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Home > Othello > ACT IV - SCENE III. Another room In the castle.

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ACT IV - SCENE III. Another room In the castle.
LODOVICO
1    I do beseech you, sir, trouble yourself no further.
OTHELLO
2    O, pardon me: 'twill do me good to walk.
LODOVICO
3    Madam, good night; I humbly thank your ladyship.
DESDEMONA
4    Your honour is most welcome.
OTHELLO
5    Will you walk, sir?
6    O,--Desdemona,--
DESDEMONA
7    My lord?
OTHELLO
8    Get you to bed on the instant; I will be returned
9    forthwith: dismiss your attendant there: look it be done.
DESDEMONA
10   I will, my lord.
Exeunt OTHELLO, LODOVICO, and Attendants

EMILIA
11   How goes it now? he looks gentler than he did.
DESDEMONA
12   He says he will return incontinent:
13   He hath commanded me to go to bed,
14   And bade me to dismiss you.
EMILIA
15   Dismiss me!
DESDEMONA
16   It was his bidding: therefore, good Emilia,.
17   Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu:
18   We must not now displease him.
EMILIA
19   I would you had never seen him!
DESDEMONA
20   So would not I my love doth so approve him,
21   That even his stubbornness, his cheques, his frowns--
22   Prithee, unpin me,--have grace and favour in them.
EMILIA
23   I have laid those sheets you bade me on the bed.
DESDEMONA
24   All's one. Good faith, how foolish are our minds!
25   If I do die before thee prithee, shroud me
26   In one of those same sheets.
EMILIA
27   Come, come you talk.
DESDEMONA
28   My mother had a maid call'd Barbara:
29   She was in love, and he she loved proved mad
30   And did forsake her: she had a song of 'willow;'
31   An old thing 'twas, but it express'd her fortune,
32   And she died singing it: that song to-night
33   Will not go from my mind; I have much to do,
34   But to go hang my head all at one side,
35   And sing it like poor Barbara. Prithee, dispatch.
EMILIA
36   Shall I go fetch your night-gown?
DESDEMONA
37   No, unpin me here.
38   This Lodovico is a proper man.
EMILIA
39   A very handsome man.
DESDEMONA
40   He speaks well.
EMILIA
41   I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot
42   to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip.
DESDEMONA
Singing
43    The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
44   Sing all a green willow:
45   Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
46   Sing willow, willow, willow:
47   The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her moans;
48   Sing willow, willow, willow;
49   Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the stones;
50   Lay by these:--
Singing
51   Sing willow, willow, willow;
52   Prithee, hie thee; he'll come anon:--
Singing
53   Sing all a green willow must be my garland.
54   Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve,-
55   Nay, that's not next.--Hark! who is't that knocks?
EMILIA
56   It's the wind.
DESDEMONA
Singing
57    I call'd my love false love; but what
58   said he then?
59   Sing willow, willow, willow:
60   If I court moe women, you'll couch with moe men!
61   So, get thee gone; good night Ate eyes do itch;
62   Doth that bode weeping?
EMILIA
63   'Tis neither here nor there.
DESDEMONA
64   I have heard it said so. O, these men, these men!
65   Dost thou in conscience think,--tell me, Emilia,--
66   That there be women do abuse their husbands
67   In such gross kind?
EMILIA
68   There be some such, no question.
DESDEMONA
69   Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?
EMILIA
70   Why, would not you?
DESDEMONA
71   No, by this heavenly light!
EMILIA
72   Nor I neither by this heavenly light;
73   I might do't as well i' the dark.
DESDEMONA
74   Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?
EMILIA
75   The world's a huge thing: it is a great price.
76   For a small vice.
DESDEMONA
77   In troth, I think thou wouldst not.
EMILIA
78   In troth, I think I should; and undo't when I had
79   done. Marry, I would not do such a thing for a
80   joint-ring, nor for measures of lawn, nor for
81   gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any petty
82   exhibition; but for the whole world,--why, who would
83   not make her husband a cuckold to make him a
84   monarch? I should venture purgatory for't.
DESDEMONA
85   Beshrew me, if I would do such a wrong
86   For the whole world.
EMILIA
87   Why the wrong is but a wrong i' the world: and
88   having the world for your labour, tis a wrong in your
89   own world, and you might quickly make it right.
DESDEMONA
90   I do not think there is any such woman.
EMILIA
91   Yes, a dozen; and as many to the vantage as would
92   store the world they played for.
93   But I do think it is their husbands' faults
94   If wives do fall: say that they slack their duties,
95   And pour our treasures into foreign laps,
96   Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
97   Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,
98   Or scant our former having in despite;
99   Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace,
100  Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
101  Their wives have sense like them: they see and smell
102  And have their palates both for sweet and sour,
103  As husbands have. What is it that they do
104  When they change us for others? Is it sport?
105  I think it is: and doth affection breed it?
106  I think it doth: is't frailty that thus errs?
107  It is so too: and have not we affections,
108  Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
109  Then let them use us well: else let them know,
110  The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.
DESDEMONA
111  Good night, good night: heaven me such uses send,
112  Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend!
Exeunt

< (Previous) ACT IV, SCENE IIACT V, I (Next) >
Scene Index
ACT I
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III


  • ACT II
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III


  • ACT III
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV


  • ACT IV
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III


  • ACT V
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II

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