Page 1499 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

To tyrannous hate, swell, bosom, with thy fraught,
For ’tis of aspics’ tongues!
He kneels.

IAGO
Pray be content.

OTHELLO
O, blood, Iago, blood!

IAGO
Patience I say, your mind perhaps may change.

OTHELLO
Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic sea, [460]
Whose icy current, and compulsive course,
Ne’er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
To the Propontic, and the Hellespont:

Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace
Shall ne’er look back, ne’er ebb to humble love, [465]
Till that a capable and wide revenge
Swallow them up. Now by yond marble heaven,

In the due reverence of a sacred vow,
I here engage my words.

IAGO
Do not rise yet.
Iago kneels.

Witness, you ever-burning lights above, [470]
You elements that clip us round about,
Witness that here Iago doth give up
The excellency of his wit, hand, heart,
To wrong’d Othello’s service: let him command,

And to obey shall be in me remorse, [475]
What bloody work so ever.
They rise.