Cas. I think, that one of them is hereabout,
And cannot make away.
Iago.
O treacherous villains!-Do you perceive the ghastness of her eye?—
What are you there? come in, and give some help. Nay, if you stare, we shall hear more anon:-
[To Lodovico and Gratiano. Behold her well; I pray you, look upon her;
Do you see, gentlemen? nay, guiltiness will speak

That can thy light relume. When I have pluck'd thy I never gave it him :-Send for him hither,

Oth. What noise is this?-Not dead? not yet quite dead?

I, that am cruel, am yet merciful;

I would not have thee linger in thy pain.-
So, so.1

Emil. [Within.] What ho! my lord, my lord!
Oth.
Who's there?
Emil. [Within.] O, good my lord, I would speak
a word with you.

Oth. Yestis Emilia :-by and by.-She's
dead.

'Tis like she comes to speak of Cassio's death:
The noise was high.-Ha! no more moving?
Still as the grave. Shall she come in? Were't good?
I think, she stirs again :-No.--What's the best?
If she come in, she'll sure speak to my wife:
My wife! my wife! what wife?-I have no wife:
O, insupportable! O heavy hour!
Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse

Of sun and moon; and that the affrighted globe
Should yawn at alteration.

Emil. Within.] I do beseech you I may speak
with you,

O, good my lord!

Oth. I had forgot thee: 0, come in, Emilia:Soft,-by and by:-Let me the curtains draw.Where art thou? What's the matter with thee now?. [Unlocks the door. Enter Emilia. Emil. O, good my lord, yonder's foul murder done.

Oth. What? now?

Emil.

But now, my lord!

Oth. It is the very error of the moon;
She comes more near the earth than she was wont,
And makes men mad.

Emil. Cassio, my lord, has killed a young Vc-
netian,

Call'd-Roderigo.

Oth.

And Cassio kill'd?

Emil.

Roderigo kill'd!

No, Cassio is not kill'd.

Emil.

My husband?

Oth. What needs this iterance, woman? I say,
thy husband.

Emil. O mistress, villany hath made mocks with
love!-

My husband say, that she was false?
Oth.

He, woman;
I say, thy husband: dost understand the word?
My friend, thy husband, honest, honest lago.
Emil. If he say so, may his pernicious soul
Rot half a grain a day! he lies to the heart;
She was too fond of her most filthy bargain.
Oth. Ha!
Emil.

Do thy worst:
This deed of thine is no more worthy heaven,
Than thou wast worthy her.
Oth.
Peace, you were best.
Emil. Thou hast not half the power to do me
harm,

As I have to be hurt. O gull! O dolt!

As ignorant as dirt! Thou hast done a deed,

I care not for thy sword; I'll make thee known, Though I lost twenty lives:-Help! help, no! help!

Oth. Not Cassio kill'd? Then murder's out of The Moor has kill'd my mistress; Murder! murder!

tune,

Enter Montano, Gratiano, and lago.

Mon. What is the matter?-How now, general?
Emil. O, are you come, lago? you have done

well,

That men must lay their murders on your neck.
Gra. What is the matter?

Emil. Disprove this villain, if thou be'st a

man:

He says, thou told'st him that his wife was false:
I know, thou didst not, thou'rt not such a villain;
Speak, for my heart is full.

Iago. I told him what I thought; and told no

more

Than what he found himself was apt and true.
Emil. But did you ever tell him, she was false?
Iago. I did.

Emil. You told a lie; an odious, damned lie;
Upon my soul, a lic; a wicked lic:-

She false with Cassio!--Did you say, with Cassio?
Jago. With Cassio, mistress; Go to, charm your
tongue.

Emil. I will not charm my tongue; I am bound
to speak;

My mistress here lies murder'd in her bed.
All. O heavens forferd!

Emil. And your reports have set the murder on
Oth. Nay, stare not, masters; it is true, indeed

Gra. 'Tis a strange truth.
Mon. O monstrous act!
Emil.

Villany, villany, villany!-
I think upon't,-I think,-I smell't;-O villany!
I thought so then?—I'll kill nyself for grief.-
O villany, villany!

Iago. "What, are you mad? I charge you, get
you home.

Emil. Good gentlemen, let me have leave to
speak;

'Tis proper I obey him, but not now :-
Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home.
Oth. O! O! O! [Hanging over his wife.
Emil.
Nay, lay thee down, and roar;
For thou hast kill'd the sweetest innocent,
That e'er did lift up eye.
Oth.

O, she was foul!-[Rising.
I scarce did know you, uncle: There lies your niece,
Whose breath, indeed, these hands have newly
stopp'd:

I know, this act shows horrible and grim.

Gra. Poor Desdemona! I am glad thy father's

dead;

Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief
Shore his old thread in twain: did he live now,
This sight would make him do a desperate turn,
Yea, curse his better angel from his side,

And fall to reprobation.

Oth. 'Tis pitiful: but yet Iago knows,

That she with Cassio hath the act of shame

Come, guard the door without; let him not pass,
But kill him rather; I'll after that same villain,
For 'tis a damned slave. [Exe. Mon. and Gra.
Oth.
I am not valiant neither
But every puny whipster gets my sword.-
But why should honour outlive honesty?
Let it go all.
Emil. What did thy song bode, lady?
Hark, canst thou hear me? I will play the swan
And die in music;-Willow, willow, willow.-
Moor, she was chaste; she lov'd thee, cruel Moor
So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true;
So speaking as I think, I die,-I die.
Oth. I have another weapon in this chamber,
It is a sword of Spain, the ice brook's temper;2—
O, here it is:-Uncle, I must come forth.
Gra. [Within.] If thou attempt it, it will cost
thee dear;

[Dies.

Thou hast no weapon, and perforce must suffer.
Oth. Look in upon me then, and speak with me,
Or, naked as I am, I will assault thee.
Re-enter Gratiano.

Gra. What is the mater?
Oth.

Behold! I have a weapon;

A better never did itself sustain
Upon a soldier's thigh: I have seen the day,
That, with this little arm, and this good sword,
I have made my way through more impediments
Than twenty times your stop:-But, Ở vain boast!

A thousand times committed; Cassio confess'd it: Who can control his fate? 'tis not so now.

And she did gratify his amorous works
With that recognizance and pledge of love
Which I first gave her: I saw it in his hand;
It was a handkerchief, an antique token
My father gave my mother.

Emil. O heaven! O heavenly powers!
Iago.
Come, hold your peace.
Emil. Twill out, 'twill out:-I hold my peace,
sir? no;

No, I will speak as liberal' as the air;

Let heaven, and men, and devils, let them all,
All, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak.
Iago. Be wise, and get you home.
Emil.

Gra.

Be not afraid, though you do see me weapon'd;
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,
And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.
Do you go back dismay'd? 'tis a lost fear;
Man but a rush against Othello's breast,
And he retires ;-Where should Othello go?-
Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starr'd wench
This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven,
Pale as thy smock! when we shall meet at compt,
And fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl?
Even like thy chastity.-

O cursed, cursed slave!-Whip me, ye devils,
From the possession of this heavenly sight!
Blow me about in winds! roast me in sulphur!
[Iago offers to stab his wife. Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!-

Your sword upon a woman?

I will not.

Fie!

Emil. O thou dull Moor! that handkerchief thou
speak'st of,

I found by fortune, and did give my husband;
But often, with a solemn earnestness

(More than, indeed, belong'd to such a trifle,)
He begg'd of me to steal it.
Iago.

Villanous whore!

no, alas; I found it,

Filth, thou liest.

Emil. She gave it Cassio!
And I did give't my husband.
Iago.
Emil. By heaven, I do not; I do not, gentlemen:
O murd'rous coxcomb! what should such a fool
Do with so good a wife?

Oth.

[Iago stabs Emilia, then runs out. Are there no stones in heaven, But what serve for the thunder?-Precious villain! Gra. The woman falls; sure he has kill'd his wife.

Emil. Ay, ay; O lay me by my mistress' side!
Gra. He's gone, but his wife's kill'd.

Mon. 'Tis a notorious villain. Take you this

weapon,

Which I have here recover'd from the Moor: (1) Free.

(2) Steel is hardened by being put red-hot into very cold water.

O Desdemona! Desdemona! dead?
Dead? O! O! O!

Enter Lodovico, Montano, Cassio, carried in a
chair, and Officers, with lago, prisoner.

Lod. Where is this rash and most unfortunate

Oth. Ay.

Cas. Dear general, I never gave you cause.
Oth. I do believe it, and I ask your pardon.
Will you, I pray you, demand that demi-devil,
Why he hath thus ensnar'd my soul and body?
Iago. Demand me nothing: What you know,
you know:

From this time forth I never will speak word.
Lod. What? not to pray?
Gra.

Torments will ope your lips.
Oth. Well, thou dost best.
Lod. Sir, you shall understand what hath be-
fall'n,

Which, as I think, you know not: Here is a letter,
Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo;
And here, another: the one of them imports
The death of Cassio to be undertook

By Roderigo.

Oth. O villain!
Cas.

Most heathenish, and most gross!
Lod. Now here's another discontented paper,
Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems,
Roderigo meant to have sent this damned villain;
But that, belike, lago in the interim
Came in and satisfied him.

Oth.

How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief
That was my wife's?

Cas.

Oth. I kiss'd thee, ere I kill'd thee;-No way
but this, [Falling upon Desdemona.
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.
Cas. This did I fear, but thought he had no

weapon;

For he was great of heart.

[Dies.

Lod.
O Spartan dog,
More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea!
Look on the tragic loading of this bed; [To lage.
This is thy work: the object poisons sight;-
Let it be hid.-Gratiano, keep the house,
And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor,
For they succeed to you.-To you, lord governor,
Remains the censure of this hellish villain;
The time, the place, the torture,-O enforce it!
Myself will straight aboard; and, to the state,
This heavy act with heavy heart relate.

[Exeunt.

The beauties of this play impress themselves so strongly upon the attention of the reader, that they can draw no aid from critical illustration. The fiery openness of Othello, magnanimous, artless, and credulous, boundless in his confidence, ardent O the pernicious caitiff!-in his affection, inflexible in his resolution, and obdurate in his revenge; the cool malignity of lago, silent in his resentment, subtle in his designs, and studious at once of his interest and his vengeance; the soft simplicity of Desdemona, confident of merit, and conscious of innocence, her artless perseverance in her suit, and her slowness to suspect that she can be suspected, are such proofs of Shakspeare's skill in human nature, as, I suppose, it is vain to seek in any modern writer. The gradual progress which Iago makes in the Moor's conviction, and the circumstances which he employs to inflame him, are so artfully natural, that, though it will, perhaps, not be said of him as he says of himself, that he is a man not easily jealous, yet we cannot but pity him, when at last we find him perplexed in the extreme.

I found it in my chamber:
And he himself confess'd, but even now,
That there he dropp'd it, for a special purpose,
Which wrought to his desire.
Oth.
O fool! fool! fool!
Cas. There is, besides, in Roderigo's letter,-
How he upbraids Iago, that he made him
Brave me on the watch; whereon it came
That I was cast: And even but now he spake,
After long seeming dead,-Iago hurt him,
Iago set him on.

Lod. You must forsake this room, and go with us;
Your power and your command is taken off,
And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave,-
If there be any cunning cruelty,

That can torment hira much, and hold him long,
It shall be his. You shall close prisoner rest,
Till that the nature of your fault be known
To the Venetian state:-Come, bring him away.

Oth. Soft you; a word or two, before you go.
I have done the state some service, and they know it;
No more of that:-I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak
Of one, that lov'd not wisely, but too well;
Of one, not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
Perplex'd in the extreme; of one, whose hand,
Like the base Júdean, threw a pearl away,
Richer than all his tribe; of one, whose subdu'd
eyes,

Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicínal gum: Set you down this:
And say, besides,-that 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.

Lod. O bloody period!
Gra.

[Stabs himself

All, that's spoke, is marr'd.

(1) Judgment.

There is always danger, lest wickedness, conjoined with abilities, should steal upon esteem, though it misses of approbation; but the character of lago is so conducted, that he is from the first scene to to the last hated and despised.

Even the inferior characters of this play would be very conspicuous in any other piece, not only for their justness, but their strength. Cassio is brave, benevolent, and honest, ruined only by his want of stubbornness to resist an insidious invitation. Roderigo's suspicious credulity, and impa tient submission to the cheats which he sees practised upon him, and which, by persuasion, he suffers to be repeated, exhibit a strong picture of a weak mind, betrayed by unlawful desires, to a false friend; and the virtue of Emilia is such as we often find, worn loosely, but not cast off, easy to commit small crimes, but quickened and alarmed at atrocious villanies.

The scenes from the beginning to the end are busy, varied by happy interchanges, and regularly promoting the progression of the story; and the narrative in the end, though it tells but what is known already, yet is necessary to produce the death of Othello.

Had the scene opened in Cyprus, and the preceding incidents been occasionally related, there had been little wanting to a drama of the most exact and scrupulous regularity. JOHNSON.

FINIS.