Resolved to kill Desdemona that evening, Othello,
distraught, questions Emilia about his wife and Cassio: "You have seen nothing, then?"
(4.2.1) Emilia responds that not only has she not seen anything incriminating, she has
never even suspected adultery. As the unsatisfied Othello presses her for any
recollection of wrongdoing, Emilia mounts an eloquent defense of the faithfulness of her
mistress, saying she would put her own soul on the line for the sake of Desdemona's
honesty:
I durst, my lord, to wager she is
honest
My lord, I dare to bet she is telling
the truth.
Lay down my soul at stake: if you
think other,
In fact, I would wager my own soul
on it: if you think otherwise
Remove your
thought; it doth abuse your bosom.
Get rid of the
idea; it deceives your heart’s desire.
If any
wretch have put this in your head,
If a villain
has put this into your head,
Let heaven requite
it with the serpent's curse!
Let God punish him
with the curse He placed on the snake after the fall of
man!
For, if she be not honest, chaste, and
true,
If she is not faithful, honest and
true,
There's no man happy; the purest of their
wives
Then no man is happy; the purest wife
Is foul as
slander.
Is as filthy as
slime.
In her asseveration, Emilia gets the
picture: Some scoundrel - ironically, her husband - has planted these terrible
suspicions in Othello's mind. In her view that person deserves the same divine
punishment visited upon the serpent for deceiving Eve. In other words, Emilia implies
that Desdemona is as innocent as Eve was before the fall. But to no avail, and accusing
Emilia of being little more than a pimp ("simple bawd" [4.2.20]), Othello has Desdemona
summoned to face her death.
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