Othello. William Shakespeare

       DESDEMONA

       In troth, I think thou wouldst not.

       EMILIA

       In troth, I think I should; and undo’t when I had done. Marry, I would not do such a thing for a jointring, nor for measures of lawn, nor for gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any petty exhibition; but, for the whole world—why, who would not make her husband a cuckold to make him a monarch? I should venture purgatory for’t.

       DESDEMONA

       Beshrew me, if I would do such a wrong for the whole world.

       EMILIA

       Why, the wrong is but a wrong i’ the world; and having the world for your labour, ‘tis a wrong in your own world, and you might quickly make it right.

       DESDEMONA

       I do not think there is any such woman.

       EMILIA

       Yes, a dozen; and as many to the vantage as would store the world they play’d for.

       But I do think it is their husbands’ faults

       If wives do fall: say that they slack their duties

       And pour our treasures into foreign laps;

       Or else break out in peevish jealousies,

       Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,

       Or scant our former having in despite;

       Why, we have galls; and though we have some grace,

       Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know

       Their wives have sense like them: they see and smell

       And have their palates both for sweet and sour,

       As husbands have. What is it that they do

       When they change us for others? Is it sport?

       I think it is: and doth affection breed it?

       I think it doth: is’t frailty that thus errs?

       It is so too. And have not we affections,

       Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?

       Then let them use us well: else let them know

       The ills we do their ills instruct us so.

       DESDEMONA

       Goodnight, goodnight: heaven me such usage send,

       Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend!

       [Exeunt.]

ACT V

       Table of Contents

      SCENE I. Cyprus. A Street.

       [Enter Iago and Roderigo.]

       IAGO

       Here, stand behind this bulk; straight will he come:

       Wear thy good rapier bare, and put it home:

       Quick, quick; fear nothing; I’ll be at thy elbow:

       It makes us, or it mars us; think on that,

       And fix most firm thy resolution.

       RODERIGO

       Be near at hand; I may miscarry in’t.

       IAGO

       Here, at thy hand: be bold, and take thy stand.

       [Retires to a little distance.]

       RODERIGO

       I have no great devotion to the deed;

       And yet he hath given me satisfying reasons:—

       ‘Tis but a man gone.—Forth, my sword; he dies.

       [Goes to his stand.]

       IAGO

       I have rubb’d this young quat almost to the sense,

       And he grows angry. Now, whether he kill Cassio,

       Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other,

       Every way makes my gain: live Roderigo,

       He calls me to a restitution large

       Of gold and jewels that I bobb’d from him,

       As gifts to Desdemona;

       It must not be: if Cassio do remain,

       He hath a daily beauty in his life

       That makes me ugly; and besides, the Moor

       May unfold me to him; there stand I in much peril;

       No, he must die.—But, so, I hear him coming.

       [Enter Cassio.]

       RODERIGO

       I know his gait; ‘tis he.—Villain, thou diest!

       [Rushes out, and makes a pass at Cassio.]

       CASSIO

       That thrust had been mine enemy indeed,

       But that my coat is better than thou know’st:

       I will make proof of thine.

       [Draws, and wounds Roderigo.]

       RODERIGO

       O, I am slain!

       [Iago rushes from his post, cuts Cassio behind in the leg, and exit.]

       CASSIO

       I am maim’d forever.—Help, ho! murder! murder!

       [Falls.]

       [Enter Othello at a distance.]

       OTHELLO

       The voice of Cassio: Iago keeps his word.

       RODERIGO

       O, villain that I am!

       OTHELLO

       It is even so.

       CASSIO

       O, help, ho! light! a surgeon!

       OTHELLO

       ‘Tis he:—O brave Iago, honest and just,

       That hast such noble sense of thy friend’s wrong!

       Thou teachest me,—minion, your dear lies dead,

       And your unbless’d fate hies. Strumpet, I come!

       Forth of my heart those charms, thine eyes, are blotted;

       Thy bed, lust-stain’d, shall with lust’s blood be spotted.

       [Exit.]

       [Enter Lodovico and Gratiano at a distance.]

       CASSIO

       What, ho! no watch? no passage? murder! murder!

       GRATIANO

       ‘Tis some mischance; the cry is very direful.

       CASSIO

       O, help!

       LODOVICO

       Hark!

       RODERIGO

       O wretched villain!

       LODOVICO

       Two or three groan:—it is a heavy night:

       These may be counterfeits: let’s think’t unsafe

       To come in to the cry without more help.

       RODERIGO

       Nobody come? then shall I bleed to death.

       LODOVICO

       Hark!

       [Re-enter Iago, with a light.]

       GRATIANO

       Here’s one comes in his shirt, with light and weapons.