Act 5, Scene 2

Cyprus. A Bedchamber in the castle: Desdemona in bed

[Enter Othello.]
Othello
3044 It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,—
3045 Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!—
3046 It is the cause.—Yet I'll not shed her blood;
3047 Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow,
3048 And smooth as monumental alabaster.
[Takes off his sword.]
Othello
3049 Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men.
3050 Put out the light, and then put out the light:
3051 If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,
3052 I can again thy former light restore,
3053 Should I repent me:—but once put out thy light,
3054 Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature,
3055 I know not where is that Promethean heat
3056 That can thy light relume. When I have pluck'd thy rose,
3057 I cannot give it vital growth again,
3058 It must needs wither:—I'll smell it on the tree.—
[Kissing her.]
Othello
3059 O, balmy breath, that dost almost persuade
3060 Justice to break her sword!—One more, one more;—
3061 Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee,
3062 And love thee after.—One more, and this the last;
3063 So sweet was ne'er so fatal. I must weep,
3064 But they are cruel tears: this sorrow's heavenly;
3065 It strikes where it doth love.—She wakes.
Desdemona
3066 Who's there? Othello?
Othello
3067 Ay, Desdemona.
Desdemona
3068 Will you come to bed, my lord?
Othello
3069 Have you pray'd to-night, Desdemona?
Desdemona
3070 Ay, my lord.
Othello
3071 If you bethink yourself of any crime
3072 Unreconcil'd as yet to heaven and grace,
3073 Solicit for it straight.
Desdemona
3074 Alack, my lord, what may you mean by that?
Othello
3075 Well, do it, and be brief; I will walk by.
3076 I would not kill thy unprepared spirit;
3077 No,—heaven forfend!—I would not kill thy soul.
Desdemona
3078 Talk you of killing?
Othello
3079 Ay, I do.
Desdemona
3080 Then heaven have mercy on me!
Othello
3081 Amen, with all my heart!
Desdemona
3082 If you say so, I hope you will not kill me.
Othello
3083 Hum!
Desdemona
3084 And yet I fear you; for you are fatal then
3085 When your eyes roll so: why I should fear I know not,
3086 Since guiltiness I know not; but yet I feel I fear.
Othello
3087 Think on thy sins.
Desdemona
3088 They are loves I bear to you.
Othello
3089 Ay, and for that thou diest.
Desdemona
3090 That death's unnatural that kills for loving.—
3091 Alas, why gnaw you so your nether lip?
3092 Some bloody passion shakes your very frame:
3093 These are portents; but yet I hope, I hope,
3094 They do not point on me.
Othello
3095 Peace, and be still!
Desdemona
3096 I will so. What's the matter?
Othello
3097 That handkerchief which I so loved and gave thee
3098 Thou gav'st to Cassio.
Desdemona
3099 No, by my life and soul!
3100 Send for the man, and ask him.
Othello
3101 Sweet soul, take heed,
3102 Take heed of perjury; thou'rt on thy death-bed.
Desdemona
3103 Ay, but not yet to die.
Othello
3104 Yes, presently:
3105 Therefore confess thee freely of thy sin;
3106 For to deny each article with oath
3107 Cannot remove nor choke the strong conception
3108 That I do groan withal. Thou art to die.
Desdemona
3109 Then, Lord have mercy on me!
Othello
3110 I say, amen.
Desdemona
3111 And have you mercy too!—I never did
3112 Offend you in my life; never lov'd Cassio
3113 But with such general warranty of heaven
3114 As I might love: I never gave him token.
Othello
3115 By heaven, I saw my handkerchief in 's hand.
3116 O perjur'd woman! thou dost stone my heart,
3117 And mak'st me call what I intend to do
3118 A murder, which I thought a sacrifice:
3119 I saw the handkerchief.
Desdemona
3120 He found it then;
3121 I never gave it him:—send for him hither;
3122 Let him confess a truth.
Othello
3123 He hath confess'd.
Desdemona
3124 What, my lord?
Othello
3125 That he hath us'd thee.
Desdemona
3126 How? unlawfully?
Othello
3127 Ay.
Desdemona
3128 He will not say so.
Othello
3129 No, his mouth is stopp'd;
3130 Honest Iago hath ta'en order for't.
Desdemona
3131 O, my fear interprets!—What, is he dead?
Othello
3132 Had all his hairs been lives, my great revenge
3133 Had stomach for them all.
Desdemona
3134 Alas, he is betray'd, and I undone!
Othello
3135 Out, strumpet! Weep'st thou for him to my face?
Desdemona
3136 O, banish me, my lord, but kill me not!
Othello
3137 Down, strumpet!
Desdemona
3138 Kill me to-morrow; let me live to-night!
Othello
3139 Nay, if you strive,—
Desdemona
3140 But half an hour!
Othello
3141 Being done, there is no pause.
Desdemona
3142 But while I say one prayer!
Othello
3143 It is too late.
[Smothers her.]
[Within.]
Emilia
3144 My lord, my lord! what, ho! my lord, my lord!
Othello
3145 What noise is this?—Not dead? not yet quite dead?
3146 I that am cruel am yet merciful;
3147 I would not have thee linger in thy pain:—
3148 So, so.
[Within.]
Emilia
3149 What, ho! my lord, my lord!
Othello
3150 Who's there?
[Within.]
Emilia
3151 O, good my lord, I would speak a word with you!
Othello
3152 Yes:—'tis Emilia:—by and by.—She's dead.—
3153 'Tis like she comes to speak of Cassio's death;
3154 The noise was high.—Ha! no more moving?
3155 Still as the grave.—Shall she come in?—Were't good?—
3156 I think she stirs again:—no.—What's best to do?
3157 If she come in, she'll sure speak to my wife:
3158 My wife! my wife! what wife? I have no wife.
3159 O, insupportable! O heavy hour!
3160 Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse
3161 Of sun and moon, and that the affrighted globe
3162 Should yawn at alteration.
[Within.]
Emilia
3163 I do beseech you
3164 That I may speak with you, O, good my lord!
Othello
3165 I had forgot thee: O, come in, Emilia:—
3166 Soft,—by and by:—let me the curtains draw.—
3167 Where art thou?
[Unlocks the door.]
[Enter Emilia.]
Othello
3168 What's the matter with thee now?
Emilia
3169 O, my good lord, yonder's foul murders done!
Othello
3170 What, now?
Emilia
3171 But now, my lord.
Othello
3172 It is the very error of the moon;
3173 She comes more nearer earth than she was wont
3174 And makes men mad.
Emilia
3175 Cassio, my lord, hath kill'd a young Venetian
3176 Call'd Roderigo.
Othello
3177 Roderigo kill'd?
3178 And Cassio kill'd?
Emilia
3179 No, Cassio is not kill'd.
Othello
3180 Not Cassio kill'd! then murder's out of tune,
3181 And sweet revenge grows harsh.
Desdemona
3182 O, falsely, falsely murder'd!
Emilia
3183 Alas, what cry is that?
Othello
3184 That! what?
Emilia
3185 Out, and alas! That was my lady's voice.—
3186 Help! help, ho! help!—O lady, speak again!
3187 Sweet Desdemona! O sweet mistress, speak!
Desdemona
3188 A guiltless death I die.
Emilia
3189 O, who hath done this deed?
Desdemona
3190 Nobody; I myself. Farewell:
3191 Commend me to my kind lord: O, farewell!
[Dies.]
Othello
3192 Why, how should she be murder'd?
Emilia
3193 Alas, who knows?
Othello
3194 You heard her say herself it was not I.
Emilia
3195 She said so: I must needs report the truth.
Othello
3196 She's like a liar, gone to burning hell:
3197 'Twas I that kill'd her.
Emilia
3198 O, the more angel she,
3199 And you the blacker devil!
Othello
3200 She turn'd to folly, and she was a whore.
Emilia
3201 Thou dost belie her, and thou art a devil.
Othello
3202 She was false as water.
Emilia
3203 Thou art rash as fire, to say
3204 That she was false: O, she was heavenly true!
Othello
3205 Cassio did tup her; ask thy husband else.
3206 O, I were damn'd beneath all depth in hell,
3207 But that I did proceed upon just grounds
3208 To this extremity. Thy husband knew it all.
Emilia
3209 My husband!
Othello
3210 Thy husband.
Emilia
3211 That she was false to wedlock?
Othello
3212 Ay, with Cassio. Nay, had she been true,
3213 If heaven would make me such another world
3214 Of one entire and perfect chrysolite,
3215 I'd not have sold her for it.
Emilia
3216 My husband!
Othello
3217 Ay, 'twas he that told me first:
3218 An honest man he is, and hates the slime
3219 That sticks on filthy deeds.
Emilia
3220 My husband!
Othello
3221 What needs this iterance, woman? I say thy husband.
Emilia
3222 O mistress, villainy hath made mocks with love!—
3223 My husband say that she was false!
Othello
3224 He, woman;
3225 I say thy husband: dost understand the word?
3226 My friend, thy husband, honest, honest Iago.
Emilia
3227 If he say so, may his pernicious soul
3228 Rot half a grain a day! he lies to the heart:
3229 She was too fond of her most filthy bargain.
Othello
3230 Ha!
Emilia
3231 Do thy worst:
3232 This deed of thine is no more worthy heaven
3233 Than thou wast worthy her.
Othello
3234 Peace, you were best.
Emilia
3235 Thou hast not half that power to do me harm
3236 As I have to be hurt. O gull! O dolt!
3237 As ignorant as dirt! thou hast done a deed,—
3238 I care not for thy sword; I'll make thee known,
3239 Though I lost twenty lives.—Help! help, ho! help!
3240 The Moor hath kill'd my mistress! murder, murder!
[Enter Montano, Gratiano, and Iago.]
Montano
3241 What is the matter?—How now, general!
Emilia
3242 O, are you come, Iago? you have done well,
3243 That men must lay their murders on your neck.
Gratiano
3244 What is the matter?
Emilia
3245 Disprove this villain, if thou be'st a man:
3246 He says thou told'st him that his wife was false:
3247 I know thou didst not, thou'rt not such a villain:
3248 Speak, for my heart is full.
Iago
3249 I told him what I thought; and told no more
3250 Than what he found himself was apt and true.
Emilia
3251 But did you ever tell him she was false?
Iago
3252 I did.
Emilia
3253 You told a lie; an odious, damned lie;
3254 Upon my soul, a lie; a wicked lie:—
3255 She false with Cassio!—Did you say with Cassio?
Iago
3256 With Cassio, mistress. Go to, charm your tongue.
Emilia
3257 I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to speak:
3258 My mistress here lies murder'd in her bed,—
All
3259 O heavens forfend!
Emilia
3260 And your reports have set the murder on.
Othello
3261 Nay, stare not, masters: it is true, indeed.
Gratiano
3262 'Tis a strange truth.
Montano
3263 O monstrous act!
Emilia
3264 Villany, villany, villany!
3265 I think upon't,—I think,—I smell't;—O villany!—
3266 I thought so then;—I'll kill myself for grief:—
3267 O villany, villany!
Iago
3268 What, are you mad? I charge you, get you home.
Emilia
3269 Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak:
3270 'Tis proper I obey him, but not now.—
3271 Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home.
Othello
3272 O! O! O!
[Hanging over his wife.]
Emilia
3273 Nay, lay thee down and roar;
3274 For thou hast kill'd the sweetest innocent
3275 That e'er did lift up eye.
[Rising.]
Othello
3276 O, she was foul!—
3277 I scarce did know you, uncle; there lies your niece,
3278 Whose breath, indeed, these hands have newly stopp'd:
3279 I know this act shows horrible and grim.
Gratiano
3280 Poor Desdemona! I am glad thy father's dead:
3281 Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief
3282 Shore his old thread in twain: did he live now,
3283 This sight would make him do a desperate turn,
3284 Yea, curse his better angel from his side,
3285 And fall to reprobance.
Othello
3286 'Tis pitiful; but yet Iago knows
3287 That she with Cassio hath the act of shame
3288 A thousand times committed; Cassio confess'd it:
3289 And she did gratify his amorous works
3290 With that recognizance and pledge of love
3291 Which I first gave her; I saw it in his hand:
3292 It was a handkerchief, an antique token
3293 My father gave my mother.
Emilia
3294 O heaven! O heavenly powers!
Iago
3295 Come, hold your peace.
Emilia
3296 'Twill out, 'twill out:—I peace!
3297 No, I will speak as liberal as the north:
3298 Let heaven and men and devils, let them all,
3299 All, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak.
Iago
3300 Be wise, and get you home.
Emilia
3301 I will not.
[Iago offers to stab his wife.]
Gratiano
3302 Fie!
3303 Your sword upon a woman?
Emilia
3304 O thou dull Moor! that handkerchief thou speak'st of
3305 I found by fortune and did give my husband;
3306 For often with a solemn earnestness,—
3307 More than, indeed, belong'd to such a trifle,—
3308 He begg'd of me to steal it.
Iago
3309 Villanous whore!
Emilia
3310 She give it Cassio! no, alas, I found it,
3311 And I did give't my husband.
Iago
3312 Filth, thou liest!
Emilia
3313 By heaven, I do not, I do not, gentlemen.—
3314 O murderous coxcomb! What should such a fool
3315 Do with so good a wife?
Othello
3316 Are there not stones in heaven
3317 But what serve for thunder?—Precious villain!
[Iago stabs Emilia, and then runs out.]
Gratiano
3318 The woman falls; sure, he hath kill'd his wife.
Emilia
3319 Ay, ay:—O, lay me by my mistress' side.
Gratiano
3320 He's gone, but his wife's kill'd.
Montano
3321 'Tis a notorious villain. Take you this weapon,
3322 Which I have here recover'd from the Moor:
3323 Come, guard the door without; let him not pass,
3324 But kill him rather. I'll after that same villain,
3325 For 'tis a damned slave.
[Exit Montano and Gratiano.]
Othello
3326 I am not valiant neither,
3327 But every puny whipster gets my sword:—
3328 But why should honour outlive honesty?
3329 Let it go all.
Emilia
3330 What did thy song bode, lady?
3331 Hark, canst thou hear me? I will play the swan,
3332 And die in music:—
[Sings.]
Emilia
3333 "Willow, willow, willow."
Emilia
3334 Moor, she was chaste; she lov'd thee, cruel Moor;
3335 So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true;
3336 So speaking as I think, I die,—I die.
[Dies.]
Othello
3337 I have another weapon in this chamber;
3338 It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook's temper:—
3339 O, here it is.—Uncle, I must come forth.
[Within.]
Gratiano
3340 If thou attempt it, it will cost thee dear:
3341 Thou hast no weapon, and perforce must suffer.
Othello
3342 Look in upon me then, and speak with me,
3343 Or, naked as I am, I will assault thee.
[Re-enter Gratiano.]
Gratiano
3344 What is the matter?
Othello
3345 Behold, I have a weapon;
3346 A better never did itself sustain
3347 Upon a soldier's thigh: I have seen the day
3348 That with this little arm and this good sword
3349 I have made my way through more impediments
3350 Than twenty times your stop:—but, O vain boast!
3351 Who can control his fate? 'tis not so now.—
3352 Be not afraid, though you do see me weapon'd;
3353 Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,
3354 And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.
3355 Do you go back dismay'd? 'tis a lost fear;
3356 Man but a rush against Othello's breast,
3357 And he retires:—where should Othello go?—
3358 Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starr'd wench!
3359 Pale as thy smock! When we shall meet at compt,
3360 This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven,
3361 And fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl!
3362 Even like thy chastity.—
3363 O cursed, cursed slave!—Whip me, ye devils,
3364 From the possession of this heavenly sight!
3365 Blow me about in winds! roast me in sulphur!
3366 Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!—
3367 O Desdemon! dead, Desdemon! dead! O!
[Enter Lodovico, Montano, Cassio carried in a chair, and Officers with Iago prisoner.]
Lodovico
3368 Where is this rash and most unfortunate man?
Othello
3369 That's he that was Othello;—here I am.
Lodovico
3370 Where is that viper? bring the villain forth.
Othello
3371 I look down towards his feet;—but that's a fable.—
3372 If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee.
[Wounds Iago.]
Lodovico
3373 Wrench his sword from him.
Iago
3374 I bleed, sir, but not kill'd.
Othello
3375 I am not sorry neither: I'd have thee live;
3376 For, in my sense, 'tis happiness to die.
Lodovico
3377 O thou Othello, that wert once so good,
3378 Fall'n in the practice of a damned slave,
3379 What shall be said to thee?
Othello
3380 Why, anything;
3381 An honourable murderer, if you will;
3382 For naught did I in hate, but all in honour.
Lodovico
3383 This wretch hath part confess'd his villany:
3384 Did you and he consent in Cassio's death?
Othello
3385 Ay.
Cassio
3386 Dear general, I never gave you cause.
Othello
3387 I do believe it, and I ask your pardon.
3388 Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil
3389 Why he hath thus ensnar'd my soul and body?
Iago
3390 Demand me nothing: what you know, you know:
3391 From this time forth I never will speak word.
Lodovico
3392 What, not to pray?
Gratiano
3393 Torments will ope your lips.
Othello
3394 Well, thou dost best.
Lodovico
3395 Sir, you shall understand what hath befall'n,
3396 Which, as I think, you know not. Here is a letter
3397 Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo,
3398 And here another: the one of them imports
3399 The death of Cassio to be undertook
3400 By Roderigo.
Othello
3401 O villain!
Cassio
3402 Most heathenish and most gross!
Lodovico
3403 Now here's another discontented paper,
3404 Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems,
3405 Roderigo meant to have sent this damned villain;
3406 But that, belike, Iago in the interim
3407 Came in and satisfied him.
Othello
3408 O the pernicious caitiff!—
3409 How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief
3410 That was my wife's?
Cassio
3411 I found it in my chamber;
3412 And he himself confess'd but even now
3413 That there he dropp'd it for a special purpose
3414 Which wrought to his desire.
Othello
3415 O fool! fool! fool!
Cassio
3416 There is besides in Roderigo's letter,—
3417 How he upbraids Iago, that he made him
3418 Brave me upon the watch; whereon it came
3419 That I was cast: and even but now he spake,
3420 After long seeming dead,—Iago hurt him,
3421 Iago set him on.
Lodovico
3422 You must forsake this room, and go with us:
3423 Your power and your command is taken off,
3424 And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave,—
3425 If there be any cunning cruelty
3426 That can torment him much and hold him long,
3427 It shall be his. You shall close prisoner rest,
3428 Till that the nature of your fault be known
3429 To the Venetian state.—Come, bring away.
Othello
3430 Soft you; a word or two before you go.
3431 I have done the state some service, and they know't.—
3432 No more of that.—I pray you, in your letters,
3433 When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
3434 Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
3435 Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak
3436 Of one that loved not wisely, but too well;
3437 Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
3438 Perplex'd in the extreme; of one whose hand,
3439 Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away
3440 Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdu'd eyes,
3441 Albeit unused to the melting mood,
3442 Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
3443 Their medicinal gum. Set you down this;
3444 And say besides,—that in Aleppo once,
3445 Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk
3446 Beat a Venetian and traduc'd the state,
3447 I took by the throat the circumcised dog
3448 And smote him—thus.
[Stabs himself.]
Lodovico
3449 O bloody period!
Gratiano
3450 All that's spoke is marr'd.
Othello
3451 I kiss'd thee ere I kill'd thee:—no way but this,
3452 Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.
[Falling upom Desdemona.]
Cassio
3453 This did I fear, but thought he had no weapon;
3454 For he was great of heart.
[To Iago.]
Lodovico
3455 O Spartan dog,
3456 More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea!
3457 Look on the tragic loading of this bed;
3458 This is thy work:—the object poisons sight;
3459 Let it be hid.—Gratiano, keep the house,
3460 And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor,
3461 For they succeed on you.—To you, lord governor,
3462 Remains the censure of this hellish villain;
3463 The time, the place, the torture,—O, enforce it!
3464 Myself will straight aboard; and to the state
3465 This heavy act with heavy heart relate.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 3044rhetorical device
“It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul”
Othello never names 'the cause' — he cannot bring himself to say 'adultery' or 'Desdemona.' The deliberate vagueness, combined with the triple repetition, shows him casting his murder as a legal execution performed on behalf of all betrayed men, not as a personal act of rage. The rhetorical figure is aposiopesis: he breaks off rather than complete a thought he finds unbearable.
TLN 3047cultural context
“whiter skin of hers than snow, And smooth as monumental alabaster”
Alabaster is a fine white stone used in Elizabethan England to carve the recumbent figures that lie on top of tomb monuments — their skin polished smooth and pale as marble. Comparing Desdemona's skin to 'monumental alabaster' turns her into a funeral effigy before she is dead. The image is tender and murderous at once.
TLN 3055classical allusion
“Promethean heat That can thy light relume”
Prometheus was a Titan in Greek myth who stole fire from the gods and gave it to human beings. 'Promethean fire' became a byword for the divine, irreplaceable spark of life. Othello says that once he puts out Desdemona's light — once he kills her — there is no supernatural fire anywhere that could bring her back to life. The candle flame can be relit; a human life cannot.
classical Prometheus and the Promethean fire
TLN 3072historical topical
“Unreconcil'd as yet to heaven and grace, Solicit for it straight”
Othello urges Desdemona to confess and pray before she dies so that her soul will be right with God. In both Catholic and Protestant theology, dying suddenly — before confession and absolution — put the soul at risk. Othello's concern for her spiritual state is genuine, and it makes the scene more horrifying: he wants to murder her body while saving her soul.
TLN 3102archaic vocab
“Take heed of perjury; thou'rt on thy death-bed”
'Perjury' here means lying under oath, or simply lying in a situation where the truth is sworn before God. Othello is reminding Desdemona that she is about to face God's judgment: a lie at this moment is a sin against her immortal soul, not merely a human untruth. He is using the prospect of divine judgment to try to extract a confession from a woman who has nothing to confess.
TLN 3106archaic vocab
“to deny each article with oath Cannot remove nor choke the strong conception”
'Article' here means a charge in a formal accusation — a count in an indictment. 'Conception' means the settled conviction he 'groans with,' as if pregnant with it. Othello is telling Desdemona that no denial can dislodge his certainty: his belief in her guilt has taken on a physical, almost bodily weight that oaths cannot shift.
TLN 3113archaic vocab
“with such general warranty of heaven As I might love”
'Warranty' means lawful permission or sanction. Desdemona says she loved Cassio only within the bounds that God and Christian charity permit any person to love a neighbour — in other words, innocently and platonically. The word 'general' means applying to everyone, not specially to her. It is one of her plainest and most moving denials.
TLN 3130archaic vocab
“Honest Iago hath ta'en order for't”
'Ta'en order for't' means arranged it, taken care of it, seen to it. Othello is telling Desdemona that Iago has had Cassio killed. The phrase is a grim bureaucratic euphemism — 'made arrangements' — for a murder. The word 'honest' (meaning straightforward, trustworthy) applied to Iago here is one of the scene's last appearances of the delusion Iago built.
TLN 3158rhetorical device
“My wife! my wife! what wife? I have no wife”
Othello starts to say 'my wife' from habit, then checks himself — she is dead; he no longer has a wife. The brutal self-correction, repeated three times in a single short sentence, is one of the most devastating lines in the scene. The rhetorical figure is epanalepsis (taking back a word you have just used), and here it enacts the void opening up inside him the instant he hears Emilia call out.
TLN 3160cultural context
“Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse Of sun and moon, and that the affrighted globe Should yawn at alteration”
Othello imagines that a killing this terrible should shake the whole world — cause an eclipse and make the earth 'yawn' (open up, as at an earthquake). The image comes from a widespread ancient and early-modern belief that cosmic disturbances — eclipses, earthquakes, storms — accompanied the deaths of great or holy persons. Shakespeare uses the same idea when the earth groans at the murder of Julius Caesar.
TLN 3172cultural context
“It is the very error of the moon; She comes more nearer earth than she was wont And makes men mad”
Othello attributes the news of Roderigo's murder to the moon coming too close to the earth and causing madness. The belief that the moon influenced human mental states was widespread in early modern Europe — the word 'lunatic' comes from 'luna' (moon). Othello's instinct is to blame the cosmos rather than Iago. The audience feels the bitter irony: the real cause of madness in Cyprus has been walking beside him the whole night.
TLN 3188stage direction note
“A guiltless death I die”
Desdemona, dying, says her death is innocent — she has committed no crime. Then, when Emilia asks who did this, she answers 'Nobody; I myself.' She dies protecting Othello even from the blame of her murder. This final lie — if it is a lie — has been discussed by editors for centuries: is it a deliberate act of love, or is she so conditioned to self-blame that she cannot name him? Either reading makes the moment devastating.
TLN 3198historical topical
“O, the more angel she, And you the blacker devil”
Emilia inverts the racist logic the play's villains apply to Othello. Where Iago and Brabantio associated Othello's black skin with the demonic, Emilia reverses the colour-coding: Desdemona is the 'angel' (white, pure, innocent) and Othello is the 'blacker devil' — not because of his skin but because of what he has just done. The moral weight shifts entirely to conduct, not colour.
historical The 'Moor' on the Elizabethan stage
TLN 3213archaic vocab
“If heaven would make me such another world Of one entire and perfect chrysolite, I'd not have sold her for it”
A chrysolite (also chrysolitus) was a precious golden-green gemstone — the same stone listed among the jewels of the priestly breastplate in Exodus, and named as one of the foundations of the New Jerusalem in Revelation. Othello says he would not have traded Desdemona for a whole world made of this most precious of gems — and then in the next breath says he was told she was false and condemned her for it. The wealth-image makes the waste almost too large to hold.
TLN 3221archaic vocab
“What needs this iterance, woman”
'Iterance' is an uncommon word meaning repetition — saying the same thing over and over. Othello snaps at Emilia for repeating 'my husband' in shocked disbelief three times. The word is Shakespeare's; it appears only here in the canon. Othello means: why do you keep saying it? But the audience sees that Emilia's repetition is not a rhetorical quirk — she is struggling to take in a fact that overturns everything she thought she knew.
TLN 3227archaic vocab
“may his pernicious soul Rot half a grain a day! he lies to the heart”
'Pernicious' means destructive, ruinous, causing death — from Latin perniciosus (bringing ruin). Emilia curses Iago's soul to decay one tiny fragment at a time ('half a grain a day'), imagining a punishment as protracted as the suffering he caused. The phrase 'lies to the heart' means he has lied against what is most vital — against Desdemona's true, loving heart.
TLN 3281archaic vocab
“pure grief Shore his old thread in twain”
'Shore... in twain' is an archaic past tense of 'shear' — to cut in two. The 'thread' of life is an image from classical mythology: the three Fates (the Parcae) spun, measured, and cut the thread of each person's life. Gratiano says grief at the marriage cut Brabantio's life-thread in half — it killed him with sorrow. Desdemona's father, who raged against her marriage to Othello, has died not knowing that the marriage would end like this.
TLN 3285archaic vocab
“fall to reprobance”
'Reprobance' (or reprobation) was a theological term meaning the state of being damned — rejected by God, condemned to hell without hope of salvation. In Calvinist theology the 'reprobate' were those God had not elected for salvation. Gratiano says that if Brabantio were alive to see this sight, he would call down God's curse on himself — 'curse his better angel from his side' — and go straight to damnation. The word marks the extreme of despair available in Protestant theology.
TLN 3292historical topical
“It was a handkerchief, an antique token My father gave my mother”
Othello now describes the handkerchief simply as his father's gift to his mother — a plain domestic inheritance — which flatly contradicts his earlier claim (3.4) that an Egyptian sorceress gave it to his mother and that it was woven by a sibyl. The two stories cannot both be true. Whether this is a mistake or deliberate inconsistency on Shakespeare's part, or a sign that Othello's earlier story was a frightening tale invented to control Desdemona, has been debated for centuries.
historical The handkerchief — Othello's 'ocular proof'
TLN 3297archaic vocab
“I will speak as liberal as the north”
'Liberal' here means free, unconstrained, unrestrained — not the modern political sense. 'The north' means the north wind, which in Elizabethan idiom was proverbially blunt and unsparing. Emilia vows to speak freely and fully, holding nothing back, as the north wind blows without stopping. 'Charm' in Iago's preceding line means 'silence' — he commands her to be quiet, and she refuses.
TLN 3304historical topical
“O thou dull Moor! that handkerchief thou speak'st of I found by fortune and did give my husband”
Emilia calls Othello 'dull Moor' — stupid, obtuse — and reveals that she found the handkerchief by chance and gave it to Iago, who had nagged her for it. 'Dull' here means stupid or slow-witted, not gloomy. The insult from Iago's own wife is devastating: the elaborate 'ocular proof' Iago constructed was built on a dropped cloth that his own wife happened to pick up.
historical The 'Moor' on the Elizabethan stage
TLN 3314archaic vocab
“O murderous coxcomb! What should such a fool Do with so good a wife?”
A 'coxcomb' was a fool's cap with a notched crest resembling a rooster's comb, worn by professional jesters; by extension it meant a conceited fool or simpleton. Emilia's 'murderous coxcomb' is a ferocious paradox: a man who plays the part of an honourable wronged husband is actually just an idiot who was played for a fool. The line is Emilia's final verdict on Othello and her last spoken words before Iago stabs her.
TLN 3316archaic vocab
“Are there not stones in heaven But what serve for thunder”
Othello asks: are there no thunderbolts in heaven — does God not smite wrongdoers? The 'stones' are thunderbolts (in classical and popular tradition, a thunderstroke was imagined as a stone hurled from heaven by Jove or God). Othello wants divine punishment to destroy Iago, but since heaven will not act, he reaches for his sword. The moment shows his fury at a universe that seems to permit such evil.
TLN 3327archaic vocab
“every puny whipster gets my sword”
A 'whipster' was an insignificant, contemptible young fellow — someone not worth fighting seriously (from 'whip,' implying a flippant, stinging sharpness). 'Puny' meant junior, of low rank, small. Othello is berating himself: even the most trivial, junior men can disarm him now. He has become less than himself — the great soldier reduced to a man whose sword can be taken by a 'puny whipster.' The self-contempt is part of his spiral toward suicide.
TLN 3331cultural context
“I will play the swan, And die in music”
The 'swan song' was a classical legend: the swan, supposedly silent throughout its life, sang one beautiful song as it was dying. Emilia says she will do likewise — die singing the Willow song she learned from Desdemona. The legend was proverbial in Elizabethan England and appears in many writers, including Plato and Cicero. Dying in music was considered a blessed, peaceful death.
TLN 3353archaic vocab
“here is my butt, And very sea-mark of my utmost sail”
A 'butt' was the target at an archery range — the point aimed for. A 'sea-mark' was a lighthouse, a beacon, or a prominent landmark on shore that sailors used to fix their position or to know they had reached the end of their voyage. Othello is saying: this is the end of the road, the furthest point of my journey, the target I have been sailing toward. He is describing his own death in nautical and military metaphor — the professional soldier finding the words that fit him.
TLN 3356archaic vocab
“Man but a rush against Othello's breast, And he retires”
'Man but a rush' means 'use only a reed' — the lightest, flimsiest of weapons. Othello is telling Gratiano not to fear him: the slightest push of a hollow reed against his chest will make him fall back. The man who was feared as an invincible general is now offering himself as an unarmed, broken thing. The contrast with the iron sword of Spain he has just retrieved is deliberate.
TLN 3358archaic vocab
“O ill-starr'd wench! Pale as thy smock! When we shall meet at compt”
A 'smock' was a woman's linen undergarment — the innermost layer of her clothing, white and plain. Comparing Desdemona's pale face to her smock emphasizes how bloodless and cold she has become. 'Compt' (also 'account') is the Last Judgment — the final reckoning of souls before God — a common theological term. 'Ill-starr'd' means born under an unlucky star, fated by the heavens to misfortune; it is the play's fullest use of astrological fatalism.
TLN 3365biblical allusion
“Blow me about in winds! roast me in sulphur! Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire”
Othello imagines the torments of hell — storms, burning sulphur, rivers of liquid fire — and invites them as punishment. These are the standard biblical and theological images of hell: Revelation describes a 'lake of fire and brimstone' (sulphur); fire and brimstone destroyed Sodom in Genesis. The images are familiar from English sermons and from the apocalyptic language of the Book of Revelation. Othello is already pronouncing his own damnation.
TLN 3371cultural context
“I look down towards his feet;—but that's a fable.— If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee”
Othello looks at Iago's feet to see if he has the cloven hooves of the devil — and then dismisses that as a 'fable' (a folk-story, a superstition). In popular legend, the devil in human form could be identified by his animal feet: he could disguise everything about himself except his hooves. Othello has called Iago a 'demi-devil' (TLN 3388) and now half-believes it, though he checks himself. He then stabs Iago, who does not die — which, to Othello, may confirm the devil-suspicion.
TLN 3378archaic vocab
“Fall'n in the practice of a damned slave”
'Practice' here means a treacherous plot, a scheme, a machination — not a habit or a rehearsal. Lodovico says Othello has fallen victim to the scheming of a damned ('damned' = both evil and literally cursed, doomed to hell) slave — Iago. 'Slave' was a standard contemptuous term for a villain. The word 'practice' in this sense appears frequently in Shakespeare whenever a character describes Iago's kind of villainy.
historical The Stage Machiavel
TLN 3388cultural context
“that demi-devil Why he hath thus ensnar'd my soul and body”
A 'demi-devil' is a half-devil — a being with demonic powers but who appears human. Othello is not just using an insult: he is genuinely asking how a human being could have done what Iago did, and concluding that only a partially supernatural evil could explain it. The question 'why' is the one Iago pointedly refuses to answer: 'Demand me nothing.' The unanswered question is the play's final horror.
TLN 3434archaic vocab
“Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice”
'Extenuate' means to lessen, mitigate, make something seem less serious — from Latin extenuare (to thin out, reduce). Othello asks Lodovico and Cassio, who will carry the report back to Venice, to describe him accurately: neither softening what he did nor distorting it with hostility. It is a request for honest history, made by a man who is about to write his own epitaph by suicide. The irony is that the self-description he then gives — 'one that loved not wisely but too well' — is itself a form of extenuating.
TLN 3436rhetorical device
“Of one that loved not wisely, but too well; Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought, Perplex'd in the extreme”
Othello constructs his own epitaph in a series of antitheses: 'not wisely but too well,' 'not easily jealous but, being wrought, perplex'd in the extreme.' Each phrase admits a fault while insisting on the quality that makes it understandable — he loved deeply, he was not naturally suspicious. Editors have debated whether this self-portrait is honest self-knowledge or a final act of self-romanticising that avoids full responsibility. 'Perplex'd' means utterly confused, distracted beyond reason.
TLN 3442historical topical
“the Arabian trees Their medicinal gum”
Arabia was famous in antiquity and the Renaissance for producing aromatic gum-resins such as frankincense, myrrh, and bdellium — the 'medicinal gum' exuded from desert trees. The gum dripping from the trees was compared to tears. Othello is saying his tears fall like the slow, precious drops that ooze from the Arabian spice trees — involuntary, rare, and carrying a kind of sacred weight. The image comes from Pliny and was current in English writing about Arabia.
TLN 3444historical topical
“in Aleppo once, Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk Beat a Venetian and traduc'd the state, I took by the throat the circumcised dog And smote him—thus”
Othello recounts killing a Turkish enemy at Aleppo — and then stabs himself, the sword turning on the man who acted against Venice. The story of the Turk is a trap: as he speaks of punishing the enemy of Venice who 'traduc'd' (slandered, dishonoured) the state, he enacts the punishment on himself. He has become his own enemy — the one who dishonoured Venice, who betrayed the state's trust. 'Circumcised' was a contemptuous term for a Muslim; 'turban'd' the visual marker of the Ottoman enemy.
historical Cyprus and the Ottoman threat
TLN 3451rhetorical device
“I kiss'd thee ere I kill'd thee:—no way but this, Killing myself, to die upon a kiss”
Othello's last words are a couplet built on the paradox of love and death: 'kiss'd / kill'd', 'killing myself / die upon a kiss.' The line fuses the two acts — the kiss in the opening of the scene (TLN 3059-3062) and the killing — and closes the scene where it began: with Othello over Desdemona's body, kissing her. The stage direction 'Falling upon Desdemona' completes the image. Death and love are literally joined at the moment he falls.