Page 1546 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

DESDEMONA

I do not think there is any such woman.

EMILIA
Yes, a dozen, and as many to the vantage, as would
store the world they played for. [85]
But I do think it is their husbands’ faults

If wives do fall: say, that they slack their duties,
And pour our treasures into foreign laps;
Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
Throwing restraint upon us: or say they strike us, [90]

Or scant our former having in despite,
Why, we have galls: and though we have some grace,
Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know,
Their wives have sense like them: they see, and smell,

And have their palates both for sweet, and sour, [95]
As husbands have. What is it that they do,
When they change us for others? Is it sport?
I think it is: and doth affection breed it?

I think it doth. Is ’t frailty that thus errs?
It is so too. And have not we affections? [100]
Desires for sport? and frailty, as men have?
Then let them use us well: else let them know,

The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.

DESDEMONA
Good night, good night: God me such usage send,
Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend! [105]
Exeunt.