Othello: Act 4, Scene 3 Translation

A side-by-side translation of Act 4, Scene 3 of Othello from the original Shakespeare into modern English.

Original Text	Translated Text
Source: Folger Shakespeare Library
Enter Othello, Lodovico, Desdemona, Emilia, and Attendants. LODOVICO I do beseech you, sir, trouble yourself no further. OTHELLO O, pardon me, ’twill do me good to walk. LODOVICO Madam, good night. I humbly thank your Ladyship. DESDEMONA Your Honor is most welcome. OTHELLO Will you walk, sir?—O, Desdemona— 5 DESDEMONA My lord? OTHELLO Get you to bed on th’ instant. I will be returned forthwith. Dismiss your attendant there. Look ’t be done. DESDEMONA I will, my lord. 10 All but Desdemona and Emilia exit.	After dinner, Othello suggests a walk with Lodovico and orders Desdemona to get ready for bed. He promises to meet her there soon, and demands that she send Emilia away. (Gee, that's not ominous at all.) The men exit, leaving the women to chat and get ready for bed.
EMILIA How goes it now? He looks gentler than he did. DESDEMONA He says he will return incontinent, And hath commanded me to go to bed, And bade me to dismiss you. EMILIA Dismiss me? 15 DESDEMONA It was his bidding. Therefore, good Emilia, Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu. We must not now displease him.	Emilia notes that Othello looked to be in better spirits, but she's shocked that he told Desdemona to get rid of her. Desdemona just shrugs it off—she can't risk upsetting Othello now.
EMILIA I would you had never seen him. DESDEMONA So would not I. My love doth so approve him 20 That even his stubbornness, his checks, his frowns— Prithee, unpin me—have grace and favor in them.	Emilia says she wishes Desdemona had never seen the man. But Desdemona responds that she loves Othello, so much that she would rather be with him, even when he's being totally strange, than live without him.
EMILIA I have laid those sheets you bade me on the bed. DESDEMONA All’s one. Good faith, how foolish are our minds! If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me 25 In one of those same sheets.	Desdemona is in a strange mood that foreshadows her coming death. When Emilia says, "Hey, I put those sheets on the bed for you," Desdemona replies with, "If I die before you do, will you wrap my dead body in them?"
EMILIA Come, come, you talk! DESDEMONA My mother had a maid called Barbary. She was in love, and he she loved proved mad And did forsake her. She had a song of willow, 30 An old thing ’twas, but it expressed her fortune, And she died singing it. That song tonight Will not go from my mind. I have much to do But to go hang my head all at one side And sing it like poor Barbary. Prithee, dispatch. 35	Emilia's a little creeped out by the death talk, but Desdemona's got a one track mind tonight. She follows that comment up with a story of her mom's maid, Barbary. Apparently Barbary fell in love with a man who left her, and was fond of singing a song that reminded her of her sorrow. She died singing it. And guess what? Desdemona has a strong urge to sing that song right now.
EMILIA Shall I go fetch your nightgown? DESDEMONA No, unpin me here. This Lodovico is a proper man. EMILIA A very handsome man. DESDEMONA He speaks well. 40 EMILIA I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip. DESDEMONA, singing "The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree, Sing all a green willow. Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee, 45 Sing willow, willow, willow. The fresh streams ran by her and murmured her moans, Sing willow, willow, willow; Her salt tears fell from her, and softened the 50 stones— Lay by these. Sing willow, willow, willow. Prithee hie thee! He’ll come anon. Sing all a green willow must be my garland. 55 Let nobody blame him, his scorn I approve." Nay, that’s not next. Hark, who is ’t that knocks? EMILIA It’s the wind.	Desdemona abruptly changes the subject to Lodovico and what a nice guy he is. He did defend her against Othello, so perhaps she's thinking about what it would be like to have a husband who didn't seem to hate her. This line of thought is short lived, though, as Desdemona launches into the song her mom's maid died singing. The song is about a willow, which is bad news, as willows are symbolic of disappointed love. (Remember in Hamlet, Ophelia allegedly drowned after falling out of a willow tree on the riverbank.) Desdemona stops singing when she thinks she hears a knock at the door, but Emilia tells her it's just the wind.
DESDEMONA "I called my love false love, but what said he then? Sing willow, willow, willow. 60 If I court more women, you’ll couch with more men.—" So, get thee gone. Good night. Mine eyes do itch; Doth that bode weeping? EMILIA ’Tis neither here nor there. 65	She finishes singing the song, and then says her eyes itch. She asks Emilia if that means she's going to cry soon, but Emilia says it doesn't mean anything.
DESDEMONA I have heard it said so. O these men, these men! Dost thou in conscience think—tell me, Emilia— That there be women do abuse their husbands In such gross kind? EMILIA There be some such, no 70 question. DESDEMONA Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world? EMILIA Why, would not you? DESDEMONA No, by this heavenly light! EMILIA Nor I neither, by this heavenly light. 75 I might do ’t as well i’ th’ dark. DESDEMONA Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world? EMILIA The world’s a huge thing. It is a great price for a small vice. DESDEMONA In troth, I think thou wouldst not. 80 EMILIA In troth, I think I should, and undo ’t when I had done it. Marry, I would not do such a thing for a joint ring, nor for measures of lawn, nor for gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any petty exhibition. But for the whole world—’Uds pity! Who 85 would not make her husband a cuckold to make him a monarch? I should venture purgatory for ’t. DESDEMONA Beshrew me if I would do such a wrong for the whole world! EMILIA Why, the wrong is but a wrong i’ th’ world; 90 and, having the world for your labor, ’tis a wrong in your own world, and you might quickly make it right.	She and Emilia then talk about whether women are ever as awful to their men as men are to their women. Emilia is certain this is the case, especially when it comes to cheating. Desdemona asks whether Emilia would ever cheat on Iago, and Emilia jokes that she wouldn't do it by the light of day, but maybe in the dark of night. (Ba-DUM-bum!) Desdemona persists in asking if she really would, because Desdemona wouldn't—not even for the whole world. "The whole world?" says Emilia. That's a big reward for an itty bitty sin. And besides, one you had "the whole world" you could just flip a switch and make everything okay. (If you hadn't noticed, one of these women is taking this conversation a lot more seriously than the other.)
DESDEMONA I do not think there is any such woman. EMILIA Yes, a dozen; and as many to th’ vantage as 95 would store the world they played for. But I do think it is their husbands’ faults If wives do fall. Say that they slack their duties, And pour our treasures into foreign laps; Or else break out in peevish jealousies, 100 Throwing restraint upon us. Or say they strike us, Or scant our former having in despite. Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace, Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know Their wives have sense like them. They see, and 105 smell, And have their palates both for sweet and sour, As husbands have. What is it that they do When they change us for others? Is it sport? I think it is. And doth affection breed it? 110 I think it doth. Is ’t frailty that thus errs? It is so too. And have not we affections, Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have? Then let them use us well. Else let them know, The ills we do, their ills instruct us so. 115	Desdemona declares again that she can't believe there's a single woman in the world who would cheat on her husband. This leads Emilia into a bit of a rant. Emilia says there are plenty of women who cheat and argues that when women do cheat, it's their husbands's fault. They've either shirked their duties or spent too much time lavishing attention on others. Or maybe they've been hitting their wives. Women are full of grace, but they can be pushed too far. And besides, women have the same sexual needs as men. Since men change their women sportingly, women should have the same option.
DESDEMONA Good night, good night. God me such uses send, Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend. They exit.	Desdemona's only response is to say she hopes she can use others' bad behavior as a guide of what not to do, instead of an excuse to behave badly.