The Tragedy of Othello the Moor of Venice

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The Tragedy of Othello the Moor of Venice

• First lecture

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The Renaissance Studies major

• An interdisciplinary major for students
  interested in the literature, art, history, music
  of the 15th, 16th, 17th centuries. See
  ltenglish.ucsb.edu/faculty/oconnell/renstudiesgt
• Well have the occasional visit of other Early
  Modern faculty for mini-lectures.
• Prof. Jon Snyder (Italian) will talk about the
  image of Venice in the early 1600s (next
  Thursday).
• Prof. McGee (History) will talk about kingship
  and King James while were discussing Macbeth.
• Prof. Fumerton (English) will talk about ballads
  in the context of The Winters Tale.
• And if anyone is interested in learning to sing
  17th cent. Ballads, check out Music A 70B being
  taught this quarter (Tues-Thurs, 4-520 in Music
  2224) by Revell Carr, the Music Specialist for
  the Pepys Ballad Archive.

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The tragedys particular character

• The most painful of Shakespeares four great
  tragedies?
• Like the mythical old lady in the theater, we
  want to shout, Stop, you fool! Shes innocent!
• The fastest moving of the tragedies.
• With a single line of action no subplot, no
  distractions.
• And no comedy (except the opening of Act III,
  scene 1 is this a bit lame? Would we advise Sh.
  to cut this?)
• And a compressed time scheme sometimes referred
  to as a double time scheme.

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Dating, text, leading actor

• Perhaps written as early as 1603, but certainly
  by autumn of 1604 (November), when it was
  performed at court.
• But not printed until 1622 in quarto -- six
  years after Shakespeares death).
• Then a text that differs somewhat from the quarto
  was published in the First Folio of 1624.
• Folio is the better text Pelican text is edited
  from the Folio. See base Judean (F) against
  base Indian (Q) in Os final speech.
• Role of Othello was written for Richard Burbage,
  the most powerful actor of the Kings Men, and
  the greatest tragedian of his day.
• Burbage had played Hamlet and other leading roles
  for the Kings Men.

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Source

• Shakespeare got the story from a collection of
  Italian stories, the Hecatommithi (One Hundred
  Tales) of Giradi Cinthio (1565).
• Which had not been translated into English by
  1603.
• So it seems Shakespeare could read Italian. Did
  he travel to Italy in the 1580s?
• In G.C., the valiant Moor is not named. Sh.
  Invented the name Othello.
• And Iago (also not named in G.C.) has
  motivation for his actions he had been in love
  with Disdemona, but was rejected by her. His plot
  is his vengeance.
• And Disdemonas death happens differently in
  collusion with the Moor, Iago beats her with a
  sand-filled stocking, then he and the Moor make
  it appear that the ceiling has fallen on her.
• The time scheme is less compressed in G.C.
• It takes a while before the truth of the murder
  comes out.

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The Moor

• The Moor scholars have gone around and around
  about what this means.
• But it seems clear that a Moor was someone from
  North Africa.
• And the play makes clear his racial difference
  he is black Othello.
• Iago calls him an old black ram (I, 1, 97),
  Roderigo refers to him as the thick lips (I, 1,
  65), and Iago as a Barbary horse (I, 1, 110).
• Brabantio refers to the sooty bosom of such a
  thing as thou art (I, 3, 70-71).
• Moors were not a part of the London population,
  but Londoners had seen them in the embassies of
  N. African nations.
• Moors were exotic, strange, were Muslim in
  religion.
• And so racially and religiously Other from
  white, Christian Europeans.

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Othello the Moor

• But Othello has converted to Christianity.
• And devoted himself to the service of Venice.
• Im reminded of a Borges story, The warrior and
  the captive, where he tells of Droctulft, a
  Lombard warrior, who during the siege of Ravenna
  in the 6th or 8th century, went over to the Roman
  side.
• Droctulft left his own companions, who were
  attacking the city, and joined the defense of
  Ravenna converted by the beauty and symmetry of
  the Roman city. (Labyrinths, p. 128)
• Can we similarly imagine Othello, also an
  outsider, the Other, converted by the beauty and
  the civility of Venice, and so converted in
  every sense to what it represents?
• Like Droctulft for Ravenna, Othello seems to have
  a special reverence for Venice.

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Othello the Moor

• Portrayed in entirely negative terms in the first
  scene
• Hes foolish, Iago suggests,
• having chosen Cassio, a great arithmetician,
  as his officer instead of the more experienced
  Iago.
• And both Iago and Roderigo cover him with
  racially charged epithets.
• Which is tinged with a sense of sexual distaste
  or envy?
• Desdemona has been brought to the gross clasps
  of a lascivious Moor (Roderigo).
• Your daughter and the Moor are making the beast
  with two backs (Iago).
• Were led to believe that a monstrous black man
  has stolen a beautiful white girl.

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And Othellos actual appearance . .

• In I, 1?
• Quiet, confident, assured of his position with
  the signiory of Venice.
• Revealing his own aristocratic background (I
  fetch my life and being/ From men of royal siege,
  and my demerits/ May speak unbonneted . . . )
• He has married Desdemona only because of his love
  for her.
• His calm in the face of the armed crew that
  Brabantio brings.
• Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will
  rust them.
• His courtesy to Brabantio.
• How does he handle the racial animus against him?

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The Othello music

• Phrase comes from a famous essay by G. Wilson
  Knight.
• I, 3, 81-82 Rude am I in speech/ And little
  blessed with the soft phrase of peace . . .
• Hes a military man, not a poet or scholar.
• But is his speech really rude (meaning
  unpolished, ineloquent), is he really little
  blessed with the soft phrase?
• He seems to relish words, perhaps giving the
  impression of someone who has learned the
  language and loves its nuances.
• the cannibals that each other eat,/ The
  anthropophogi.
• His speech to the signiory I,3,128ff.
• Duke I think this tale would win my daughter
  too.
• See his love aria to Desdemona when they meet on
  Cyprus II, 1, 182ff.
• And Iagos reply But Ill set down the pegs
  that make this music.
• Othellos farewell to his profession III, 3,
  347ff. The poetry of his soldiering.
• Or 453, where the beauty of the lines gives a
  kind of horror to his vow of constancy in his
  bloody thoughts.
• Why give Othello such eloquence?
• And what happens to the Othello music at IV, 1,
  35ff?

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Othello and Des

• What to make of their love/marriage?
• She loved me for the dangers I had passed.
• And I loved her that she did pity them.
• And what she says at I, 3, 248-254.
• I saw Othellos visage in his mind.
• Doesnt cancel out the sexual attraction, but
  does it make it more complex, more brainy?
• Do we ever doubt the potent character of their
  love?
• Her boldness in eloping with him is clearly a
  factor in our judgment of their love.
• Shes taking an immense chance clearly no meek
  little Venetian girl.
• Each of these elements is challenged by Iagos
  formulations.
• So how do we judge the matter?