Othello: Act 4, Scene 3
Enter OTHELLO, LODOVICO, DESDEMONA,
EMILIA and ATTENDANTS.
LODOVICO
1 I do beseech you, sir, trouble yourself no further.
OTHELLO
2 O, pardon me: 'twill do me good to walk.
LODOVICO
3 Madam, good night; I humbly thank your ladyship.
DESDEMONA
4 Your honor is most welcome.
OTHELLO
Will you walk, sir?
5 O,—Desdemona,—
"How goes it now?"
Rosemary Leach as Emilia; Penelope Wilson as Desdemona
BBC Shakespeare: Othello, 1981
DESDEMONA
6 My lord?
OTHELLO
7 Get you to bed on the instant; I will be returned
8 forthwith Dismiss your attendant there.
9 Look it be done.
DESDEMONA
10 I will, my lord.
Exeunt [Othello, Lodovico, and Attendants].
EMILIA
11 How goes it now? he looks gentler than he did.
DESDEMONA
12 He says he will return incontinent:
12. incontinent: almost at once.
13 He hath commanded me to go to bed,
14 And bade me to dismiss you.
EMILIA
Dismiss me?
DESDEMONA
15 It was his bidding: therefore, good Emilia,
16 Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu:
17 We must not now displease him.
EMILIA
18 I would you had never seen him!
DESDEMONA
19 So would not I. My love doth so approve him,
20 That even his stubbornness, his checks, his frowns—
20. stubbornness: roughness. checks: rebukes.
21 Prithee, unpin me,—have grace and favor in them.
21. favor: attractiveness.
Detail from "Desdemona and Her Maid"
Theodore Chasseriau
EMILIA
22 I have laid those sheets you bade me on the bed.
DESDEMONA
23 All's one. Good faith, how foolish are our minds!
24 If I do die before thee, prithee shroud me
25 In one of those same sheets.
EMILIA
Come, come you talk.
25. talk: i.e., prattle idly.
DESDEMONA
26 My mother had a maid call'd Barbary:
27 She was in love, and he she loved proved mad
27. mad: wild; i.e., untrue, faithless.
28 And did forsake her: she had a song of "Willow,"
28. Willow: The willow tree, with its drooping branches, was symbolic of disappointed love.
29 An old thing 'twas, but it express'd her fortune,
30 And she died singing it. That song tonight
31 Will not go from my mind; I have much to do,
32 But to go hang my head all at one side,
31-32. I have much to do, / But to: it's all I can do not to.
33 And sing it like poor Barbary. Prithee, dispatch.
EMILIA
34 Shall I go fetch your nightgown?
DESDEMONA
No, unpin me here.
35 This Lodovico is a proper man.
35. proper: good-looking, attractive.
Angela Brazil as Emilia; Rebecca Gibel as Desdemona
Trinity Rep, 2018
EMILIA
36 A very handsome man.
DESDEMONA
37 He speaks well.
EMILIA
38 I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot
39 to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip.
DESDEMONA [Singing.]
40 "The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
41 Sing all a green willow:
42 Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
43 Sing willow, willow, willow:
44 The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her moans;
45 Sing willow, willow, willow;
46 Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the stones;
47 Sing willow"—
48 Lay by these:—
49 — "willow, willow";—
50 Prithee, hie thee; he'll come anon:—
50. hie thee: make haste.
51 "Sing all a green willow must be my garland.
52 Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve,"—
53 Nay, that's not next.—Hark! who is't that knocks?
53. Nay, that's not next: The line, "Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve," is apparently a line that Desdemona unconsciously added to the ballad, because she was thinking about her loyalty to Othello.
EMILIA
54 It's the wind.
DESDEMONA [Singing.]
55 "I call'd my love false love; but what said he then?
56 Sing willow, willow, willow:
57 If I court moe women, you'll couch with moe men."
57. moe: more.
58 So, get thee gone; good night. Mine eyes do itch;
59 Doth that bode weeping?
EMILIA
'Tis neither here nor there.
DESDEMONA
60 I have heard it said so. O, these men, these men!
61 Dost thou in conscience think,—tell me, Emilia,—
61. in conscience: sincerely, truly.
62 That there be women do abuse their husbands
63 In such gross kind?
EMILIA
There be some such, no question.
DESDEMONA
64 Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?
EMILIA
65 Why, would not you?
DESDEMONA
No, by this heavenly light!
EMILIA
66 Nor I neither by this heavenly light;
67 I might do't as well i' the dark.
DESDEMONA
68 Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?
EMILIA
69 The world's a huge thing: it is a great price
69. price: prize.
70 For a small vice.
DESDEMONA
Good troth, I think thou wouldst not.
EMILIA
71 In troth, I think I should; and undo't when I had
72 done. Marry, I would not do such a thing for a
73 joint-ring, nor for measures of lawn, nor for
73. joint-ring: cheap ring made in separable halves. lawn: fine linen.
74 gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any petty
75 exhibition; but for all the whole world,—'ud's pity,
75. exhibition: gift.
'ud's pity: A slangy way of saying "God's pity," which, like "for God's sake," now has no real religious meaning.
76 who would not make her husband a cuckold to make
77 him a monarch? I should venture purgatory for't.
DESDEMONA
78 Beshrew me, if I would do such a wrong
79 For the whole world.
EMILIA
80 Why the wrong is but a wrong i' the world: and
81 having the world for your labor, tis a wrong in your
82 own world, and you might quickly make it right.
DESDEMONA
83 I do not think there is any such woman.
EMILIA
84 Yes, a dozen; and as many to th' vantage as would
84. to th' vantage: in addition, to boot.
85 store the world they played for.
85. store: populate.
86 But I do think it is their husbands' faults
87 If wives do fall: say that they slack their duties,
87. duties: marital duties.
88 And pour our treasures into foreign laps,
88. And . . . laps: i.e., are unfaithful, giving what is rightfully ours (semen) to other women.
89 Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
89. peevish: silly, childish.
90 Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,
91 Or scant our former having in despite;
91. scant our former having in despite: reduce our allowance to spite us.
92 Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace,
92. galls: tempers, the capacity to resent such treatment.
93 Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
94 Their wives have sense like them: they see and smell
94. sense: bodily senses.
95 And have their palates both for sweet and sour,
96 As husbands have. What is it that they do
97 When they change us for others? Is it sport?
98 I think it is: and doth affection breed it?
99 I think it doth: is't frailty that thus errs?
100 It is so too: and have not we affections,
101 Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
102 Then let them use us well: else let them know,
103 The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.
DESDEMONA
104 Good night, good night. God me such uses send,
104. me such uses send: i.e., enable me to make it my practice.
105 Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend!
105. Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend: not to use others' ill conduct as an excuse for behaving likewise (as Emilia has suggested women learn from men), but rather to learn from it how to behave otherwise.
Exeunt.