Page 1507 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

I am most unhappy in the loss of it.

EMILIA
’Tis not a year or two shows us a man: [100]
They are all but stomachs, and we all but food;
They eat us hungerly, and when they are full,
They belch us.

Enter Iago and Cassio.

Look you, Cassio and my husband.

IAGO
There is no other way, ’tis she must do it,
And lo, the happiness! go, and importune her. [105]

DESDEMONA
How now, good Cassio, what’s the news with you?

CASSIO
Madam, my former suit: I do beseech you,

That by your virtuous means I may again
Exist, and be a member of his love,
Whom I, with all the duty of my heart, [110]
Entirely honour; I would not be delay’d:

If my offence be of such mortal kind,
That neither service past, nor present sorrows,
Nor purpos’d merit in futurity,
Can ransom me into his love again, [115]

But to know so must be my benefit;
So shall I clothe me in a forc’d content,
And shut myself up in some other course
To fortune’s alms.

DESDEMONA

Alas, thrice-gentle Cassio,
My advocation is not now in tune; [120]