Othello. William Shakespeare

Now here’s another discontented paper,

       Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems,

       Roderigo meant to have sent this damnèd villain;

       But that, belike, Iago in the interim

       Came in and satisfied him.

       OTHELLO

       O the pernicious caitiff!—

       How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief

       That was my wife’s?

       CASSIO

       I found it in my chamber;

       And he himself confess’d but even now

       That there he dropp’d it for a special purpose

       Which wrought to his desire.

       OTHELLO

       O fool! fool! fool!

       CASSIO

       There is besides in Roderigo’s letter,—

       How he upbraids Iago, that he made him

       Brave me upon the watch; whereon it came

       That I was cast: and even but now he spake,

       After long seeming dead,—Iago hurt him,

       Iago set him on.

       LODOVICO

       You must forsake this room, and go with us:

       Your power and your command is taken off,

       And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave,—

       If there be any cunning cruelty

       That can torment him much and hold him long,

       It shall be his. You shall close prisoner rest,

       Till that the nature of your fault be known

       To the Venetian state.—Come, bring away.

       OTHELLO

       Soft you; a word or two before you go.

       I have done the state some service, and they know’t.—

       No more of that.—I pray you, in your letters,

       When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,

       Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,

       Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak

       Of one that loved not wisely, but too well;

       Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought,

       Perplex’d in the extreme; of one whose hand,

       Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away

       Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdu’d eyes,

       Albeit unusèd to the melting mood,

       Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees

       Their medicinal gum. Set you down this;

       And say besides,—that in Aleppo once,

       Where a malignant and a turban’d Turk

       Beat a Venetian and traduc’d the state,

       I took by the throat the circumcisèd dog

       And smote him—thus.

       [Stabs himself.]

       LODOVICO

       O bloody period!

       GRATIANO

       All that’s spoke is marr’d.

       OTHELLO

       I kiss’d thee ere I kill’d thee:—no way but this,

       Killing myself, to die upon a kiss. [Falling upon Desdemona.]

       CASSIO

       This did I fear, but thought he had no weapon;

       For he was great of heart.

       LODOVICO

       [To Iago.] O Spartan dog,

       More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea!

       Look on the tragic loading of this bed;

       This is thy work:—the object poisons sight;

       Let it be hid.—Gratiano, keep the house,

       And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor,

       For they succeed on you.—To you, lord governor,

       Remains the censure of this hellish villain;

       The time, the place, the torture,—O, enforce it!

       Myself will straight aboard; and to the state

       This heavy act with heavy heart relate.

       [Exeunt.]

       THE END