5th period

Act IV
SCENE I. Town of Cyprus, NV. Outside the house.

Enter OTHELLO and IAGO

IAGO
Ain’t that so?

OTHELLO
Boy howdy, it ain’t!

IAGO
What’s ‘a matter wit’ kissin’ in private?

OTHELLO
Why, it ain’t authorized, that’s what.

IAGO
Or bein’ a naked with her friend in bed a couple o’ hours?
She ain’t meanin’ no harm.

OTHELLO
Naked in bed, but ain’t meanin’ no harm!
That sir is a double crossin’ the law, that is.
Them folks who mean good, yet break the law is a still goin’ ter jail.

IAGO
Long as they don’t do nothin’ in bed they ain’t doin’ no harm:
But if I be givin’ my wife a handkerchief,--

OTHELLO
Then what?

IAGO
Why, then it’s hers ter keep I reckon’; an’ since it’s a hers she kin go an’ give it ter any cow hand she likes.

OTHELLO
Yeah, but what about her honor? She ain’t be givin’ that away.

IAGO
Honor ain’t a visible thing sheriff.
Lots o’ folks who ‘ave ain’t really got it.
Anyhow, that there hanky-----

OTHELLO
Dag-nab-it, I almost forget that darn hanky. You’ve a told me, ain’t you—boy howdy, it comes o’er my mem’ry like that dang vulture comes a circlin’ over a per’sh’d settler in the middle o’ the Mojave—that boy had my hanky.

IAGO
That he did.

OTHELLO
Boy howdy, that ain’t good.

IAGO
What you talkin’ ‘bout? But ifn’ I told yer I done seen him do suntin’ bad? Or heard him abraggin’—like them no good cow hands go blabbing in the saloons—

OTHELLO
He ain’t gone and said nothin’ has he?

IAGO
He said a great deal sheriff—but I wouldn’t be aknowing what.

OTHELLO
What he say? What? What?

IAGO
Lie—

OTHELLO
Wit’ her?

IAGO
Wit’ her, on her, suntin’ like that.

OTHELLO
Lie wit’ her! Lie on her!—We say lie on her when them be beliein’ her.—Lie wit’ her! Boy howdy that’s disgarsting! Handkechief—confessions—handkerchief!—ter be confessin’, and be hanged fer the trouble. Naw. First he be hanged, then he be a confessin’. Shoot. I’m so angered. This here must be meanin’ somethin’. Somethin’ fishy is a goin’ on I knows it! Noses, ears, and lips. Ain’t possible?—Confess?—Hanky?—Oh, shoot!

Falls in a trance

IAGO
Work on, my medicine, work! This here’s how fools is caught, and many good folk even must be bowin’ down. Heh heh. Shoot here comes the deputy! Sheriff, it’ the deputy! Get up off the dirt!

Enter CASSIO

Howdy partner!

CASSIO
What’s a matter?

IAGO
The sheriff’s gone falled in an epilepsy. This here be his second fit, he’s a had one yesterday.

CASSIO
Rub his forehead, that’s what my grannie a said.

IAGO
Naw, it ain’t no use, we best let his fit take its course. Ifn we don’t, he’ll start foamin’ at the mouth like old farmer Bill’s pooch who got the rabies. Lookie there partner, he’s wakin’ already. You best be gone a bit, he be dandy in a jiffy. I’ll talk to yer once the sheriff be gone.

Exit Cassio

You alright sheriff? You feelin’ OK in the head?

OTHELLO
You makin’ a mockery of me?

IAGO
Me? Boy howdy, no sir. You gotta take this wife situation of your’s like a man.

OTHELLO
This situation would make a varmin’ outa any man

IAGO
There be a lotter varmin around ifn that’s the case.

OTHELLO
Did he confess?

IAGO
Toughin up sheriff. I’d wager just ‘bout every married man this side of the Mississippi done been in the same boat as you. There’s got ter be millions of folks who lie in unproper beds everyday, which they is sure are clean. You’ve done beat them. It’s worser ‘n a rattle snake bite ter be kissin’ yo’ gal and you think she’s a been good but she ain’t. Aw, suck it up sheriff. Ya’ll will get over it.

OTHELLO
Boy howdy, you always was the smart one.

IAGO
Now you just hide over there behind that cactus awhile. While you was a greivin’—passion beyond any man’s, that’s what you got—why, Cassio’s done come along. Now I shifted him away and ‘splained you fit good, an’ I done told him ter come back in a sec’ ter speak wit’ me, he done said he would. Hid yerself good now, and take real good not of all his smiles, braggin’, and scorns that be dwellin ‘bout his face. Yer see, I’m gonna make him tell is tale agin’, where, how, how offin’, how long ago, and when he be getting’ with youse wife. Boy hawdy sheriff, mark his gestures. ‘cept have patience, ‘else I’ll be tellin’ him ter go.

OTHELLO
Yer don’t have ter worry ‘bout me. I’ll stay hidden good.

IAGO
That’s more like it. Now go n hide yo’ self.

Othello retires

Heh heh. Now I’ll be a questioning Cassio of Bianca, that gal he’s a met in the town brothel. She be big in his mind, and ain’t it fittin’ that it be the prostitute who trick many gets tricked by one. When the Deputy hears of her, he’ll not be able ter keep himself from a laughin.’ Here comes the varmin now.

Enter Cassio

And when he goes a smilin’, the sheriff ‘ill go good n crazy, and his unlearned jealousy ‘ill done go an construe the poor Cassio’ smiles, gestures, and light behavior quite in the wrong! Ha! Oh… Howdy there Deputy Shariff.

CASSIO
The more people go an’ call me that the more I miss the title.

IAGO
Beg Desdemona well an you’ll soon be deputy again.

Speaking lower

But think how fast you’d be deputy if Bianca was in Desdemona’s place.

CASSIO
Aw what a gal!

OTHELLO
Look how he done laugh already

IAGO
I ain’t never seen a woman love a man so much.

CASSIO
Poor gal. Ya’ll listen, I think she done loves me.

OTHELL
He gone and denied it and laughs it out.

IAGO
D’you hear me, Cassio?

OTHELLO
Now Iago’s gone and asked him to confess. Go get him boy. That Iago’s a real pro.

IAGO
She done said youse gonna marry her. Ain’t it the truth?

CASSIO
Ha, ha, ha! You kiddin’ me partner?

OTHELLO
Laugh while you can varmin.

CASSIO
Me go n marry her! A gal from a brothel! What kind o’ lowly cowboy do you take me for partner? Ha, ha, ha!

OTHELLO
Look how the varmin laughs. He done think he’s on top.

IAGO
That’s what they be sayin’ in town.

CASSIO
Well I’ll be

IAGO
I’ll eat my hat if it ain’t the truth.

OTHELLO
Have you done been stealin’ my cows, so ter speak? Well.

CASSIO
This must be her own contrivin’. She be persuaded I’m a gonna marry her, not cause I done said nothin’, but on account o’ her own flatterin’.

OTHELLO
Iago, is acallin’ me over; the varmin begins his story.

CASSIO
That gal is everywhere. She haunts me she does. Just the other day I been down at the railroad depot wit’ my posse, when here comes that plaything, an’ just like this, she fall about my neck.

OTHELLO
Crying “O dear Cassio!” fer sure. His gestures done show it.

CASSIO
So like that she hangs and weeps upon me, and drags and pulled me like so! Ha, ha, ha!

OTHELLO
Now he done told how she plucked him ter my chamber. Oh, I see that nose of yours, but not the coyote I’m fixin’ ter throw it to.

CASSIO
Well I had to get a goin’.

IAGO
Bow howdy. Here she comes now.

CASSIO
She’s just another gal as far I’m concerned, albeit a parfumed one.

Enter BIANCA
 

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Enter RODERIGO

Howdy Roderigo!

RODERIGO
You gone done me wrong, Iago!

IAGO
What in tarnation is you talkin’ ‘bout?

RODERIGO
Every day now you been scammin’ me with yo’ dang schemes. You been double crossin me, varmin, and holdn’ me back. I ain’t standin’ for this no more. No sir, I ain’t puttin’ up with no o’ yo’ nonsense.

IAGO
Now listen just one darn tootin’ minute buster.

RODERIGO
Gosh darn it, I done seen enough of you. You talk good but yo’ actions ain’t in support o’ yo’ perty words. No they ain’t.

IAGO
You’ll is fixin’ ter hang an innocent man, Roderigo.

RODERIGO
My evidence is naught but the truth! I worked my skin ter the bones for yer. Them jewels I gave yer to deliver to Desdemona would o’ been enough to make an outlaw outta the State Marshal himself. You done told she got them, but I ain’t seen her wearin’ them. Not once!

IAGO
Ya’ll ‘ill get o’er it.

RODERIGO
Get o’er it! I can’t get o’er an ant hill the way you left me. You, varmin, you done fooled me for the last time.

IAGO
Very well.

RODERIGO
It ain’t very well! I’m gonna make myself known ter Desdemona. If she returns my jewels, I’ll turn over my guns and settle down fer a life within the law. If not, why this town ‘ill be fixin’ ter witness its first showdown: me an’ you, varmin.

IAGO
Oh yeah?

RODERIGO
Yeah! And I mean it too! You best be cleaning your gun!

IAGO
Why, now I seen what ya’ll is really made of, ya’ll is tougher ‘n I thought. The more I get to know you the more I like you, boy. Give me your hand, Roderigo. Y’all’s case has merit, but you ain’t done a good job dealin’ with it.

RODERIGO
That ain’t how it looks, varmin.

IAGO
Sho it ain’t how it looks, an’ you got good reason for feelin that way. But, Roderigo, if y’all is a man, and I do believe you is, this-here night show it! If you ain’t got Desdemona by tomorrer night, why, I’ll eat my hat—and you kin feed it to me too!

RODERIGO
Well, what do I gotta do to set that there train in motion, partner?

IAGO
Boy, there be special outfit from Venice comin’ ‘round ter put Cassio in Othello’s place.

RODERIGO
You don’t say? Why, then Othello and Desdemona‘ll be a returnin’ to Venice?

IAGO
Naw sir. He be goin’ inter the Mojave, and takin’ that wife of his with him too, unless somethin’ happens to keep him here. And what better thing could happen than removing Cassio.

RODERIGO
What do ya’ll mean “removing him.”

IAGO
Why makin’ him incapable of takin’ Othello’s place, shootin’ his brains out o’ course.

RODERIGO
Y’all want me ter to that?

IAGO
Yes sir, I do. You’d do it ifn you had any sense in that head o’ yours. He be goin’ ter the brothel tonight with some whore, an’ that’s where I’m a gonna find him. He ain’t got a clue of what we’re fixin’ to do. Now you just wait outside ‘till he’s a leavin,’ which I’ll meak sure is between the hours of midnight and one, an’ you kin take him when y’all feel is best. Remember, I got yer back an’ so we’ll have him cornered. Well, don’t just stand there amazed, let’s get on with it. In a moment you’ll be as dyin’ to kill him as I am. It’s suppertime already. We ain’t got much time.

RODERIGO
I’ll see what yer have to say.

IAGO
Y’all will be satisfied, I’m sure of it.

Exeunt