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Exit.

LODOVICO.

Is this the noble Moor whom our full Senate

Call all in all sufficient? This the nature

Whom passion could not shake? whose solid virtue

The shot of accident nor dart of chance

Could neither graze nor pierce?

IAGO.

He is much changed.

LODOVICO.

Are his wits safe? Is he not light of brain?

IAGO.

He's that he is. I may not breathe my censure

What he might be: if what he might he is not,

I would to heaven he were!

LODOVICO.

What, strike his wife!

IAGO.

Faith, that was not so well; yet would I knew

That stroke would prove the worst!

LODOVICO.

Is it his use?

Or did the letters work upon his blood,

And new create this fault?

IAGO.

Alas, alas!

It is not honesty in me to speak

What I have seen and known. You shall observe him,

And his own courses will denote him so

That I may save my speech. Do but go after,

And mark how he continues.

LODOVICO.

I am sorry that I am deceived in him.

Exeunt.

SCENE II. A room in the castle.

Enter Othello and Emilia.

OTHELLO. You have seen nothing, then?

EMILIA.

Nor ever heard, nor ever did suspect.

OTHELLO.

Yes, you have seen Cassio and she together.

EMILIA.

But then I saw no harm, and then I heard

Each syllable that breath made up between them.

OTHELLO.

What, did they never whisper?

EMILIA.

Never, my lord.

OTHELLO.

Nor send you out o' the way?

EMILIA.

Never.

OTHELLO.

To fetch her fan, her gloves, her mask, nor nothing?

EMILIA.

Never, my lord.

OTHELLO.

That's strange.

EMILIA.

I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest,

Lay down my soul at stake. If you think other,

Remove your thought; it doth abuse your bosom.

If any wretch have put this in your head,

Let heaven requite it with the serpent's curse!

For if she be not honest, chaste, and true,

There's no man happy; the purest of their wives

Is foul as slander.

OTHELLO.

Bid her come hither; go. Exit Emilia.

She says enough; yet she's a simple bawd

That cannot say as much. This is a subtle whore,

A closet lock and key of villainous secrets.

And yet she'll kneel and pray; I have seen her do't.

Enter Desdemona with Emilia.

DESDEMONA. My lord, what is your will?

OTHELLO.

Pray, chuck, come hither.

DESDEMONA.

What is your pleasure?

OTHELLO.

Let me see your eyes;

Look in my face.

DESDEMONA.

What horrible fancy's this?

OTHELLO.

[To Emilia.] Some of your function, mistress,

Leave procreants alone and shut the door;

Cough, or cry "hem," if anybody come.

Your mystery, your mystery; nay, dispatch. Exit Emilia.

DESDEMONA.

Upon my knees, what doth your speech import?

I understand a fury in your words,

But not the words.

OTHELLO.

Why, what art thou?

DESDEMONA.

Your wife, my lord, your true and loyal wife.

OTHELLO.

Come, swear it, damn thyself;

Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves

Should fear to seize thee. Therefore be double-damn'd;

Swear thou art honest.

DESDEMONA.

Heaven doth truly know it.

OTHELLO.

Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell.

DESDEMONA.

To whom, my lord? with whom? how am I false?

OTHELLO.

O Desdemona! Away! away! away!

DESDEMONA.

Alas the heavy day! Why do you weep?

Am I the motive of these tears, my lord?

If haply you my father do suspect

An instrument of this your calling back,

Lay not your blame on me. If you have lost him,

Why, I have lost him too.

OTHELLO.

Had it pleased heaven

To try me with affliction, had they rain'd

All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head,

Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips,

Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes,

I should have found in some place of my soul

A drop of patience; but, alas, to make me

A fixed figure for the time of scorn

To point his slow unmoving finger at!

Yet could I bear that too, well, very well;

But there, where I have garner'd up my heart,

Where either I must live or bear no life;

The fountain from the which my current runs,

Or else dries up; to be discarded thence!

Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads

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