| ACT IV SCENE III | Another room in the castle. | |
| | 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. | 5 |
| OTHELLO | Will you walk, sir? | |
| | O, --Desdemona,-- | |
| DESDEMONA | My lord? | |
| OTHELLO | Get you to bed on the instant; I will be returned | |
| | forthwith: dismiss your attendant there: look it be done. | 10 |
| 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. | 15 |
| 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! | 20 |
| DESDEMONA | So would not I my love doth so approve him, | |
| | That even his stubbornness, his cheques, his frowns-- | |
| | Prithee, unpin me,--have grace and favour in them. | |
| EMILIA | I have laid those sheets you bade me on the bed. | |
| DESDEMONA | All's one. Good faith, how foolish are our minds! | 25 |
| | If I do die before thee prithee, shroud me | |
| | In one of those same sheets. | |
| EMILIA | Come, come you talk. | |
| DESDEMONA | My mother had a maid call'd Barbara: | |
| | She was in love, and he she loved proved mad | 30 |
| | And did forsake her: she had a song of 'willow;' | |
| | An old thing 'twas, but it express'd her fortune, | |
| | And she died singing it: that song to-night | |
| | Will not go from my mind; I have much to do, | |
| | But to go hang my head all at one side, | 35 |
| | And sing it like poor Barbara. Prithee, dispatch. | |
| EMILIA | Shall I go fetch your night-gown? | |
| DESDEMONA | No, unpin me here. | |
| | This Lodovico is a proper man. | |
| EMILIA | A very handsome man. | 40 |
| DESDEMONA | He speaks well. | |
| EMILIA | I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot | |
| | to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip. | |
| DESDEMONA | [Singing.] The poor soul sat singing by a sycamore tree. | |
| | Sing all a green willow: | |
| | Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee, | 45 |
| | Sing willow, willow, willow: | |
| | The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her moans; | |
| | Sing willow, willow, willow; | |
| | Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the stones; | |
| | Lay by these:-- | 50 |
| | [Singing]. | |
| | Sing willow, willow, willow; | |
| | Prithee, hie thee; he'll come anon: -- | |
| | [Singing.] | |
| | Sing all a green willow must be my garland. | |
| |
Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve, -- | |
| | Nay, that's not next.-- Hark! who is't that knocks? | 55 |
| EMILIA | It's the wind. | |
| DESDEMONA | [Singing.] I called my love false love; | |
| | but what said he then? | |
| | Sing willow, willow, willow: | |
| | If I court moe women, you'll couch with moe men! | |
| | So, get thee gone; good night Ate eyes do itch; | 60 |
| | Doth that bode weeping? | |
| EMILIA | 'Tis neither here nor there. | |
| DESDEMONA | I have heard it said so. O, these men, these men! | |
| | Dost thou in conscience think, -- tell me, Emilia, -- | |
| | That there be women do abuse their husbands | 65 |
| | In such gross kind? | |
| EMILIA | There be some such, no question. | |
| DESDEMONA | Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world? | |
| EMILIA | Why, would not you? | |
| DESDEMONA | No, by this heavenly light! | 70 |
| EMILIA | Nor I neither by this heavenly light; | |
| | I might do't as well i' the dark. | |
| DESDEMONA | Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world? | |
| EMILIA | The world's a huge thing: it is a great price. | |
| | For a small vice. | 75 |
| 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 | |
| | joint-ring, nor for measures of lawn, nor for | |
| | gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any petty | 80 |
| | 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. | 85 |
| 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 | 90 |
| | store the world they played 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, | 95 |
| | 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 | 100 |
| | 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? | 105 |
| | 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 | Good night, good night: heaven me such uses send, | 110 |
| | Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend! | |
| | Exeunt | |
Abbreviations. — A.-S. = Anglo-Saxon: M.E. = Middle
English (from the 13th to the 15th century) ; Fr. = French ;
Ger. = German ; Gr. = Greek ; Cf. = compare (Lat. confer) ;
Abbott refers to the excellent Shakespearean Grammar of Dr.
Abbott; Schmidt, to Dr. Schmidt's invaluable Shakespeare Lexicon.
____
13. Incontinent, immediately.
35. But, preventive. At one side. We still say a-side (at
side), but on one side.
25. All's one, it is of no consequence.
43. sq. A song much like this is found in Percy's Reliques.
55. She has forgotten the words.
62. Emilia avoids giving a direct affirmative.
86, sq. It is only wrong if it becomes known to the world; now, if one is to gain the world for it, the world is at your command, and therefore it is no matter.
97. Having, property. Cf. "The gentleman is of no having." — Merry Wives., iii. 2, 73.
98. We are vexed.
111. Mend, amend.
