Othello: Act V, Scene ii
Othello. Act 5, Scene 2. Othello
This speech is used in our interview with Debra Ann Byrd.
Click here for a scanned version of the text.
- It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,–
- Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!–
- It is the cause. Yet I’ll not shed her blood;
- Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow,
- And smooth as monumental alabaster.
- Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men.
- Put out the light, and then put out the light:
- If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,
- I can again thy former light restore,
- Should I repent me: but once put out thy light,
- Thou cunning’st pattern of excelling nature,
- I know not where is that Promethean heat
- That can thy light relume. When I have pluck’d the rose,
- I cannot give it vital growth again.
- It must needs wither: I’ll smell it on the tree.
[Kissing her]
16. Ah balmy breath, that dost almost persuade
17. Justice to break her sword! One more, one more.
18. Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee,
19. And love thee after. One more, and this the last:
20. So sweet was ne’er so fatal. I must weep,
21. But they are cruel tears: this sorrow’s heavenly;
22. It strikes where it doth love. She wakes.