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He will recover straight: when he is gone,
I would on great occasion speak with you.

[Exit Cassio.

How is it, general? have you not hurt your head? Oth. Dost thou mock me? Iago. I mock you! no, by heaven. 61 Would you would bear your fortune like a man! Oth. 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.

Oth. Did he confess it?

Iago.

Good sir, be a man;

Think every bearded fellow that's but yoked
May draw with you: there's millions now alive
That nightly lie in those unproper beds
Which they dare swear peculiar: your case is better.
O, 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock,

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.

Oth. O, thou art wise; 'tis certain.

Iago.

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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 promised. Do but encave yourself,
And mark the fleers, the gibes and notable scorns,

80

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 when
He 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.

Oth.
Dost thou hear, Iago?
I will be found most cunning in my patience;
But-dost thou hear?-most bloody.

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Iago.
That's not amiss;
But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw ?

[Othello retires.

Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,
A housewife that by selling her desires
Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature
That dotes on Cassio; as 'tis the strumpet's plague

To beguile many and be beguiled by one.

He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain

From the excess of laughter. Here he comes. 100

Re-enter Cassio.

As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;
And his unbookish jealousy must construe
Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures and light behaviour,
Quite in the wrong. How do you now, lieutenant ?

Cas. The worser that you give me the addition

Whose want even kills me.

Iago. Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on 't.
Now, if this suit lay in Bianca's power,

Cas.

How quickly should you speed!

Oth. Look, how he laughs already!

Alas, poor caitiff!

Iago. I never knew a woman love man so.

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Cas. Alas, poor rogue! I think, i' faith, she loves

me.

Oth. Now he denies it faintly and laughs it out.
Iago. Do you hear, Cassio ?
Oth.

Now he importunes him

To tell it o'er: go to; well said, well said. lago. She gives it out that you shall marry her : Do you intend it ?

Cas. Ha, ha, ha !

Oth. Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph ?
Cas. I marry her! what, a customer! I prithee,
bear some charity to my wit; do not think it
so unwholesome. Ha, ha, ha!

Oth. So, so, so, so: they laugh that win.

lago. Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her.

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Cas. This is the monkey's own giving out: she is 130

persuaded I will marry her, out of her own love
and flattery, not out of my promise.

Oth. Iago beckons me; now he begins the story.
Cas. 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, by this hand, she falls me thus
about my neck-

Oth. Crying 'O dear Cassio !' as it were: his gesture
imports it.

140

Cas. So hangs and lolls and weeps upon me; so hales and pulls me: ha, ha, ha!

Oth. 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.

Cas. Well, I must leave her company.
Iago. Before me! look, where she comes.

Cas. 'Tis such another fitchew! marry, a perfumed

one.

Enter Bianca.

What do you mean by this haunting of me? Bian. 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 work? 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-horse: wheresoever you had it, I'll take out no work on 't.

150

Cas. How now, my sweet Bianca! how now! how 160 now!

Oth. By heaven, that should be my handkerchief!

Bian. An you'll come to supper to-night, you may;

an you will not, come when you are next pre-
pared for.

lago. After her, after her.

Cas. Faith, I must; she'll rail i' the street else.

lago. Will you sup there?

Cas. Faith, I intend so.

[Exit.

Iago. Well, I may chance to see you; for I would 170

very fain speak with you.

Cas. Prithee, come; will you ?

lago. Go to; say no more.

[Exit Cassio.

Oth. [Advancing] How shall I murder him, Iago?

lago. Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice?

Oth. O Iago!

Iago. And did you see the handkerchief?

Oth. Was that mine?

lago. Yours, by this hand: and to see how he prizes

the foolish woman your wife! she gave it him, 180 and he hath given it his whore.

Oth. I would have him nine years a-killing. A fine woman! a fair woman! a sweet woman!

Iago. Nay, you must forget that.

Oth. 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.

Oth. 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.

Oth. O, a thousand thousand times: and then, of so gentle a condition!

Iago. Ay, too gentle.

190

Oth. Nay, that's certain : but yet the pity of it, lago! 200 O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!

lago. If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her patent to offend; for, if it touch not you, it comes near nobody.

Oth. I will chop her into messes: cuckold me! lago. O, 'tis foul in her.

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