Page 1513 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

OTHELLO

What then?

IAGO
Why then ’tis hers, my lord, and being hers,
She may, I think, bestow’t on any man.

OTHELLO
She is protectress of her honour too,

May she give that? [15]

IAGO

Her honour is an essence that’s not seen,
They have it very oft that have it not:
But for the handkerchief −

OTHELLO
By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it:
Thou said’st (O, it comes o’er my memory, [20]

As doth the raven o’er the infected house,
Boding to all) he had my handkerchief.

IAGO
Ay, what of that?

OTHELLO
That’s not so good now.

IAGO
What if I had said I had seen him do you wrong?

Or heard him say − as knaves be such abroad, [25]
Who having, by their own importunate suit,
Or voluntary dotage of some mistress,
Convinced or supplied them, cannot choose

But they must blab −

OTHELLO