Good sir, be a man;
Think every bearded fellow that’s but yoked
May draw with you: there’s millions now alive
That nightly lie in those unproper beds
Which they dare swear peculiar: your case is better.
O, ’tis the spite of hell, the fiend’s arch-mock,
To lip a wanton in a secure couch,
And to suppose her chaste!
– William Shakespeare
Othello, Act 4, Scene 1. Iago tells Othello that many other men have been cheated on, so he should take it like man. He uses animal imagery and metaphor of a team of oxen yoked to a plow to describe the burden of cuckolded husbands like Othello. Millions of people cheat, he tells him, but Othello is fortunate because he knows what is going on with his wife. It’s the curse of hell to think your wife is faithful when she is not.