Act 4, Scene 2

Cyprus. A Room in the Castle.

[Enter Othello and Emilia.]
Othello
2533 You have seen nothing, then?
Emilia
2534 Nor ever heard, nor ever did suspect.
Othello
2535 Yes, you have seen Cassio and she together.
Emilia
2536 But then I saw no harm, and then I heard
2537 Each syllable that breath made up between them.
Othello
2538 What, did they never whisper?
Emilia
2539 Never, my lord.
Othello
2540 Nor send you out o' the way?
Emilia
2541 Never.
Othello
2542 To fetch her fan, her gloves, her mask, nor nothing?
Emilia
2543 Never, my lord.
Othello
2544 That's strange.
Emilia
2545 I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest,
2546 Lay down my soul at stake: if you think other,
2547 Remove your thought,—it doth abuse your bosom.
2548 If any wretch have put this in your head,
2549 Let heaven requite it with the serpent's curse!
2550 For if she be not honest, chaste, and true,
2551 There's no man happy; the purest of their wives
2552 Is foul as slander.
Othello
2553 Bid her come hither.—Go.
[Exit Emilia.]
Othello
2554 She says enough; yet she's a simple bawd
2555 That cannot say as much. This is a subtle whore,
2556 A closet-lock-and-key of villainous secrets:
2557 And yet she'll kneel and pray; I have seen her do't.
[Enter Emilia with Desdemona.]
Desdemona
2558 My lord, what is your will?
Othello
2559 Pray, chuck, come hither.
Desdemona
2560 What is your pleasure?
Othello
2561 Let me see your eyes;
2562 Look in my face.
Desdemona
2563 What horrible fancy's this?
Othello
2564 Some of your function, mistress,
[To Emilia.]
Othello
2565 Leave procreants alone and shut the door;
2566 Cough, or cry hem, if anybody come.
2567 Your mystery, your mystery;—nay, despatch.
[Exit Emilia.]
Desdemona
2568 Upon my knees, what doth your speech import?
2569 I understand a fury in your words,
2570 But not the words.
Othello
2571 Why, what art thou?
Desdemona
2572 Your wife, my lord; your true and loyal wife.
Othello
2573 Come, swear it, damn thyself;
2574 Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves
2575 Should fear to seize thee: therefore be double-damn'd.—
2576 Swear thou art honest.
Desdemona
2577 Heaven doth truly know it.
Othello
2578 Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell.
Desdemona
2579 To whom, my lord? with whom? how am I false?
Othello
2580 O Desdemona!—away! away! away!
Desdemona
2581 Alas the heavy day!—Why do you weep?
2582 Am I the motive of these tears, my lord?
2583 If haply you my father do suspect
2584 An instrument of this your calling back,
2585 Lay not your blame on me: if you have lost him,
2586 Why, I have lost him too.
Othello
2587 Had it pleas'd heaven
2588 To try me with affliction; had they rain'd
2589 All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head;
2590 Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips;
2591 Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes;
2592 I should have found in some place of my soul
2593 A drop of patience: but, alas, to make me
2594 A fixed figure for the time, for scorn
2595 To point his slow unmoving finger at!—
2596 Yet could I bear that too; well, very well:
2597 But there, where I have garner'd up my heart;
2598 Where either I must live or bear no life,—
2599 The fountain from the which my current runs,
2600 Or else dries up; to be discarded thence!
2601 Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads
2602 To knot and gender in!—turn thy complexion there,
2603 Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubin,—
2604 Ay, there, look grim as hell!
Desdemona
2605 I hope my noble lord esteems me honest.
Othello
2606 O, ay; as summer flies are in the shambles,
2607 That quicken even with blowing. O thou weed,
2608 Who art so lovely fair, and smell'st so sweet,
2609 That the sense aches at thee,—would thou hadst ne'er been born!
Desdemona
2610 Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed?
Othello
2611 Was this fair paper, this most goodly book,
2612 Made to write "whore" upon? What committed!
2613 Committed!—O thou public commoner!
2614 I should make very forges of my cheeks,
2615 That would to cinders burn up modesty,
2616 Did I but speak thy deeds.—What committed!
2617 Heaven stops the nose at it, and the moon winks;
2618 The bawdy wind, that kisses all it meets,
2619 Is hush'd within the hollow mine of earth,
2620 And will not hear it.—What committed!—
2621 Impudent strumpet!
Desdemona
2622 By heaven, you do me wrong.
Othello
2623 Are not you a strumpet?
Desdemona
2624 No, as I am a Christian:
2625 If to preserve this vessel for my lord
2626 From any other foul unlawful touch
2627 Be not to be a strumpet, I am none.
Othello
2628 What, not a whore?
Desdemona
2629 No, as I shall be sav'd.
Othello
2630 Is't possible?
Desdemona
2631 O, heaven forgive us!
Othello
2632 I cry you mercy then:
2633 I took you for that cunning whore of Venice
2634 That married with Othello.—You, mistress,
2635 That have the office opposite to Saint Peter,
2636 And keep the gate of hell!
[Re-enter Emilia.]
Othello
2637 You, you, ay, you!
2638 We have done our course; there's money for your pains:
2639 I pray you, turn the key, and keep our counsel.
[Exit.]
Emilia
2640 Alas, what does this gentleman conceive?—
2641 How do you, madam? how do you, my good lady?
Desdemona
2642 Faith, half asleep.
Emilia
2643 Good madam, what's the matter with my lord?
Desdemona
2644 With who?
Emilia
2645 Why, with my lord, madam.
Desdemona
2646 Who is thy lord?
Emilia
2647 He that is yours, sweet lady.
Desdemona
2648 I have none: do not talk to me, Emilia;
2649 I cannot weep; nor answer have I none
2650 But what should go by water. Pr'ythee, to-night
2651 Lay on my bed my wedding sheets,—remember;—
2652 And call thy husband hither.
Emilia
2653 Here's a change indeed!
[Exit.]
Desdemona
2654 'Tis meet I should be us'd so, very meet.
2655 How have I been behav'd, that he might stick
2656 The small'st opinion on my least misuse?
[Re-enter Emilia with Iago.]
Iago
2657 What is your pleasure, madam? How is't with you?
Desdemona
2658 I cannot tell. Those that do teach young babes
2659 Do it with gentle means and easy tasks:
2660 He might have chid me so; for in good faith,
2661 I am a child to chiding.
Iago
2662 What's the matter, lady?
Emilia
2663 Alas, Iago, my lord hath so bewhor'd her,
2664 Thrown such despite and heavy terms upon her,
2665 As true hearts cannot bear.
Desdemona
2666 Am I that name, Iago?
Iago
2667 What name, fair lady?
Desdemona
2668 Such as she says my lord did say I was.
Emilia
2669 He call'd her whore: a beggar in his drink
2670 Could not have laid such terms upon his callet.
Iago
2671 Why did he so?
Desdemona
2672 I do not know; I am sure I am none such.
Iago
2673 Do not weep, do not weep:—alas the day!
Emilia
2674 Hath she forsook so many noble matches,
2675 Her father, and her country, and her friends,
2676 To be call'd whore? would it not make one weep?
Desdemona
2677 It is my wretched fortune.
Iago
2678 Beshrew him for't!
2679 How comes this trick upon him?
Desdemona
2680 Nay, heaven doth know.
Emilia
2681 I will be hang'd, if some eternal villain,
2682 Some busy and insinuating rogue,
2683 Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office,
2684 Have not devis'd this slander; I'll be hang'd else.
Iago
2685 Fie, there is no such man; it is impossible.
Desdemona
2686 If any such there be, heaven pardon him!
Emilia
2687 A halter pardon him! and hell gnaw his bones!
2688 Why should he call her whore? who keeps her company?
2689 What place? what time? what form? what likelihood?
2690 The Moor's abused by some most villainous knave,
2691 Some base notorious knave, some scurvy fellow:—
2692 O heaven, that such companions thou'dst unfold,
2693 And put in every honest hand a whip
2694 To lash the rascals naked through the world
2695 Even from the east to the west!
Iago
2696 Speak within door.
Emilia
2697 O, fie upon them! some such squire he was
2698 That turn'd your wit the seamy side without,
2699 And made you to suspect me with the Moor.
Iago
2700 You are a fool; go to.
Desdemona
2701 Alas, Iago,
2702 What shall I do to win my lord again?
2703 Good friend, go to him; for by this light of heaven,
2704 I know not how I lost him. Here I kneel:—
2705 If e'er my will did trespass 'gainst his love,
2706 Either in discourse of thought or actual deed;
2707 Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any sense,
2708 Delighted them in any other form;
2709 Or that I do not yet, and ever did,
2710 And ever will, though he do shake me off
2711 To beggarly divorcement,—love him dearly,
2712 Comfort forswear me! Unkindness may do much;
2713 And his unkindness may defeat my life,
2714 But never taint my love. I cannot say "whore,"—
2715 It does abhor me now I speak the word;
2716 To do the act that might the addition earn
2717 Not the world's mass of vanity could make me.
Iago
2718 I pray you, be content; 'tis but his humour:
2719 The business of the state does him offence,
2720 And he does chide with you.
Desdemona
2721 If 'twere no other,—
Iago
2722 'Tis but so, I warrant.
[Trumpets within.]
Iago
2723 Hark, how these instruments summon to supper!
2724 The messengers of Venice stay the meat:
2725 Go in, and weep not; all things shall be well.
[Exeunt Desdemona and Emilia.]
[Enter Roderigo.]
Iago
2726 How now, Roderigo!
Roderigo
2727 I do not find that thou dealest justly with me.
Iago
2728 What in the contrary?
Roderigo
2729 Every day thou daffest me with some device, Iago; and rather,
2730 as it seems to me now, keepest from me all conveniency than
2731 suppliest me with the least advantage of hope. I will indeed
2732 no longer endure it; nor am I yet persuaded to put up in
2733 peace what already I have foolishly suffered.
Iago
2734 Will you hear me, Roderigo?
Roderigo
2735 Faith, I have heard too much; for your words and performances
2736 are no kin together.
Iago
2737 You charge me most unjustly.
Roderigo
2738 With naught but truth. I have wasted myself out of my means.
2739 The jewels you have had from me to deliver to Desdemona would
2740 half have corrupted a votarist: you have told me she hath
2741 received them, and returned me expectations and comforts of
2742 sudden respect and acquaintance; but I find none.
Iago
2743 Well; go to; very well.
Roderigo
2744 Very well! go to! I cannot go to, man; nor 'tis not very well:
2745 nay, I say 'tis very scurvy, and begin to find myself fobbed
2746 in it.
Iago
2747 Very well.
Roderigo
2748 I tell you 'tis not very well. I will make myself known to
2749 Desdemona: if she will return me my jewels, I will give over
2750 my suit and repent my unlawful solicitation; if not, assure
2751 yourself I will seek satisfaction of you.
Iago
2752 You have said now.
Roderigo
2753 Ay, and said nothing but what I protest intendment of doing.
Iago
2754 Why, now I see there's mettle in thee; and even from this
2755 instant do build on thee a better opinion than ever before.
2756 Give me thy hand, Roderigo. Thou hast taken against me a most
2757 just exception; but yet, I protest, I have dealt most directly
2758 in thy affair.
Roderigo
2759 It hath not appeared.
Iago
2760 I grant indeed it hath not appeared, and your suspicion is not
2761 without wit and judgement. But, Roderigo, if thou hast that in
2762 thee indeed, which I have greater reason to believe now than
2763 ever,—I mean purpose, courage, and valour,—this night show
2764 it: if thou the next night following enjoy not Desdemona, take
2765 me from this world with treachery and devise engines for my
2766 life.
Roderigo
2767 Well, what is it? is it within reason and compass?
Iago
2768 Sir, there is especial commission come from Venice to depute
2769 Cassio in Othello's place.
Roderigo
2770 Is that true? why then Othello and Desdemona return again to
2771 Venice.
Iago
2772 O, no; he goes into Mauritania, and takes away with him the
2773 fair Desdemona, unless his abode be lingered here by some
2774 accident: wherein none can be so determinate as the removing
2775 of Cassio.
Roderigo
2776 How do you mean "removing" of him?
Iago
2777 Why, by making him uncapable of Othello's place;—knocking
2778 out his brains.
Roderigo
2779 And that you would have me to do?
Iago
2780 Ay, if you dare do yourself a profit and a right. He sups
2781 to-night with a harlotry, and thither will I go to him:—he
2782 knows not yet of his honourable fortune. If you will watch his
2783 going thence,—which I will fashion to fall out between twelve
2784 and one,—you may take him at your pleasure: I will be near to
2785 second your attempt, and he shall fall between us. Come, stand
2786 not amazed at it, but go along with me; I will show you such a
2787 necessity in his death that you shall think yourself bound to
2788 put it on him. It is now high supper-time, and the night grows to
2789 waste: about it.
Roderigo
2790 I will hear further reason for this.
Iago
2791 And you shall be satisfied.
[Exeunt.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 2545archaic vocab
“I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest”
'Durst' is the past tense of 'dare' in Elizabethan English; Emilia says she dares to stake even her soul as a wager that Desdemona is faithful. 'Honest' in this play almost always means chaste and sexually faithful, not merely truthful.
TLN 2549biblical allusion
“heaven requite it with the serpent's curse”
In Genesis, God cursed the serpent for deceiving Eve in the Garden of Eden: 'upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life' (Genesis 3:14). Emilia calls down this same divine curse on whoever has planted jealousy in Othello's head.
biblical The serpent in the Garden of Eden
TLN 2554archaic vocab
“she's a simple bawd”
A 'bawd' is a person who manages a brothel or procures women for prostitution. Othello, alone onstage, now suspects Emilia of being Desdemona's pander, keeping watch at the door while Desdemona meets her lovers. He calls her only a 'simple' (unsophisticated, poor) one because she cannot deny what he believes.
TLN 2564historical topical
“Some of your function, mistress”
Othello addresses Emilia as 'mistress' and tells her to perform her 'function' — her professional duty as what he imagines she is: the keeper of a brothel. He instructs her to stand guard outside, cough as a warning if anyone comes, and leave the couple alone ('procreants': those engaged in procreation, i.e. sexual intercourse).
TLN 2573cultural context
“Come, swear it, damn thyself”
Othello tells Desdemona to swear she is chaste, but warns that if she swears falsely before heaven, she will be 'double-damn'd': first for the adultery itself, and again for the perjury of swearing falsely. Swearing on oath was a binding religious act in Elizabethan culture; a false oath was a mortal sin.
TLN 2594rhetorical device
“a fixed figure for the time, for scorn to point his slow unmoving finger at”
Othello imagines himself frozen — a stationary figure on a clock-face at which the moving hand of 'scorn' points — while the world's contempt ticks past him. He would endure being made a public laughingstock, as still and powerless as a number on a dial, if only this one grief were spared him.
TLN 2597archaic vocab
“where I have garner'd up my heart”
'Garner'd up' means stored or hoarded, as grain is stored in a granary ('garner'). Othello says Desdemona is the place where he has laid up everything that makes his life worth living — the spring from which his life runs. If she is faithless, he has no source left, only a 'cistern for foul toads to knot and gender in.'
TLN 2602cultural context
“turn thy complexion there, Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubin”
Othello apostrophizes (speaks directly to) the abstract virtue Patience, pictured as a cherub with a child's rosy face, and tells it to look at what Desdemona has done and turn pale — or 'look grim as hell.' A cherub (from the Hebrew 'cherubim') was understood as a class of angel associated with innocence and God's presence; in Renaissance art they were depicted as rosy, plump infants.
TLN 2606archaic vocab
“as summer flies are in the shambles, that quicken even with blowing”
The 'shambles' were the open-air butchers' stalls or slaughterhouses of an Elizabethan market. 'Quicken even with blowing' means to come to life (quicken) simply by being breathed on by the stench or warmth ('blowing') of the rotting meat — flies were thought to spontaneously generate from putrefaction. Othello says Desdemona's honesty is exactly this worthless: she 'breeds' corruption by mere contact with it.
TLN 2611rhetorical device
“Was this fair paper, this most goodly book, made to write "whore" upon”
Othello uses the metaphor of Desdemona as a beautiful blank book — white, fine paper — that has been written on with the word 'whore.' The 'book' image draws on the common Renaissance trope of reading a woman's face as a text. Her beauty becomes the white page; her supposed infidelity the foul word inscribed on it.
TLN 2617rhetorical device
“Heaven stops the nose at it, and the moon winks”
Othello personifies heaven and the moon as witnesses who recoil from Desdemona's supposed sin — heaven 'stops the nose' (turns away from a stench), the moon 'winks' (closes her eyes). The moon was associated with chastity through the goddess Diana; a chaste moon refusing to look on unchastity makes the accusation cosmic.
TLN 2635biblical allusion
“the office opposite to Saint Peter, and keep the gate of hell”
In Christian tradition, Saint Peter keeps the gate of heaven, admitting the righteous. Othello turns the image inside out: he calls Emilia the keeper of the opposite gate — the gate of hell — because she (he believes) guards the door of a brothel where Desdemona plies her trade. The real-world location is a castle room; Othello has mentally transformed it into a house of damnation.
TLN 2638cultural context
“there's money for your pains”
Othello pays Emilia as though she were a procuress who has kept watch for him. Paying money after a sexual encounter was a defining mark of prostitution in Elizabethan culture; the gesture literally enacts the delusion that this has been a brothel transaction. Desdemona and Emilia are stunned into near-silence.
TLN 2649archaic vocab
“answer have I none but what should go by water”
Desdemona says the only answer she has is one that would 'go by water' — meaning an answer delivered in tears rather than words. She is too stunned to speak, only to weep. The phrase is an Elizabethan idiom for weeping.
TLN 2663archaic vocab
“my lord hath so bewhor'd her, thrown such despite and heavy terms upon her”
'Bewhor'd' means assailed with the word 'whore' — repeatedly and publicly branded as a prostitute. Emilia coins or uses an unusual intensive verb to convey how Othello has not merely said the word once but beaten Desdemona with it as a weapon. 'Despite' means contempt or outrage.
TLN 2669archaic vocab
“a beggar in his drink could not have laid such terms upon his callet”
A 'callet' (also 'calat' or 'callat') was an Elizabethan term for a scolding or loose woman, a drab or trull — effectively the same insult as 'whore' but in a lower, more colloquial register. Emilia is pointing out that even a drunk beggar would not use such language about his lowest female companion.
TLN 2683archaic vocab
“Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office”
'Cogging' means cheating, especially by loading dice; 'cozening' means deceiving by fraud or trickery. Emilia is describing a cheating, con-man type of villain who has devised the slander against Desdemona in order to gain a position ('office'). Without knowing it, she has identified Iago's motive precisely — he was passed over for the lieutenancy.
historical The Stage Machiavel
TLN 2739archaic vocab
“would half have corrupted a votarist”
A 'votarist' is someone bound by a religious vow — a monk, nun, or friar. Roderigo complains that the jewels he has given Iago to pass to Desdemona would have been enough to bribe even a person under a vow of poverty or chastity. He is expressing the value of what he has wasted, not making a theological point.
TLN 2745archaic vocab
“begin to find myself fobbed in it”
To be 'fobbed' means to be cheated, tricked, or put off with false pretexts — essentially to be 'fobbed off' as we still say. Roderigo is admitting he has finally realized he has been swindled. The verb comes from the same root as 'fob watch' (a hidden pocket) — the image of something valuable hidden or pocketed by a cheat.
TLN 2765archaic vocab
“devise engines for my life”
Iago tells Roderigo: if the plan fails, take him out of this world 'with treachery' and 'devise engines for my life' — meaning, devise traps, plots, or mechanisms to destroy him. 'Engines' in this sense means scheming contrivances or instruments of entrapment, not machines.
TLN 2772historical topical
“he goes into Mauritania, and takes away with him the fair Desdemona”
Mauritania (modern Morocco and western Algeria) was an ancient North African kingdom and in Elizabethan usage a name for north-west Africa generally — the region associated with 'Moors.' Iago fabricates this detail to convince Roderigo that if Cassio dies, Othello will be sent to Africa and Desdemona will go with him, destroying Roderigo's last hope of reaching her.
historical The 'Moor' on the Elizabethan stage