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A. C. Bradley - Shakespearean Tragedy

A >> A. C. Bradley >> Shakespearean Tragedy




From all this, then, it seems clear that the time between the arrival in
Cyprus and the catastrophe is certainly not more than a few days, and
most probably only about a day and a half: or, to put it otherwise, that
most probably Othello kills his wife about twenty-four hours after the
consummation of their marriage!

The only _possible_ place, it will be seen, where time can elapse is
between III. iii. and III. iv. And here Mr. Fleay would imagine a gap of
at least a week. The reader will find that this supposition involves the
following results, (_a_) Desdemona has allowed at least a week to elapse
without telling Cassio that she has interceded for him. (_b_) Othello,
after being convinced of her guilt, after resolving to kill her, and
after ordering Iago to kill Cassio within three days, has allowed at
least a week to elapse without even questioning her about the
handkerchief, and has so behaved during all this time that she is
totally unconscious of any change in his feelings. (_c_) Desdemona, who
reserves the handkerchief evermore about her to kiss and talk to (III.
iii. 295), has lost it for at least a week before she is conscious of
the loss. (_d_) Iago has waited at least a week to leave the
handkerchief in Cassio's chamber; for Cassio has evidently only just
found it, and wants the work on it copied before the owner makes
inquiries for it. These are all gross absurdities. It is certain that
only a short time, most probable that not even a night, elapses between
III. iii. and III. iv.

(B) Now this idea that Othello killed his wife, probably within
twenty-four hours, certainly within a few days, of the consummation of
his marriage, contradicts the impression produced by the play on all
uncritical readers and spectators. It is also in flat contradiction with
a large number of time-indications in the play itself. It is needless to
mention more than a few. (_a_) Bianca complains that Cassio has kept
away from her for a week (III. iv. 173). Cassio and the rest have
therefore been more than a week in Cyprus, and, we should naturally
infer, considerably more. (_b_) The ground on which Iago builds
throughout is the probability of Desdemona's having got tired of the
Moor; she is accused of having repeatedly committed adultery with Cassio
(_e.g._ V. ii. 210); these facts and a great many others, such as
Othello's language in III. iii. 338 ff., are utterly absurd on the
supposition that he murders his wife within a day or two of the night
when he consummated his marriage. (_c_) Iago's account of Cassio's dream
implies (and indeed states) that he had been sleeping with Cassio
'lately,' _i.e._ after arriving at Cyprus: yet, according to A, he had
only spent one night in Cyprus, and we are expressly told that Cassio
never went to bed on that night. Iago doubtless was a liar, but Othello
was not an absolute idiot.

* * * * *

Thus (1) one set of time-indications clearly shows that Othello murdered
his wife within a few days, probably a day and a half, of his arrival in
Cyprus and the consummation of his marriage; (2) another set of
time-indications implies quite as clearly that some little time must
have elapsed, probably a few weeks; and this last is certainly the
impression of a reader who has not closely examined the play.

It is impossible to escape this result. The suggestion that the imputed
intrigue of Cassio and Desdemona took place at Venice before the
marriage, not at Cyprus after it, is quite futile. There is no positive
evidence whatever for it; if the reader will merely refer to the
difficulties mentioned under B above, he will see that it leaves almost
all of them absolutely untouched; and Iago's accusation is uniformly one
of adultery.

How then is this extraordinary contradiction to be explained? It can
hardly be one of the casual inconsistencies, due to forgetfulness, which
are found in Shakespeare's other tragedies; for the scheme of time
indicated under A seems deliberate and self-consistent, and the scheme
indicated under B seems, if less deliberate, equally self-consistent.
This does not look as if a single scheme had been so vaguely imagined
that inconsistencies arose in working it out; it points to some other
source of contradiction.

'Christopher North,' who dealt very fully with the question, elaborated
a doctrine of Double Time, Short and Long. To do justice to this theory
in a few words is impossible, but its essence is the notion that
Shakespeare, consciously or unconsciously, wanted to produce on the
spectator (for he did not aim at readers) two impressions. He wanted the
spectator to feel a passionate and vehement haste in the action; but he
also wanted him to feel that the action was fairly probable. Consciously
or unconsciously he used Short Time (the scheme of A) for the first
purpose, and Long Time (the scheme of B) for the second. The spectator
is affected in the required manner by both, though without distinctly
noticing the indications of the two schemes.

The notion underlying this theory is probably true, but the theory
itself can hardly stand. Passing minor matters by, I would ask the
reader to consider the following remarks. (_a_) If, as seems to be
maintained, the spectator does not notice the indications of 'Short
Time' at all, how can they possibly affect him? The passion, vehemence
and haste of Othello affect him, because he perceives them; but if he
does not perceive the hints which show the duration of the action from
the arrival in Cyprus to the murder, these hints have simply no
existence for him and are perfectly useless. The theory, therefore, does
not explain the existence of 'Short Time.' (_b_) It is not the case that
'Short Time' is wanted only to produce an impression of vehemence and
haste, and 'Long Time' for probability. The 'Short Time' is equally
wanted for probability: for it is grossly improbable that Iago's
intrigue should not break down if Othello spends a week or weeks between
the successful temptation and his execution of justice. (_c_) And this
brings me to the most important point, which appears to have escaped
notice. The place where 'Long Time' is wanted is not _within_ Iago's
intrigue. 'Long Time' is required simply and solely because the intrigue
and its circumstances presuppose a marriage consummated, and an adultery
possible, for (let us say) some weeks. But, granted that lapse between
the marriage and the temptation, there is no reason whatever why more
than a few days or even one day should elapse between this temptation
and the murder. The whole trouble arises because the temptation begins
on the morning after the consummated marriage. Let some three weeks
elapse between the first night at Cyprus and the temptation; let the
brawl which ends in the disgrace of Cassio occur not on that night but
three weeks later; or again let it occur that night, but let three weeks
elapse before the intercession of Desdemona and the temptation of Iago
begin. All will then be clear. Cassio has time to make acquaintance with
Bianca, and to neglect her: the Senate has time to hear of the perdition
of the Turkish fleet and to recall Othello: the accusations of Iago
cease to be ridiculous; and the headlong speed of the action after the
temptation has begun is quite in place. Now, too, there is no reason why
we should not be affected by the hints of time ('to-day,' 'to-night,'
'even now'), which we _do_ perceive (though we do not calculate them
out). And, lastly, this supposition corresponds with our natural
impression, which is that the temptation and what follows it take place
some little while after the marriage, but occupy, themselves, a very
short time.

Now, of course, the supposition just described is no fact. As the play
stands, it is quite certain that there is no space of three weeks, or
anything like it, either between the arrival in Cyprus and the brawl, or
between the brawl and the temptation. And I draw attention to the
supposition chiefly to show that quite a small change would remove the
difficulties, and to insist that there is nothing wrong at all in regard
to the time from the temptation onward. How to account for the existing
contradictions I do not at all profess to know, and I will merely
mention two possibilities.

Possibly, as Mr. Daniel observes, the play has been tampered with. We
have no text earlier than 1622, six years after Shakespeare's death. It
may be suggested, then, that in the play, as Shakespeare wrote it, there
was a gap of some weeks between the arrival in Cyprus and Cassio's
brawl, or (less probably) between the brawl and the temptation. Perhaps
there was a scene indicating the lapse of time. Perhaps it was dull, or
the play was a little too long, or devotees of the unity of time made
sport of a second breach of that unity coming just after the breach
caused by the voyage. Perhaps accordingly the owners of the play
altered, or hired a dramatist to alter, the arrangement at this point,
and this was unwittingly done in such a way as to produce the
contradictions we are engaged on. There is nothing intrinsically
unlikely in this idea; and certainly, I think, the amount of such
corruption of Shakespeare's texts by the players is usually rather
underrated than otherwise. But I cannot say I see any signs of foreign
alteration in the text, though it is somewhat odd that Roderigo, who
makes no complaint on the day of the arrival in Cyprus when he is being
persuaded to draw Cassio into a quarrel that night, should, directly
after the quarrel (II. iii. 370), complain that he is making no advance
in his pursuit of Desdemona, and should speak as though he had been in
Cyprus long enough to have spent nearly all the money he brought from
Venice.

Or, possibly, Shakespeare's original plan was to allow some time to
elapse after the arrival at Cyprus, but when he reached the point he
found it troublesome to indicate this lapse in an interesting way, and
convenient to produce Cassio's fall by means of the rejoicings on the
night of the arrival, and then almost necessary to let the request for
intercession, and the temptation, follow on the next day. And perhaps he
said to himself, No one in the theatre will notice that all this makes
an impossible position: and I can make all safe by using language that
implies that Othello has after all been married for some time. If so,
probably he was right. I do not think anyone does notice the
impossibilities either in the theatre or in a casual reading of the
play.

Either of these suppositions is possible: neither is, to me, probable.
The first seems the less unlikely. If the second is true, Shakespeare
did in _Othello_ what he seems to do in no other play. I can believe
that he may have done so; but I find it very hard to believe that he
produced this impossible situation without knowing it. It is one thing
to read a drama or see it, quite another to construct and compose it,
and he appears to have imagined the action in _Othello_ with even more
than his usual intensity.




NOTE J.

THE 'ADDITIONS' TO _OTHELLO_ IN THE FIRST FOLIO. THE PONTIC SEA.


The first printed _Othello_ is the first Quarto (Q1), 1622; the second
is the first Folio (F1), 1623. These two texts are two distinct versions
of the play. Q1 contains many oaths and expletives where less
'objectionable' expressions occur in F1. Partly for this reason it is
believed to represent the _earlier_ text, perhaps the text as it stood
before the Act of 1605 against profanity on the stage. Its readings are
frequently superior to those of F1, but it wants many lines that appear
in F1, which probably represents the acting version in 1623. I give a
list of the longer passages absent from Q1:

(_a_) I. i. 122-138. 'If't' ... 'yourself:'

(_b_) I. ii 72-77. 'Judge' ... 'thee'

(_c_) I. iii. 24-30. 'For' ... 'profitless.'

(_d_) III. iii. 383-390. '_Oth._ By' ... 'satisfied! _Iago._'

(_e_) III. iii. 453-460. 'Iago.' ... 'heaven,'

(_f_) IV. i. 38-44. 'To confess' ... 'devil!'

(_g_) IV. ii. 73-76, 'Committed!' ... 'committed!'

(_h_) IV. ii. 151-164. 'Here' ... 'make me.'

(_i_) IV. iii. 31-53. 'I have' ... 'not next'
and 55-57. '_Des._ [_Singing_]' ... 'men.'

(_j_) IV. iii. 60-63. 'I have' ... 'question.'

(_k_) IV. iii. 87-104. 'But I' ... 'us so.'

(_l_) V. ii. 151-154. 'O mistress' ... 'Iago.'

(_m_) V. ii. 185-193. 'My mistress' ... 'villany!'

(_n_) V. ii. 266-272. 'Be not' ... 'wench!'

Were these passages after-thoughts, composed after the version
represented by Q1 was written? Or were they in the version represented
by Q1, and only omitted in printing, whether accidentally or because
they were also omitted in the theatre? Or were some of them
after-thoughts, and others in the original version?

I will take them in order. (_a_) can hardly be an after-thought. Up to
that point Roderigo had hardly said anything, for Iago had always
interposed; and it is very unlikely that Roderigo would now deliver but
four lines, and speak at once of 'she' instead of 'your daughter.'
Probably this 'omission' represents a 'cut' in stage performance. (_b_)
This may also be the case here. In our texts the omission of the passage
would make nonsense, but in Q1 the 'cut' (if a cut) has been mended,
awkwardly enough, by the substitution of 'Such' for 'For' in line 78. In
any case, the lines cannot be an addition. (_c_) cannot be an
after-thought, for the sentence is unfinished without it; and that it
was not meant to be interrupted is clear, because in Q1 line 31 begins
'And,' not 'Nay'; the Duke might say 'Nay' if he were cutting the
previous speaker short, but not 'And.' (_d_) is surely no addition. If
the lines are cut out, not only is the metre spoilt, but the obvious
reason for Iago's words, 'I see, Sir, you are eaten up with passion,'
disappears, and so does the reference of his word 'satisfied' in 393 to
Othello's 'satisfied' in 390. (_e_) is the famous passage about the
Pontic Sea, and I reserve it for the present. (_f_) As Pope observes,
'no hint of this trash in the first edition,' the 'trash' including the
words 'Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without
some instruction. It is not words that shake me thus'! There is nothing
to prove these lines to be original or an after-thought. The omission of
(_g_) is clearly a printer's error, due to the fact that lines 72 and 76
both end with the word 'committed.' No conclusion can be formed as to
(_h_), nor perhaps (_i_), which includes the whole of Desdemona's song;
but if (_j_) is removed the reference in 'such a deed' in 64 is
destroyed. (_k_) is Emilia's long speech about husbands. It cannot well
be an after-thought, for 105-6 evidently refer to 103-4 (even the word
'uses' in 105 refers to 'use' in 103). (_l_) is no after-thought, for
'if he says so' in 155 must point back to 'my husband say that she was
false!' in 152. (_m_) might be an after-thought, but, if so, in the
first version the ending 'to speak' occurred twice within three lines,
and the reason for Iago's sudden alarm in 193 is much less obvious. If
(_n_) is an addition the original collocation was:

but O vain boast!
Who can control his fate? 'Tis not so now.
Pale as thy smock!

which does not sound probable.

Thus, as it seems to me, in the great majority of cases there is more or
less reason to think that the passages wanting in Q1 were nevertheless
parts of the original play, and I cannot in any one case see any
positive ground for supposing a subsequent addition. I think that most
of the gaps in Q1 were accidents of printing (like many other smaller
gaps in Q1), but that probably one or two were 'cuts'--_e.g._ Emilia's
long speech (_k_). The omission of (_i_) might be due to the state of
the MS.: the words of the song may have been left out of the dialogue,
as appearing on a separate page with the musical notes, or may have been
inserted in such an illegible way as to baffle the printer.

I come now to (_e_), the famous passage about the Pontic Sea. Pope
supposed that it formed part of the original version, but approved of
its omission, as he considered it 'an unnatural excursion in this
place.' Mr. Swinburne thinks it an after-thought, but defends it. 'In
other lips indeed than Othello's, at the crowning minute of culminant
agony, the rush of imaginative reminiscence which brings back upon his
eyes and ears the lightning foam and tideless thunder of the Pontic Sea
might seem a thing less natural than sublime. But Othello has the
passion of a poet closed in as it were and shut up behind the passion of
a hero' (_Study of Shakespeare_, p. 184). I quote these words all the
more gladly because they will remind the reader of my lectures of my
debt to Mr. Swinburne here; and I will only add that the reminiscence
here is of _precisely the same character_ as the reminiscences of the
Arabian trees and the base Indian in Othello's final speech. But I find
it almost impossible to believe that Shakespeare _ever_ wrote the
passage without the words about the Pontic Sea. It seems to me almost an
imperative demand of imagination that Iago's set speech, if I may use
the phrase, should be preceded by a speech of somewhat the same
dimensions, the contrast of which should heighten the horror of its
hypocrisy; it seems to me that Shakespeare must have felt this; and it
is difficult to me to think that he ever made the lines,

In the due reverence of a sacred vow
I here engage my words,

follow directly on the one word 'Never' (however impressive that word in
its isolation might be). And as I can find no _other_ 'omission' in Q1
which appears to point to a subsequent addition, I conclude that this
'omission' _was_ an omission, probably accidental, conceivably due to a
stupid 'cut.' Indeed it is nothing but Mr. Swinburne's opinion that
prevents my feeling certainty on the point.

Finally, I may draw attention to certain facts which may be mere
accidents, but may possibly be significant. Passages (_b_) and (_c_)
consist respectively of six and seven lines; that is, they are almost of
the same length, and in a MS. might well fill exactly the same amount of
space. Passage (_d_) is eight lines long; so is passage (_e_). Now,
taking at random two editions of Shakespeare, the Globe and that of
Delius, I find that (_b_) and (_c_) are 6-1/4 inches apart in the Globe,
8 in Delius; and that (_d_) and (_e_) are separated by 7-3/8 inches in
the Globe, by 8-3/4 in Delius. In other words, there is about the same
distance in each case between two passages of about equal dimensions.

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 manuscripts to judge of its plausibility.




NOTE K.

OTHELLO'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 Othello'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 Cassio,
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 Othello 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 Othello was a black soldier
of fortune.

2. We learn from the lines just quoted that Cassio used to accompany
Othello in his visits to the house; and from III. iii. 93 f. we learn
that he knew of Othello'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 Othello (I.
i. 158 f.), Cassio, even if he knows where to find Othello (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 Cassio does know, and only pretends ignorance
because he has not been informed by Othello that Iago also knows. And
this idea is consistent with Iago's apparent ignorance of Cassio's part
in the courtship (III. iii. 93). And of course, if this were so, a word
from Shakespeare to the actor who played Cassio 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 Cassio Othello's confidant, and that, after writing
Act III., he neglected to alter the passage in Act I. In that case the
further information which Act III. gives regarding Othello's courtship
would probably also be an after-thought.




NOTE L.

OTHELLO IN THE TEMPTATION SCENE.


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

Salvini played this passage, 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, Othello
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 passage 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 _OTHELLO_, 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 Othello; for, on the one hand,
Othello, 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 Othello of
everything that would madden him again, but to do so by professing to
make light of the whole affair, and by urging Othello 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 Cassio, 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, Cassio boasted to me
in so many words of his conquest. [Here he is interrupted by Othello'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 Othello 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 Othello's exclamation 'O Iago, the pity of it,' and this
is perhaps the moment when we most of all long to destroy Iago.

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