Giovanni Battista Giraldi

“ Now it happened at this time that the Signoria of Venice made a change in the troops whom they used to maintain in Cyprus, and they appointed the Moor commander of the soldiers whom they despatched thither. Joyful as was the Moor at the honour proffered him,—such dignity being only conferred on men of noble rank and well-tried faith, and who had displayed bravery in arms,—yet his pleasure was lessened when he reflected on the length and dangers of the voyage, fearing that Disdemona would be pained at his absence. ”

“ But Heaven, the just regarder of all hearts, willed not that so wicked a deed should go unpunished. Ere long the Moor, whom Disdemona had loved more than her own life, began to feel such sorrow at her loss, that he went wandering about, as one bereft of reason, searching in every part of the house. And reflecting in his thoughts that the Ensign had been the cause that he had lost, with Disdemona, all joy in life, he conceived so deep a hatred to that wicked man, he could not bear to set eyes on him ”

“ But since informing you, of what concerns more you than any other man, brings me so undeserved a recompense, would I had held my peace, since silence might have spared me your displeasure."
Then the Moor, burning with indignation and anguish, said, "Make thou these eyes self-witnesses of what thou tell'st, or on thy life I'll make thee wish thou hadst been born without a tongue." ”

“ On leaving the room, the Moor fell to meditating how he should put his wife to death, and likewise the Captain of the troop, so that their death should not be laid to his charge. And as he ruminated over this day and night, he could not prevent his wife's observing that he was not the same toward her as he had been wont; and she said to him again and again, "What is the matter? what troubles you? how comes it that you, who were the most light-hearted man in the world, are now so melancholy?" ”

“ Now amongst the soldiery there was an Ensign, a man of handsome figure, but of the most depraved nature in the world. This man was in great favour with the Moor, who had not the slightest idea of his wickedness; for despite the malice lurking in his heart, he cloaked with proud and valorous speech, and with a specious presence, the villainy of his soul, with such art, that he was to all outward show another Hector or Achilles. This man had likewise taken with him his wife to Cyprus, a young, and fair, and virtuous lady ”

“ With what eagerness do we regard the first studies of any of the great Masters,—tracing the elementary thoughts, their treatment, and changes under the artist's hand,—studies of nature, snatched with a passing stroke of the pencil, to be eventually immortalized in some masterpiece of art. ”

“ Now the wicked Ensign, regardless of the faith that he had pledged his wife, no less than of the friendship, fidelity, and obligation which he owed the Moor, fell passionately in love with Disdemona, and bent all his thoughts to achieve his conquest; yet he dared not to declare his passion openly, fearing that, should the Moor perceive it, he would at once kill him. He therefore sought in various ways, and with secret guile, to betray his passion to the lady. But she, whose every wish was centred in the Moor, had no thought for this Ensign more than for any other man ”

“ In the Novel, the Ensign's revenge is prompted solely by the resistance of Desdemona's virtue to his licentious arts, and is directed against her alone. She is his victim. But in the Tragedy, the motives of Iago's hatred of Othello and Cassio are of a different nature, and his vengeance sweeping, universal, black, and terrible: he uses every one in turn as a tool to effect his purpose, and all are in turn his victims; his is a pure lust of villainy and revenge, for which, it is true, the motives appear at first inadequate,—perhaps unnatural, as some critics have remarked ”

“ Had there been sufficient cause, however atrocious, for Iago to have been actuated by personal revenge, his guilt would have been simply the excess of wicked and unbridled passion; but by affixing to his conduct less natural motives, its malignity is rendered in proportion fiendlike, passionless, and instinct with guilt in its most unmixed form of "motiveless malignity." At the same time, Iago's revenge is not so entirely "inadequate and vague" as it has been represented. In the opening scene of the Play we see one chief cause of his hatred both of the Moor and Cassio ”

“ When she is dead, we can pull down a portion of the ceiling, and thus make it seem as if a rafter falling on her head had killed the lady. Suspicion can not rest on you, since all men will impute her death to accident."
This cruel counsel pleased the Moor, and he only waited for a fitting time to execute the plot. One night, when he and Disdemona had retired to bed, the Ensign, whom the Moor had concealed in a closet which opened into the chamber, raised a noise in the closet, according to a concerted plan; whereat the Moor said to his wife, "Did you not hear that noise?" ”

“ He is driven by the demon of fate to the verge of the precipice, too hurriedly to look back or to resist; bewilderment deprives him of the power of reflection, and in the rapidity of the action in the Play he is rendered the helpless tool of Iago's villainy, which Shakspere's plot required. ”

“ On each of the grounds just mentioned, the claim of this Tale to considerable merit may be admitted, apart from any invidious comparison with the infinitely grander fabric which Shakspere has erected out of its simple materials.
At the same time, a comparison of a different and more legitimate kind may be profitably drawn. The greatness of any work of art, in conception, form, and execution, serves to enhance the interest which attaches to the elements of thought out of which it arose. ”

“ At length the Ensign said, "A plan comes to my mind, which will give you satisfaction, and raise cause for no suspicion,—it is this: the house in which you live is very old, and the ceiling of your chamber has many cracks; I propose we take a stocking filled with sand, and beat Disdemona with it till she dies ”

“ But as I know the Moor is on such terms of friendship with your husband, and communicates to him all his affairs, I pray you, if you have heard from him aught that you may tell me of, fail not to befriend me. ”

“ That judgement cannot cure."
It does not however appear in the Tragedy, that Iago actually practised on the virtue of Desdemona, as he does in the Tale; for, as Mr. Knight observes, "It is a part of the admirable knowledge of human nature possessed by Shakspere, that Iago does not, even for a moment entertain the thought of tampering with the virtue of Desdemona, either through Cassio or Roderigo, or any other instrument." No, in all probability Shakspere departed in this instance from the Novel, purposely to bring this highest testimony to the virtue of Desdemona ”

“ The work from which the plot and story of Shakspere's 'Othello' are taken, belongs to that class of Italian novels which arose out of the popularity of Boccaccio's Decamerone, and was fostered by the taste prevalent in Italy during the fifteenth and sixtcenth centuries. ”

“ But being unable to do this with safety, he deprived him of his rank, and would not allow him to remain in his Company; whereat such an enmity arose between the two, that no greater or more deadly can be imagined. ”