Shakespearean Tragedy Part 39

The idea suggested by these facts is that the MS. from which Q1 was printed was mutilated in various places; that (_b_) and (_c_) occupied the bottom inches of two successive pages, and that these inches were torn away; and that this was also the case with (_d_) and (_e_).

This speculation has amused me and may amuse some reader. I do not know enough of Elizabethan ma.n.u.scripts to judge of its plausibility.

NOTE K.

OTh.e.l.lO'S COURTSHIP.

It is curious that in the First Act two impressions are produced which have afterwards to be corrected.

1. We must not suppose that Oth.e.l.lo's account of his courtship in his famous speech before the Senate is intended to be exhaustive. He is accused of having used drugs or charms in order to win Desdemona; and therefore his purpose in his defence is merely to show that his witchcraft was the story of his life. It is no part of his business to trouble the Senators with the details of his courtship, and he so condenses his narrative of it that it almost appears as though there was no courtship at all, and as though Desdemona never imagined that he was in love with her until she had practically confessed her love for him.

Hence she has been praised by some for her courage, and blamed by others for her forwardness.

But at III. iii. 70 f. matters are presented in quite a new light. There we find the following words of hers:

What! Michael Ca.s.sio, 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 Oth.e.l.lo 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 Oth.e.l.lo was a black soldier of fortune.

2. We learn from the lines just quoted that Ca.s.sio used to accompany Oth.e.l.lo in his visits to the house; and from III. iii. 93 f. we learn that he knew of Oth.e.l.lo'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 Oth.e.l.lo (I.

i. 158 f.), Ca.s.sio, even if he knows where to find Oth.e.l.lo (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 Ca.s.sio does know, and only pretends ignorance because he has not been informed by Oth.e.l.lo that Iago also knows. And this idea is consistent with Iago's apparent ignorance of Ca.s.sio's part in the courtship (III. iii. 93). And of course, if this were so, a word from Shakespeare to the actor who played Ca.s.sio 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 Ca.s.sio Oth.e.l.lo's confidant, and that, after writing Act III., he neglected to alter the pa.s.sage in Act I. In that case the further information which Act III. gives regarding Oth.e.l.lo's courtship would probably also be an after-thought.

NOTE L.

OTh.e.l.lO IN THE TEMPTATION SCENE.

One reason why some readers think Oth.e.l.lo '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 Ca.s.sio 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 Ca.s.sio; and it is still longer before Oth.e.l.lo 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 Oth.e.l.lo'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 Oth.e.l.lo). In fact it is not until Iago hints that Oth.e.l.lo, as a foreigner, might easily be deceived, that he is seriously disturbed about Desdemona.

Salvini played this pa.s.sage, 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, Oth.e.l.lo 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 pa.s.sage 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 _OTh.e.l.lO_, 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 Oth.e.l.lo; for, on the one hand, Oth.e.l.lo, 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 Oth.e.l.lo of everything that would madden him again, but to do so by professing to make light of the whole affair, and by urging Oth.e.l.lo 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 Ca.s.sio, 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, Ca.s.s...o...b..asted to me in so many words of his conquest. [Here he is interrupted by Oth.e.l.lo'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 Oth.e.l.lo 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 Oth.e.l.lo'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 Oth.e.l.lo 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 Oth.e.l.lo, and Ca.s.sio killed by Roderigo, he would then admit that he had informed Oth.e.l.lo of the adultery, and perhaps even that he had undertaken Ca.s.sio's death; but he would declare that he never meant to fulfil his promise as to Ca.s.sio, 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 Oth.e.l.lo'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 Oth.e.l.lo back to the position reached at the end of the Temptation scene (III.

iii.). Ca.s.sio 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, Oth.e.l.lo tends to relapse and wait, which is terribly dangerous to Iago, who therefore in this scene quickens his purpose. Yet Oth.e.l.lo 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 Oth.e.l.lo 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 pa.s.sage should refer to the conversation at the end of the thirtieth tale in the _Heptameron_.]

NOTE N.

TWO Pa.s.sAGES IN THE LAST SCENE OF _OTh.e.l.lO_.

(1) V. ii. 71 f. Desdemona demands that Ca.s.s...o...b.. sent for to 'confess'

the truth that she never gave him the handkerchief. Oth.e.l.lo answers that Ca.s.sio _has_ confessed the truth--has confessed the adultery. The dialogue goes on:

_Des._ He will not say so.