Imatges de pàgina
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That the sense aches at thee.-'Would thou hadst ne'er

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Oth. Ay: you did wish that I would make her turn:
Sir, she can turn, and turn, and yet go on,

And turn again; and she can weep, sir, weep;
And she's obedient, as you say,—obedient,—
Very obedient-proceed you in your tears.—
Concerning this, sir,-O well-painted passion!
I am commanded home :-get you away;
I'll send for you anon.-Sir, I obey the mandate,
And will return to Venice.-Hence, avaunt !

[Exit Desdemona.

Cassio shall have my place. And, sir, to-night,
I do entreat that we may sup together.
You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.-Goats and monkies!

[Exit.

OTHELLO'S IRRESOLUTION TO MURDER DESDEMONA.

SCENE. A Bedchamber: Desdemona in bed, asleep. A light

burning.

It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,-
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!
It is the cause.-Yet I'll not shed her blood;
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow,
And smooth as monumental alabaster.

-

[Takes off his sword.

Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men.
Put out the light, and then put out the light :*

* i. e., The light of life.

If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,
I can again thy former light restore,
Should I repent me: but once put out thine,
Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature,
I know not where is that Promethean heat,
That can thy light relume.

[rose,

When I have pluck'd thy

I cannot give it vital growth again,

It needs must wither:-'I'll smell it on the tree.

[Kissing her.

O balmy breath, that dost almost persuade
Justice to break her sword!-One more, one more,-
Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee,
And love thee after.-One more, and this the last:
So sweet was ne'er so fatal. I must weep,

But they are cruel tears: this sorrow's heavenly;
It strikes where it doth love.

HIS LOVE.

Had she been true,

If Heaven would make me such another world
Of one entire and perfect chrysolite,*

I'd not have sold her for it.

HIS SPEECH BEFORE HIS DEATH.

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,

* A precious stone.

Perplex'd in the extreme; of one, whose hand,
Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away,

Richer than all his tribe; of one, whose subdued eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood,

Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinal 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.

[Stabs himself.

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O, then, I see, Queen Mab hath been with you. She is the fairies' midwife; and she comes

In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies*
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs;
The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers;
The traces, of the smallest spider's web;
The collars, of the moonshine's wat'ry beams:
Her whip, of cricket's bone; the lash, of film:
Her waggoner, a small gray-coated gnat,
Not half so big as a round little worm
Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid:
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut,
Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub,
Time out of mind the fairies' coach-makers.
And in this state she gallops night by night
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love:
On courtier's knees, that dream on court'sies straight:
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees:
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream;
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are.
Sometimes she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit:†
And sometimes comes he with a tithe-pig's tail,
Tickling a parson's nose as 'a lies asleep,
Then dreams he of another benefice:
Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear; at which he starts, and wakes;
And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two,
And sleeps again. This is that very Mab,

* Atoms.

A place at court.

That plats the manes of horses in the night;
And bakes the elf-locks* in foul sluttish hairs,
Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes.
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
That presses them, and learns them first to bear,
Making them women of good carriage.

DESCRIPTION OF A BEAUTY.

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear:
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shews a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.

THE GARDEN SCENE.

Enter Romeo.

Rom. He jests at scars, that never felt a wound,— [Juliet appears above, at a window.

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks ! It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!

Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already sick and pale with grief,

That thou her maid art far more fair than she:

Be not her maid, since she is envious;

Her vestal livery is but sick and green,

And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.

It is my lady; O, it is my love:

O, that she knew she were!—

She speaks, yet she says nothing; what of that?

Her eye discourses, I will answer it.

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