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Othello

Act II Scene 3

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)


IAGO. And what's he then that says I play the villain? 
When this advice is free I give 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 enfetter'd to her love, 
That she may make, unmake, do what she list, 
Even as her appetite shall play the god 
With his weak function. 
How am I then a villain 
To counsel Cassio to this parallel course, 
Directly to his good? Divinity of hell! 
When devils will the blackest sins put on, 
They do suggest at first with heavenly shows, 
As I do now. For whiles this honest fool 
Plies Desdemona to repair his fortune, 
And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor, 
I'll pour 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.