Othello
Act 4, Scene 3
Cyprus. Another room in the castle.
Shall I go fetch your night-gown? ~ No, unpin me here.
L. Marchetti, circa 1900
- Enter Othello, Lodovico, Desdemona, Emilia, and Attendants.
Lodovico
2- I do beseech you, sir, trouble yourself no further.
Othello
3- O, pardon me; ’twill do me good to walk.
Lodovico
4- Madam, good night; I humbly thank your ladyship.
Desdemona
5- Your honor is most welcome.
Othello
6 - 7- Will you walk, sir?
- O, Desdemona!
Desdemona
8- My lord?
Othello
9 - 10- Get you to bed on th’ instant, I will be return’d forthwith.
- Dismiss your attendant there. Look’t be done.
Desdemona
11 - 12- I will, my lord.
- Exeunt Othello, Lodovico, and Attendants.
Emilia
13- How goes it now? He looks gentler than he did.
Desdemona
14 - 16- He says he will return incontinent,
- And hath commanded me to go to bed,
- And bid me to dismiss you.
Emilia
17- Dismiss me?
Desdemona
18 - 20- It was his bidding; therefore, good Emilia,
- Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu.
- We must not now displease him.
Emilia
21- I would you had never seen him!
Desdemona
22 - 24- So would not I. My love doth so approve him,
- That even his stubbornness, his checks, his frowns—
- Prithee unpin me—have grace and favor in them.
Emilia
25- I have laid those sheets you bade me on the bed.
Desdemona
26 - 28- All’s one. Good faith, how foolish are our minds!
- If I do die before thee, prithee shroud me
- In one of these same sheets.
Emilia
29- Come, come; you talk.
Desdemona
30 - 37- My mother had a maid call’d Barbary;
- 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 Barbary. Prithee dispatch.
Emilia
38- Shall I go fetch your night-gown?
Desdemona
39 - 40- No, unpin me here.
- This Lodovico is a proper man.
Emilia
41- A very handsome man.
Desdemona
42- He speaks well.
Emilia
43 - 44- I know a lady in Venice would have walk’d barefoot to
- Palestine for a touch of his nether lip.
Desdemona
45 - 61- Singing.
- “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 soft’ned the stones,
- Sing willow”—
- Lay by these—
- Singing.
- “— willow, willow”—
- Prithee hie thee; he’ll come anon—
- Singing.
- “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?
Sheet music for "The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree"
From "A book of Shakespeare's songs"
Edward Edwards, 1903
Emilia
62- It’s the wind.
Desdemona
63 - 68- Singing.
- “I call’d my love false love; but what said he then?
- Sing willow, willow, willow;
- If I court more women, you’ll couch with more men.”—
- So get thee gone, good night. Mine eyes do itch;
- Doth that bode weeping?
Emilia
69- ’Tis neither here nor there.
Desdemona
70 - 73- 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
74- There be some such, no question.
Desdemona
75- Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?
Emilia
76- Why, would not you?
Desdemona
77- No, by this heavenly light!
Emilia
78 - 79- Nor I neither by this heavenly light;
- I might do’t as well i’ th’ dark.
Desdemona
80- Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?
Emilia
81 - 82- The world’s a huge thing; it is a great price
- For a small vice.
Desdemona
83- Good troth, I think thou wouldst not.
Emilia
84 - 89- By my troth, I think I should, and undo’t when I had done’t.
- Marry, I would not do such a thing for a joint-ring, nor for
- measures of lawn, nor for gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor
- any petty exhibition; but, for all the whole world—’ud’s
- pity, who would not make her husband a cuckold to make him a
- monarch? I should venture purgatory for’t.
Desdemona
90 - 91- Beshrew me, if I would do such a wrong
- For the whole world.
Emilia
92 - 94- Why, the wrong is but a wrong i’ th’ world; and having the
- world for your labor, ’tis a wrong in your own world, and
- you might quickly make it right.
Desdemona
95- I do not think there is any such woman.
Emilia
96 - 115- Yes, a dozen; and as many to th’ vantage as would store the
- world they play’d for.
- 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,
- 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,
- 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,
- 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
116 - 117- Good night, good night. God me such uses send,
- Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend.
- Exeunt.
Byam Shaw, 1901