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Othello, Act 4, Scene 1

William Shakespeare
Every note, for your class

The story so far

Earlier in the play

Othello and Desdemona are married and in Cyprus. Iago engineers Cassio’s dismissal, then persuades Othello that Cassio and Desdemona are lovers. Emilia gives Iago Desdemona’s dropped handkerchief; he plans to plant it in Cassio’s room. Othello orders Cassio’s death, plans Desdemona’s death and makes Iago lieutenant.

In the last scene: Act 3, Scene 4

Othello demands his handkerchief, saying its loss would destroy marital love. Desdemona cannot produce it and continues pleading for Cassio; Othello leaves angrily. She promises Cassio further help, while Iago goes to find Othello. Cassio gives Bianca the handkerchief he has found in his room, asking her to copy its embroidery.

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 bedAn 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
WhatIf 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 chooseBut 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.
IAGO
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 byBreaks 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.
IAGO
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 horned 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’dMay draw with you. There’s millions now aliveThat nightly lie in those unproper bedsWhich they dare swear peculiar: your case is better.O, ’tis the spite of hell, the fiend’s arch-mockrareA supreme or consummate mockery.,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 encaverareTo shelter or enclose as if in a cave. 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 whenHe 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.
IAGO
Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,A housewife that by selling her desiresBuys herself bread and clothes: it is a creatureThat dotes on Cassio, (as ’tis the strumpet’s plagueTo beguile many and be beguil’d by one.)He, when he hears of her, cannot refrainFrom the excess of laughter. Here he comes.
Enter Cassio.
IAGO
As he shall smile Othello shall go mad,And his unbookish jealousy must construePoor Cassio’s smiles, gestures, and light behaviourQuite in the wrong. How do you now, lieutenant?
CASSIO
The worser that you give me the additionWhose 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
Alas, poor caitiff!
OTHELLO
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
Now he denies it faintly and laughs it out.
IAGO
Do you hear, Cassio?
OTHELLO
Now he importunes himTo 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 prithee, bear some charity to my wit, do not think it so unwholesome. Ha, ha, ha!
OTHELLO
So, so, so, so. They laugh that wins.
IAGO
Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her.
CASSIO
Prithee 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.
Enter Bianca.
CASSIO
’Tis such another fitchewold wordsA polecat, used as an insulting image of a lustful or foul-smelling woman.! Marry, a perfum’d one.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 workdomain-specificto copy an embroidered design or pattern.? 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-horsemeaning changeda performer costumed as a horse in traditional festivities such as a morris dance.. 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
If you’ll come to supper tonight, you may. If 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
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 unprovideold wordsTo deprive of provision, preparation, or necessary equipment. 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. What trumpet is that same?
Enter Lodovico, Desdemona and Attendant.
IAGO
Something from Venice, sure. ’Tis LodovicoCome from the duke. See, your wife is with him.
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 lordAn unkind breach, but you shall make all well.
OTHELLO
Are you sure of that?
DESDEMONA
My lord?
OTHELLO
“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 muchTo 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.
OTHELLO
Cassio shall have my place. And, sir, tonight,I do entreat that we may sup together.You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus. Goats and monkeysmeaning changedan exclamation of enraged disgust, evoking animals proverbially associated with lust.!
Exit.
LODOVICO
Is this the noble Moor, whom our full senateCall all in all sufficient? Is this the natureWhom passion could not shake? whose solid virtueThe shot of accident nor dart of chanceCould 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 censureWhat 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 knewThat 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 speakWhat I have seen and known. You shall observe him,And his own courses will denote him soThat I may save my speechmeaning changedTo spare one’s words by remaining silent.: do but go after,And mark how he continues.
LODOVICO
I am sorry that I am deceiv’d in him.
Exeuntforeign phrasea stage direction instructing two or more performers to leave the stage..

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Questions on this scene

  • Reading

    What happens to Othello during his conversation with Iago?

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  • Cypruscharacters travel here or from here