we find the following words of hers:
What! Michael Cassio,
That came a-wooing with you, and so many a time,
When I have spoke of you dispraisingly,
Hath ta'en your part.
It seems, then, she understood why Othello came so often to her father's
house, and was perfectly secure of his love before she gave him that
very broad 'hint to speak.' I may add that those who find fault with her
forget that it was necessary for her to take the first open step. She
was the daughter of a Venetian grandee, and Othello was a black soldier
of fortune.
2. We learn from the lines just quoted that Cassio used to accompany
Othello in his visits to the house; and from III. iii. 93 f. we learn
that he knew of Othello's love from first to last and 'went between' the
lovers 'very oft.' Yet in Act I. it appears that, while Iago on the
night of the marriage knows about it and knows where to find Othello (I.
i. 158 f.), Cassio, even if he knows where to find Othello (which is
doubtful: see I. ii. 44), seems to know nothing about the marriage. See
I. ii. 49:
_Cas._ Ancient, what makes he here?
_Iago._ 'Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land carack:
If it prove lawful prize, he's made for ever.
_Cas._ I do not understand.
_Iago._ He's married.
_Cas._ To who?
It is possible that Cassio does know, and only pretends ignorance
because he has not been informed by Othello that Iago also knows. And
this idea is consistent with Iago's apparent ignorance of Cassio's part
in the courtship (III. iii. 93). And of course, if this were so, a word
from Shakespeare to the actor who played Cassio would enable him to make
all clear to the audience. The alternative, and perhaps more probable,
explanation would be that, in writing Act I., Shakespeare had not yet
thought of making Cassio Othello's confidant, and that, after writing
Act III., he neglected to alter the passage in Act I. In that case the
further information which Act III. gives regarding Othello's courtship
would probably also be an after-thought.
NOTE L.
OTHELLO IN THE TEMPTATION SCENE.
One reason why some readers think Othello 'easily jealous' is that they
completely misinterpret him in the early part of this scene. They fancy
that he is alarmed and suspicious the moment he hears Iago mutter 'Ha! I
like not that,' as he sees Cassio leaving Desdemona (III. iii. 35). But,
in fact, it takes a long time for Iago to excite surprise, curiosity,
and then grave concern--by no means yet jealousy--even about Cassio; and
it is still longer before Othello understands that Iago is suggesting
doubts about Desdemona too. ('Wronged' in 143 certainly does not refer
to her, as 154 and 162 show.) Nor, even at 171, is the exclamation 'O
misery' meant for an expression of Othello's own present feelings; as
his next speech clearly shows, it expresses an _imagined_ feeling, as
also the speech which elicits it professes to do (for Iago would not
have dared here to apply the term 'cuckold' to Othello). In fact it is
not until Iago hints that Othello, as a foreigner, might easily be
deceived, that he is seriously disturbed about Desdemona.
Salvini played this passage, as might be expected, with entire
understanding. Nor have I ever seen it seriously misinterpreted on the
stage. I gather from the Furness Variorum that Fechter and Edwin Booth
took the same view as Salvini. Actors have to ask themselves what was
the precise state of mind expressed by the words they have to repeat.
But many readers never think of asking such a question.
The lines which probably do most to lead hasty or unimaginative readers
astray are those at 90, where, on Desdemona's departure, Othello
exclaims to himself:
Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul
But I do love thee! and when I love thee not,
Chaos is come again.
He is supposed to mean by the last words that his love is _now_
suspended by suspicion, whereas in fact, in his bliss, he has so totally
forgotten Iago's 'Ha! I like not that,' that the tempter has to begin
all over again. The meaning is, 'If ever I love thee not, Chaos will
have come again.' The feeling of insecurity is due to the excess of
_joy_, as in the wonderful words after he rejoins Desdemona at Cyprus
(II. i. 191):
If it were now to die,
'Twere now to be most happy: for, I fear
My soul hath her content so absolute
That not another comfort like to this
Succeeds in unknown fate.
If any reader boggles at the use of the present in 'Chaos _is_ come
again,' let him observe 'succeeds' in the lines just quoted, or let him
look at the parallel passage in _Venus and Adonis_, 1019:
For, he being dead, with him is beauty slain;
And, beauty dead, black Chaos comes again.
Venus does not know that Adonis is dead when she speaks thus.
NOTE M.
QUESTIONS AS TO _OTHELLO_, ACT IV. SCENE I.
(1) The first part of the scene is hard to understand, and the
commentators give little help. I take the idea to be as follows. Iago
sees that he must renew his attack on Othello; for, on the one hand,
Othello, in spite of the resolution he had arrived at to put Desdemona
to death, has taken the step, without consulting Iago, of testing her in
the matter of Iago's report about the handkerchief; and, on the other
hand, he now seems to have fallen into a dazed lethargic state, and must
be stimulated to action. Iago's plan seems to be to remind Othello of
everything that would madden him again, but to do so by professing to
make light of the whole affair, and by urging Othello to put the best
construction on the facts, or at any rate to acquiesce. So he says, in
effect: 'After all, if she did kiss Cassio, that might mean little. Nay,
she might even go much further without meaning any harm.[266] Of course
there is the handkerchief (10); but then why should she _not_ give it
away?' Then, affecting to renounce this hopeless attempt to disguise his
true opinion, he goes on: 'However, _I_ cannot, as your friend, pretend
that I really regard her as innocent: the fact is, Cassio boasted to me
in so many words of his conquest. [Here he is interrupted by Othello's
swoon.] But, after all, why make such a fuss? You share the fate of most
married men, and you have the advantage of not being deceived in the
matter.' It must have been a great pleasure to Iago to express his real
cynicism thus, with the certainty that he would not be taken seriously
and would advance his plot by it. At 208-210 he recurs to the same plan
of maddening Othello by suggesting that, if he is so fond of Desdemona,
he had better let the matter be, for it concerns no one but him. This
speech follows Othello's exclamation 'O Iago, the pity of it,' and this
is perhaps the moment when we most of all long to destroy Iago.
(2) At 216 Othello tells Iago to get him some poison, that he may kill
Desdemona that night. Iago objects: 'Do it not with poison: strangle her
in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated?' Why does he object to
poison? Because through the sale of the poison he himself would be
involved? Possibly. Perhaps his idea was that, Desdemona being killed by
Othello, and Cassio killed by Roderigo, he would then admit that he had
informed Othello of the adultery, and perhaps even that he had
undertaken Cassio's death; but he would declare that he never meant to
fulfil his promise as to Cassio, and that he had nothing to do with
Desdemona's death (he seems to be preparing for this at 285). His buying
poison might wreck this plan. But it may be that his objection to poison
springs merely from contempt for Othello's intellect. He can trust him
to use violence, but thinks he may bungle anything that requires
adroitness.
(3) When the conversation breaks off here (225) Iago has brought Othello
back to the position reached at the end of the Temptation scene (III.
iii.). Cassio and Desdemona are to be killed; and, in addition, the time
is hastened; it is to be 'to-night,' not 'within three days.'
The constructional idea clearly is that, after the Temptation scene,
Othello tends to relapse and wait, which is terribly dangerous to Iago,
who therefore in this scene quickens his purpose. Yet Othello relapses
again. He has declared that he will not expostulate with her (IV. i.
217). But he cannot keep his word, and there follows the scene of
accusation. Its _dramatic_ purposes are obvious, but Othello seems to
have no purpose in it. He asks no questions, or, rather, none that shows
the least glimpse of doubt or hope. He is merely torturing himself.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 266: The reader who is puzzled by this passage should refer to
the conversation at the end of the thirtieth tale in the _Heptameron_.]
NOTE N.
TWO PASSAGES IN THE LAST SCENE OF _OTHELLO_.
(1) V. ii. 71 f. Desdemona demands that Cassio be sent for to 'confess'
the truth that she never gave him the handkerchief. Othello answers that
Cassio _has_ confessed the truth--has confessed the adultery. The
dialogue goes on:
_Des._ He will not say so.
_Oth._ No, his mouth is stopp'd:
Honest Iago hath ta'en order for 't.
_Des._ O! my fear interprets: what, is he dead?
_Oth._ Had all his hairs been lives, my great revenge
Had stomach for them all.
_Des._ Alas! he is _betray'd_ and _I_ undone.
It is a ghastly idea, but I believe Shakespeare means that, at the
mention of Iago's name, Desdemona suddenly sees that _he_ is the villain
whose existence he had declared to be impossible when, an hour before,
Emilia had suggested that someone had poisoned Othello's mind. But her
words rouse Othello to such furious indignation ('Out, strumpet! Weep'st
thou for him to my face?') that 'it is too late.'
(2) V. ii. 286 f.
_Oth._ I look down towards his feet; but that's a fable.
If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee.
[_Wounds Iago._
_Lod._ Wrench his sword from him.
_Iago._ I bleed, sir, but not killed.
Are Iago's strange words meant to show his absorption of interest in
himself amidst so much anguish? I think rather he is meant to be
alluding to Othello's words, and saying, with a cold contemptuous smile,
'You see he is right; I _am_ a devil.'
NOTE O.
OTHELLO ON DESDEMONA'S LAST WORDS.
I have said that the last scene of _Othello_, though terribly painful,
contains almost nothing to diminish the admiration and love which
heighten our pity for the hero (p. 198). I said 'almost' in view of the
following passage (V. ii. 123 ff.):
_Emil._ O, who hath done this deed?
_Des._ Nobody; I myself. Farewell:
Commend me to my kind lord: O, farewell! [_Dies._
_Oth._ Why, how should she be murdered?[267]
_Emil._ Alas, who knows?
_Oth._ You heard her say herself, it was not I.
_Emil._ She said so: I must needs report the truth.
_Oth._ She's, like a liar, gone to burning hell:
'Twas I that kill'd her.
_Emil._ O, the more angel she,
And you the blacker devil!
_Oth._ She turn'd to folly, and she was a whore.
This is a strange passage. What did Shakespeare mean us to feel? One is
astonished that Othello should not be startled, nay thunder-struck, when
he hears such dying words coming from the lips of an obdurate
adulteress. One is shocked by the moral blindness or obliquity which
takes them only as a further sign of her worthlessness. Here alone, I
think, in the scene sympathy with Othello quite disappears. Did
Shakespeare mean us to feel thus, and to realise how completely confused
and perverted Othello's mind has become? I suppose so: and yet Othello's
words continue to strike me as very strange, and also as not _like_
Othello,--especially as at this point he was not in anger, much less
enraged. It has sometimes occurred to me that there is a touch of
personal animus in the passage. One remembers the place in _Hamlet_
(written but a little while before) where Hamlet thinks he is unwilling
to kill the King at his prayers, for fear they may take him to heaven;
and one remembers Shakespeare's irony, how he shows that those prayers
do _not_ go to heaven, and that the soul of this praying murderer is at
that moment as murderous as ever (see p. 171), just as here the soul of
the lying Desdemona is angelic _in_ its lie. Is it conceivable that in
both passages he was intentionally striking at conventional 'religious'
ideas; and, in particular, that the belief that a man's everlasting fate
is decided by the occupation of his last moment excited in him
indignation as well as contempt? I admit that this fancy seems
un-Shakespearean, and yet it comes back on me whenever I read this
passage. [The words 'I suppose so' (l. 3 above) gave my conclusion; but
I wish to withdraw the whole Note]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 267: He alludes to her cry, 'O falsely, falsely murder'd!']
NOTE P.
DID EMILIA SUSPECT IAGO?
I have answered No (p. 216), and have no doubt about the matter; but at
one time I was puzzled, as perhaps others have been, by a single phrase
of Emilia's. It occurs in the conversation between her and Iago and
Desdemona (IV. ii. 130 f.):
I will be hang'd if some eternal villain,
Some busy and insinuating rogue,
Some cogging, cozening slave, _to get some office_,
Have not devised this slander; I'll be hang'd else.
Emilia, it may be said, knew that Cassio was the suspected man, so that
she must be thinking of _his_ office, and must mean that Iago has
poisoned Othello's mind in order to prevent his reinstatement and to get
the lieutenancy for himself. And, it may be said, she speaks
indefinitely so that Iago alone may understand her (for Desdemona does
not know that Cassio is the suspected man). Hence too, it may be said,
when, at V. ii. 190, she exclaims,
Villany, villany, villany!
I think upon't, I think: I smell't: O villany!
_I thought so then:_--I'll kill myself for grief;
she refers in the words italicised to the occasion of the passage in IV.
ii., and is reproaching herself for not having taken steps on her
suspicion of Iago.
I have explained in the text why I think it impossible to suppose that
Emilia suspected her husband; and I do not think anyone who follows her
speeches in V. ii., and who realises that, if she did suspect him, she
must have been simply _pretending_ surprise when Othello told her that
Iago was his informant, will feel any doubt. Her idea in the lines at
IV. ii. 130 is, I believe, merely that someone is trying to establish a
ground for asking a favour from Othello in return for information which
nearly concerns him. It does not follow that, because she knew Cassio
was suspected, she must have been referring to Cassio's office. She was
a stupid woman, and, even if she had not been, she would not put two and
two together so easily as the reader of the play.
In the line,
I thought so then: I'll kill myself for grief,
I think she certainly refers to IV. ii. 130 f. and also IV. ii. 15
(Steevens's idea that she is thinking of the time when she let Iago take
the handkerchief is absurd). If 'I'll kill myself for grief' is to be
taken in close connection with the preceding words (which is not
certain), she may mean that she reproaches herself for not having acted
on her general suspicion, or (less probably) that she reproaches herself
for not having suspected that Iago was the rogue.
With regard to my view that she failed to think of the handkerchief when
she saw how angry Othello was, those who believe that she did think of
it will of course also believe that she suspected Iago. But in addition
to other difficulties, they will have to suppose that her astonishment,
when Othello at last mentioned the handkerchief, was mere acting. And
anyone who can believe this seems to me beyond argument. [I regret that
I cannot now discuss some suggestions made to me in regard to the
subjects of Notes O and P.]
NOTE Q.
IAGO'S SUSPICION REGARDING CASSIO AND EMILIA.
The one expression of this suspicion appears in a very curious manner.
Iago, soliloquising, says (II. i. 311):
Which thing to do,
If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trash
For his quick hunting, stand the putting on,
I'll have our Michael Cassio on the hip,
Abuse him to the Moor in the rank [F. right] garb--
For I fear Cassio with my night-cap too--
Make the Moor thank me, etc.
Why '_For_ I fear Cassio,' etc.? He can hardly be giving himself an
additional reason for involving Cassio; the parenthesis must be
explanatory of the preceding line or some part of it. I think it
explains 'rank garb' or 'right garb,' and the meaning is, 'For Cassio
_is_ what I shall accuse him of being, a seducer of wives.' He is
returning to the thought with which the soliloquy begins, 'That Cassio
loves her, I do well believe it.' In saying this he is unconsciously
trying to believe that Cassio would at any rate _like_ to be an
adulterer, so that it is not so very abominable to say that he _is_ one.
And the idea 'I suspect him with Emilia' is a second and stronger
attempt of the same kind. The idea probably was born and died in one
moment. It is a curious example of Iago's secret subjection to morality.
NOTE R.
REMINISCENCES OF _OTHELLO_ IN _KING LEAR_.
The following is a list, made without any special search, and doubtless
incomplete, of words and phrases in _King Lear_ which recall words and
phrases in _Othello_, and many of which occur only in these two plays:
'waterish,' I. i. 261, appears only here and in _O._
III. iii. 15.
'fortune's alms,' I. i. 281, appears only here and in
_O._ III. iv. 122.
'decline' seems to be used of the advance of age only in
I. ii. 78 and _O._ III. iii. 265.
'slack' in 'if when they chanced to slack you,' II.
iv. 248, has no exact parallel in Shakespeare, but recalls
'they slack their duties,' _O._ IV. iii. 88.
'allowance' (=authorisation), I. iv. 228, is used
thus only in _K.L._, _O._ I. i. 128, and two places
in _Hamlet_ and _Hen. VIII._
'besort,' vb., I. iv. 272, does not occur elsewhere,
but 'besort,' sb., occurs in _O._ I. iii. 239 and
nowhere else.
Edmund's 'Look, sir, I bleed,' II. i. 43, sounds like
an echo of Iago's 'I bleed, sir, but not killed,' _O._
V. ii. 288.
'potential,' II. i. 78, appears only here, in _O._
I. ii. 13, and in the _Lover's Complaint_ (which, I
think, is certainly not an early poem).
'poise' in 'occasions of some poise,' II. i. 122, is
exactly like 'poise' in 'full of poise and difficult weight,'
_O._ III. iii. 82, and not exactly like 'poise' in
the three other places where it occurs.
'conjunct,' used only in II. ii. 125 (Q), V.
i. 12, recalls 'conjunctive,' used only in _H_. IV.
vii. 14, _O._ I. iii. 374 (F).
'grime,' vb., used only in II. iii. 9, recalls
'begrime,' used only in _O._ III. iii. 387 and
_Lucrece_.
'unbonneted,' III. i. 14, appears only here and in
_O._ I. ii. 23.
'delicate,' III. iv. 12, IV. iii. 15,
IV. vi. 188, is not a rare word with Shakespeare; he
uses it about thirty times in his plays. But it is worth
notice that it occurs six times in _O._
'commit,' used intr. for 'commit adultery,' appears only in
III. iv. 83, but cf. the famous iteration in _O._
IV. ii. 72 f.
'stand in hard cure,' III. vi. 107, seems to have no
parallel except _O._ II. i. 51, 'stand in bold cure.'
'secure'=make careless, IV. i. 22, appears only here
and in _O._ I. iii. 10 and (not quite the same sense)
_Tim._ II. ii. 185.
Albany's 'perforce must wither,' IV. ii. 35, recalls
Othello's 'It must needs wither,' V. ii. 15.
'deficient,' IV. vi. 23, occurs only here and in _O._
I. iii. 63.
'the safer sense,' IV. vi. 81, recalls 'my blood
begins my safer guides to rules,' _O._ II. iii. 205.
'fitchew,' IV. vi. 124, is used only here, in _O._
IV. i. 150, and in _T.C._ V. i. 67 (where it
has not the same significance).
Lear's 'I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion I
would have made them skip,' V. iii. 276, recalls
Othello's 'I have seen the day, That with this little arm and
this good sword,' etc., V. ii. 261.
The fact that more than half of the above occur in the first two Acts of
_King Lear_ may possibly be significant: for the farther removed
Shakespeare was from the time of the composition of _Othello_, the less
likely would be the recurrence of ideas or words used in that play.
NOTE S.
_KING LEAR_ AND _TIMON OF ATHENS_.
That these two plays are near akin in character, and probably in date,
is recognised by many critics now; and I will merely add here a few
references to the points of resemblance mentioned in the text (p. 246),
and a few notes on other points.
(1) The likeness between Timon's curses and some of the speeches of Lear
in his madness is, in one respect, curious. It is natural that Timon,
speaking to Alcibiades and two courtezans, should inveigh in particular
against sexual vices and corruption, as he does in the terrific passage
IV. iii. 82-166; but why should Lear refer at length, and with the same
loathing, to this particular subject (IV. vi. 112-132)? It almost looks
as if Shakespeare were expressing feelings which oppressed him at this
period of his life.
The idea may be a mere fancy, but it has seemed to me that this
pre-occupation, and sometimes this oppression, are traceable in other
plays of the period from about 1602 to 1605 (_Hamlet_, _Measure for
Measure_, _Troilus and Cressida_, _All's Well_, _Othello_); while in
earlier plays the subject is handled less, and without disgust, and in
later plays (e.g. _Antony and Cleopatra_, _The Winter's Tale_,
_Cymbeline_) it is also handled, however freely, without this air of
repulsion (I omit _Pericles_ because the authorship of the
brothel-scenes is doubtful).
(2) For references to the lower animals, similar to those in _King
Lear_, see especially _Timon_, I. i. 259; II. ii. 180; III. vi. 103 f.;
IV. i. 2, 36; IV. iii. 49 f., 177 ff., 325 ff. (surely a passage written
or, at the least, rewritten by Shakespeare), 392, 426 f. I ignore the
constant abuse of the dog in the conversations where Apemantus appears.
(3) Further points of resemblance are noted in the text at pp. 246, 247,
310, 326, 327, and many likenesses in word, phrase and idea might be
added, of the type of the parallel 'Thine Do comfort and not burn,'
_Lear_, II. iv. 176, and 'Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn!' _Timon_, V.
i. 134.
(4) The likeness in style and versification (so far as the purely
Shakespearean parts of _Timon_ are concerned) is surely unmistakable,
but some readers may like to see an example. Lear speaks here (IV. vi.
164 ff.):
Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand!
Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back;
Thou hotly lust'st to use her in that kind
For which thou whipp'st her. The usurer hangs the cozener.
Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear;
Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;
Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw does pierce it.
None does offend, none, I say, none; I'll able 'em:
Take that of me, my friend, who have the power
To seal the accuser's lips. Get thee glass eyes;
And, like a scurvy politician, seem
To see the things thou dost not.
And Timon speaks here (IV. iii. 1 ff.):
O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth
Rotten humidity; below thy sister's orb
Infect the air! Twinn'd brothers of one womb,
Whose procreation, residence, and birth,
Scarce is dividant, touch them with several fortunes,
The greater scorns the lesser: not nature,
To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune,
But by contempt of nature.
Raise me this beggar, and deny't that lord:
The senator shall bear contempt hereditary,
The beggar native honour.
It is the pasture lards the rother's sides,
The want that makes him lean. Who dares, who dares.
In purity of manhood stand upright
And say 'This man's a flatterer'? if one be,
So are they all: for every grise of fortune
Is smooth'd by that below: the learned pate
Ducks to the golden fool: all is oblique;
There's nothing level in our cursed natures,
But direct villany.