Othello Key Quotes Flashcards
Othello - Act 1
“In following him, I follow but myself” - Iago, scene 1
Othello - Act 1
“Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty, But seeming so, for my peculiar end: For when my outward action doth demonstrate The native act and figure of my heart In compliment extern, ‘tis not long after But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve For daws to peck at: I am not what I am” - Iago, scene 1
Othello - Act 1
“Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white yew” - Iago, scene 1
Othello - Act 1
“Your daughter and the moor are now making the beast with two backs” - Iago, scene 1
Othello - Act 1
“Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them” - Iago, scene 2
Othello - Act 1
“Most potent, grave signiors, My very noble and approved good masters, That I have ta’en away this old man’s daughter, It is most true; true I have married her: The very head and front of my offending Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech. And little bless’d with the soft phrase of peace: For since these arms of mine had seven years’ pith, Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used Their dearest action in the tented field And little of this great world can I speak, More than pertains to feats of broil and battle, And therfore little shall I grace my cause In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience, I will a round unvarnish’d tale deliver Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms, What conjuration and what mighty magic, For such proceeding I am charged withal, I won his daughter” - Othello, scene 3
Othello - Act 1
“That I did love the moor to live with him, My downright violence and storm of fortunes, May trumpet to the world: my hearts subdued Even to the very quality of my lord:” - Desdemona, scene 3
Othello - Act 1
“But he bears both the sentance and the sorrow That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow” - Duke, scene 3
Othello - Act 1
“The robb’d that smiles, steal something from the thief, He robs himself that spends the bootless grief” - The Duke of Venice, scene 3
Othello - Act 1
“Her father loved me; oft invited me; Still question’d the story of my life, From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes, That I have passes. I ran it through, even from my boyish days, To the very moment that he bade me tell it: Wherein I spake of my most disastrous chances, Of moving accidents by flood and field Of hair-breadth scapes I’ the imminet death breach, Of being taken by the insolent foe And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence And portance in my travels history: Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle, Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven It was my hint to speak, such was the process; And of the cannibals that each other eat, The Anthropophagi and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear Would Desdemona seriously incline: But still the house-affairs would draw her thence: which ever as she could with haste dispatch. She’ld come again, and with a greedy ear Devour up my dicourse: which I observing, Took once a pliant hour, and found good means To draw from her prayer of earnest heart That I would all my pilgramage dilate, Whereof by parcels she had something heard, But not intentively: I did consent, And often did beguile her of her tears, When I did speak of some distressful stroke That my youth suffer’d. My story being done, She gave me for my pains a world of sighs: She swore, in faith, twas strange, ‘twas passing strange. Twas pitiful, ‘twas wondrous pitiful: She wish’d she had not heard it, yet she wish’d That heaven had made her such a man: she thank’d me, And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her, I should but teach him how to tell my story. And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake: She loved me for the dangers I had pass’d, And I loved her that she did pity them. This only is the witchcraft I have used: Her comes the lady, let her witnes it.” - Othello, scene 3
Othello - Act 1
“Look to her, Moor, if thous hast eyes to see: She has decieved her father, and may thee.” - Brabantio, scene 3
Othello - Act 1
“Thus do I ever make my fool my purse” - Iago, scene 3
Othello - Act 1
“I hate the moor, And it is thought abroad, that ‘twixt my sheets He has done my office: I know not if ‘t be true; But I, for mere suspician in that kind, will do as if for surely.” - Iago, scene 3
Othello - Act 1
“The Moor is of a free and open nature. That thinks men honest that but seem to be so, And will as tenderly be led by the nose As asses are” - Iago, scene 3
Othello - Act 2
“She never yet was foolish that was fair, For even her folly help’d her to an heir” - Iago, Scene 1
Othello - Act 2
“Kanvery’s plain face is never seen till us’d” - Iago, scene 1
Othello - Act 2
“Reputation is an idol and most false imposition; oft got without merit and lost without deserving” - Iago, scene 3
Othello - Act 2
“Now, by heaven, my blood begins my safer guides to rule; And passion, having my best jusgement collided, Assays to lead the way. ‘Zounds, if I stir, or do but lift this arm, the best of you shall sink in my rebuke. Give me to know How this foul rout began, who set it on, and he that is approv’d in this offence, though he had twinn’d with me, both at birth, shall lose me. What! in a town of war, yet wild, the people’s hearts brimful of fear, manage private and domestic quarrel? In night, and on the court and guard of safety? ‘Tis monsterous. Iago, who began’t?” - Othello, scene 3
I stir
Othello - Act 2
“And what’s he then that says I play the villain? When this advice I give is free and honest, Probal to thinking and indeed the course to win the Moor again? For ‘tis most easy the inclining Desdemona to subdue in any honest suit: she’s framed as fruitful as the free elements. And then for her to win the Moor- Were’t to renounce his baptism, all seals and symbols of redeemed sin, his soul is so unfetter’d to her love, that she may make, unmake, do what she list, even as her apetite shall play the God with his weak function. How am I then a villain to councel Cassio to this parrallel course, Directly to his good? Divinity of hell! When devils will the blackest sins put out, they do suggest at first with heavenly shows as I do now, as for whiles this honest fool plies Desdemona To repair his fortunes and she for him pleads strongly to the Moor. I’ll poor this pestilence into his ear, That she repeals him for her body’s lust ; and by how much she strives to do him good, She shall undo her credit with the Moor. So will I turn her virtue into pitch, And out of her own goodness make the net that shall enmesh them all.” - Iago, scene 3
Othello - Act 3
“Then put up your pipes in your bag, for I’ll away Go, vanish into air, away!” - Clown, scene 1
Othello - Act 3
“Excellent wretch! Peredition catch my soul, But I do love thee; and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again” - Othello, scene 3
Othello - Act 3
“Men should be what they seem; Or those that be not, would they might seem none!” - Iago, scene 3
Othello - Act 3
“Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls: Who steals my purse steals trash; ‘tis something, nothing; T’was mine, ‘tis his, and has been slave to thousands ; But he that flinches from me my good name, Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed.” - Iago, scene 3
Othello - Act 3
“O! Beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-ey’d monster which doth mock the meat it feed on.” - Iago, scene 3
Othello - Act 3
“Think’st thou I’d make a life of jealousy, To follow still the changes of the moon With fresh suspicions? No; to be once in doubt is once to be resolved.” - Othello, scene 3
Othello - Act 3
“She did deceive her father, marrying you And when she seem’d to shake and fear your looks She lov’d them most.” - Iago, scene 3
Othello - Act 3
Othello: “I do not think but Desdemona’s honest”
Iago: “Long live she so, and long live you to think so!”
Othello: “And, yet, how nature erring from itself-“
Iago: “Aye, that’s the point” - Scene 3
Othello - Act 3
“If she be false, O! then heaven mocks itself. I’ll not believe’t” - Othello, scene 3
Othello - Act 3
“O! now, for ever Farewell the tranquil mind; farewell content!” - Othello, scene 3
Othello - Act 3
“Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore, Be sure of it; give me occular proof Or, by the worth of mine eternal soul, Thou hadst better been have born a dog Than answer my wak’d wrath.” - Othello, scene 3
Othello - Act 3
“There are a kind of men so loose of soul, That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs.” - Iago, scene 3
Othello - Act 3
“‘Tis not but a year or two show us a man: They are all but stomachs, we all but food; They eat us hungerly, and when they are full, They belch us” -Emilia, scene 4
Othello - Act 4
“Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed.” - Iago, scene 1
Othello - Act 4
“Who would not make her husband a cuckhold to make him a monarch?” - Emilia, scene 3
Othello - Act 4
“Heaven me such uses send, Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend” - Desdemona, scene 3
Othello - Act 5
“I kissed thee ere I killed thee O dam’d Iago! O inhuman dog” - Roderigo, scene 1
Othello - Act 5
“Put out the light, and then put out the light” - Othello, scene 2 (he kisses her)
Othello - Act 5
“O balmy breath, that dost almost persuade Justice to break her sword. One more, one more! Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee, and love after thee. One more, and that’s the last! So sweet was ne’er so fatal. I must weep, But they are cruel tears. This sorrow’s heavenly; It strikes where it doth love, She wakes.” - Othello, scene 2
Othello - Act 5
“What noise is this? Not dead - not yet quite dead? I that am cruel I am yet merciful; I would not have the linger in thy pain So, so.” - Othello, scene 2
Othello - Act 5
“It is the very error of the moon; She comes more near the Earth than she wont; And makes men mad.” - Othello, scene 2
Othello - Act 5
“I hold my peace, sir? no; No, I will speak as liberal as the north; Let heaven, and men, and devils, let them all, All, all, cry shame against me, yet I’ll speak” - Emilia, Scene 2
Othello - Act 5
“Demand me nothing: what you know, you know: From this time forth I never will speak a word.” - Iago, scene 2
Othello - Act 5
“I pray you, in your letters, When you shall see these unlucky deeds relate, Speek of me as I am, nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice: then, must you speak Of one that lov’d not wisely but too well; Perplex’d in the extreme, of whose hand, Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away, Richer than all of his tribe; of one whose subdu’d eyes Albeit unused to the melting mood, Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees Their Med’cinable gum. Set you down this; And say besides, that in Aleppo once, Where a malignant, and a turban’d Turk Beat a Venetian and traduc’d the state, I took by the throat the circumcised dog, And smote him thus.” - Othello, scene 2
Othello - Act 5
“ I kissed thee ere I killed thee, no way but this. Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.” - Othello, scene 2
