Re-enter GRATIANO.

Gra. What's the matter?

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, O vain boast!
Who can control his fate? 'tis not so now. -
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!
Pale as thy smock! when we shall meet at compt,*
This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven,
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!
Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!-
O Desdemona! Desdemona! dead?

Dead? O! O! O!

Enter LODOVICO, MONTANO, CASSIO, carried in a Chair, and
Officers with IAGO, prisoner.

Lod. Where is this rash and most unfortunate man?
Oth. That's he, that was Othello; here I am.

Lod. Where is that viper? bring the villain forth,

Oth. I look down towards his feet; t-but that's a fable:

If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee.

Lod. Wrench his sword from him.

Iago. I bleed, Sir; but not kill'd.

[OTHELLO wounds IAGO.

Oth. I am not sorry neither; I'd have thee live;

For, in my sense, 'tis happiness to die.

Lod. O thou Othello, that was once so good,

Fallen in the practice of a cursed slave,

What shall be said to thee?

Oth. Why, anything:

An honourable murderer, if you will;

For nought I did in hate, but all in honour.

Lod. This wretch hath in part confess'd his villany:

Did you and he consent in Cassio's death ?

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 ensnared my soul and body?

* Account.

To see if his feet be cloven.

By the stratagem.

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 befall'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, Iago in the interim

Came in and satisfied him.

Oth. O the pernicious caitiff!

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

Cas. 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 him 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 loved 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 Indian, threw a pearl away,

Richer than all his tribe; of one, whose subdued cyes,
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 traduced the state,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog,
And smote him-thus.

Lod. O bloody period!

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

[Stabs himself.

Oth. I kiss'd thee, ere I kill'd thee;-No way but this.

Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.

[Falling upon DESDEMONA.

Cas. This did I fear, but thought he had no weapon; For he was great of heart.

Lod. O Spartan dog,

More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea!

Look on the tragic loading of this bed;

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.

* Judgment.

[Dies.

[To IAGO.

[Exeunt.

16