Текст книги "William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition"

Автор книги: William Shakespeare

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 166 (всего у книги 250 страниц)

3.4 Enter Desdemona, Emilia, and the 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 me to say a soldier lies, ’tis 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 enquire 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 the 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.

Enter Othello

EMILIA Look where he comes.

DESDEMONA

I will not leave him now till Cassio

Be called to him. 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 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 (offering a handkerchief) 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’s 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 loathèd, and his spirits should hunt

After new fancies. She, dying, gave it me,

And bid me, when my fate would have me wived,

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 numbered in the world

The sun to course two hundred compasses

In her prophetic fury sewed the work.

The worms were hallowed that did breed the silk,

And it was dyed in mummy, which the skilful

Conserved of maidens’ hearts.

DESDEMONA I’faith, is’t true?

OTHELLO

Most veritable. Therefore look to’t well.

DESDEMONA

Then would to God that I had never seen it!

OTHELLO Ha, wherefore?

DESDEMONA

Why do you speak so startingly and rash?

OTHELLO

Is’t lost? Is’t gone? Speak, is’t out o’th’ 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 received 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,

Shared dangers with you—

OTHELLO The handkerchief.

DESDEMONA I’faith, you are to blame.

OTHELLO ’Swounds! 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 hungrily, and when they are full,

They belch us.

Enter Iago and Cassio

Look you, Cassio and my husband.

IAGO (to Cassio)

There is no other way. ‘Tis she must do’t,

And lo, the happiness! Go and importune 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 delayed.

If my offence be of such mortal kind

That nor my service past, nor present sorrows,

Nor purposed 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 forced 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 altered.

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 a while 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

Puffed his own brother; and is he angry?

Something of moment then. I will go meet him.

There’s matter in’t indeed, if he be angry.

DESDEMONA

I prithee do so.

Exit Iago

Something sure of state,

Either from Venice or some unhatched 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 a 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 suborned 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 answered so.

They are not ever jealous for the cause,

But jealous for they’re jealous. It is a monster

Begot upon itself, born on itself.

DESDEMONA

Heaven keep the monster from Othello’s mind.

EMILIA Lady, amen.

DESDEMONA

I will go seek him. Cassio, walk here about.

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’t 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,

Eightscore-eight hours, and lovers’ absent hours

More tedious than the dial eightscore times!

O weary reckoning!

CASSIO Pardon me, Bianca,

I have this while with leaden thoughts been pressed,

But I shall in a more continuate time

Strike off this score of absence. Sweet Bianca,

Take me this work out.

He gives her Desdemona’s napkin

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, by my faith, 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 witt—I would 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 womaned.

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 circumstanced. Exeunt

4.1 Enter Iago and Othello

IAGO

Will you think so?

OTHELLO Think so, Iago?

IAGO

What, to kiss in private?

OTHELLO An unauthorized 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

If 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 infectious 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

Convinced or supplied them, cannot choose

But they must blab—

OTHELLO Hath he said anything?

IAGO

He hath, my lord. But, be you well assured,

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? ’Swounds, that’s fulsome! Handkerchief—confessions—hankerchief. 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 shakes me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips! Is’t possible? Confess? Handkerchief? O devil!

He falls down in a trance

IAGO

Work on; my medicine works. 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 fall’n 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 not, 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 yoked

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 a while apart.

Confine yourself but in a patient list.

Whilst you were here, o‘erwhelmèd 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 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. Marry, patience,

Or I shall say you’re 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 stands apart

Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,

A hussy that by selling her desires

Buys herself bread and cloth. 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 restrain

From the excess of laughter.

Enter Cassio

Here he comes.

As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;

And his unbookish jealousy must conster

Poor Cassio’s smiles, gestures, and light behaviours

Quite in the wrong. 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.

Now, if this suit lay in Bianca’s power,

How quickly should you speed!

CASSIO (laughing) 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 (aside) Now he importunes 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 (aside)

Do ye triumph, Roman, do you triumph?

CASSIO I marry! What, a customer? Prithee, bear some charity to my wit—do not think it so unwholesome. Ha, ha, ha!

OTHELLO (aside) So, so, so, so. They laugh that wins.

IAGO Faith, the cry goes that you marry her.

CASSIO Prithee, say true.

IAGO I am a very villain else.

OTHELLO (aside) Ha’ you scored me? Well. 125

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 (aside) Iago beckons me. Now he begins the story. Othello draws closer

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 me thus about my neck.

OTHELLO (aside) Crying ‘O dear Cassiol’ as it were. His gesture imports it.

CASSIO So hangs and lolls and weeps upon me, so shakes and pulls me—ha, ha, ha!

OTHELLO (aside) 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.

Enter Bianca

IAGO Before me, look where she comes.

CASSIO ’Tis such another fitchew! Marry, a perfumed one. (To 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 whole work—a likely piece of work, that you should find it in your chamber and know not who left it there. This is some minx’s token, and I must take out the work. There, give it your hobby-horse. (Giving Cassio the napkin) Wheresoever you had it, I’ll take out no work on’t.

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

OTHELLO (aside)

By heaven, that should be my handkerchief.

BIANCA An you’ll come to supper tonight, 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 streets 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 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 tonight, 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

What trumpet is that same?

IAGO I warrant, something from Venice.

Enter Lodovico, Desdemona, and attendants

’Tis Lodovico. This comes from the Duke. See, your wife’s with him.

LODOVICO God save the worthy general.

OTHELLO With all my heart, sir.

LODOVICO (giving Othello a letter) The Duke and the senators of Venice greet you.

OTHELLO I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.

He reads the letter

DESDEMONA

And what’s the news, good cousin Lodovico?

IAGO (to Lodovico) I am very glad to see you, signor. 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

T’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

Maybe the letter moved him,

For, as I think, they do command him home,

Deputing Cassio in his government.

DESDEMONA By my troth, I am glad on’t.

OTHELLO Indeed!

DESDEMONA My lord?

OTHELLO (to Desdemona) I am glad to see you mad.

DESDEMONA Why, sweet Othello!

OTHELLO Devil!

He strikes her

DESDEMONA I have not deserved this.

LODOVICO

My lord, this would not be believed in Venice,

Though I should swear I saw’t. ’Tis very much.

Make her amends, she weeps.

OTHELLOO, 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 (going) I will not stay to offend you.

LODOVICO

Truly, an obedient lady.

I do beseech your lordship call her back.

OTHELLO Mistress!

DESDEMONA (returning) My lord?

OTHELLO (to Lodovico) 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. (To Desdemona) Proceed you in your

tears.

(To Lodovico) Concerning this, sir—(To Desdemona) O

well painted passion!

(To Lodovico) I am commanded home. (To Desdemona)

Get you away.

I’ll send for you anon. (To Lodovico) Sir, I obey the

mandate,

And will return to Venice. (To Desdemona) Hence,

avaunt!

Exit Desdemona

(To Lodovico) Cassio shall have my place, and, sir,

tonight

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 changed.

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 his fault?

IAGOAlas, 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 deceived in him.

Exeunt