Some of your function, mistress;
Leave procreants alone and shut the door;
Cough, or cry ‘hem,’ if any body come:
Your mystery, your mystery: nay, dispatch.
– William Shakespeare
Othello, Act 4, Scene 2. Othello dismisses Emilia by using the crude metaphor of her as a whorehouse madam with the implication that Desdemona is a whore. He tells her to do her job and stand guard outside the lovers’ door so she can warn them if anyone is coming. Having gone through a drastic personality transformation, Othello is at his women-hating worst here with Emilia becoming the target for his ire.