Enter Othello, Lodovico, Desdemona, Emilia, and
Attendants.LODOVICO I do beseech you, sir, trouble yourself no further.OTHELLO O, pardon me, ’twill do me good to walk.LODOVICO Madam, good night. I humbly thank your Ladyship.DESDEMONA Your Honor is most welcome.OTHELLO 5 Will you walk, sir?—O, Desdemona—DESDEMONA My lord?OTHELLO Get you to bed on th’ instant. I will be returned forthwith. Dismiss your attendant there. Look ’t be done.DESDEMONA 10I will, my lord.⌜All but Desdemona and Emilia⌝ exit.EMILIA How goes it now? He looks gentler than he did.DESDEMONA He says he will return incontinent, And hath commanded me to go to bed, And ⟨bade⟩ me to dismiss you.EMILIA 15 Dismiss me?DESDEMONA It was his bidding. Therefore, good Emilia,
Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu. We must not now displease him.EMILIA I would you had never seen him.DESDEMONA 20 So would not I. My love doth so approve him That even his stubbornness, his checks, his frowns— Prithee, unpin me—have grace and favor ⟨in them.⟩EMILIA I have laid those sheets you bade me on the bed.DESDEMONA All’s one. Good ⟨faith,⟩ how foolish are our minds!25 If I do die before ⟨thee,⟩ prithee, shroud me In one of ⟨those⟩ same sheets.EMILIA Come, come, you talk!DESDEMONA My mother had a maid called Barbary. She was in love, and he she loved proved mad30 And did forsake her. She had a song of willow, An old thing ’twas, but it expressed her fortune, And she died singing it. That song tonight Will not go from my mind. [I have much to do But to go hang my head all at one side35 And sing it like poor Barbary. Prithee, dispatch.EMILIA Shall I go fetch your nightgown?DESDEMONA No, unpin me here. This Lodovico is a proper man.EMILIA A very handsome man.DESDEMONA 40He speaks well.EMILIA I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip.DESDEMONA, ⌜singing⌝ The poor soul sat ⌜sighing⌝ by a sycamore tree,
Sing all a green willow.
45 Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing willow, willow, willow.
The fresh streams ran by her and murmured her
moans,
Sing willow, willow, willow;
50 Her salt tears fell from her, and softened the
stones— Lay by these. Sing willow, willow, willow. Prithee hie thee! He’ll come anon.55 Sing all a green willow must be my garland.
Let nobody blame him, his scorn I approve. Nay, that’s not next.] Hark, who is ’t that knocks?EMILIA It’s the wind.DESDEMONA [I called my love false love, but what said he then?
60 Sing willow, willow, willow.
If I court more women, you’ll couch with more
men.]— So, get thee gone. Good night. Mine eyes do itch; Doth that bode weeping?EMILIA 65 ’Tis neither here nor there.[DESDEMONA I have heard it said so. O these men, these men! Dost thou in conscience think—tell me, Emilia— That there be women do abuse their husbands In such gross kind?EMILIA 70 There be some such, no question.]DESDEMONA Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?EMILIA Why, would not you?DESDEMONA No, by this heavenly light!EMILIA 75 Nor I neither, by this heavenly light. I might do ’t as well i’ th’ dark.DESDEMONA Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?
EMILIA The world’s a huge thing. It is a great price for a small vice.DESDEMONA 80In troth, I think thou wouldst not.EMILIA In troth, I think I should, and undo ’t when I had done ⟨it.⟩ Marry, I would not do such a thing for a joint ring, nor for measures of lawn, nor for gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any petty exhibition.85 But for the whole world—⟨’Uds pity!⟩ Who would not make her husband a cuckold to make him a monarch? I should venture purgatory for ’t.DESDEMONA Beshrew me if I would do such a wrong for the whole world!EMILIA 90Why, the wrong is but a wrong i’ th’ world; and, having the world for your labor, ’tis a wrong in your own world, and you might quickly make it right.DESDEMONA I do not think there is any such woman.EMILIA 95Yes, a dozen; and as many to th’ vantage as would store the world they played for. [But I do think it is their husbands’ faults If wives do fall. Say that they slack their duties, And pour our treasures into foreign laps;100 Or else break out in peevish jealousies, Throwing restraint upon us. Or say they strike us, Or scant our former having in despite. Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace, Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know105 Their wives have sense like them. They see, and smell, And have their palates both for sweet and sour, As husbands have. What is it that they do When they change us for others? Is it sport?110 I think it is. And doth affection breed it? I think it doth. Is ’t frailty that thus errs? It is so too. And have not we affections, Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
Then let them use us well. Else let them know,115 The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.]DESDEMONA Good night, good night. ⟨God⟩ me such uses send, Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend.They exit.
Othello
