Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Donald Bailey
Peer Reviewed

Othello (Quarto 1, 1622)

61
The Moore of Venice.

To haue him see me woman'd.
Bian. But that you doe not loue me:
I pray you bring me on the way alittle,
And say, if I shall see you soone at night.
2365Cas. Tis but a little way, that I can bring you,
For I attend here, but I'le see you soone.
Bian. Tis very good, I must be circumstanc'd.
Exeunt.

Actus. 4.

2370Enter Iago and Othello.

Iag. Will you thinke so?
Oth. Thinke so Iago.
Iag. What, to kisse in priuate?
Oth. An vnauthoriz'd kisse.
2375Iag. Or to be naked with her friend abed,
An houre, or more, not meaning any harme.
Oth. Naked abed Iago, and not meane harme?
It is hypocrisie against the diuell:
They that meane vertuously, and yet doe so,
2380The diuell their vertue tempts, and they tempt heauen.
Iag. So they doe nothing, tis a veniall slip;
But if I giue my wife a handkercher.
Oth. What then?
Iag. Why then tis hers my Lord, and being hers,
2385She may, I thinke, bestow't on any man.
Oth. She is protectres of her honour to,
May she giue that?
Iag. Her honour is an essence that's not seene,
They haue it very oft, that haue it not:
2390But for the handkercher.
Oth. By heauen, I would most gladly haue forgot it:
Thou saidst (O it comes o're my memory,
As doth the Rauen o're the infected house,
Boding
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