When the Shakespeare in Tokyo group began its second cycle of the Immortal Bard’s plays with The Tragedy of Othello, it represented for me a second chance of sorts. When we first read the play back in 2001, I had already begun sending these notes and summaries to the members of the group, but hadn’t yet learned the importance of backing up my computer files on disk. That was a lesson brought home to me with the catastrophic failure of my first laptop computer some months later. I’m sure we all have horror stories about precious files lost forever; in my case, it was my Shakespeare summaries. In many cases other group members still had copies of them on their computers, but I never was able to retrieve my summaries for Henry VIII and, of course, our Moorish friend Othello.

So here we go, AGAIN.

Othello is the classic tragedy of “one that loved not wisely but too well.” Taken from Giraldi Cinthio’s Gli Hecatommithi of 1565 (also the source for Measure for Measure), Shakespeare conjured up the ultimate villain in the form of Iago, manipulating nobler souls around him for his base motives while presenting the façade of a true friend. Histoires Tragiques by Belleforest may also have influenced this work, easily one of the most recognized tragedies in all of literature.

Othello has been portrayed on stage and screen by some of the leading African-American actors of the past century, including Paul Robeson, Lawrence Fishburne, and James Earl Jones (the last of which I myself was privileged to witness.) Every generation finds its own interpretation of classic works, and so Othello has in the age of racial integration become a symbol for two lovers turning their backs on the prejudices of society, and the intransigence of racists like Iago who will not permit them to be happy. I myself do not agree with this interpretation. In fact, it’s very clear from the text that Iago’s motivation was his jealousy at being passed over for promotion, not any racial prejudice on his part. (Ironically, the original story from Cinthio’s Gli Hecatommithi had a truly racist message — the moral of that work was that it’s always a mistake to fall in love with and marry someone of a different race.)

What separates Shakespeare’s work from the source material, for me at least, is that it rises above such petty distinctions to get at the real heart of the story: Iago’s amoral ambition for personal power. Othello’s ethnicity and physical appearance played a role, but it was not the key factor of his life. He was noble, eloquent, perhaps too hot-blooded for his own good, but an excellent general who would have made a fine husband to Desdemona were it not for the evil machinations of Iago.

I have one other objection to the effort to make Othello an icon for white-on-black prejudice: Othello was NOT BLACK, at least in the sense of being a Negro. It’s very tempting to reach that conclusion, since he was from Africa, and he’s called “black” some ten times in the text, but he was not a Negro; he was a Moor, from a Mediterranean ethnic group more closely related to Arab and Berber nomads than sub-Saharan black Africans (see http://www.bartleby.com/65/mo/Moors.html ) Remember that for Shakespeare, “black” applied to anyone who did not meet the age-old European criteria for beauty (which is to say, blond hair and blue eyes.) Remember the Dark Lady of the Sonnets? Black hair and brown eyes.

Then what is the central theme of this show? I contend that it is one of the Bard’s favorite topics: fidelity, whether to one’s king, country, or friend. Some version of the word “honest” appears some 52 times throughout the play (I counted). In almost every case, the word is used in an ironic sense: either Iago facetiously referring to Cassio or Desdemona as honest, or Othello innocently using the word to describe Iago, not knowing what Iago had in store for him.

Examples of Iago’s perfidy abound: my favorite has to be in Act I, when he first (in private) incites Roderigo to go to Brabantio with news of Othello’s marriage to Desdemona, but then in the next scene (in front of witnesses) he draws his sword on Roderigo as if to defend Othello. This kind of treachery is consistent throughout the play, until finally, after promising to help him kill Cassio (in private), he leaves the hapless Roderigo to be overmatched, then (in front of witnesses) mercilessly dispatches Roderigo himself.

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Many times over the years skeptics have pointed to Shakespeare’s bottomless knowledge of the intimate details of the lives of Elizabethan nobility to “prove” that he couldn’t possibly have written the plays attributed to him. As the son of a poor glove maker, the theory goes, he couldn’t have known such facts. There is no easy answer to this conundrum. The expression “watch him tame” is one of many examples of terminology in Shakespeare borrowed from the royal sport of hawking; that is, using a live hawk for hunting. It refers to the training technique of not letting the hawk sleep until it finally submits to the trainer. Another example is from Act III:

        . . . If I do prove her haggard,

    Though that her jesses were my dear heartstrings,

    I’ld whistle her off and let her down the wind . . . .

Here Othello is comparing Desdemona to a hawk: even though he loves her, if she turned out to be untamable, he would remove her leash and let her fly free. For more information, see the essay on the Shakespeare-sama website “The Case for Oxford”.

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Othello mentions in Act I “. . . men whose heads/  Do grow beneath their shoulders . . .” This is a reference to The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1371). Years ago when I first read the play, I thought Shakespeare was referring to an actual account by a traveler who had merely mischaracterized something he saw on a trip. I’ve always had the impression that maybe someone saw a group of Bedouins wearing flowing headdresses, and seeing only their faces peering out from all that fabric, maybe it appeared that their heads were growing out of their chests. Only in doing research for this essay did I find out I was wrong all these years. Not only did the tribe described by Sir John Mandeville exist only in the writer’s imagination, there is no indication that Mandeville existed at all! (See http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/mandeville.html )

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In Act V Othello mentions looking at Iago’s feet and a fable that devils can’t be killed. This refers to the myth that devils have cloven hooves like goats. Of course he continues by trying to kill Iago anyway.

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  FIRST MUSICIAN. Whereby hangs a tale, sir?

  CLOWN. Marry, sir, by many a wind instrument that I know. (Act III scene i)

It took me a while to understand the joke in this exchange ; now that I have, it strikes me as one of the dirtiest puns I’ve ever seen in Shakespeare (and bear in mind, he was famous for them!) It has to do with the double meaning of tail/tale; the Musician uses “Thereby hangs a tale” in the classical sense, meaning “There’s a story behind that.” However, the Clown means that the tail of an animal hangs next to the anus, and so he is comparing the musicians’ music to animal flatulence. And to think, it only took me 400 years to figure it out! 

New vocabulary:

• addition – mark of distinction
• apt – natural
• aspic – poisonous snake
• board – meals
• bobb’d  – cheated
• callet –  whore
• cogging –  lying
• collied – obscured
• commoner –  whore
• compt – account, reckoning 
• continuate – uninterrupted
• cozening –  cheating
• crusadoes –  gold coins
• daff’st –  keep waiting
• dam –  mother
• delations – accusations
• dressed  – bandaged
• ecstasy –   unconsciousness, fainting spell
• encave  – hide
• exsufflicate – insubstantial
• fitchew- skunk
• fleers –  sneers
• fopped –  cheated
• fordoes  – destroys
• forfend –  forbid
• fustian – nonsense
• galls – resentment
• gastness –  terror
• heave the gorge – vomit
• hobby-horse  – a derisive word for sexual partner
• horologe a double set- twice around the clock, i.e. 24 hours
• huswife – loose woman
• incontinent – immediately
• indues –  endows
• mazzard – head
• mountebanks – swindlers, frauds
• pioners – common soldiers
• quat  – pimple
• quillet – silly argument
• relume –  light on fire again
• salt – lewd
• sense –  feeling, sensation
• speak parrot – speak gibberish
• spleen – anger
• stomach  –  appetite
• ta’en (taken) out – copied
• traduced – insulted
• yerk’d – stabbed
• yok’d –  married

Classical allusions:

• Almain – German
• ancient – the military rank known today as “ensign”
• Anthropophagi – cannibals
• chrysolite  – precious stone
• crocodile – Shakespeare is fond of animal legends, such as the myth that the crocodile weeps after killing its prey. Today, “crocodile tears” refer to insincere displays of emotion.
• forked plague – the horns of a cuckold
• horned man  – cuckold, a man whose wife is unfaithful
• Hydra – a mythical monster with countless heads
• Janus –  Roman god with two heads, one always looking forward, one always looking back
• “liberal as the north” – as unrestrained as the north wind
• making the beast with two backs – a crude joke from Shakespeare’s day. A man making love to a woman, with his back on one side and hers on the other, resembles a strange kind of animal, making violent motions and grunting noises. “They are making the beast with two backs” means that they are having sex.
• Mauretania – the northeastern coast of Africa known today as Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria. The original home of the Moors. Not to be confused with the present-day country of Mauritania.
• mystery –  in medieval times, trades (in the sense of careers) were known as mysteries. In Act IV, Othello is simply yelling at Emilia to do her job.
• Ottomite –  same as Ottoman, the Muslim rulers of Turkey
• Pontic Sea – Black Sea
• Promethean – according to legend, Prometheus stole fire from the sun to give to humans.

Scene summary

ACT I

scene 1

Iago is jealous that  he was passed over for promotion as Othello‘s lieutenant. Knowing that Roderigo was in love with Desdemona, he convinces Roderigo to inform Brabantio that his daughter Desdemona has eloped with Othello. Brabantio assembles his followers to demand his daughter back.

scene 2

Brabantio finds Othello, who nobly and calmly defuses the situation. They agree to take their grievances to the Duke.

scene 3

Desdemona testifies that she married Othello of her own free will, so Brabantio relents. The Duke sends Othello to Cyprus to fight against the Turks, and Desdemona insists on going with him. Despite the setback, Iago conspires with Roderigo to continue their campaign against Othello.

ACT II

scene 1

Desdemona arrives in Cyprus to join the triumphant Othello. Iago convinces Roderigo that Desdemona is in love with Cassio.

scene 2

Short scene: Herald announces a victory celebration.

scene 3

Iago gets Cassio drunk, and then hints to others that Cassio has a drinking problem. He also has Roderigo pick a fight with Cassio; the sight of a drunken brawling Cassio convinces Othello, and he fires Cassio.  Even after that, Cassio still believes that Iago is his friend, and takes his advice to ask Desdemona to intercede with Othello on his behalf.

ACT III

scene 1

Cassio, with the “help” of Iago and his wife Emilia, gets permission to speak to Desdemona. 

scene 2

Short scene: Othello leaves the house to inspect the city’s defenses.

scene 3

Upon his return home, Othello agrees, out of love for Desdemona, to forgive Cassio. Even then, Iago doesn’t give up his plan. He tricks Othello into doubting Desdemona’s honesty, too. He even has Emilia steal a handkerchief that Othello had given to Desdemona, then tells Othello that he had seen Cassio with that very handkerchief. Othello believes him, and makes Iago swear that he will kill Cassio.

scene 4

Othello finds Desdemona outside Cassio’s lodging, and asks her for her handkerchief. She has to lie about not having lost it, and of course Emilia doesn’t admit that she stole it.

In fact, Iago planted it in Cassio’s room, and Cassio gives it to a prostitute named Bianca, asking her to copy the design for him. Bianca is in love with Cassio, and  jealous, thinking he got the handkerchief from another lover.

ACT IV

scene 1

Iago maneuvers Cassio into a conversation about Bianca so that Othello can overhear. When he laughs as how Bianca has fallen in love with him, Othello thinks he’s talking about Desdemona, and grows angrier still.

When Bianca arrives, she gives the handkerchief back to Cassio, and Othello sees that it is Desdemona‘s.

A party of nobles arrive from Venice to congratulate Othello. When he slaps Desdemona in front of them, they all believe Iago’s suggestion that Othello is going mad.

scene 2

Although Emilia swears that Desdemona was never alone with Cassio, Othello interrogates his wife, and doesn’t believe any of her protestations of innocence. Iago continues to play Roderigo for a fool, convincing him that if he kills Cassio, he will be able to have Desdemona for himself.

scene 3

Preparing for bed, Desdemona asks Emilia about infidelity. The innocent Desdemona can’t imagine doing such a thing to her husband; the more worldly Emilia can.

ACT V

scene 1

Iago goads Roderigo into attacking Cassio, who is protected by a chain mail jacket. He fatally wounds Roderigo in return; Iago wounds Cassio in the leg, then pretends to come to Cassio’s defense. He kills Roderigo before he can tell others what happened, and gives first aid to Cassio. Bianca cries at Cassio’s wounds; Iago preposterously suggests that she had something to do with the attack. Othello, thinking Cassio dead, heads home to do the same to Desdemona.

scene 2 

Desdemona pleads her innocence, but Othello strangles her anyway. Emilia witnesses her death, and denounces both Othello for doing the deed and Iago for inciting him to it. In the presence of  the nobles, Emilia admits stealing the handkerchief and giving it to Iago. Iago tries to silence Emilia, then suddenly kills her and tries to run away. Othello wounds Iago, then kills himself.