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Four hundred years ago there lived in Venice an ensign named Iago,
who hated his general, Othello, for not making him a lieutenant.
Instead of Iago, who was strongly recommended, Othello had chosen
Michael Cassio, whose smooth tongue had helped him to win the heart
of Desdemona. Iago had a friend called Roderigo, who supplied him
with money and felt he could not be happy unless Desdemona was his
wife.
Othello was a Moor, but of so dark a complexion that his enemies
called him a Blackamoor. His life had been hard and exciting. He had
been vanquished in battle and sold into slavery; and he had been a
great traveler and seen men whose shoulders were higher than their
heads. Brave as a lion, he had one great fault--jealousy. His love
was a terrible selfishness. To love a woman meant with him to
possess her as absolutely as he possessed something that did not
live and think. The story of Othello is a story of jealousy.
One night Iago told Roderigo that Othello had carried off Desdemona
without the knowledge of her father, Brabantio. He persuaded
Roderigo to arouse Brabantio, and when that senator appeared Iago
told him of Desdemona's elopement in the most unpleasant way. Though
he was Othello's officer, he termed him a thief and a Barbary horse.
Brabantio accused Othello before the Duke of Venice of using sorcery
to fascinate his daughter, but Othello said that the only sorcery he
used was his voice, which told Desdemona his adventures and
hair-breadth escapes. Desdemona was led into the council-chamber,
and she explained how she could love Othello despite his almost
black face by saying, "I saw Othello's visage in his mind."
As Othello had married Desdemona, and she was glad to be his wife,
there was no more to be said against him, especially as the Duke
wished him to go to Cyprus to defend it against the Turks. Othello
was quite ready to go, and Desdemona, who pleaded to go with him,
was permitted to join him at Cyprus.
Othello's feelings on landing in this island were intensely joyful.
"Oh, my sweet," he said to Desdemona, who arrived with Iago, his
wife, and Roderigo before him, "I hardly know what I say to you. I
am in love with my own happiness."
News coming presently that the Turkish fleet was out of action, he
proclaimed a festival in Cyprus from five to eleven at night.
Cassio was on duty in the Castle where Othello ruled Cyprus, so Iago
decided to make the lieutenant drink too much. He had some
difficulty, as Cassio knew that wine soon went to his head, but
servants brought wine into the room where Cassio was, and Iago sang
a drinking song, and so Cassio lifted a glass too often to the
health of the general.
When Cassio was inclined to be quarrelsome, Iago told Roderigo to
say something unpleasant to him. Cassio cudgeled Roderigo, who ran
into the presence of Montano, the ex-governor. Montano civilly
interceded for Roderigo, but received so rude an answer from Cassio
that he said, "Come, come, you're drunk!" Cassio then wounded him,
and Iago sent Roderigo out to scare the town with a cry of mutiny.
The uproar aroused Othello, who, on learning its cause, said, "Cassio,
I love thee, but never more be officer of mine."
On Cassio and Iago being alone together, the disgraced man moaned
about his reputation. Iago said reputation and humbug were the same
thing. "O God," exclaimed Cassio, without heeding him, "that men
should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains!"
Iago advised him to beg Desdemona to ask Othello to pardon him.
Cassio was pleased with the advice, and next morning made his
request to Desdemona in the garden of the castle. She was kindness
itself, and said, "Be merry, Cassio, for I would rather die than
forsake your cause."
Cassio at that moment saw Othello advancing with Iago, and retired
hurriedly.
Iago said, "I don't like that."
"What did you say?" asked Othello, who felt that he had meant
something unpleasant, but Iago pretended he had said nothing. "Was
not that Cassio who went from my wife?" asked Othello, and Iago, who
knew that it was Cassio and why it was Cassio, said, "I cannot think
it was Cassio who stole away in that guilty manner."
Desdemona told Othello that it was grief and humility which made
Cassio retreat at his approach. She reminded him how Cassio had
taken his part when she was still heart-free, and found fault with
her Moorish lover. Othello was melted, and said, "I will deny thee
nothing," but Desdemona told him that what she asked was as much for
his good as dining.
Desdemona left the garden, and Iago asked if it was really true that
Cassio had known Desdemona before her marriage.
"Yes," said Othello.
"Indeed," said Iago, as though something that had mystified him was
now very clear.
"Is he not honest?" demanded Othello, and Iago repeated the
adjective inquiringly, as though he were afraid to say "No."
"What do you mean?" insisted Othello.
To this Iago would only say the flat opposite of what he said to
Cassio. He had told Cassio that reputation was humbug. To Othello he
said, "Who steals my purse steals trash, but he who filches from me
my good name ruins me."
At this Othello almost leapt into the air, and Iago was so confident
of his jealousy that he ventured to warn him against it. Yes, it was
no other than Iago who called jealousy "the green-eyed monster which
doth mock the meat it feeds on."
Iago having given jealousy one blow, proceeded to feed it with the
remark that Desdemona deceived her father when she eloped with
Othello. "If she deceived him, why not you?" was his meaning.
Presently Desdemona re-entered to tell Othello that dinner was
ready. She saw that he was ill at ease. He explained it by a pain in
his forehead. Desdemona then produced a handkerchief, which Othello
had given her. A prophetess, two hundred years old, had made this
handkerchief from the silk of sacred silkworms, dyed it in a liquid
prepared from the hearts of maidens, and embroidered it with
strawberries. Gentle Desdemona thought of it simply as a cool, soft
thing for a throbbing brow; she knew of no spell upon it that would
work destruction for her who lost it. "Let me tie it round your
head," she said to Othello; "you will be well in an hour." But
Othello pettishly said it was too small, and let it fall. Desdemona
and he then went indoors to dinner, and Emilia picked up the
handkerchief which Iago had often asked her to steal.
She was looking at it when Iago came in. After a few words about it
he snatched it from her, and bade her leave him.
In the garden he was joined by Othello, who seemed hungry for the
worst lies he could offer. He therefore told Othello that he had
seen Cassio wipe his mouth with a handkerchief, which, because it
was spotted with strawberries, he guessed to be one that Othello had
given his wife.
The unhappy Moor went mad with fury, and Iago bade the heavens
witness that he devoted his hand and heart and brain to Othello's
service. "I accept your love," said Othello. "Within three days let
me hear that Cassio is dead."
Iago's next step was to leave Desdemona's handkerchief in Cassio's
room. Cassio saw it, and knew it was not his, but he liked the
strawberry pattern on it, and he gave it to his sweetheart Bianca
and asked her to copy it for him.
Iago's next move was to induce Othello, who had been bullying
Desdemona about the handkerchief, to play the eavesdropper to a
conversation between Cassio and himself. His intention was to talk
about Cassio's sweetheart, and allow Othello to suppose that the
lady spoken of was Desdemona.
"How are you, lieutenant?" asked Iago when Cassio appeared.
"The worse for being called what I am not," replied Cassio,
gloomily.
"Keep on reminding Desdemona, and you'll soon be restored," said
Iago, adding, in a tone too low for Othello to hear, "If Bianca
could set the matter right, how quickly it would mend!"
"Alas! poor rogue," said Cassio, "I really think she loves me," and
like the talkative coxcomb he was, Cassio was led on to boast of
Bianca's fondness for him, while Othello imagined, with choked rage,
that he prattled of Desdemona, and thought, "I see your nose, Cassio,
but not the dog I shall throw it to."
Othello was still spying when Bianca entered, boiling over with the
idea that Cassio, whom she considered her property, had asked her to
copy the embroidery on the handkerchief of a new sweetheart. She
tossed him the handkerchief with scornful words, and Cassio departed
with her.
Othello had seen Bianca, who was in station lower, in beauty and
speech inferior far, to Desdemona and he began in spite of himself
to praise his wife to the villain before him. He praised her skill
with the needle, her voice that could "sing the savageness out of a
bear," her wit, her sweetness, the fairness of her skin. Every time
he praised her Iago said something that made him remember his anger
and utter it foully, and yet he must needs praise her, and say, "The
pity of it, Iago! O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!"
There was never in all Iago's villainy one moment of wavering. If
there had been he might have wavered then.
"Strangle her," he said; and "Good, good!" said his miserable dupe.
The pair were still talking murder when Desdemona appeared with a
relative of Desdemona's father, called Lodovico, who bore a letter
for Othello from the Duke of Venice. The letter recalled Othello
from Cyprus, and gave the governorship to Cassio.
Luckless Desdemona seized this unhappy moment to urge once more the
suit of Cassio.
"Fire and brimstone!" shouted Othello.
"It may be the letter agitates him," explained Lodovico to
Desdemona, and he told her what it contained.
"I am glad," said Desdemona. It was the first bitter speech that
Othello's unkindness had wrung out of her.
"I am glad to see you lose your temper," said Othello.
"Why, sweet Othello?" she asked, sarcastically; and Othello slapped
her face.
Now was the time for Desdemona to have saved her life by separation,
but she knew not her peril--only that her love was wounded to the
core. "I have not deserved this," she said, and the tears rolled
slowly down her face.
Lodovico was shocked and disgusted. "My lord," he said, "this would
not be believed in Venice. Make her amends;" but, like a madman
talking in his nightmare, Othello poured out his foul thought in
ugly speech, and roared, "Out of my sight!"
"I will not stay to offend you," said his wife, but she lingered
even in going, and only when he shouted "Avaunt!" did she leave her
husband and his guests.
Othello then invited Lodovico to supper, adding, "You are welcome,
sir, to Cyprus. Goats and monkeys!" Without waiting for a reply he
left the company.
Distinguished visitors detest being obliged to look on at family
quarrels, and dislike being called either goats or monkeys, and
Lodovico asked Iago for an explanation.
True to himself, Iago, in a round-about way, said that Othello was
worse than he seemed, and advised them to study his behavior and
save him from the discomfort of answering any more questions.
He proceeded to tell Roderigo to murder Cassio. Roderigo was out of
tune with his friend. He had given Iago quantities of jewels for
Desdemona without effect; Desdemona had seen none of them, for Iago
was a thief.
Iago smoothed him with a lie, and when Cassio was leaving Bianca's
house, Roderigo wounded him, and was wounded in return. Cassio
shouted, and Lodovico and a friend came running up. Cassio pointed
out Roderigo as his assailant, and Iago, hoping to rid himself of an
inconvenient friend, called him "Villain!" and stabbed him, but not
to death.
At the Castle, Desdemona was in a sad mood. She told Emilia that she
must leave her; her husband wished it. "Dismiss me!" exclaimed
Emilia. "It was his bidding, said Desdemona; we must not displease
him now."
She sang a song which a girl had sung whose lover had been base to
her--a song of a maiden crying by that tree whose boughs droop as
though it weeps, and she went to bed and slept.
She woke with her husband's wild eyes upon her. "Have you prayed
to-night?" he asked; and he told this blameless and sweet woman to
ask God's pardon for any sin she might have on her conscience. "I
would not kill thy soul," he said.
He told her that Cassio had confessed, but she knew Cassio had
nought to confess that concerned her. She said that Cassio could not
say anything that would damage her. Othello said his mouth was
stopped.
Then Desdemona wept, but with violent words, in spite of all her
pleading, Othello pressed upon her throat and mortally hurt her.
Then with boding heart came Emilia, and besought entrance at the
door, and Othello unlocked it, and a voice came from the bed saying,
"A guiltless death I die."
"Who did it?" cried Emilia; and the voice said, "Nobody--I myself.
Farewell!"
"'Twas I that killed her," said Othello.
He poured out his evidence by that sad bed to the people who came
running in, Iago among them; but when he spoke of the handkerchief,
Emilia told the truth.
And Othello knew. "Are there no stones in heaven but thunderbolts?"
he exclaimed, and ran at Iago, who gave Emilia her death-blow and
fled.
But they brought him back, and the death that came to him later on
was a relief from torture.
They would have taken Othello back to Venice to try him there, but
he escaped them on his sword. "A word or two before you go," he said
to the Venetians in the chamber. "Speak of me as I was--no better,
no worse. Say I cast away the pearl of pearls, and wept with these
hard eyes; and say that, when in Aleppo years ago I saw a Turk
beating a Venetian, I took him by the throat and smote him thus."
With his own hand he stabbed himself to the heart; and ere he died
his lips touched the face of Desdemona with despairing love.
Othello
A Classic English Shakespeare Story
by
Edith Nesbit |
