Othello by Reclam Read Free Book Online Page B

name, fair lady? [120]
    DESDEMONA. Such as she says my lord did say I was?
    EMILIA. He call’d her whore: a beggar in his drink
    Â Â Â Â Could not have laid such terms upon his callat .
    IAGO. Why did he so?
    DESDEMONA. I do not know, I am sure I am none such. [125]
    IAGO. Do not weep, do not weep: alas the day!
    EMILIA. Has she forsook so many noble matches,
    Â Â Â Â Her father, and her country, all her friends,
    Â Â Â Â To be call’d whore? would it not make one weep?
    DESDEMONA. It is my wretched fortune.
    IAGO. Beshrew him for it! [130]
    Â Â Â Â How comes this trick upon him?
    DESDEMON A. Nay, heaven doth know.
    EMILIA. I will be hang’d, if some eternal villain,
    Â Â Â Â Some busy and insinuating rogue,
    Â Â Â Â Some cogging , cozening slave, to get some office,
    Â Â Â Â Have not devis’d this slander, I’ll be hang’d else. [135]
    IAGO. Fie, there is no such man, it is impossible.
    DESDEMONA. If any such there be, heaven pardon him!
    EMILIA. A halter pardon him, and hell gnaw his bones!
    Â Â Â Â Why should he call her whore? who keeps her company?
    Â Â Â Â What place, what time, what form, what likelihood ? [140]
    Â Â Â Â The Moor’s abus’d by some outrageous knave,
    Â Â Â Â Some base notorious knave, some scurvy fellow;
    Â Â Â Â O heaven, that such companions thou ’ldst unfold,
    Â Â Â Â And put in every honest hand a whip,
    Â Â Â Â To lash the rascal naked through the world, [145]
    Â Â Â Â Even from the east to the west!
    IAGO. Speak within doors.
    EMILIA. O, fie upon him! Some such squire he was,
    Â Â Â Â That turn’d your wit, the seamy side without,
    Â Â Â Â And made you to suspect me with the Moor.
    IAGO. You are a fool, go to.
    DESDEMONA. O good Iago, [150]
    Â Â Â Â What shall I do to win my lord again?
    Â Â Â Â Good friend, go to him, for, by this light of heaven,
    Â Â Â Â I know not how I lost him. Here I kneel:
    Â Â Â Â If e’er my will did trespass ’gainst his love
    Â Â Â Â Either in discourse of thought or actual deed, [155]
    Â Â Â Â Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any sense,
    Â Â Â Â Delighted them in any other form,
    Â Â Â Â Or that I do not yet, and ever did,
    Â Â Â Â And ever will (though he do shake me off
    Â Â Â Â To beggarly divorcement ) love him dearly, [160]
    Â Â Â Â Comfort forswear me! Unkindness may do much;
    Â Â Â Â And his unkindness may defeat my life,
    Â Â Â Â But never taint my love. I cannot say “whore”:
    Â Â Â Â It does abhor me now I speak the word;
    Â Â Â Â To do the act that might the addition earn [165]
    Â Â Â Â Not the world’s mass of vanity could make me.
    IAGO. I pray you, be content, ’tis but his humour,
    Â Â Â Â The business of the state does him offence,
    Â Â Â Â And he does chide with you.
    DESDEMONA. If’twere no other, –
    IAGO. ’Tis but so, I warrant you; [170]
    (Trumpets.)
    Â Â Â Â Hark, how these instruments summon you to supper,
    Â Â Â Â And the great messengers of Venice stay:
    Â Â Â Â Go in, and weep not, all things shall be well.
    (Exeunt Desdemona and Emilia.)
    (Enter Roderigo.)
    Â Â Â Â How now, Roderigo?
    RODERIGO. I do not find that thou deal’st justly with me. [175]
    I AGO. What in the contrary?
    RODERIGO. Every day thou doff est me with some device, Iago, and rather, as it seems to me, thou keepest from me all conveniency than suppliest me with the least advantage of hope: I will indeed no longer [180] endure it, nor am I yet persuaded to put up in peace what already I have foolishly suffered.
    IAGO. Will you hear me, Roderigo?
    RODERIGO. Faith, I have heard too much, for your words and performance are no kin together. [185]
    IAGO. You charge me most unjustly.
    RODERIGO.