Des. Alas the heavy day! Why do you weep?[6417]
Am I the motive of these tears, my lord?[6418]
If haply you my father do suspect[6419] 45
An instrument of this your calling back,
Lay not your blame on me: if you have lost him,[6420][6421]
Why, I have lost him too.[6421]
Oth. Had it pleased heaven[6422]
To try me with affliction; had they rain'd[6423]
All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head,[6424] 50
Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips,
Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes,[6425]
I should have found in some place of my soul[6426]
A drop of patience: but, alas, to make me[6427]
A fixed figure for the time of scorn[6428] 55
To point his slow unmoving finger at![6428]
Yet could I bear that too; well, very well:
But there, where I have garner'd up my heart,
Where either I must live or bear no life,
The fountain from the which my current runs,[6429] 60
Or else dries up; to be discarded thence!
Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads[6430]
To knot and gender in! Turn thy complexion there,[6431][6432]
Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubin,[6431][6433]
Ay, there, look grim as hell![6431][6434] 65
Des. I hope my noble lord esteems me honest.[6435]
Oth. O, ay; as summer flies are in the shambles,[6436]
That quicken even with blowing. O thou weed,[6437][6438]
Who art so lovely fair and smell'st so sweet[6437][6439]
That the sense aches at thee, would thou hadst ne'er been born![6437][6440] 70
Des. Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed?
Oth. Was this fair paper, this most goodly book,
Made to write 'whore' upon? What committed![6441]
Committed! O thou public commoner![6442]
I should make very forges of my cheeks,[6442][6443] 75
That would to cinders burn up modesty,[6442]
Did I but speak thy deeds. What committed![6442][6444]
Heaven stops the nose at it, and the moon winks;
The bawdy wind, that kisses all it meets,
Is hush'd within the hollow mine of earth,[6445] 80
And will not hear it. What committed![6446]
Impudent strumpet![6447]
Des. By heaven, you do me wrong.
Oth. Are not you a strumpet?
Des. No, as I am a Christian:
If to preserve this vessel for my lord
From any other foul unlawful touch[6448] 85
Be not to be a strumpet, I am none.
Oth. What, not a whore?