Page 1490 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

OTHELLO

This fellow’s of exceeding honesty,
And knows all qualities, with a learned spirit,
Of human dealing: if I do prove her haggard,

Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings, [265]
I’ld whistle her off, and let her down the wind,
To prey at fortune. Haply, for I am black,
And have not those soft parts of conversation
That chamberers have, or for I am declin’d

Into the vale of years, − yet that’s not much − [270]
She’s gone, I am abus’d, and my relief
Must be to loathe her: O curse of marriage,

That we can call these delicate creatures ours,
And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad,
And live upon the vapour in a dungeon, [275]
Than keep a corner in a thing I love,
For others’ uses: yet ’tis the plague of great ones,

Prerogativ’d are they less than the base,
’Tis destiny, unshunnable, like death:
Even then this forked plague is fated to us, [280]

When we do quicken: Desdemona comes,
If she be false, O, then heaven mocks itself,
I’ll not believe it.

Enter Desdemona and Emilia.

DESDEMONA
How now, my dear Othello?

Your dinner, and the generous islanders
By you invited, do attend your presence. [285]

OTHELLO
I am to blame.

DESDEMONA
Why is your speech so faint? are you not well?

OTHELLO