Monologue from Othello (Paul Robeson)

final act:

Soft you; a word or two before you go.
I have done the state some service, and they know't.
No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought
Perplex'd in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinal gum. Set you down this;
And say besides, that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog,
And smote him, thus.

I kiss'd thee ere I kill'd thee: no way but this;
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Shakespeare
• Othello

[SkiboogieNYC]

Paul Robeson is truly a unheralded genius of an artist. I wish I had the privilege to sit and watch this great man. He fills me up with ever more pride as a black man. God Bless him!!!

[Bonobo3D]

Exactly. When you realize just how sexually shamed this culture is...

[cait72590]

"......and his human dignity was betrayed"

hmmmm, that sounds awfully familiar. Paul Robeson's life in the public eye anyone?

[bahaanaldo]

Sounds like James Earl Jones and John Ryhs Davies had a baby.

[catch2370]

If I were black I'd want to be him, If I were a man, I'd want to be him.

[ThePharaoho]

LEGEND

[bluerabbit47]

What a privilege to be able to experience this!

[dal4018]

@vivascargill This was Jungle Fever before the movie was made

[vivascargill]

@SkiboogieNYC I saw him once-- at his funeral broke my heart!

[al1936ful]

@Bonobo3D He also replaced "lov'd not wisely, but too well" with "lov'd full wisely but too well" (which Shakespeare didn't write, and which changes the meaning entirely).

[Carex09]

"Speak of me as I am- nothing extenuate!" Yes. Maybe someday we might.

[RecordStr8]

All of our critiques of this man's work are irrelevant. He is an established genuis and will always be remembered as a legend with a multiplicty of talents.