Finally, the cathartic story of Othello and Desdemona is reaching its closure. A dramatic closure indeed. Right, those among you who know the ending of the original Othello are in for no surprise, but newbies are reassured that there will be no spoilers!
ACT FOUR
TRACK LIST:
- HAS HE CALMED DOWN NOW?
- WILLOW, WILLOW, WILLOW!
- AVE MARIA (HAIL MARY)
- MY LADY, HAVE YOU SAID YOUR EVENING PRAYERS?
- PLEASE OPEN! PLEASE OPEN!!
- NO ONE DREAD ME
Desdemona's bedchamber. The door is on the right. A canopy bed, a nightstand table, a dressing table with its mirror, a pair of chairs, a wardrobe, and a prie-dieu in whose altar a candelabra illuminates an image, or icon, of the Virgin Mary. Another candelabra burns on the nightstand table. It is late evening. Desdemona, in her lacy négligée, and Emilia, in her usual maid's uniform, sitting on the chairs, both females visibly tense yet putting on brave faces.
Has he calmed down now?
DESDEMONA:
So it seems. He's told me
to go to bed and wait for him. Emilia,
could you please make the bed with our wedding night sheets,
and spread my snow-white wedding gown on the covers?
(Emilia makes the bed with the wedding night sheets and, after that, takes Desdemona's wedding dress out of the wardrobe and gently places it upon the covers.)
DESDEMONA (prompting Emilia to come closer):
Listen.
If I by chance should die before you, please
use as my shroud these snow-white sheets and covers!
EMILIA:
Aside cast all these worries!
DESDEMONA (sighing):
Tonight I'm weak and weary...
(In front of the dressing table mirror, as she undresses):
My mother had at her service a maiden
with loveliness laden.
This servant's name was
Varvara. Her lover
one day suddenly left her for another;
she sang a song of a willow-tree...
Let down my hair, Emilia...
(Emilia undoes Desdemona's hairstyle, letting golden cascades fall down her upper back and shoulders.)
DESDEMONA:
This evening, I cannot forget and still remember
that tune, bleak as November...
The poor soul sat sighing
upon dire waste land,
by a sycamore tree...
Oh willow, willow, willow!
Her head in her hands plunged
and low bent the knee...
Oh willow, willow, willow!
Sing green, oh! Sing green, oh!
The weeping willow shall
soon be my wedding garland...
Fresh streams sparkling ran through banks in full bloom,
yet her young heart was broken...
Through her painful eyes, that heart streamed out in gloom;
no word was breathed or spoken...
Oh willow, willow, willow!
Sing green, oh! Sing green, oh!
The weeping willow shall
soon be my wedding garland...
The songbirds of springtime were drawn by her tone,
all of her tears and sighing
would stir the rocks and their hard hearts of stone,
so they would soon be crying...
Oh willow, willow, willow!
Sing green, oh! Sing green, oh!
The weeping willow shall
soon be my wedding garland...
(Desdemona takes off her wedding ring from the left ring finger.)
DESDEMONA (to Emilia, as she places her wedding ring in Emilia's left ring finger, next to Emilia's own ring): Please keep my ring, I trust you...
(Standing up): Ah, poor young Varvara! The final lyrics
of such a mournful song be sung hereof:
"He was born to attain high glory;
I, born to love..."
(Clanking steel from outside.)
DESDEMONA (to Emilia):
Listen.
(Emilia takes a pair of steps closer to Desdemona.)
(Roderigo and Cassio screaming in pain outside, offstage.)
DESDEMONA (to Emilia):
Don't you hear screaming?
(Putting an index finger to her lips.) Hush.
(The evening breeze strikes the shutters, giving the impression of knocks on the door.)
DESDEMONA (to Emilia):
Someone knocked on our door now?
EMILIA (reassuring):
You are dreaming...
DESDEMONA (sweetly):
I to love him and to die...
Sing green, oh! Sing willow!
Emilia, good evening. Oh, my eyes are so teary!
It's a sign that I'll shed tears...
Oh, Emilia, I'm so weary!
(Emilia turns around and prepares to leave. Upon hearing Desdemona say "I'm so weary," she quickly pivots back to her lady's side and embraces her, mussing Desdemona's golden head with one hand as her other arm clasps the young lady's waist, Desdemona embracing her handmaid in exchange.)
DESDEMONA (sighing, clinging to Emilia's waist):
Live well, Emilia, forever!
(Emilia finally loosens her grip on a more reassured Desdemona. Exit Emilia through the door, stage right, leaving Desdemona on her own.)
DESDEMONA (kneeling in her prie-dieu, to the Virgin on the altar):
Ave Maria, gratia plena, benedicta
eris tu semper in mulieribus...
Dominus tecum, et benedictus fructus...
benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus...
(Sweetly.) Pray for the one who upon bent knees implores you,
pray for the innocent, and for the sinner,
for the oppressed weak and th'oppressive winner,
even he suffers... mercy that adores you...
(Passionately.) Pray for those who, through outrage and misfortune,
lower their gaze, resign to fate unfair...
(Sweetly once more.) ...nunc et in hora mortis, mortis nostra...
ora pro nobis, pray and hear my prayer!
(She thrusts her elbows on the altar, her head buried in her hands, repeating her prayer sobbing and in such a low voice that only the first and last words are audible.)
Ave Maria, gratia plena, benedicta...
...
...in hora mortis nostra!
Ave... Amen!
(She finally rises, drying up her tears, and goes to bed, tucking herself under the bedcovers and drawing the bed-curtains, but still feeling tense.)
(Enter Othello through the door, stage right. After shutting the door, he places his sword on the dressing table and stands for a while before the candelabra on the nightstand table, doubting whether he shall quench the flames or not. Then he gently pushes the bed-curtains aside and, after casting but a glance on a sleeping Desdemona, he blows out the candles on the nightstand, leaving the bedchamber only lit, in twilight or penumbra, by the prie-dieu candelabra. In a jealous rage, he pivots towards the bed and approaches the sleeping Desdemona, but suddenly, when standing right above her, he freezes in place, watching his lady for a while, mournfully.)
OTHELLO (spoken): Put out the light... and then... put out the light...
If I quench candle-flames, as I have done,
I could again their former light restore.
But once put out your light, dear, I know not
where is the heat that could warm you once more.
When I have picked this rose, I cannot bring
new sap into her vessels - she must wilt.
Yet I won't shed her blood or scar her skin,
as white and soft as newly-fallen snow.
Yet she must die, or else she'll break more hearts.
So sweet was ne'er so fatal. I must shed
such cruel tears... This sorrow's heavenly...
"How wonderful the stars are," he said to her,
"and how wonderful is the power of love!"
'Tis true, indeed; love can begin a lifeas well as end it... You're so sweet and fair!
Be thus when you are dead; I'll kill you now,
and love you after...
(He kisses her once, twice, thrice. The third kiss awakens her.)
(After a while, he kisses her once, twice, thrice. The third kiss awakens her.)
DESDEMONA (in a daze, half-awake):
Who is there? Othello?
OTHELLO:
Me!!
My lady, have you said your evening prayers?
DESDEMONA (sweetly):
Of course...
OTHELLO:
Should you remember
any offence you made and left unconfessed,
confess it now, and your sins are forgiven.
DESDEMONA:
And why?
OTHELLO:
Confess now. I will not kill your soul,
no, spared be your spirit...
DESDEMONA:
You speak of murder...?
DESDEMONA:
Mercy, Mary, upon me!!
OTHELLO:
Amen.
DESDEMONA:
And mercy be upon you too!!
OTHELLO:
Think of your sins now...
DESDEMONA:
My only sin is love...
OTHELLO:
You'll die for love's sake...
DESDEMONA:
You'll kill me for I love you?
OTHELLO (ominous):
You love Cassio.
DESDEMONA:
Love? As a friend or a brother!
OTHELLO (ominous):
You've given him the handkerchief I gave you.
DESDEMONA:
That's a lie, right?!
OTHELLO:
In his young hands I saw it.
DESDEMONA:
I have ne'er been unfaithful!
OTHELLO:
Confess now!!
DESDEMONA:
I swear!!
OTHELLO:
Of oathbreaking beware...
Know that you're lying right now on your deathbed.
DESDEMONA:
Not for tonight...!
OTHELLO:
Soon you'll be dying...
DESDEMONA:
Help me!
'Twixt me and Cassio...
Send for him here, to tell you!
OTHELLO (coldly):
He'll never answer.
DESDEMONA (sobbing):
Is he... dead, right?!
OTHELLO (coldly):
Stone dead.
DESDEMONA (breaking into tears):
He's betrayed... I am lost, too!
OTHELLO (already beginning to flare up):
And you dare to mourn him?!
DESDEMONA (breaking into tears):
Please spare me... please don't end my life...
OTHELLO:
In vain yourself defending...
DESDEMONA (breaking into tears):
Please let me live... please let me live...
please let me live...
OTHELLO (shoving Desdemona down to the mattress in a fit of rage):
Fall! Down now! Fall! Down now, harlot, strumpet!!
DESDEMONA:
Let go!!
OTHELLO (slapping Desdemona across the face):
Die, wench!!!
DESDEMONA:
Let me for tonight live...
OTHELLO:
NO!!
DESDEMONA:
An hour...
OTHELLO:
NO!!
DESDEMONA:
Just an instant...
OTHELLO:
NO!!
DESDEMONA:
Let me say a Hail Mary...
OTHELLO (clasping Desdemona in his arms):
TOO LATE, WENCH!!!
DESDEMONA:
Aaaah!!!
(He presses her tightly to his chest, as she writhes and struggles to break free in vain. About three or four minutes later, still pressed to his chest, her movements die down and she is still, her arms hanging pale and limp, like a doll's, at her sides. Then, Othello shoves the lifeless form back onto the mattress, in a fit of rage.)
(Loud, quick knocks on the door.)
OTHELLO (beholding Desdemona's lifeless form, before drawing the bed-curtains):
Still as a dead one...
(More loud knocks on the door. This time, by her voice, it's revealed that Emilia is the one knocking.)
EMILIA (offstage, outside, frantically knocking on the door):
Please open! Please open!!
(She knocks on the door, still feverishly, once more.)
OTHELLO (drawing the bed-curtains, shocked):
Who is there... a-knocking?
EMILIA (offstage, outside, frantically knocking on the door):
Please, Your Lordship, I pray, let me enter...
let me tell you... Please open!!
OTHELLO (opening the door):
Emilia! What's happened?
EMILIA (entering the room):
Such a misfortune! Cassio's stabbed one Roderigo...
OTHELLO:
And Cassio...?
EMILIA:
He lives.
OTHELLO (in shock):
Does he live still??!!
DESDEMONA (from her bed, with her last dying breath in a weak voice):
I die here guiltless... for sins I ne'er committed...
EMILIA (hastening to the bed):
Who was that?
(Pushing the bed-curtains aside, in shock.) Good Lord!!
DESDEMONA (in bed, with her last dying breath in a weak voice):
Innocent, dying...
EMILIA (in shock):
Who did it?! Good Lord, who did?!
DESDEMONA (in bed, with her last dying breath in a weak voice):
I don't know... myself, sure... please, send
my spouse my last regards, please... innocent, dying...
innocent, dying...
fare thee well.
(She ceases to breathe.)
(Emilia thrusts her head on Desdemona's chest and recoils, feeling no heartbeat at all.)
OTHELLO:
That lying strumpet... whom I stifled!
EMILIA (in a slight rage, tinged with self-control):
Vile assassin!
OTHELLO (exhausted, coming to from his fit of rage):
She and Cassio were lovers.
Please ask Iago.
EMILIA:
Iago??!!
OTHELLO (coldly, exhausted):
Iago.
EMILIA (in a now even more blazing rage):
Moron!! Did you believe him??!!
OTHELLO (enraged once more, lunging at Emilia):
Dare you deny it??!!
EMILIA (coolly, staring Othello in the eyes):
I'm not frightened.
OTHELLO (packing Emilia by both wrists):
Stay here!!
EMILIA (breaking free from Othello's grasp):
Mayday! Bring help, bring assistance!!
(She storms out to the threshold.)
(Screaming in the doorway.) OTHELLO'S STIFLED HIS LADY WIFE!!
(Enter Ludovica, Iago, and Cassio, the young lieutenant all pale and weary, his left leg bandaged with the strawberry handkerchief and bloodstained, staggering, limping, leaning on the other two people for crutches.)
LUDOVICA, IAGO, CASSIO (in shock):
What screaming!!
(Looking towards the bed): Alas! Alas!! Alas!!!
(The people who support Cassio lay him to rest on a chair, where he slumps unconscious.)
EMILIA (to Iago):
Are you a man? If so, confront this wife-slayer.
Did you believe Desdemona was unfaithful?
IAGO:
So I believed it.
OTHELLO:
The handkerchief which was my first love-gift
she gave, in turn, to young Cassio...
EMILIA:
By all heavenly powers!!
IAGO (to Emilia, covering his wife's mouth with his hands):
SHUT UP!!!
(Emilia bites Iago in the hand, freeing herself. He winces but slightly as she packs him by both wrists.)
(Enter a detachment of armed soldiers.)
EMILIA:
NO!!! I will reveal all!!
IAGO (freeing himself from his wife's grasp, firing his pistol at point-blank range):
SHUT UP!!!
EMILIA (struck by Iago's bullet in the left side, pale, coughing up blood, reaching out a hand to the commanding officers):
NO!!! He snatched
that berry handkerchief by force from my hands,
tearing it off me!
(She slumps unconscious into the other chair.)
CASSIO (coming to):
And in my quarters
I found it then...
LUDOVICA (pointing at Iago with Roderigo's bloodstained sword-cane, which she produces from underneath her coat):
Of stab wounds dying, Roderigo has
revealed all schemes wrought by this scoundrel!
OTHELLO (lunging at Iago):
Gasp!! Explain yourself!!!
IAGO (storming out the door):
No!
LUDOVICA:
Halt, please!
(Exit Iago, running as fast as he can.)
LUDOVICA (to the soldiers):
Pursue him!
CASSIO, OTHELLO, EMILIA:
Seize that scoundrel now!!
(Exit the detachment of soldiers, in pursuit of Iago.)
OTHELLO (taking up his sword from the dressing table, desperate):
Has Zeus no lightning left for me??!!
LUDOVICA (snatching the sword from Othello's grasp):
Give me your sword.
OTHELLO (resisting):
How dare you??!!
No one dread me.
Any child can disarm me. My journey ends here...
There's no return... Oh, glory... Othello's gone!
(He lunges at Ludovica, so that his lunging forwards plunges the sword she is holding into his own solar plexus, then staggers towards the bed and his lady's form...)
(To the lifeless Desdemona, sobbing.) And you... how pale and cold, my dear!
Pious, noble child born under stars of sorrow...
Pale as your wedding gown, cold as the winter...
like your pure, short life...
My ladylove! My lady wife! Ah... Dead lies Desdemona!!!
(Drawing a hidden main-gauche dagger he keeps buckled to his right thigh, Othello puts it to the left side of his chest.)
OTHELLO (stabbing himself in the left side of the chest):
I am still armed!
CASSIO (standing up, staggering towards Othello, as his commanding officer stabs himself):
Halt! Stop this!
(The dying Othello looks down on Cassio and viceversa. Both officers, locking eyes, reach out, then hold right hands as a token of reconciliation: the young officer is finally forgiven. As Othello turns back to Desdemona's form, Cassio dries up a few tears, sobbing.)
LUDOVICA, EMILIA, CASSIO:
Such misfortune!!
OTHELLO (dying, coughing up blood, to Desdemona's form as he caresses her):
Right ere I killed you... dear... I kissed you thrice...
Now... plunging into darkness...
how much I miss you...
I kiss you...
(He kisses her cold lips.)
I kiss you once more...
(He gives her a second kiss...)
Ah... die on the third kiss...
(He kisses her for the third time, breathing his last into her suffocated airways, to rise up nevermore.)
CURTAIN CALL.
THE END.
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