SCENE XIII
Cyprus. Another Room in the Castle.
[Enter Othello, Lodovico, Desdemona, Emilia, and Attendants.]
LODOVICO
I do beseech you, sir, trouble yourself no further.
OTHELLO
O, pardon me; ‘twill do me good to walk.
LODOVICO
Madam, good night; I humbly thank your ladyship.
DESDEMONA
Your honour is most welcome.
OTHELLO
Will you walk, sir?—
O,—Desdemona,—
DESDEMONA
My lord?
OTHELLO
Get you to bed on the instant; I will be returned forthwith: dismiss your attendant there: look’t be done.
DESDEMONA
I will, my lord.
[Exeunt Othello, Lodovico, and Attendants.]
EMILIA
How goes it now? he looks gentler than he did.
DESDEMONA
He says he will return incontinent:
He hath commanded me to go to bed,
And bade me to dismiss you.
EMILIA
Dismiss me!
DESDEMONA
It was his bidding; therefore, good Emilia,
Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu:
We must not now displease him.
EMILIA
I would you had never seen him!
DESDEMONA
So would not I: my love doth so approve him,
That even his stubbornness, his checks, his frowns,—
Pr’ythee, unpin me,—have grace and favour in them.
EMILIA
I have laid those sheets you bade me on the bed.
DESDEMONA
All’s one.—Good faith, how foolish are our minds!—
If I do die before thee, pr’ythee, shroud me
In one of those same sheets.
EMILIA
Come, come, you talk.
DESDEMONA
My mother had a maid call’d Barbara;
She was in love; and he she lov’d prov’d mad
And did forsake her: she had a song of “willow”;
An old thing ‘twas, but it express’d her fortune,
And she died singing it: that song tonight
Will not go from my mind; I have much to do
But to go hang my head all at one side,
And sing it like poor Barbara. Pr’ythee, despatch.
EMILIA
Shall I go fetch your nightgown?
DESDEMONA
No, unpin me here.—
This Lodovico is a proper man.
EMILIA
A very handsome man.
DESDEMONA
He speaks well.
EMILIA
I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip.
DESDEMONA
[Sings.]
“The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
Sing all a green willow;
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing willow, willow, willow:
The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur’d her moans;
Sing willow, willow, willow;
Her salt tears fell from her, and soften’d the stones;—”
Lay by these:—
[Sings.]
“Sing willow, willow, willow;—”
Pr’ythee, hie thee; he’ll come anon:—
[Sings.]
“Sing all a green willow must be my garland.
Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve,—”
Nay, that’s not next.—Hark! who is’t that knocks?
EMILIA
It’s the wind.
DESDEMONA
[Sings.]
“I call’d my love false love; but what said he then?
Sing willow, willow, willow:
‘If I court mo women, you’ll couch with mo men.’”
So get thee gone; good night. Mine eyes do itch;
Doth that bode weeping?
EMILIA
‘Tis neither here nor there.
DESDEMONA
I have heard it said so.—O, these men, these men!—
Dost thou in conscience think,—tell me, Emilia,—
That there be women do abuse their husbands
In such gross kind?
EMILIA
There be some such, no question.
DESDEMONA
Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?
EMILIA
Why, would not you?
DESDEMONA
No, by this heavenly light!
EMILIA
Nor I neither by this heavenly light; I might do’t as well i’ the dark.
DESDEMONA
Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?
EMILIA
The world’s a huge thing; it is a great price
For a small vice.
DESDEMONA
In troth, I think thou wouldst not.
EMILIA
In troth, I think I should; and undo’t when I had done. Marry, I would not do such a thing for a jointring, nor for measures of lawn, nor for gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any petty exhibition; but, for the whole world—why, who would not make her husband a cuckold to make him a monarch? I should venture purgatory for’t.
DESDEMONA
Beshrew me, if I would do such a wrong for the whole world.
EMILIA