On horror's head horrors accumulate :
Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed:
For nothing canst thou to damnation add
Greater than that!
Iago. O grace! O heaven defend me!
Are you a man? have you a soul or sense?-
God be with you: take mine office.-O wretched
fool,

That liv'st to make thine honesty a yice!-
Omonstrous world! Take note, take note, O world,
To be direct and honest is not safe.-
I thank you for this profit; and from hence
I'll love no friend, since love breeds such offence.
Oth. Nay, stay.-Thou shouldst be honest.
Iago. I should be wise; for honesty 's a fool,
And loses that it works for.
By the world,

Oth,

I think my wife be honest, and think she is not; I think that thou art just, and think thou art not: I'll have some proof. Her name, that was as fresh

As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross
As ignorance made drunk. But yet I say,
If imputation and strong circumstances,
Which lead directly to the door of truth,
Will give you satisfaction, you may have it.
Oth. Give me a living reason she's disloyal.
Iago. I do not like the office:

But sith I am entered in this cause so far,
Pricked to it by foolish honesty and love,
I will go on. I lay with Cassio lately;
And being troubled with a raging tooth,
I could not sleep.

There are a kind of men so loose of soul
That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs;
One of this kind is Cassio:

In sleep I heard him say,-"Sweet Desdemona,
Let us be wary; let us hide our loves!"
And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my hand,
Cry,-"O, sweet creature!" and then kiss me hard,
As if he plucked up kisses by the roots,
That grew upon my lips: then laid his leg
Over my thigh, and sighed and kissed; and then
Cried, "Cursed fate, that gave thee to the Moor!"
Oth. O monstrous! monstrous!
Iago. Nay, this was but his dream.
Oth. But this denoted a foregone conclusion.
Iago. 'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a

Iago. If it be that, or any that was her's, It speaks against her with the other proofs. Oth. O, that the slave had forty thousand lives: One is too poor, too weak for my revenge! Now do I see 't is true.-Look here, Iago; All my fond love thus I do blow to heaven: 'Tis gone.

Arise, black vengeance, from the hollow hell! Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne, To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught, For 't is of aspics' tongues!

Iago. Pray, be content.

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; 't is done at thy request: But let her live.

Oth. 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. The same.

Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, and Clown.

Des. Do you know, sirrah, where Lieutenant Cassio lies?

Clo. I dare not say he lies any where.
Des. Why, man?

Clo. He is a soldier; and for me to say a

soldier lies, is stabbing.

Des. Go to: where lodges he!

Clo. To tell you where he lodges, is to tell you where I lie.

Des. Can anything be made of this?

Clo. 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 my own throat.

Des. Can you inquire him out, and be edified by report?

Clo. I will catechise the world for him: that is, make questions, and by them answer.

Des. Seek him; bid him come hither: tell him I have moved my lord in his behalf, and

may change.

Oth. Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic sea, Whose icy current and compulsive course

Clo. To do this is within the compass of man's wit; and therefore I will attempt the doing it. [Exit.

Oth. Well, my good lady :—[Aside] O, hardness to dissemble!-

How do you, Desdemona?
Des. Well, my good lord.

Oth. Give me your hand. - This hand is moist, my lady.

Des. It yet has felt no age, nor known no sorrow. Oth. 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.

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 of 't,
Make it a darling like your precious eye:
To lose or give 't away, were such perdition
As nothing else could match.
Is it possible?

Des.

Oth. "T is true. There's magic in the web of it: A sibyl, that had numbered in the world The sun to make 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.

Des. Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now: This is a trick to put me from my suit.

I pray, let Cassio be received again.

Oth. Fetch me that handkerchief.-My mind misgives.

Des. Come, come:

You'll never meet a more sufficient man.

Oth. The handkerchief!

Des. I pray, talk me of Cassio.

Oth. The handkerchief!

Des.

A man that, all his time,

Hath founded his good fortune on your love; Shared dangers with you;—

Sure there's some wonder in this handkerchief: I am most unhappy in the loss of it.

Emil. "Tis not a year or two shews 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.-Look you! Cassio and my husband.

Enter IAGO and CASSIO.

Iugo. There is no other way; 't is she must do 't: And lo, the happiness! Go, and importune her.

Des. How now, good Cassio; what's the news with you?

Cas. 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 duty of my heart Entirely honour. I would not be delayed: If my offence be of such mortal kind,

That neither 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.

Des.

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?

Emil.
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 hrother:--and can he be angry?
Something of moment, then. I will go meet him:
There's matter in 't indeed, if he be angry.
Des. I pr'y thee, do so.-Something, sure, of
state,
[Exit IAGO.
Either from Venice, or some unhatched practice
Made démonstrable here in Cyprus to him,
Had 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 ev'n to that sense
Of pain. Nay, we must think men are not gods;
Nor of them look for such observances
As fit 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.

Emil. Pray heaven it be state matters, as you

think;

And no conception nor no jealous toy

Concerning you.

Des. Alas, the day! I never gave him cause. Emil. But jealous souls will not be answered so: They are not ever jealous for the cause;

Iago. Or to be naked with her friend abed, An hour or more, not meaning any harm?

Oth. Naked abed, 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, 't is a venial slip: But if I give my wife a handkerchief,

Oth. What then?

Iago. Why, then, 't is hers, my lord; and being hers,

She may, I think, bestow 't on any man.

Oth. 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,

Oth. By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it!

Thou saidst-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?
Oth.

That's not so good, now.

Iago. What if I had said I had seen him do

Convinced or supplied them, cannot choose But they must blab),

Hath he said anything?

Oth.

Iago. He hath, my lord: but, be you well assured,

No more than he 'll unswear.

Oth.

What hath he said?

Iago. 'Faith, that he did-I know not what

he did.

Oth. What; what? Iago. Lie

Oth. With her? Iago. With her; on her: what you will. Oth. 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 it possible?-Confess!-Handkerchief!-O devil! [Falls in a trance.