Act 4, Scene 1

Cyprus. Before the Castle.

[Enter Othello and Iago.]
Iago
2230 Will you think so?
Othello
2231 Think so, Iago?
Iago
2232 What,
2233 To kiss in private?
Othello
2234 An unauthoriz'd kiss.
Iago
2235 Or to be naked with her friend in bed
2236 An hour or more, not meaning any harm?
Othello
2237 Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm!
2238 It is hypocrisy against the devil:
2239 They that mean virtuously and yet do so,
2240 The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.
Iago
2241 So they do nothing, 'tis a venial slip:
2242 But if I give my wife a handkerchief,—
Othello
2243 What then?
Iago
2244 Why, then, 'tis hers, my lord, and being hers,
2245 She may, I think, bestow't on any man.
Othello
2246 She is protectress of her honour too:
2247 May she give that?
Iago
2248 Her honour is an essence that's not seen;
2249 They have it very oft that have it not:
2250 But, for the handkerchief,—
Othello
2251 By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it:—
2252 Thou said'st,—O, it comes o'er my memory,
2253 As doth the raven o'er the infected house,
2254 Boding to all,—he had my handkerchief.
Iago
2255 Ay, what of that?
Othello
2256 That's not so good now.
Iago
2257 What,
2258 If I had said I had seen him do you wrong?
2259 Or heard him say,—as knaves be such abroad,
2260 Who having, by their own importunate suit,
2261 Or voluntary dotage of some mistress,
2262 Convinced or supplied them, cannot choose
2263 But they must blab,—
Othello
2264 Hath he said anything?
Iago
2265 He hath, my lord; but be you well assur'd,
2266 No more than he'll unswear.
Othello
2267 What hath he said?
Iago
2268 Faith, that he did,—I know not what he did.
Othello
2269 What? what?
Iago
2270 Lie,—
Othello
2271 With her?
Iago
2272 With her, on her, what you will.
Othello
2273 Lie with her! lie on her!—We say lie on her when they belie
2274 her.—Lie with her! that's fulsome.—Handkerchief—confessions—
2275 handkerchief!—To confess, and be hanged for his labour,—first,
2276 to be hanged, and then to confess.—I tremble at it. Nature
2277 would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without some
2278 instruction. It is not words that shake me thus:—pish!—noses,
2279 ears, and lips.—Is't possible?—Confess,—handkerchief!—O
2280 devil!—
[Falls in a trance.]
Iago
2281 Work on,
2282 My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught;
2283 And many worthy and chaste dames even thus,
2284 All guiltless, meet reproach.—What, ho! my lord!
2285 My lord, I say! Othello!
[Enter Cassio.]
Iago
2286 How now, Cassio!
Cassio
2287 What's the matter?
Iago
2288 My lord is fallen into an epilepsy:
2289 This is his second fit; he had one yesterday.
Cassio
2290 Rub him about the temples.
Iago
2291 No, forbear;
2292 The lethargy must have his quiet course:
2293 If not, he foams at mouth, and by and by
2294 Breaks out to savage madness. Look, he stirs:
2295 Do you withdraw yourself a little while,
2296 He will recover straight: when he is gone,
2297 I would on great occasion speak with you.
[Exit Cassio.]
Iago
2298 How is it, general? have you not hurt your head?
Othello
2299 Dost thou mock me?
Iago
2300 I mock you! no, by heaven.
2301 Would you would bear your fortune like a man!
Othello
2302 A horned man's a monster and a beast.
Iago
2303 There's many a beast, then, in a populous city,
2304 And many a civil monster.
Othello
2305 Did he confess it?
Iago
2306 Good sir, be a man;
2307 Think every bearded fellow that's but yok'd
2308 May draw with you: there's millions now alive
2309 That nightly lie in those unproper beds
2310 Which they dare swear peculiar: your case is better.
2311 O, 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock,
2312 To lip a wanton in a secure couch,
2313 And to suppose her chaste! No, let me know;
2314 And knowing what I am, I know what she shall be.
Othello
2315 O, thou art wise; 'tis certain.
Iago
2316 Stand you awhile apart;
2317 Confine yourself but in a patient list.
2318 Whilst you were here o'erwhelmed with your grief,—
2319 A passion most unsuiting such a man,—
2320 Cassio came hither: I shifted him away,
2321 And laid good 'scuse upon your ecstasy;
2322 Bade him anon return, and here speak with me;
2323 The which he promis'd. Do but encave yourself,
2324 And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns,
2325 That dwell in every region of his face;
2326 For I will make him tell the tale anew,—
2327 Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when
2328 He hath, and is again to cope your wife:
2329 I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience;
2330 Or I shall say you are all in all in spleen,
2331 And nothing of a man.
Othello
2332 Dost thou hear, Iago?
2333 I will be found most cunning in my patience;
2334 But,—dost thou hear?—most bloody.
Iago
2335 That's not amiss;
2336 But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw?
[Othello withdraws.]
Iago
2337 Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,
2338 A housewife that, by selling her desires,
2339 Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature
2340 That dotes on Cassio,—as 'tis the strumpet's plague
2341 To beguile many and be beguil'd by one:—
2342 He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain
2343 From the excess of laughter:—here he comes:—
2344 As he shall smile Othello shall go mad;
2345 And his unbookish jealousy must construe
2346 Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures, and light behavior
2347 Quite in the wrong.
[Re-enter Cassio.]
Iago
2348 How do you now, lieutenant?
Cassio
2349 The worser that you give me the addition
2350 Whose want even kills me.
Iago
2351 Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on't.
[Speaking lower.]
Iago
2352 Now, if this suit lay in Bianca's power,
2353 How quickly should you speed!
Cassio
2354 Alas, poor caitiff!
[Aside.]
Othello
2355 Look, how he laughs already!
Iago
2356 I never knew a woman love man so.
Cassio
2357 Alas, poor rogue! I think, i'faith, she loves me.
[Aside.]
Othello
2358 Now he denies it faintly and laughs it out.
Iago
2359 Do you hear, Cassio?
[Aside.]
Othello
2360 Now he importunes him
2361 To tell it o'er: go to; well said, well said.
Iago
2362 She gives it out that you shall marry her:
2363 Do you intend it?
Cassio
2364 Ha, ha, ha!
[Aside.]
Othello
2365 Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?
Cassio
2366 I marry her!—what? A customer! I pr'ythee, bear some charity
2367 to my wit; do not think it so unwholesome:—ha, ha, ha!
[Aside.]
Othello
2368 So, so, so, so: they laugh that win.
Iago
2369 Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her.
Cassio
2370 Pr'ythee, say true.
Iago
2371 I am a very villain else.
[Aside.]
Othello
2372 Have you scored me? Well.
Cassio
2373 This is the monkey's own giving out: she is persuaded I will
2374 marry her, out of her own love and flattery, not out of my
2375 promise.
[Aside.]
Othello
2376 Iago beckons me; now he begins the story.
Cassio
2377 She was here even now; she haunts me in every place. I was the
2378 other day talking on the sea bank with certain Venetians, and
2379 thither comes the bauble, and falls thus about my neck,—
[Aside.]
Othello
2380 Crying, "O dear Cassio!" as it were: his gesture imports
2381 it.
Cassio
2382 So hangs, and lolls, and weeps upon me; so hales and pulls me:
2383 ha, ha, ha!
[Aside.]
Othello
2384 Now he tells how she plucked him to my chamber. O, I see
2385 that nose of yours, but not that dog I shall throw it to.
Cassio
2386 Well, I must leave her company.
Iago
2387 Before me! look where she comes.
Cassio
2388 'Tis such another fitchew! marry, a perfumed one.
[Enter Bianca.]
Cassio
2389 What do you mean by this haunting of me?
Bianca
2390 Let the devil and his dam haunt you! What did you mean
2391 by that same handkerchief you gave me even now? I was a fine
2392 fool to take it. I must take out the work?—A likely piece of
2393 work that you should find it in your chamber and not know who
2394 left it there! This is some minx's token, and I must take out the
2395 work? There,—give it your hobby-horse: wheresoever you had it,
2396 I'll take out no work on't.
Cassio
2397 How now, my sweet Bianca! how now! how now!
[Aside.]
Othello
2398 By heaven, that should be my handkerchief!
Bianca
2399 An you'll come to supper to-night, you may; an you will
2400 not, come when you are next prepared for.
[Exit.]
Iago
2401 After her, after her.
Cassio
2402 Faith, I must; she'll rail in the street else.
Iago
2403 Will you sup there?
Cassio
2404 Faith, I intend so.
Iago
2405 Well, I may chance to see you; for I would very fain
2406 speak with you.
Cassio
2407 Pr'ythee, come; will you?
Iago
2408 Go to; say no more.
[Exit Cassio.]
[Coming forward.]
Othello
2409 How shall I murder him, Iago?
Iago
2410 Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice?
Othello
2411 O Iago!
Iago
2412 And did you see the handkerchief?
Othello
2413 Was that mine?
Iago
2414 Yours, by this hand: and to see how he prizes the foolish woman
2415 your wife! she gave it him, and he hath given it his whore.
Othello
2416 I would have him nine years a-killing.—A fine woman! a fair
2417 woman! a sweet woman!
Iago
2418 Nay, you must forget that.
Othello
2419 Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be damned to-night; for
2420 she shall not live: no, my heart is turned to stone; I strike
2421 it, and it hurts my hand.—O, the world hath not a sweeter
2422 creature: she might lie by an emperor's side, and command him
2423 tasks.
Iago
2424 Nay, that's not your way.
Othello
2425 Hang her! I do but say what she is:—so delicate with her
2426 needle!—an admirable musician! O, she will sing the savageness
2427 out of a bear!—Of so high and plenteous wit and invention!—
Iago
2428 She's the worse for all this.
Othello
2429 O, a thousand, a thousand times:—and then, of so gentle a
2430 condition!
Iago
2431 Ay, too gentle.
Othello
2432 Nay, that's certain:—but yet the pity of it, Iago!
2433 O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!
Iago
2434 If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her patent to
2435 offend; for, if it touch not you, it comes near nobody.
Othello
2436 I will chop her into messes.—Cuckold me!
Iago
2437 O, 'tis foul in her.
Othello
2438 With mine officer!
Iago
2439 That's fouler.
Othello
2440 Get me some poison, Iago; this night.—I'll not expostulate
2441 with her, lest her body and beauty unprovide my mind again:—
2442 this night, Iago.
Iago
2443 Do it not with poison; strangle her in her bed, even the
2444 bed she hath contaminated.
Othello
2445 Good, good: the justice of it pleases: very good.
Iago
2446 And for Cassio,—let me be his undertaker:—you shall hear
2447 more by midnight.
Othello
2448 Excellent good.
[A trumpet within.]
Othello
2449 What trumpet is that same?
Iago
2450 Something from Venice, sure. 'Tis Lodovico
2451 Come from the duke: and, see, your wife is with him.
[Enter Lodovico, Desdemona, and Attendants.]
Lodovico
2452 Save you, worthy general!
Othello
2453 With all my heart, sir.
Lodovico
2454 The duke and senators of Venice greet you.
[Gives him a packet.]
Othello
2455 I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.
[Opens the packet and reads.]
Desdemona
2456 And what's the news, good cousin Lodovico?
Iago
2457 I am very glad to see you, signior;
2458 Welcome to Cyprus.
Lodovico
2459 I thank you. How does Lieutenant Cassio?
Iago
2460 Lives, sir.
Desdemona
2461 Cousin, there's fall'n between him and my lord
2462 An unkind breach: but you shall make all well.
Othello
2463 Are you sure of that?
Desdemona
2464 My lord?
[Reads.]
Othello
2465 "This fail you not to do, as you will,—"
Lodovico
2466 He did not call; he's busy in the paper.
2467 Is there division 'twixt my lord and Cassio?
Desdemona
2468 A most unhappy one: I would do much
2469 To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio.
Othello
2470 Fire and brimstone!
Desdemona
2471 My lord?
Othello
2472 Are you wise?
Desdemona
2473 What, is he angry?
Lodovico
2474 May be the letter mov'd him;
2475 For, as I think, they do command him home,
2476 Deputing Cassio in his government.
Desdemona
2477 Trust me, I am glad on't.
Othello
2478 Indeed!
Desdemona
2479 My lord?
Othello
2480 I am glad to see you mad.
Desdemona
2481 Why, sweet Othello,—
Othello
2482 Devil!
[Striking her.]
Desdemona
2483 I have not deserv'd this.
Lodovico
2484 My lord, this would not be believ'd in Venice,
2485 Though I should swear I saw't: 'tis very much:
2486 Make her amends; she weeps.
Othello
2487 O devil, devil!
2488 If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,
2489 Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.—
2490 Out of my sight!
[Going.]
Desdemona
2491 I will not stay to offend you.
Lodovico
2492 Truly, an obedient lady:—
2493 I do beseech your lordship, call her back.
Othello
2494 Mistress!
Desdemona
2495 My lord?
Othello
2496 What would you with her, sir?
Lodovico
2497 Who, I, my lord?
Othello
2498 Ay; you did wish that I would make her turn:
2499 Sir, she can turn, and turn, and yet go on,
2500 And turn again; and she can weep, sir, weep;
2501 And she's obedient, as you say,—obedient,—
2502 Very obedient.—Proceed you in your tears.—
2503 Concerning this, sir,—O well-painted passion!
2504 I am commanded home.—Get you away;
2505 I'll send for you anon.—Sir, I obey the mandate,
2506 And will return to Venice.—Hence, avaunt!
[Exit Desdemona.]
Othello
2507 Cassio shall have my place. And, sir, to-night,
2508 I do entreat that we may sup together:
2509 You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.—Goats and monkeys!
[Exit.]
Lodovico
2510 Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate
2511 Call all-in-all sufficient? Is this the nature
2512 Whom passion could not shake? whose solid virtue
2513 The shot of accident nor dart of chance
2514 Could neither graze nor pierce?
Iago
2515 He is much chang'd.
Lodovico
2516 Are his wits safe? is he not light of brain?
Iago
2517 He's that he is: I may not breathe my censure
2518 What he might be,—if what he might he is not,—
2519 I would to heaven he were!
Lodovico
2520 What, strike his wife!
Iago
2521 Faith, that was not so well; yet would I knew
2522 That stroke would prove the worst!
Lodovico
2523 Is it his use?
2524 Or did the letters work upon his blood,
2525 And new-create this fault?
Iago
2526 Alas, alas!
2527 It is not honesty in me to speak
2528 What I have seen and known. You shall observe him;
2529 And his own courses will denote him so
2530 That I may save my speech: do but go after,
2531 And mark how he continues.
Lodovico
2532 I am sorry that I am deceiv'd in him.
[Exeunt.]

Reading mode

Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 2241archaic vocab
“'tis a venial slip”
'Venial' means pardonable or forgivable — the opposite of a mortal (soul-killing) sin. Iago is insinuating that a minor sexual slip, so long as 'nothing happens,' is barely worth mentioning. The word comes from Catholic moral theology, where venial sins were minor offenses that did not destroy the soul's relationship with God.
TLN 2248rhetorical device
“Her honour is an essence that's not seen”
Iago argues that female honor (sexual chastity) is invisible — unlike a physical object, you cannot see it, which means a woman can give it away without anyone being the wiser. The next line twists this further: many women are said to 'have it' (a good reputation) who in fact do not. It is a sophist's trap: Iago reduces the immaterial value Othello prizes to something unverifiable and already probably lost.
TLN 2253historical topical
“the raven o'er the infected house”
Ravens were believed in Elizabethan England to circle houses where someone was dying of the plague, sensing the coming death before it arrived. The raven as an omen of death or disaster was both popular superstition and classical inheritance. Othello says the memory of the handkerchief sweeps over him the way a plague-raven circles a doomed house: it comes with a sense of inevitable catastrophe.
TLN 2260archaic vocab
“by their own importunate suit, Or voluntary dotage of some mistress, Convinced or supplied them”
'Importunate suit' means persistent sexual pleading; 'voluntary dotage' means a woman's willing infatuation; 'convinced' here means overcome, yielded to (not simply persuaded by argument). 'Supplied' is a blunt euphemism for having sex with — 'satisfied.' Iago is painting the world of men who brag about seducing women who were either sweet-talked or helplessly in love with them.
TLN 2277archaic vocab
“invest herself in such shadowing passion without some instruction”
'Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without some instruction' means: Nature would not clothe a man in such an overwhelming, darkening emotion unless there were a real cause behind it. Othello tries to argue to himself that his seizure must be prompted by a real, external truth — that his body is responding to something real. 'Instruction' here means a cause, an incitement from outside. 'Shadowing' means overwhelming, overshadowing, darkening.
TLN 2282historical topical
“My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught”
Iago stands over Othello's unconscious body and gloats that his psychological manipulation — which he calls 'my medicine' — is working. The image of the villain as poisoner or physician who doses his victim was a stock stage convention. Iago has already compared himself to a poisoner in earlier scenes ('I'll pour this pestilence into his ear,' 2.3). The aside also confirms for the audience that everything happening to Othello is deliberate, engineered manipulation.
historical The Stage Machiavel
TLN 2288historical topical
“fallen into an epilepsy: This is his second fit”
Iago tells Cassio that Othello has 'epilepsy' — a seizure disorder. In Elizabethan medicine epilepsy was associated with humoral disturbance and sometimes with demonic possession; it was also called the 'falling sickness.' Iago invents a history of fits to explain Othello's trance and to send Cassio away. Othello's actual collapse is a psychosomatic crisis induced by Iago — but by labeling it a known medical condition, Iago both normalizes it and subtly degrades Othello's dignity.
TLN 2302historical topical
“A horned man's a monster and a beast”
A 'horned man' is a cuckold — a man whose wife has been unfaithful. The cuckold was conventionally imagined as sprouting invisible horns on his forehead, the way male deer do. The image was a stock figure of ridicule in Elizabethan comic culture: the cuckolded husband was an object of mockery, a figure of public shame. Othello's anguish is thus not only personal but social — he fears the contempt of every man in Venice and Cyprus who might know.
historical The cuckold's horns
TLN 2309archaic vocab
“nightly lie in those unproper beds Which they dare swear peculiar”
'Unproper beds' means beds that are not exclusively their own — that is, shared with other men through their wives' infidelity. 'Peculiar' means private, exclusively one's own (from Latin peculium, private property). Iago is arguing cynically that millions of men sleep in beds they think are their private property but which other men have also used — and they swear these beds are exclusively theirs without knowing the truth.
TLN 2311archaic vocab
“'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock, To lip a wanton in a secure couch”
'Arch-mock' means the devil's chief, supreme mockery of a husband. 'Lip' means to kiss. 'Wanton' means a sexually loose or unchaste woman. 'Secure' here means free from suspicion, off-guard — not safe, but careless (Latin securus: free from care). So: the worst trick the devil plays is to have an unfaithful wife kissing her lover in a bed that feels safely private, while the husband thinks all is well.
TLN 2317archaic vocab
“Confine yourself but in a patient list”
'List' here means a boundary, a limit, a restraining enclosure — as in the lists of a tournament, the roped-off space for jousting. 'Confine yourself in a patient list' means: keep yourself within the bounds of patience, stay within patience's fenced limits. Iago is telling Othello to stay hidden and contain himself while Cassio approaches.
TLN 2321archaic vocab
“good 'scuse upon your ecstasy”
'Ecstasy' here does not mean happiness or rapture — it means a seizure, a fit, a temporary displacement of the mind out of the body. The Greek root ekstasis means 'standing outside of oneself.' Iago uses the word for Othello's epileptic-style trance. An Elizabethan audience understood that extreme emotion — grief, passion, jealousy — could literally displace the mind from the body in what physicians called an ecstasy or alienation of sense.
TLN 2323archaic vocab
“Do but encave yourself, And mark the fleers, the gibes”
'Encave yourself' means hide yourself in a concealed spot, as if in a cave. 'Fleers' are sneering looks or contemptuous glances; 'gibes' (also spelled jibes) are mocking, taunting remarks. Iago is instructing Othello to hide nearby, spy on Cassio's expression and body language, and interpret every smile and gesture as confession of guilt.
TLN 2330archaic vocab
“all in all in spleen”
The 'spleen' in Elizabethan medicine was the bodily organ thought to be the seat of anger, spite, and passionate impulse. To be 'all in all in spleen' means to be governed entirely by ungovernable passion — to have lost any rational control to anger and hot emotion. Iago taunts Othello that if he cannot stay hidden and calm, he is all spleen and no man.
TLN 2338archaic vocab
“A housewife that, by selling her desires, Buys herself bread and clothes”
Iago describes Bianca as a 'housewife' in its contemptuous sense — a hussy, a woman of loose character (a common early-modern insult, where 'housewife' slid toward 'hussy,' its contracted form). He is explaining to the audience that Bianca is a courtesan who supports herself financially through paid sex. The word 'desires' (her sexual availability for sale) is the euphemism; 'bread and clothes' reduces her livelihood to the barest necessities.
TLN 2345archaic vocab
“his unbookish jealousy must construe Poor Cassio's smiles”
'Unbookish' means uneducated, ignorant, not trained in reading evidence correctly — literally, 'without books.' Iago is saying Othello's jealousy is like an untrained reader who misinterprets every text he encounters: he will see Cassio's laughter as guilt because he does not know how to read the situation accurately. 'Construe' is a schoolroom term: to analyze and interpret a text (from Latin construere).
TLN 2349archaic vocab
“you give me the addition Whose want even kills me”
Cassio is bitterly complaining that Iago addresses him as 'lieutenant' — the 'addition' (title, honor) whose absence 'kills' him, because he has been stripped of the rank by Othello. 'Addition' in Elizabethan English meant a title or appellation added to a person's name to denote their status. To Cassio, hearing the title he no longer officially holds is an agonizing reminder of what he has lost.
TLN 2366archaic vocab
“A customer! I pr'ythee, bear some charity to my wit”
'Customer' here does not mean a buyer in a shop — it means a prostitute, or a woman who takes many 'customers.' Cassio is horrified at the idea of marrying Bianca: 'A customer!' means 'A prostitute!' The phrase 'bear some charity to my wit' means give my intelligence some credit — don't think me such a fool. Othello, watching, completely misreads this: he hears Cassio laugh and thinks the laughter is about conquering Desdemona.
TLN 2372archaic vocab
“Have you scored me? Well.”
'Scored' means notched or tallied — the way a debt or victory was recorded by cutting a notch (score) into a tally stick. Othello, watching Cassio laugh, thinks Cassio is gloating: 'have you counted me as a conquest? Have you put a notch on your tally for me?' The word brings the language of commerce and debt into the anguish of jealousy.
TLN 2388archaic vocab
“'Tis such another fitchew! marry, a perfumed one”
A 'fitchew' is a polecat — a small carnivorous mammal related to the ferret, notorious for its extremely strong, musty smell. Polecats were also Elizabethan slang for prostitutes, because of both the smell and a reputation for promiscuity. Cassio is calling Bianca a polecat — a promiscuous woman who stinks — and then jokes that she is 'a perfumed one,' acknowledging her actual use of perfume while keeping the insult in place.
TLN 2395archaic vocab
“give it your hobby-horse”
A 'hobby-horse' was both a figure in the Morris dance (a performer dressed as a horse) and Elizabethan slang for a loose woman or a wanton. Bianca, furious about the handkerchief, throws it back at Cassio and tells him to give it to 'your hobby-horse' — meaning his other woman, whichever woman actually owns it. The insult is rich: the hobby-horse dances and capers for anyone; to call someone a hobby-horse is to call her a sexual plaything.
TLN 2488historical topical
“If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile”
Othello is saying that even if the earth could breed living creatures from women's tears, every tear Desdemona sheds would only produce a crocodile — a symbol of deceptive weeping. The 'crocodile's tears' was a well-known saying for false grief: crocodiles were believed to shed tears while devouring their prey, weeping hypocritically over what they were in the act of destroying. 'Teem' means to bring forth offspring, to give birth.
TLN 2509historical topical
“Goats and monkeys!”
Othello exits on this explosive outburst. Both goats and monkeys were Elizabethan bywords for lechery and bestiality — animals associated with unbridled sexual appetite. Iago used them in exactly this sense earlier in the play ('as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys,' 3.3) when feeding Othello images of Desdemona and Cassio together. Othello has now internalized Iago's vocabulary so completely that his last words to Lodovico are pure Iago.
historical The 'Moor' on the Elizabethan stage
TLN 2510historical topical
“Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate Call all-in-all sufficient”
Lodovico's stunned speech captures the play's central shock: the man the Venetian senate regarded as indispensable and utterly reliable has just struck his wife in public. 'All-in-all sufficient' means wholly competent, reliable in every respect. Lodovico's question echoes what the audience has watched being undone scene by scene: Othello's reputation as the model of a controlled, rational commander has been destroyed by Iago's manipulation.
historical The 'Moor' on the Elizabethan stage