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OTHELLO.

Dost thou hear, Iago?

I will be found most cunning in my patience;

But (dost thou hear?) most bloody.

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.

Re-enter Cassio.

As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;

And his unbookish jealousy must construe

Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures, and light behavior

Quite in the wrong. How do you now, lieutenant?

CASSIO.

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 Bianco's power,

How quickly should you speed!

CASSIO.

Alas, poor caitiff!

OTHELLO.

Look, how he laughs already!

IAGO.

I never knew a woman love man so.

CASSIO.

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

OTHELLO.

Now he denies it faintly and laughs it out.

IAGO.

Do you hear, Cassio?

OTHELLO.

Now he importunes him

To tell it o'er. Go to; well said, well said.

IAGO.

She gives it out that you shall marry her.

Do you intend it?

CASSIO.

Ha, ha, ha!

OTHELLO.

Do you triumph, Roman? Do you triumph?

CASSIO.

I marry her! What? A customer! I prithee, bear some charity

to my wit; do not think it so unwholesome. Ha, ha, ha!

OTHELLO.

So, so, so, so. They laugh that win.

IAGO.

Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her.

CASSIO.

Prithee, say true.

IAGO.

I am a very villain else.

OTHELLO.

Have you scored me? Well.

CASSIO.

This is the monkey's own giving out. She is persuaded I

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

OTHELLO.

Iago beckons me; now he begins the story.

CASSIO.

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-

OTHELLO.

Crying, "O dear Cassio!" as it were; his gesture imports it.

CASSIO.

So hangs and lolls and weeps upon me; so hales and pulls

me. Ha, ha, ha!

OTHELLO.

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.

CASSIO.

Well, I must leave her company.

IAGO.

Before me! look where she comes.

CASSIO.

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

Enter Bianca.

What do you mean by this haunting of me?

BIANCA.

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 hobbyhorse. Wheresoever you had it, I'll take

out no work on't.

CASSIO.

How now, my sweet Bianca! how now! how now!

OTHELLO.

By heaven, that should be my handkerchief!

BIANCA.

An you'll come to supper tonight, you may; an you will not,

come when you are next prepared for.

Exit.

IAGO.

After her, after her.

CASSIO.

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

IAGO.

Will you sup there?

CASSIO.

Faith, I intend so.

IAGO.

Well, I may chance to see you, for I would very fain speak with you.

CASSIO.

Prithee, come; will you?

IAGO.

Go to; say no more. Exit Cassio.

OTHELLO.

[Advancing.] How shall I murther him, Iago?

IAGO.

Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice?

OTHELLO.

O Iago!

IAGO.

And did you see the handkerchief?

OTHELLO.

Was that mine?

IAGO.

Yours, by this hand. And to see how he prizes the foolish

woman your wife! She gave it him, and he hath given it his whore.

OTHELLO.

I would have him nine years akilling. A fine woman! a fair

woman! a sweet woman!

IAGO.