Hamthello

HAM/THELLO: the moor of denmark
copyright © 2006 Jeff Goode

SCENE 2 - The lobby of the castle.
Enter KING OTHELLO, HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and Attendants
OTHELLO
Welcome, Marcellus and my dear Horatio!
The need we have to use you did provoke
Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
Of Hamlet's transformation; so call it,
Sith nor the exterior nor the inward man
Resembles that it was. What it should be,
More than his father's death, that thus hath put him
So much from the understanding of himself,
I cannot dream of: I entreat you both,
That, being of so young days brought up with him,
That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
Some little time: so by your companies
To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather,
So much as from occasion you may glean,
Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus,
That, open'd, lies within our remedy.
Enter IAGO
HORATIO
Your majesty might, by your sovereign power,
Put your dread pleasures more into command
Than to entreaty.
MARCELLUS
But we both obey,
And here give up ourselves, in the full bent
To lay our service freely at your feet,
To be commanded.
Exeunt MARCELLUS and HORATIO
IAGO
This business is well ended.
And I do think, my lord, that I have found
The head and source of all your son's distemper.
OTHELLO
O, speak of that; that do I long to hear.
IAGO
My liege, Othello, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
I will be brief: your noble son is mad.
OTHELLO
Mad call you it?
IAGO
I have a daughter--have while she is mine--
Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,
Hath given me this:
Shows OTHELLO the letter
Know you the hand?
OTHELLO
'Tis Hamlet's character.
IAGO
Letters, my lord, from Hamlet:
Found in the pocket of Queen Desdemona.
OTHELLO
Ha!
IAGO
Now gather, and surmise.
Reads
'To the celestial and my soul's idol, the most beautified'--
'Desdemona,'--
'In her excellent white bosom, these, &c.'
OTHELLO
Came this from Hamlet to her?
IAGO
Good general, stay awhile; I will be faithful.
Reads
'Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.'--
'Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, HAMLET.'
OTHELLO
How! is this true?
IAGO
Here's the commission: read it at more leisure.
OTHELLO
Snatches the letter from IAGO, and reads
'Naked! And in a postscript here, he says 'alone.'
IAGO
This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me,
And more above, hath his solicitings,
As they fell out by time, by means and place,
All given to mine ear.
OTHELLO
O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
IAGO
But how hath she
Received his love?
OTHELLO
What dost thou say, Iago?
IAGO
I must tell thee this--Desdemona is directly in love with him.
OTHELLO
With him! why, 'tis not possible.
IAGO
You have seen nothing then?
OTHELLO
Nor ever heard, nor ever did suspect.
IAGO
Yes, you have seen Hamlet and she together.
OTHELLO
But then I saw no harm, and then I heard
Each syllable that breath made up between them.
IAGO
What, did they never whisper?
OTHELLO
Never, my lord.
IAGO
Nor send you out o' the way?
OTHELLO
Never.
IAGO
To fetch her fan, her gloves, her mask, nor nothing?
OTHELLO
Never, my lord.
IAGO
Nay, but be wise: yet we see nothing done;
She may be honest yet.
OTHELLO
I do not think but Desdemona's honest.
IAGO
Long live she so! and long live you to think so!
OTHELLO
Think so, Iago!
IAGO
I dare be sworn I think that she is honest.
OTHELLO
Think, my lord?
IAGO
I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
OTHELLO
Give me a living reason she's disloyal.
IAGO
What,
If I had said I had seen him do you wrong?
Or heard him say,--as knaves be such abroad,
Who having, by their own importunate suit,
Or voluntary dotage of some mistress,
Convinced or supplied them, cannot choose
But they must blab--
OTHELLO
Hath he said any thing?
IAGO
I think nothing, my lord.
OTHELLO
Come, deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak.
Be even and direct with me.
IAGO
I do not like the office:
But, sith I am enter'd in this cause so far,
Prick'd to't by foolish honesty and love,
I will go on. I lay with Hamlet lately;
And, being troubled with a raging tooth,
I could not sleep.
There are a kind of men so loose of soul,
That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs:
One of this kind is Hamlet:
In sleep I heard him say 'Sweet Desdemona,
Let us be wary, let us hide our loves;'
And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my hand,
Cry 'O sweet creature!' and then kiss me hard,
As if he pluck'd up kisses by the roots
That grew upon my lips: then laid his leg
Over my thigh, and sigh'd, and kiss'd; and then
Cried 'Cursed fate that gave thee to the Moor!'
OTHELLO
Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore,
Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof:
Make me to see't; or, at the least, so prove it,
That the probation bear no hinge nor loop
To hang a doubt on; or woe upon thy life!
IAGO
You know, sometimes he walks four hours together
Here in the lobby.
OTHELLO
So she does as well.
IAGO
Be you and I behind an arras then;
Mark the encounter: if he love her not
And be not from his reason fall'n thereon,
Let me be no assistant for a state,
But keep a farm and carters.
OTHELLO
We will try it.
IAGO
I hear him coming: let's withdraw, my lord.
They retire
Enter HAMLET and DESDEMONA; OPHELIA, attending
HAMLET
I do beseech you
That by your virtuous means I may again
Exist, and be a member of his love
Whom I with all the office of my heart
Entirely honour.
OPHELIA
Here's a change indeed!
DESDEMONA
Trust me, I am glad on't,
With all my heart; and it doth much content me
To hear thee so inclined.
Be thou assured, good Hamlet, I will do
All my abilities in thy behalf.
His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift;
I'll intermingle every thing he does
With Hamlet's suit: therefore be merry, Hamlet;
For thy solicitor shall rather die
Than give thy cause away.
OPHELIA
[Aside] I fear the trust my mistress puts him in.
Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd.
DESDEMONA
Here comes my lord.
HAMLET
Madam, I'll take my leave.
DESDEMONA
Why, stay, and hear me speak.
HAMLET
Madam, not now: I am very ill at ease.
DESDEMONA
Well, do your discretion.
Exit HAMLET; Re-enter OTHELLO and IAGO
IAGO
Ha! I like not that.
OTHELLO
What dost thou say?
IAGO
Nothing, my lord: or if--I know not what.
OTHELLO
Was not that Hamlet parted from my wife?
IAGO
Hamlet, my lord! No, sure, I cannot think it,
That he would steal away so guilty-like,
Seeing you coming.
OTHELLO
I do believe 'twas he.
I heard thee say even now, thou likedst not that,
When Hamlet left my wife: what didst not like?--
DESDEMONA
How now, my lord!
IAGO
[Aside] Work on,
My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught;
And many worthy and chaste dames even thus.
Exit
DESDEMONA
[To OTHELLO] I have been talking with a suitor here,
A man that languishes in your displeasure.
OTHELLO
Who is't you mean?
DESDEMONA
Why, your lieutenant, Hamlet. Good my lord,
OTHELLO
Went he hence now?
DESDEMONA
Ay, sooth; so humbled
That he hath left part of his grief with me,
To suffer with him. Good love, call him back.
OTHELLO
Not now, sweet Desdemona; some other time.
DESDEMONA
But shall't be shortly?
Shall't be to-night at supper?
OTHELLO
No, not to-night.
DESDEMONA
To-morrow dinner, then?
OTHELLO
I shall not dine at home.
DESDEMONA
Why, then, to-morrow night; or Tuesday morn;
On Tuesday noon, or night; on Wednesday morn:
I prithee, name the time,
OTHELLO
Prithee, no more:
I do beseech thee, grant me this,
To leave me but a little to myself.
DESDEMONA
I will so.
OTHELLO
[Aside] If she be false, O, then heaven mocks itself!
DESDEMONA
Why do you speak so faintly?
Are you not well?
OTHELLO
I have a pain upon my forehead here.
DESDEMONA
Let me but bind it hard, within this hour
It will be well.
OTHELLO
Your napkin is too little:
He puts the handkerchief from him; and it drops
Let it alone. Come, I'll go in with you.
DESDEMONA
I am very sorry that you are not well.
Exeunt OTHELLO and DESDEMONA
OPHELIA
I am glad I have found this napkin:
This was her first remembrance from the Moor:
For he conjured her she should ever keep it,
That she reserves it evermore about her
To kiss and talk to.
'Tis that the Moor first gave to Desdemona;
That which my father often bid me steal.
Enter HAMLET
HAMLET
--Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.
OPHELIA
My lord, I have remembrances of yours,
That I have longed long to re-deliver;
I pray you, now receive them.
HAMLET
I did love you once.
OPHELIA
Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
HAMLET
You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall
relish of it: I loved you not.
OPHELIA
I was the more deceived.
HAMLET
If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure
as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go: farewell.
OPHELIA
O heavenly powers, restore him!
HAMLET
To a nunnery, go.
OPHELIA withdraws
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
But that the dread of something after death,
Puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.
Seeing OTHELLO approaching, HAMLET
withdraws
Enter OTHELLO
OTHELLO
O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven;
As, I confess, it is my nature's plague
To spy into abuses, and oft my jealousy
Shapes faults that are not--
O, beware, my soul, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on; that cuckold lives in bliss
Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;
But, O, what damnèd minutes tells he o'er
Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect.
O curse of marriage,
That we can call these delicate creatures ours,
And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad,
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon,
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others' uses.
Beshrew my jealousy!
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limèd soul, that, struggling to be free,
Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay!
Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe!
All may be well.
Retires and kneels
Re-enter HAMLET
HAMLET
Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven;
And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd:
A villain kills my father; and for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven.
O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
He took my father grossly, full of bread;
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?
And am I then revenged,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and season'd for his passage?
No!
OTHELLO
[Rising] Pray can I not,
Though inclination be as sharp as will:
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
Exit
HAMLET
Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent:
When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,
At gaming, swearing, or about some act
That has no relish of salvation in't;
Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,
And that his soul may be as damn'd and black
As his own face; and hell, whereto it goes.
Exit
Re-enter OPHELIA
OPHELIA
O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
That suck'd the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
Re-enter IAGO
IAGO
How now! what do you here alone?
OPHELIA
Do not you chide; I have a thing for you.
Shows him the handkerchief
IAGO
A good wench; give it me.
OPHELIA
What will you do with 't, that you have been so earnest
To have me filch it?
IAGO
[Snatching it] Why, what's that to you? I have use for it.
Go, leave me.
Exit OPHELIA
Re-enter OTHELLO; IAGO quickly hides the handkerchief
OTHELLO
Ha! ha! false to me?
Avaunt! be gone! thou hast set me on the rack:
I swear 'tis better to be much abused
Than but to know't a little.
IAGO
How now, my lord!
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 to-day
See Hamlet 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.
Exit
IAGO
I have rubb'd this old quat almost to the sense,
And he grows angry. Now, whether he kill Hamlet,
Or Hamlet him, or each do kill the other,
Every way makes my gain:
Taking out the handkerchief
I will in Hamlet's lodging lose this napkin,
And let him find it. Trifles light as air
Are to the jealous confirmations strong
As proofs of holy writ: this may do something.
Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons.
'Tis so, indeed: if such tricks as these strip him out of his lieutenantry,
Exit

Forth!

Act One // Act Two // Act Three // Act Four // Act Five