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For 't was that hand that gave away my heart.
Отн. A liberal hand: The hearts of old gave hands:
But our new heraldry is-hands, not hearts".

DES. I cannot speak of this. Come now, your promise.
OTH. What promise, chuck?

DES. I have sent to bid Cassio come speak with you.

OTH. I have a salt and sorryd rheum offends me;

Lend me thy handkerchief.

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DES.

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, "T would 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 loathly, and his spirits should hunt
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 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.

Is 't possible?

Отн. T is true: There's magic in the web of it:

A sibyl, that had number'd in the world

The sun to course two hundred compasses,

In her prophetic fury sew'd the work:

The worms were hallow'd that did breed the silk;
And it was dy'd in mummy, which the skilful
Conserv'd of maidens' hearts.

DES.

Indeed! is 't true?

ОTH. Most veritable; therefore look to 't well.

DES. Then 'would to heaven that I had never seen it.

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ОTн. Ha! wherefore?

DES. Why do you speak so startingly and rash?

OTH. Is 't lost? is 't gone? speak, is 't out of the way?
DES. Bless us!

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DES. 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 receiv'd again.

Отн. Fetch me the handkerchief: my mind misgives.

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DES. I ne'er saw this before.

Sure, there's some wonder in this handkerchief;

I am most unhappy in the loss of it.

EMIL. "T is not a year or two shows us a man:

They are all but stomachs, and we all but food;

They eat us hungerly, and when they are full

They belch us. Look you! Cassio, and my husband.

Enter IAGO and CASSIO.

IAGO. 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 office of my heart,
Entirely honour; I would not be delay'd:
offence be of such mortal kind,

If my

a The lines in brackets are in the quarto only.

b

Office. The quarto, duty.

That nor my service past, nor present sorrows,
Nor purpos'd 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 forc'd 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, alter'd.

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
Puff'd his own brother;-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 prithee, do so.-Something, sure, of state,
Either from Venice; or some unhatch'd 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. 'T is even so;
For let our finger ache, and it indues

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EMIL. Pray heaven it be state matters, as you think;

And no conception, nor no jealous toy,

a Nor my. The quarto, neither.
The quarto, that sense.

• A sense.

[Exit IAGO.

Shut. The quarto, shoot.

d

See note on Act II., Scene 1.

Concerning you.

DES. Alas, the day! I never gave him cause.
EMIL. But jealous souls will not be answer'd 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.

DES. Heaven keep the monster from Othello's mind!
EMIL. Lady, amen.

DES. I will go seek him.-Cassio, walk hereabout:

If I do find him fit, I'll move your suit,

And seek to effect it to my uttermost. CAS. I humbly thank your ladyship.

BIAN. Save you, friend Cassio!

CAS.

[Exeunt DESDEMONA and EMILIA.

Enter BIANCA.

What make you from home?
How is it with you, my most fair Bianca?
Indeed, sweet love, I was coming to your house.
BIAN. And I was going to your lodging, Cassio.
What! keep a week away? seven days and nights?
Eight score eight hours? and lovers' absent hours,
More tedious than the dial eight score times?
O weary reckoning!

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I have this while with leaden thoughts been press'd;
But I shall, in a more continuate a time,

Strike off this score of absence.

Take me this work out. BIAN.

CAS.

Sweet Bianca,

[Giving her DESDEMONA's handkerchief.

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.

Throw your vile guesses in the

From whence you have them.

Go to, woman!
devil's teeth,

You are jealous now

That this is from some mistress, some remembrance:
No, in good troth, Bianca.

BIAN.

Why, whose is it?

CAS. I know not, neither: I found it in my chamber.
I like the work well: ere it be demanded,
(As like enough it will,) I 'd have it copied :
Take it, and do 't; and leave me for this time.

a Continuate. The quarto, convenient. Continuate time, is time uninterrupted.
See note on Scene 3 of this Act.
Neither. The quarto, sweet.

BIAN. Leave you! wherefore?

CAS. I do attend here on the general;
And think it no addition, nor my wish,

To have him see me woman'd.

BIAN.

CAS. Not that I love you not.
BIAN.

Why, I pray you?

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.
CAS. T is but a little way that I can bring you,
For I attend here: but I'll see you soon.
BIAN. T is very good: I must be circumstanc'da.

a I must be circumstanc'd. I must yield to circumstances.

[Exeunt.

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