(Another part of the palace.)
(Desdemona, Aemilia, and Hans Wurst.)
Desdemona.
Good friend, do you know where Lieutenant Cassio lies?
Hans Wurst.
I wouldn’t dare say that he’s lying anywhere.
Desdemona.
Why?
Hans Wurst. He’s a soldier; and if one of us said a soldier lied, that would be a real pain.
Desdemona.
No jokes! Where is his quarters?
Hans Wurst.
I’d be lying if I told you that.
Desdemona.
I won’t get an answer from you this way.
Hans Wurst. I don’t know where he’s staying; and if I were to invent a place and say he’s lying there, or he’s lying there in the place, I’d be lying upside down.
Desdemona.
You can ask him, right?
Hans Wurst. I want to catechize the whole world; I want to ask about him until someone tells me where he is.
Desdemona.
Seek him out, and bid him come hither; tell him I have
given my master good thoughts for him, and I hope
all will be well.
Hans Wurst.
This is, after all, a task that
lies within the bounds of an honest fellow’s wit; and so I’ll see if I
can manage it.
(He goes.)
Desdemona:
Where could I have lost my handkerchief?
Aemilia.
I don’t know, madam.
Desdemona. I assure you, I would rather have lost a purse full of Crusados. If my noble Moor were not too prudent and generous to be jealous, it would require nothing more to make him think evil thoughts.
Aemilia.
Isn’t he jealous?
Desdemona. Who, he? I think the sun under which he was born drew from him all the coarse vapors of that kind.
Aemilia.
Look, here he comes.
Desdemona. I will not leave him now until he summons Cassio to him. How do you fare, my dear husband?
