William Shakespeare: Othello, Moor of Venice

ACT III. 3. SCENE III. Cyprus. The Garden of the Castle. (continued)

OTHELLO.
O monstrous! monstrous!

IAGO.
Nay, this was but his dream.

OTHELLO.
But this denoted a foregone conclusion:
'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream.

IAGO.
And this may help to thicken other proofs
That do demonstrate thinly.

OTHELLO.
I'll tear her all to pieces.

IAGO.
Nay, but be wise: yet we see nothing done;
She may be honest yet. Tell me but this,--
Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief
Spotted with strawberries in your wife's hand?

OTHELLO.
I gave her such a one; 'twas my first gift.

IAGO.
I know not that: but such a handkerchief,--
I am sure it was your wife's,--did I today
See Cassio wipe his beard with.

OTHELLO.
If it be that,--

IAGO.
If it be that, or any that was hers,
It speaks against her with the other proofs.

OTHELLO.
O, that the slave had forty thousand lives,--
One is too poor, too weak for my revenge!
Now do I see 'tis true.--Look here, Iago;
All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven:
'Tis gone.--
Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow hell!
Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne
To tyrannous hate! swell, bosom, with thy fraught,
For 'tis of aspics' tongues!

IAGO.
Yet be content.

OTHELLO.
O, blood, Iago, blood!

IAGO.
Patience, I say; your mind perhaps may change.

OTHELLO.
Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic Sea,
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,
Till that a capable and wide revenge
Swallow them up.--Now, by yond marble heaven,
In the due reverence of a sacred vow
[Kneels.]
I here engage my words.