Tis very good; I must be circumstanc'd.
[Exeunt.]
ACT IV
SCENE I. Cyprus. Before the Castle
[Enter Othello and Iago.]
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! —
[Falls in a trance.]
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!
[Enter Cassio.]
How now, Cassio!
CASSIO
What's the matter?
IAGO
My lord is fallen into an epilepsy:
This is his second fit; he had one yesterday.
CASSIO
Rub him about the temples.
IAGO
No, forbear;
The lethargy must have his quiet course:
If not, he foams at mouth, and by and by
Breaks out to savage madness. Look, he stirs:
Do you withdraw yourself a little while,
He will recover straight: when he is gone,
I would on great occasion speak with you.
[Exit Cassio.]
How is it, general? have you not hurt your head?
OTHELLO
Dost thou mock me?
IAGO
I mock you! no, by heaven.
Would you would bear your fortune like a man!
OTHELLO
A hornèd man's a monster and a beast.
IAGO
There's many a beast, then, in a populous city,
And many a civil monster.
OTHELLO
Did he confess it?
IAGO
Good sir, be a man;
Think every bearded fellow that's but yok'd
May draw with you: there's millions now alive
That nightly lie in those unproper beds
Which they dare swear peculiar: your case is better.
O, 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock,
To lip a wanton in a secure couch,
And to suppose her chaste! No, let me know;
And knowing what I am, I know what she shall be.
OTHELLO
O, thou art wise; 'tis certain.
IAGO
Stand you awhile apart;
Confine yourself but in a patient list.
Whilst you were here o'erwhelmed with your grief, —
A passion most unsuiting such a man, —
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 promis'd. 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. Marry, patience;
Or I shall say you are all in all in spleen,
And nothing of a man.
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 withdraws.]
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 beguil'd by one: —
He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain
From the excess of laughter: – here he comes: —
As he shall smile Othello shall go mad;
And his unbookish jealousy must construe
Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures, and light behavior
Quite in the wrong.
[Re-enter Cassio.]
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 Bianca's power,
How quickly should you speed!
CASSIO
Alas, poor caitiff!
OTHELLO
[Aside.] Look, how he laughs already!
IAGO
I never knew a woman love man so.
CASSIO
Alas, poor rogue! I think, i'faith, she loves me.
OTHELLO
[Aside.] Now he denies it faintly and laughs it out.
IAGO
Do you hear, Cassio?
OTHELLO
Now he impórtunes him
To tell it o'er: go to; well said, well said.
IAGO
She gives it out that you shall marry her:
Do you intend it?
CASSIO
Ha, ha, ha!
OTHELLO
Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?
CASSIO
I marry her! – what? A customer! I pr'ythee, bear some charity to my wit; do not think it so unwholesome: – ha, ha, ha!
OTHELLO
So, so, so, so: they laugh that win.
IAGO
Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her.
CASSIO
Pr'ythee, 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 falls 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? – A likely piece of work that you should find it in your chamber and not know who left it there! 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
Pr'ythee, come; will you?
IAGO
Go to; say no more.
[Exit Cassio.]
OTHELLO
[Coming forward.] 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
I would have him nine years a-killing. – A fine woman! a fair woman! a sweet woman!
IAGO
Nay, you must forget that.
OTHELLO
Ay, 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, a 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. – I'll not expostulate with her, lest her body and beauty unprovide my mind again: – 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. [A trumpet within.] What trumpet is that same?
IAGO
Something from Venice, sure. 'Tis Lodovico
Come from the duke: and, see, your wife is with him.
[Enter Lodovico, Desdemona, and Attendants.]
LODOVICO
Save you, worthy general!
OTHELLO
With all my heart, sir.
LODOVICO
The duke and senators of Venice greet you.
[Gives him a packet.]
OTHELLO.
I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.
[Opens the packet and reads.]
DESDEMONA
And what's the news, good cousin Lodovico?
IAGO
I am very glad to see you, signior;
Welcome to Cyprus.
LODOVICO
I thank you. How does Lieutenant Cassio?
IAGO
Lives, sir.
DESDEMONA
Cousin, there's fall'n between him and my lord
An unkind breach: but you shall make all well.
OTHELLO
Are you sure of that?
DESDEMONA
My lord?
OTHELLO
[Reads.] "This fail you not to do, as you will, – "
LODOVICO
He did not call; he's busy in the paper.
Is there division 'twixt my lord and Cassio?
DESDEMONA
A most unhappy one: I would do much
To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio.
OTHELLO
Fire and brimstone!
DESDEMONA
My lord?
OTHELLO
Are you wise?
DESDEMONA
What, is he angry?
LODOVICO
May be the letter mov'd him;
For, as I think, they do command him home,
Deputing Cassio in his government.
DESDEMONA
Trust me, I am glad on't.
OTHELLO
Indeed!
DESDEMONA
My lord?
OTHELLO
I am glad to see you mad.
DESDEMONA
Why, sweet Othello, —
OTHELLO
Devil! [Striking her.]
DESDEMONA
I have not deserv'd this.
LODOVICO
My lord, this would not be believ'd in Venice,
Though I should swear I saw't: 'tis very much:
Make her amends; she weeps.
OTHELLO
O devil, devil!
If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,
Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile. —
Out of my sight!
DESDEMONA
I will not stay to offend you. [Going.]
LODOVICO
Truly, an obedient lady: —
I do beseech your lordship, call her back.
OTHELLO
Mistress!
DESDEMONA
My lord?
OTHELLO
What would you with her, sir?
LODOVICO
Who, I, my lord?
OTHELLO
Ay; you did wish that I would make her turn:
Sir, she can turn, and turn, and yet go on,
And turn again; and she can weep, sir, weep;
And she's obedient, as you say, – obedient, —
Very obedient. – Proceed you in your tears. —
Concerning this, sir, – O well-painted passion!
I am commanded home. – Get you away;
I'll send for you anon. – Sir, I obey the mandate,
And will return to Venice. – Hence, avaunt!
[Exit Desdemona.]
Cassio shall have my place. And, sir, to-night,
I do entreat that we may sup together:
You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus. – Goats and monkeys!
[Exit.]
LODOVICO
Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate
Call all-in-all sufficient? Is this the nature
Whom passion could not shake? whose solid virtue
The shot of accident nor dart of chance
Could neither graze nor pierce?
IAGO
He is much chang'd.
LODOVICO
Are his wits safe? is he not light of brain?
IAGO
He's that he is: I may not breathe my censure
What he might be, – if what he might he is not, —
I would to heaven he were!
LODOVICO
What, strike his wife!
IAGO
Faith, that was not so well; yet would I knew
That stroke would prove the worst!
LODOVICO
Is it his use?
Or did the letters work upon his blood,
And new-create this fault?
IAGO
Alas, alas!
It is not honesty in me to speak
What I have seen and known. You shall observe him;
And his own courses will denote him so
That I may save my speech: do but go after,
And mark how he continues.
LODOVICO
I am sorry that I am deceiv'd in him.