All Chapters of Othello, the Moor of Venice: Chapter 11 - Chapter 17

Enter Desdemona, Cassio and Emilia.DESDEMONA. Be thou assured, good Cassio, I will do All my abilities in thy behalf.EMILIA. Good madam, do. I warrant it grieves my husband As if the cause were his.DESDEMONA. O, that’s an honest fellow. Do not doubt, Cassio, But I will have my lord and you again As friendly as you were.CASSIO. Bounteous madam, Whatever shall become of Michael Cassio, He’s never anything but your true servant.DESDEMONA. I know’t. I thank you. You do love my lord. You have known him long; and be you well assur’d He shall in strangeness stand no farther off Than in a politic distance.CASSIO. Ay, but, lady, That policy may either last so long, Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet, Or breed itself so out of circumstance, That, I being absent, and my place supplied, My general will forget my love and service.DESDEMONA. Do not doubt that. Before Emilia here I give thee warrant of thy place. Assure thee, If I do vow a friendship, I’ll perform it To the last a

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 bed An 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.

Enter Othello, Lodovico, Desdemona, Emilia and Attendants.LODOVICO. I do beseech you, sir, trouble yourself no further.OTHELLO. O, pardon me; ’twill do me good to walk.LODOVICO. Madam, good night. I humbly thank your ladyship.DESDEMONA. Your honour is most welcome.OTHELLO. Will you walk, sir?— O, Desdemona,—DESDEMONA. My lord?OTHELLO. Get you to bed on th’ instant, I will be return’d forthwith. Dismiss your attendant there. Look ’t be done.DESDEMONA. I will, my lord.[Exeunt Othello, Lodovico and Attendants.]EMILIA. How goes it now? He looks gentler than he did.DESDEMONA. He says he will return incontinent, He hath commanded me to go to bed, And bade me to dismiss you.EMILIA. Dismiss me?DESDEMONA. It was his bidding. Therefore, good Emilia, Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu. We must not now displease him.EMILIA. I would you had never seen him!DESDEMONA. So would not I. My love doth so approve him, That even his stubbornness, his checks, his frowns,— Pri

Desdemona in bed asleep; a light burning.Enter Othello.OTHELLO. It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul, Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars! It is the cause. Yet I’ll not shed her blood, Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow, And smooth as monumental alabaster. Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men. Put out the light, and then put out the light: If I quench thee, thou flaming minister, I can again thy former light restore, Should I repent me. But once put out thy light, Thou cunning’st pattern of excelling nature, I know not where is that Promethean heat That can thy light relume. When I have pluck’d thy rose, I cannot give it vital growth again, It must needs wither. I’ll smell it on the tree.[Kissing her.]O, balmy breath, that dost almost persuade Justice to break her sword! One more, one more. Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee, And love thee after. One more, and this the last. So sweet was ne’er so fatal. I must weep, But they are crue