Lie with her! lie on her! We say lie on her, when they belie her. Lie with her! that’s fulsome. – Handkerchief – confessions – handkerchief! – To confess, and be hanged for his labour; – first, to be hanged, and then to confess. – I tremble at it. Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without some instruction. It is not words that shake me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips. – Is ‘t possible? – Confess – handkerchief! – O devil!
– William Shakespeare
Othello, Act 4, Scene 1. An agitated and rambling Othello says this and falls down in an epileptic fit at Iago’s feet. Speaking in disjointed prose, he seems to have lost control of language. Just like he has lost control of his mind. The passage shows the hero’s degeneration and deteriorating mental state. He obsesses about the handkerchief, lies, Cassio lying with Desdemona and confession – the handkerchief is the one "proof" Othello has of Desdemona’s infidelity, but she hasn’t confessed. There is a sad and tragic irony in Othello saying, "It is not words that shake me thus." For it is Iago’s words that have driven Othello to this fever of jealousy and destroyed him.