Aemilia.
What? I think the man is jealous?
Desdemona. I never saw him like this. Oh, surely there is something extraordinary in this handkerchief. I am most unhappy to have lost it.
Aemilia. One doesn’t learn what a man is in one or two years; they are all mere stomachs, and we poor things are their food; they gobble us up greedily; and when they’ve filled themselves to overflowing, they burp us out again.
{ed. * This parable is certainly indecent enough; but our author does not worry about that; it is enough for him that it is true.}
Look, here comes Cassio and my husband.
(Iago and Cassio enter.)
Iago. There is no other means left; she must do this—How fortunate! Here she is already; go and entreat her as much as you can.
Desdemona:
How are things, good Cassio? How are your affairs?
Cassio. Madam, I still have my previous request. All my hope for my restoration to the friendship of your husband, whom I honor and love with such complete devotion of heart, rests on your generosity. I wish not to be teased any longer. If my offense is so great that neither my contrition nor my past services, nor those I wish to perform in the future, can redeem me and restore me to his favor, it is at least a blessing to know that it is so; so that in that case, wrapped in a forced contentment, I may seek another way to live on the alms of fortune.
Desdemona. Ah, my dear Cassio, my intercession is very powerless at present; my husband is not my husband; I should know him no more if he had changed as much in form as in humor. So every good angel help me, as I have spoken for you to the utmost of my power. But all I gained by my frankness was to incur his displeasure. You must be patient a little longer; what I can do, I will; and I will do more than I have heart to do for myself. Let that be enough for you.
Jago.
Is the general angry?
Aemilia. He just left here, and, I assure you, he is in a strange state of restlessness.
Jago. Can he be angry? I was there when the cannon scattered his lines in the air, and, as swiftly and violently as the devil, carried off his brother right beside him; and can he be angry? Then something important must be the cause; I will go and seek him out; indeed, it means something if he is angry.
(He leaves.)
