“I told him what
I thought.”
Othello immediately declared that Desdemona had spoken falsely; it was he who had killed her. Emilia turned on him with bitterest rage and contempt, whereupon he began to explain his reasons for what he had done, saying that it was Iago who had revealed everything to him. Emilia could scarcely believe such a thing. She shouted lustily to rouse the alarm, and when, among others, Iago himself hurried in, she taxed him with what Othello had said.
“I told him what I thought, and told no more than what he found himself was apt and true,” said Iago, brazenly.
“You told a lie, an odious, damned lie; upon my soul a lie, a wicked lie,” cried the distracted Emilia, and it was vain for Iago to try to silence his wife; before everyone she proclaimed him for the villain he was.
Alas, poor Othello, he began to see he had been tricked. But one point he still clung to—the handkerchief. Desdemona had certainly given away his cherished gift to Cassio.
“O, thou dull Moor!” cried Emilia. “The handkerchief thou speakest of, I found by chance and gave my husband, for often with solemn earnestness he begged of me to steal it.... She give it Cassio? No, alas! I found it, and I gave it to my husband.”
“Thou liest!” said Iago.
“By heaven, I do not—I do not, gentlemen!”
Furious against his wife, Iago had already tried once to stab her, but she had evaded him, and the other men in the room had protected her. He now made another attempt, which was more successful, and Emilia fell to the ground.
“O, lay me by my mistress’s side!” she begged.