Oth. Well, thou dost best.
Lod. Sir, you shall understand what hath befall'n, Which, as I think, you know not: Here is a letter, Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo;
And here, another: the one of them imports The death of Cassio to be undertook
By Roderigo.
Oth. O villain!
Cas. Most heathenish, and most gross! Lod. Now here's another discontented paper, Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems, Roderigo meant to have sent this damned villain; But that, belike, Iago in the interim
Came and satisfied him.
Oth. O the pernicious caitiff !—
How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief That was my wife's?
Cas. I found it in my chamber :
And he himself confess'd, but even now, That there he dropp'd it, for a special purpose, Which wrought to his desire.
Oth. O fool! fool! fool!
Cas. There is, besides, in Roderigo's letter,- How he upbraids Iago, that he made him Brave me upon the watch; whereon it came That I was cast: And even but now he spake, After long seeming dead,---Iago hurt him, Iago set him on.
Lod. You must forsake this room, and with us; Your power and your command is taken off, And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave,--If there be any cunning cruelty,
That can torment him much, and hold him long, It shall be his: You shall close prisoner rest, Till that the nature of your fault be known To the Venetian state: Come, bring him away. Oth. Soft you; a word or two, before you go. I have done the state some service, and they know it; No more of that:---I pray you, in your letters, When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak Of one, that lov'd not wisely, but too well;
Of one, not easily jealous, but, being wrought, Perplex'd in the extreme; of one, whose hand, Like the base Júdean, threw a pearl away, Richer than all his tribe; of one, whose subdu'd eyes, Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicínal gum: Set you down this: And say, besides,---that in Aleppo once, Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk Beat a Venetian, and traduc'd the state, I took by the throat the circumcised dog, And smote him---thus.
Lod. O bloody period!
Gra. All, that's spoke, is marr❜d.
Oth. I kiss'd thee, ere I kill'd thee;---No way but
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.
Cas. This did I fear, but thought he had no weapon;
For he was great of heart.
Lod. O Spartan dog,
More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea!
Look on the tragick loading of this bed; This is thy work: the object poisons sight;--- Let it be hid.---Gratiano, keep the house, And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor, For they succeed to you.---To you, lord governor, Remains the censure of this hellish villain; The time, the place, the torture,---O enforce it! Myself will straight aboard; and, to the state, This heavy act with heavy heart relate.
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