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SCENE X

Table of Contents

[Enter Lodovico, Montano, Cassio carried in a chair, and Officers with Iago prisoner.]

LODOVICO

Where is this rash and most unfortunate man?

OTHELLO

That’s he that was Othello;—here I am.

LODOVICO

Where is that viper? bring the villain forth.

OTHELLO

I look down towards his feet;—but that’s a fable.—

If that thou be’st a devil, I cannot kill thee.

[Wounds Iago.]

LODOVICO

Wrench his sword from him.

IAGO

I bleed, sir, but not kill’d.

OTHELLO

I am not sorry neither: I’d have thee live;

For, in my sense, ‘tis happiness to die.

LODOVICO

O thou Othello, that wert once so good,

Fall’n in the practice of a damnèd slave,

What shall be said to thee?

OTHELLO

Why, anything;

An honourable murderer, if you will;

For naught did I in hate, but all in honour.

LODOVICO

This wretch hath part confess’d his villany:

Did you and he consent in Cassio’s death?

OTHELLO

Ay.

CASSIO

Dear general, I never gave you cause.

OTHELLO

I do believe it, and I ask your pardon.

Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil

Why he hath thus ensnar’d my soul and body?

IAGO

Demand me nothing: what you know, you know:

From this time forth I never will speak word.

LODOVICO

What, not to pray?

GRATIANO

Torments will ope your lips.

OTHELLO

Well, thou dost best.

LODOVICO

Sir, you shall understand what hath befall’n,

Which, as I think, you know not. Here is a letter

Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo,

And here another: the one of them imports

The death of Cassio to be undertook

By Roderigo.

OTHELLO

O villain!

CASSIO

Most heathenish and most gross!

LODOVICO

Now here’s another discontented paper,

Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems,

Roderigo meant to have sent this damnèd villain;

But that, belike, Iago in the interim

Came in and satisfied him.

OTHELLO

O the pernicious caitiff!—

How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief

That was my wife’s?

CASSIO

I found it in my chamber;

And he himself confess’d but even now

That there he dropp’d it for a special purpose

Which wrought to his desire.

OTHELLO

O fool! fool! fool!

CASSIO

There is besides in Roderigo’s letter,—

How he upbraids Iago, that he made him

Brave me upon the watch; whereon it came

That I was cast: and even but now he spake,

After long seeming dead,—Iago hurt him,

Iago set him on.

LODOVICO

You must forsake this room, and go with us:

Your power and your command is taken off,

And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave,—

If there be any cunning cruelty

That can torment him much and hold him long,

It shall be his. You shall close prisoner rest,

Till that the nature of your fault be known

To the Venetian state.—Come, bring away.

OTHELLO

Soft you; a word or two before you go.

I have done the state some service, and they know’t.—

No more of that.—I pray you, in your letters,

When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,

Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,

Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak

Of one that loved not wisely, but too well;

Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought,

Perplex’d in the extreme; of one whose hand,

Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away

Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdu’d eyes,

Albeit unusèd to the melting mood,

Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees

Their medicinal gum. Set you down this;

And say besides,—that in Aleppo once,

Where a malignant and a turban’d Turk

Beat a Venetian and traduc’d the state,

I took by the throat the circumcisèd dog

And smote him—thus.

[Stabs himself.]

LODOVICO

O bloody period!

GRATIANO

All that’s spoke is marr’d.

OTHELLO

I kiss’d thee ere I kill’d thee:—no way but this,

Killing myself, to die upon a kiss. [Falling upon Desdemona.]

CASSIO

This did I fear, but thought he had no weapon;

For he was great of heart.

LODOVICO

[To Iago.] O Spartan dog,

More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea!

Look on the tragic loading of this bed;

This is thy work:—the object poisons sight;

Let it be hid.—Gratiano, keep the house,

And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor,

For they succeed on you.—To you, lord governor,

Remains the censure of this hellish villain;

The time, the place, the torture,—O, enforce it!

Myself will straight aboard; and to the state

This heavy act with heavy heart relate.

[Exeunt.]

THE END