Richard Wright (originally written in 1943), from "American Hunger," p. 77. (Harper & Row, 1977):“I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.”
________________________________________
Recently, according to habit, I was reading George Orwell. Although dead by 1955, Orwell was clairvoyant, ahead of his time in predicting the character of men and women, the behavior of politicians, the nature of media, and the quality of literature.
Orwell's prescience is not limited to his metier, political thought, but extends to the mood and sentiment of populations, like England's; subgroups, like the homeless, journalists, artists, soldiers, and politicians; the nature of mass media; and the banalities of gardening, buying used books, and weather observation.
This verisimilitude springs, in part, from the unflinching condor's gaze Orwell turns upon events, people's actions, and the forces that drive them. He is utterly unsentimental, although a perceptive and sympathetic observer of feeling, in others. Toward the end of his essay, "Why I Write," he said:
"Looking back through the last page or two, I see that I have made it appear as though my motives in writing were wholly public-spirited. I don't want to leave that as the final impression. All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery. Writing ...is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist or understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality. Good prose is like a window pane. I cannot say with certainty which of my motives are the strongest, but I know which of them deserve to be followed."
This passage brings us to the central issue of a web presence, like this one.
Professional journalists, writers, and poets of my acquaintance look with incredulity on this effort, the wholesale flushing of my original words and carefully chosen content into the great cataract of the Internet. They think, but out of exquisite politeness do not say, that either I am a fool for giving so much away, or a fool whose work is so undisciplined and poor, anyway, that I may as well do so. Or may be they dismiss me for a charlatan, taking others' work as if it were mine, recycling and obscuring and corrupting the original creations of other composers even as I prostitute my own.
Every image and every word reveals personality (or the lack of one). There is no escaping it. And furthermore, in this case, I find myself objectifying Lee, and Arin, and Colby, Robert, Claire, Michael, Jim, Tia, Paul, Mathias, Luke, Justin, Steven, and Omero. In the act of writing about them, I extract myself from that emotional union which, in current theory, binds us together, acting together. By filming and editing their impressions of their work, below (and necessarily not my own), I draw myself apart from them. In rendering them into objects of my manipulation, my craft, my depiction of the real, my blog, I capture them, imperfectly, and cast them in an amber of my technical and interpretive manufacture: flawed, narrow, and imperfect as my own character.
________________________________________A year before dying in Paris in November of 1960, Richard Wright completed 4-thousand haiku, producing an 82-pp. manuscript.
Each of the video segments which follow are prefaced with a haiku by Richard Wright, from "Haiku: This Other World." (Arcade, 1998).
________________________________________
809
Why did this spring wood
Grow so silent when I came?
What was happening?
From Karen Fort, "Director's Notes," the Chase Park Theater production of "Othello," 18 April 2008:
Virtuous women were, above all, to be chaste, silent and obedient. Today cultural norms are different, yet the occasion of a victim of domestic violence blaming herself rings eerily accurate. When Shakespeare wrote Othello, King Henry VIII had beheaded his wife Anne Boleyn within living memory, for unproven infidelity. No wonder their daughter, Queen Elizabeth, never married, and liked a story that implied that her parents loved each other, but were betrayed by another’s lies.
In much of the world, a woman’s suspected extramarital affair justifies and legalizes her murder by male relatives. In Chicago, women slain by an intimate partner numbered nearly 40 in 2007.
"Karen"
Desdemona is chaste, silent when asked who killed her, and obedient. Perhaps she chooses pacifism. But working-class Emilia, who steals the handkerchief and says she would commit infidelity, becomes morally outraged and speaks truth to powerful men, for friendship’s sake.
Othello is an old, sad, frightening story, an exploration of how jealousy can swallow us alive. It shows how race, class and gender privilege can undermine trust and faithful love. Tragedies teach by negative example, evoking our terror and pity.
The mission of Chase Park Theater, classic works for a diverse community, demands that I address this play.
________________________________________
From the website of The British Library:
...the British Library’s 93 copies of the 21 plays by William Shakespeare printed in quarto before the theatres were closed in 1642...
Othello has been dated to between mid-1601 and mid-1602. One important source for Othello was Philemon Holland’s translation of Pliny, "Historie of the World," published in 1601. There are several echoes of Othello in the first quarto of Hamlet, published in 1603. These suggest that Othello must have been written by early 1603, and probably before July 1602 when Hamlet was entered on the Stationers’ Register.
The title-page of the first quarto, published in 1622, states that the play ‘hath beene diuerse times acted at the Globe, and at the Black-Friers, by his Maiesties seruants’. Othello was played at court by the King’s Men on 1 November 1604. The play was given in Oxford in 1610. The title role was originally played by Richard Burbage, with Joseph Taylor as Iago.
Othello appeared in four editions before 1642.
First quarto, 1622. Believed to have been printed from a scribal transcript of Shakespeare’s foul papers. Othello is the first of the ‘good’ quartos of Shakespeare’s plays to divide the text into acts. The text is also among the few to have page numbers.
First folio, 1623. Believed to have been printed from a scribal transcript (probably by Ralph Crane) of Shakespeare’s fair copy of the play.
Second quarto, 1630. Printed from the first quarto, with amendments probably derived from the first folio.
Second folio, 1632. Printed from the first folio.
Othello was entered by Thomas Walkley on the Stationers’ Register on 6 October 1621. The first quarto was printed by Nicholas Okes for Walkley and appeared in 1622. Walkely transferred his copyright in Othello to Richard Hawkins on 1 March 1628. The second quarto was printed by Augustine Mathewes for Hawkins and appeared in 1630.
British Library copies of Othello containdetailed bibliographic descriptions of all the quarto copies of the play.
Shakespeare’s sources:
Several sources were particularly important for the creation of Othello.
Giambattista Cinzio Giraldi, De gli Hecatommithi (1565). Shakespeare used the 7th novella from the 3rd decade of Cinthio’s collection for the outline of the plot and much of the detail in Othello. He may have used either the Italian original, a French translation by Gabriel Chappuys published in 1583, or perhaps an English translation which has not survived.
Leo Africanus, translated by John Pory, A Geographical Historie of Africa (1600). This work perhaps influenced the character of Othello, and supplied Shakespeare with details for Othello’s description of his early life.
Map of Africa. Leo Africanus, A Geographical Historie of Africa, translated by John Pory, 1600. British Library, G.4258, plate.
Pliny the Elder, translated by Philemon Holland, The Historie of the World (1601). Shakespeare possibly used this work for the exotic details of Othello’s experience.________________________________________
Gasparo Contarini, translated by Sir Lewis Lewkenor, The Commonwealth and Gouernment of Venice (1599). Lewkenor’s work drew on a Latin text by Cardinal Contarini. Shakespeare used Lewkenor for his depiction of Venice and its ruling nobility in the first act of Othello.
Othello is set first in Venice, and then on the island of Cyprus.
(Act 1) Iago, ensign to Othello, complains that he has been passed over as Othello’s lieutenant in favour of Cassio. He and Roderigo tell Brabantio, a Venetian senator, that his daughter Desdemona has eloped with Othello, the general of the Venetian army and a Moor. Othello and Brabantio appear before the Venetian Senate, and Othello describes how he courted and won Desdemona. When she enters and takes her husband’s side against her father, Brabantio is forced to accept the marriage. Othello is posted to Cyprus, to defend the island against the Turks. Desdemona is allowed to accompany him. Roderigo, in love with Desdemona, despairs. Iago persuades him to follow her to Cyprus, and suggests he will be able to cuckold Othello.
John Gielgud as Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. 'Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors.' British Library Sound Archive, 1931.
(Act 2) Desdemona arrives in Cyprus, escorted by Iago, his wife Emilia, and Roderigo. Othello, delayed by a storm, arrives shortly afterwards and greets Desdemona lovingly. Iago tells Roderigo that Desdemona loves Cassio, and incites him to challenge Othello’s lieutenant. He plies both Roderigo and Cassio with drink and sets them fighting. Othello enters, and Iago tells him that the quarrel was begun by Cassio. Othello demotes Cassio. Iago advises Cassio to ask Desdemona to plead his case with Othello.
(Act 3) Othello comes upon Cassio asking Desdemona for her help. Iago suggests to Othello that Cassio and Desdemona may be lovers. When Desdemona appeals to Othello to help Cassio, she drops the handkerchief which was her first and greatly valued gift from her husband. Emilia picks it up and gives it to Iago. Othello, growing ever more jealous, demands that Iago give him proof of Desdemona’s infidelity. Iago tells him that she has given the handkerchief to Cassio. When Desdemona renews her pleas on behalf of Cassio, Othello asks for the handkerchief and she denies it is lost. Cassio finds Desdemona’s handkerchief in his room and, not knowing it is hers, he gives it to his mistress.
(Act 4) Iago reminds Othello that Cassio has Desdemona’s handkerchief, and suggests again that they are lovers. Othello falls in an epileptic fit. Othello looks on unseen as Iago talks to Cassio, and Desdemona’s handkerchief is returned to Cassio by his mistress. When Cassio has gone, Iago incites Othello’s jealousy further. Desdemona renews her pleas for Cassio, and Othello strikes her. Othello questions Emilia about Desdemona, but Emilia declares she is honest. When he questions Desdemona, she swears her innocence. Iago incites Roderigo against Cassio. Othello sends Desdemona to bed, and she prepares sadly for sleep.
(Act 5) Iago sets Roderigo on Cassio. They only wound each other, and Iago kills Roderigo to silence him then declares that the murderer is Cassio. Othello joins Desdemona in her bedroom. She is asleep, but wakes when he kisses her. He questions her faithfulness, but she again declares her innocence. He smothers her. When Emilia calls from outside, Othello lets her in. Desdemona stirs briefly and dies. Othello confesses that he has murdered her, and tells Emilia of Iago’s insinuations. Emilia cries out for help. When Iago enters, she accuses him of lying and tells Othello the truth. Iago kills Emilia and flees. He is captured and, when he is brought back, Othello wounds him. Cassio tells Othello of Iago’s villainy. Othello stabs himself and dies. Iago is taken away to face justice.
Amanda Mabillard, in "Othello Analysis," Shakespeare Online (19 Mar. 2000, accessed April 2008), writes, "According to the Accounts of the Master of Revels (published in 1842), Othello was performed in 1604. The full entry reads: 'By the King's Majesty's Players. Hallowmas Day, being the first of November, a play in the banqueting house at Whitehall called "The Moor of Venice."' Other evidence supports the fact Shakespeare wrote the play in or before 1604. As William Rolfe explains in his book, 'A Life of William Shakespeare':
Stokes (Chronological Order of Shakespeare's Plays) shows that it was written before 1606 by the fact that in the quarto of 1622 (i.1.4) we find the oath "S'blood" (God's blood), while this is omitted in the folio. This indicates that the quarto was printed from a copy made before the act of Parliament issued in 1606 against the abuse of the name of God in plays, etc. So "Zounds" and "by the mass" (in ii.3) are found in the quarto but not in the folio (p. 293)."In the early 20th century the most acclaimed portrayal of Othello was by Paul Robeson, the distinguished actor and civil rights advocate. Robeson won the Donaldson Award for outstanding lead performance in 1944 for Othello, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters medal in 1944, to name but a couple. James Earl Jones and Laurence Olivier have also made memorable the character of Othello. Othello has made the transition from stage to film over twenty times this century, and from stage to television at least five times. The most recent adaptation for the big screen, starring Laurence Fishborne [sic] and Kenneth Branagh, opened in 1995."
"The main source for Othello is the novella, 'The Hecatommithi,' written in 1565 by the Italian author, Cinthio. A minor source is Leo Africanus's, 'A Geographical History of Africa,'" she wrote.
Leo Africanus.Lee.
1
I am nobody:
A red sinking autumn sun
Took my name away.
I,3,473
...I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field
Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach,
Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence
And portance in my travels' history:
Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven
It was my hint to speak,—such was the process;
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline:
But still the house-affairs would draw her thence:
Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
She'ld come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse...
"Lee"
If Othello suffers from a post-traumatic disorder, then Iago sees it. Rather than use this perception for good, to save his commander, Iago chooses to use his insight to drive Othello down, and avenge being passed over for promotion, avenge being cuckolded in his marriage by Othello, avenge a life of disappointment and frustration.
Othello presents little or no resistance to temptation, is eager, excited, is, for all his protestations of faith, won over in a trice. Although Othello is torn and conflicted, as written, in the “temptation,” scene, it is arguable any man situated as Othello was would have been disturbed by Iago's news, and many men would have been made wildly jealous.
Othello behaves like a normal human being: that Othello retains beneath the surface the savage passions of his Moorish blood seems mistaken; his race and nationality is incidental, and in regard to the essentials of his character it is not important, except as to history.
Amanda Mabillard, in "Othello Analysis." Shakespeare Online (19 Mar. 2000, accessed April 2008), writes, "Othello, unlike the base Iago, is capable of forming strong, loving relationships -- his genuine friendship with Iago confirms this fact. Othello allows himself to be influenced by Iago, and allows Iago to bring out his most evil characteristics. Although Iago may be the more innately evil of the two, Othello does little to prevent his base instincts from becoming dominant."
________________________________________
From, "Leo Africanus: The Man with Many Names," by Pekka Masonen (based on a 7 November 2001 speech at the Finnish Institute in Rome [Villa Lante]):
"Shakespeare wrote Othello in 1604–5 and the first English translation of Leo’s description of Africa was published in 1600. (Lois Whitney, ‘Did Shakespeare Know Leo Africanus?’, Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, XXXVII, 1922, pp.470–83.)
"...a previously unknown Italian hand-written example of Leo’s 'Description of Africa' unexpectedly appeared in 1931 and it was purchased by the Biblioteca Nazionale in Rome. The style in this manuscript (entitled 'Cosmographia & geographia de Affrica') differs greatly from that of the Italian printed edition, but the manuscript is evidently based on the same original text written by Leo Africanus, which was later adopted by his Italian publisher. The importance of accurate geography for successful warfare was well understood at that time; hence the 'great pleasure' of Leo’s work to the Christian lords and princes.
"Ramusio’s Italian edition was reprinted in Venice five times—in 1554, 1563, 1588, 1606, and 1613..."
_______________________________________
From the Royal Shakespeare Company Web exhibition on "Shakespeare and Race:"
"How Shakespeare envisaged the racial characteristics of Othello is a matter of fierce academic debate and like so many questions about Shakespeare's thought processes we have no categorical evidence. The evidence in the play would suggest that Othello is certainly racially different to the caucasian Italians. He is disparagingly called 'thick lips,' 'an old black ram,' 'a Barbary horse,' and 'a lascivious Moor.' Othello himself states that Desdemona's name 'is now begrimed and black as mine own face.'"
________________________________________
.Arin.
75
Spring begins shyly
With one hairpin of green grass
In a flower pot.
IV,2,2917
...If e'er my will did trespass 'gainst his love,
Either in discourse of thought or actual deed,
Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any sense,
Delighted them in any other form;
Or that I do not yet, and ever did.
And ever will—though he do shake me off
To beggarly divorcement—love him dearly,
Comfort forswear me! Unkindness may do much;
And his unkindness may defeat my life,
But never taint my love...
"Arin"
From the Masterpiece Theatre website, "Essay: Adapting Shakespeare",
"Othello, Desdemona, and Iago play out a drama of race, love, passion, deception, and betrayal as relevant today as in the 17th century. Othello's ill treatment by a racist society and his internalized self-doubt continue to resonate in today's turbulent culture, both in fiction and life (as is evident in Masterpiece Theatre's modern adaptation). Othello's story transcends the color of his skin: it's the concept of the other that Shakespeare writes about, the mistrust of differences that is present in all societies. Desdemona's wifely loyalty, and the physical abuse she withstands at the hand of her jealous husband, are issues that make up today's news. And Iago's envy and treachery still echo in competitive scenarios, from high school elections to government coups."
________________________________________
.Claire.
518
Creamy plum blossoms:
Once upon a time there was
A pretty princess...
IV,3,3112
...it is their husbands' faults
If wives do fall: say that they slack their duties,
And pour our treasures into foreign laps,
Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,
Or scant our former having in despite;
Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace,
Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
Their wives have sense like them: they see and smell
And have their palates both for sweet and sour,
As husbands have. What is it that they do
When they change us for others? Is it sport?
I think it is: and doth affection breed it?
I think it doth: is't frailty that thus errs?
It is so too: and have not we affections,
Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
Then let them use us well: else let them know,
The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.
"Claire"
From the online Folger Shakespeare Library abstract of the essay, "Unpinning Desdemona:"
Denise A. Walen writes, "…At the Globe, with its practice of continuous staging, the slow, intimate action of Emilia undressing Desdemona provided an essential release from the mounting dramatic tension late in Act IV. …Considered maudlin and ridiculous, the scene eventually disappeared from performance in the nineteenth century for nearly fifty years. Changing performance practices and textual deletions created confusion about Desdemona’s role within the play by presenting a character in performance wholly at odds with the extant Folio version.”
________________________________________
According to the Website, "The Global African Presence," "Al-Hassan Ibn-Muhammad al-Wezzani was born in Granada in Spain in 1493 or 1494 of well educated and affluent Moorish parents. He probably preferred to be called al-Fasi, the man of Fez--the great seat of learning in Morocco to which he owed his education. As a young man, he became a soldier, merchant and ambassador. By the age of twenty-five he had crossed the Mediterranean Sea numerous times, and traveled in West Africa and Southwest Asia. In 1518, while crossing the Mediterranean, he was captured on an Arab galley by Christian pirates. As he was a very learned man, instead of being sold into slavery, he was presented to Pope Leo X. The Pope, very impressed by him, freed the young man, granted him a pension and secured his conversion to Christianity. At his baptism, the Pope gave him his own names, Giovanni Leone, from which he became commonly known as Leo Africanus.
"When he was captured, Leo Africanus had with him a rough draft, in Arabic, of the work which made him famous, 'The History and Description of Africa and of the Notable Things Therein Contained.' He completed this work in Italian in 1526, three years after his patron's death. In 1550, the manuscript fell into the hands of Ramusio, who published it in his collection of Voyages and Travels. Although Leo Africanus died in 1552, his work was translated into English by John Pory, a scholarly friend of Richard Hakluyt, and published in London in 1600."
________________________________________
.Colby.
303
A balmy spring wind
Reminding me of something
I cannot recall.
I,1,42
O, sir, content you;
I follow him to serve my turn upon him:
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
For nought but provender, and when he's old, cashier'd:
Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are
Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty,
Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves,
And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
Do well thrive by them and when they have lined
their coats
Do themselves homage: these fellows have some soul;
And such a one do I profess myself.
"Colby"
George Bernard Shaw once said, "'Othello,' is a play written by Shakespeare in the style of Italian opera."
Amanda Mabillard, in "Othello Analysis," Shakespeare Online (19 Mar. 2000, accessed April 2008) writes, "Although Iago's actions throughout the play are thoroughly deceitful, there is an honesty that comes with his admission. Iago knows he is a demon - and he acted according to his nature.
"Iago, when he reveals his plan to turn Cassio's courteous behavior toward Desdemona into evidence of adultery:
He takes her by the palm; ay, well said, whisper. With as little web as this I will ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. Ay, smile upon her, do: I will gyve thee in thine own courtesies. You say true, 'tis so indeed. If such tricks as these strip you out of your lieutenantry, it had been better you had not kissed your three fingers so oft, which now again you are most apt to play the sir in. Very good, well kissed, and excellent courtesy: 'tis so indeed! Yet again, your fingers to your lips? would they were clyster-pipes for your sake!"From the online Folger Shakespeare Library essay, "Iago's Clyster: Purgation, Anality, and the Civilizing Process," by Ben Saunders, "Iago turns Othello's sweet-smelling love into something less fragrant …confirmed by more than these olfactory associations. Consider Emilia's bitter comment:
"Men are all but stomachs, and we all but food:
They eat us hungerly, and when they are full
They belch us.
(3.4.105-7)
"Emilia's imagery displaces the inevitable and unmentionable consequence of ingestion upward, but the point could not be clearer: men make waste of women. Although her comment is a generalization, she has identified Iago's basic strategy with painful accuracy."
________________________________________
Mabillard, in "Othello Analysis." Shakespeare Online, included this translation of Pory:
The commendable actions and vertues of the Africans.________________________________________
The Arabians which inhabite in Barbarie or vpon the coast of the Mediterran sea, are greatly addicted vnto the studie of good artes and sciences: and those things which concerne their law and religion are esteemed by them in the first place. Moreouer they haue beene heretofore most studious of the Mathematiques, of Philosophie, and of Astrologie: but these artes (as it is aforesaid) were fower hundred yeeres agoe, vtterly destroyed and taken away by the chiefe professours of their lawe.
Likewise they are most strong and valiant people, especially those which dwell vpon the mountaines. They keepe their couenant most faithfully; insomuch that they had rather die than breake promise. No nation in the world is so subiect vnto iealousie; for they will rather leese their lives, then put vp any disgrace in the behalfe of their women. So desirous they are of riches and honour, that therein no other people can goe beyonde them.
.Steven.
721
As my anger ebbs,
The spring stars grow bright again
And the wind returns.
II,2,1116
...every man put himself into triumph; some to dance,
some to make bonfires, each man to what sport and
revels his addiction leads him...
All offices are open, and there is full
liberty of feasting from this present hour of five
till the bell have told eleven. Heaven bless the
isle of Cyprus and our noble general Othello!
"Steven"
From PBS Online, "The Givens Collection," Chapter 3.
"The son of a slave, Paul Robeson was more than an actor. He was a singer, all-American athlete, multi-lingual and a noted scholar. As an actor, Robeson's commanding presence on stage and screen added a dignity to any role he played. In his 1958 autobiography, 'Here I Stand,' Robeson wrote about the community that nurtured his creativity:
In a way, I was adopted by all these good people. Hard-working people, and poor, most of them, in worldly goods, but how rich in compassion, how filled with the goodness of humanity, and the spiritual steel forged by centuries of oppression. Here in this little hemmed-in world, where home must be theater and concert hall and social center, there was a warmth of song.________________________________________
-Paul Robeson, 'Here I Stand.'"
Amanda Mabillard, "Othello Analysis." Shakespeare Online, 19 Mar. 2000. (14 April 2008):
The following is from the translation by John Pory (1600):
________________________________________The inhabitants of the cities doe most religiously obserue and reuerence those things which appertaine vnto their religion ...it is not lawfull for them to wash certaine of their members, when as at other times they will wash their whole bodies. ...Moreouer those which inhabite Barbarie are of great cunning & dexteritie for building & for mathematicall inuentions, which a man may easily coniecture by their artificiall workes. Most honest people they are, and destitute of all fraud and guile; not onely imbracing all simplicitie and truth, but also practising the same throughout the whole course of their liues...
If any youth in presence of his father, his vncle, or any other of his kinred, doth sing or talke ought of loue matters, he is deemed to bee woorthie of grieuous punishment. Whasoeuer lad or youth there lighteth by chaunce into any company which discourseth of loue, no sooner heareth nor vnderstandeth what their talke tendeth vnto, but immediately he withdraweth himselfe from among them.
...the Moores and Arabians inhabiting Libya are somewhat ciuill of behauiour, being plaine dealers, voide of dissimulation, fauourable to strangers, and louers of simplicitie. Those which we before named white, or tawney Moores, are stedfast in friendship: as likewise they indifferently and fauourable esteeme of other nations: and wholy indeuour themselues in this one thing, namely, that they may leade a most pleasant and iocund life. ...Those which we named the inhabitants of the cities of Barbarie are somewhat needie and couetous, being also very proud and high-minded, and woonderfullly addicted vnto wrath; insomuch that (according to the prouerbe) they will deeply engraue in marble any iniurie be it neuer so small, & will in no wise blot it out of their remembrance. So rusticall they are & void of good manners, that scarcely can any stranger obtaine their familiaritie and friendship. Their wits are but meane, and they are so credulous, that they will beleeue matters impossible, which are told them. So ignorant are they of naturall philosophie, that they imagine all the effects and operations of nature to be extraordinarie and diuine. They obserue no certaine order of liuing nor of lawes. Abounding exceedingly with choler, they speake alwaies with an angrie and lowd voice. Neither shall you walke in the day-time in any of their streetes, but you shall see commonly two or three of them together by the eares. by nature they are a vile and base people, being no better accounted of by their gouernours then if they were dogs. ...No people vnder heauen are more addicted vnto couetise the this nation: neither is there (I thinke) to bee found among them one of an hundred, who for courtesie, humanitie, or deuotions sake will vouchsafe any entertainment vpon a stranger. Mindfull they haue alwaies beene of iniuries, but most forgetfull of benefites.
.Robert.
179
The summer moonlight
Gleams upon a blacksmith's forge,
And cools red embers.
II,2,790
IAGO. What are you hurt Lieutenant?
CASSIO. Aye, past all Surgery.
IAGO. Marry Heaven forbid.
"Robert"
From, "Othello, the Baroque, and Religious Mentalities," by Anthony Gilbert, Lancaster University:
"There is, I must dare to assert, no 'extraordinary promptness' in Othello's reflections on Desdemona, but a slow, anguished rational analysis based on the incontrovertible fact that Cassio had many times been Othello's intermediary when he wooed her. What would a man like Cassio be capable of in the corrupt world of Venice? He is obviously promiscuous, and unmarried. Othello can only speculate, governed by the hideous reasonableness of Iago's various general arguments."
"What is left when honor is lost?" This maxim from first century BC plays a pivotal role in Shakespeare’s play Othello. The question serves as a basis for the struggle between Othello and Iago. Both men are engaged in a battle over Othello’s honor. Iago is intent on destroying Othello’s sense of honor and reducing him to a bestial state. Iago views Othello as a beast masquerading in warrior’s dress. He wants to return Othello to what he believes to be his natural bestial state, and he realizes that to achieve this goal he must dupe Othello into violating his code of honor. Ironically, as Iago tries to unmask Othello’s bestiality, it is the beast within Iago that is exposed."
* * * * *
"...'What is left when honor is lost?' (Shakespeare's) answer comes from the mouth of Cassio: 'Reputation, reputation, reputation! / O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial' (2.3.254-256)."
________________________________________
From Website, "The 153 Club," "The 153 Club is for Sahara Desert travellers. The Club takes its name from the old, "Michelin 153," map of northwest Africa.
"Leo Africanus
"Leo Africanus was born in Granada in 1485 and died in Tunis in 1554. He was educated in Fez and travelled widely in Africa, visiting Timbuctoo twice. The following description of the town is taken from John Pory's translation of 1600 modified in places with that of Francis Moore in 1738.
All the women of this region except maidservants go with their faces covered, and sell food. The inhabitants, and especially strangers that reside there, are exceeding rich, inasmuch, that the king that now has married both his daughters unto two rich merchants. ...Salt is very scarce here; for it is brought hither by land from Tegaza, which is five hundred miles distant. When I myself was here, I saw one camel's load of salt sold for 8o ducats. The rich king of Tombuto hath many plates and sceptres of gold, some whereof weigh 1300 pounds: and he keeps a magnificent and well furnished court. ...Whosoever will speak unto this king must first fall down before his feet, and then taking up earth must sprinkle it upon his own head and shoulders: which custom is ordinarily observed by them that never saluted the king before, or come as ambassadors from other princes. He hath always three thousand horsemen, and a great number of footmen that shoot poisoned arrows, attending upon him.________________________________________
...He has such an inveterate hatred for all Jews, that he will not admit any into his city: and whatsoever Barbary merchants he understandeth have any dealings with the Jews, he immediately causeth their goods to be confiscated. ...The inhabitants are people of a gentle and cheerful disposition, and spend a great part of the night in singing and dancing through all the streets of the city: they keep great store of men and women slaves, and their town is much in danger of fire: When I was there the second time almost half the town was burnt in the space of five hours. Outside the suburbs there are no gardens nor orchards at all."
.Mathias.
422
My cigarette glows
Without my lips touching it, —
A steady spring breeze.
II,3,1343
Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger...
Of all that I do know: nor know I aught
By me that's said or done amiss this night;
Unless self-charity be sometimes a vice,
And to defend ourselves it be a sin
When violence assails us.
"Mathias"
From website, "The Perseus Digital Library Project," Pliny the Elder, "Naturalis Historia":
Chapter 26 - Scythia_______________________________________
Such is the width here of the channel which separates Asia from Europe, and which too, from being generally quite frozen over, allows of a passage on foot. The width of the Cimmerian Bosporus is twelve miles and a half: it contains the towns of Hermisium, Myrmecium, and, in the interior of it, the island of Alopece. From the spot called Taphræ, at the extremity of the isthmus, to the mouth of the Bosporus, along the line of the Lake Mæotis, is a distance of 260 miles.
Leaving Taphræ, and going along the mainland, we find in the interior the Auchetæ, in whose country the Hypanis has its rise, as also the Neurœ, in whose district the Borysthenes has its source, the Geloni, the Thyssagetæ, the Budini, the Basilidæ, and the Agathyrsi with their azure-coloured hair. Above them are the Nomades, and then a nation of Anthropophagi or cannibals. On leaving Lake Buges, above the Lake Mæotis we come to the Sauromatæ and the Essedones. Along the coast, as far as the river Tanais, are the Mæotæ, from whom the lake derives its name, and the last of all, in the rear of them, the Arimaspi. We then come to the Riphæan mountains, and the region known by the name of Pterophoros, because of the perpetual fall of snow there, the flakes of which resemble feathers; a part of the world which has been condemned by the decree of nature to lie immersed in thick darkness; suited for nothing but the generation of cold, and to be the asylum of the chilling blasts of the northern winds.
.Paul.
175
Coming from the woods,
A bull has a lilac sprig
Dangling from a horn.
I,3,548
...When remedies are past, the griefs are ended
By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended.
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone
Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
What cannot be preserved when fortune takes
Patience her injury a mockery makes.
The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief;
He robs himself that spends a bootless grief
"Paul"
From website, "The Perseus Digital Library Project," Pliny the Elder, "Naturalis Historia":
Chapter 26 - Scythia, (con't)________________________________________
Behind these mountains, and beyond the region of the northern winds, there dwells, if we choose to believe it, a happy race, known as the Hyperborei, a race that lives to an extreme old age, and which has been the subject of many marvellous stories. At this spot are supposed to be the hinges upon which the world revolves, and the extreme limits of the revolutions of the stars. Here we find light for six months together, given by the sun in one continuous day, who does not, however, as some ignorant persons have asserted, conceal himself from the vernal equinox to autumn. On the contrary, to these people there is but one rising of the sun for the year, and that at the summer solstice, and but one setting, at the winter solstice. This region, warmed by the rays of the sun, is of a most delightful temperature, and exempt from every noxious blast. The abodes of the natives are the woods and groves; the gods receive their worship singly and in groups, while all discord and every kind of sickness are things utterly unknown. Death comes upon them only when satiated with life; after a career of feasting, in an old age sated with every luxury, they leap from a certain rock there into the sea; and this they deem the most desirable mode of ending existence. Some writers have placed these people, not in Europe, but at the very verge of the shores of Asia, because we find there a people called the Attacori, who greatly resemble them and occupy a very similar locality. Other writers again have placed them midway between the two suns, at the spot where it sets to the Antipodes and rises to us; a thing however that cannot possibly be, in consequence of the vast tract of sea which there intervenes. Those writers who place them nowhere but under a day which lasts for six months, state that in the morning they sow, at mid-day they reap, at sunset they gather in the fruits of the trees, and during the night conceal themselves in caves.
.Michael.
647
Burning out its time,
And timing its own burning,
One lonely candle.
I,1,131
Sir, I will answer any thing.
"Michael"
From, "Leo Africanus: The Man with Many Names," by Pekka Masonen (based on a 7 November 2001 speech at the Finnish Institute in Rome [Villa Lante]), (con't):
"Leo’s influence did not restrict itself only in scholars. It has been suggested, for example, that Shakespeare modelled the character of Othello on the experiences of al-Hasan b. Muhammad. Similarly, Leo Africanus is said to have had an equally profound influence on Corneille and other famous seventeenth-century French writers. Nevertheless, Leo’s most astonishing appearance in European literature was his connection to the Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865–1939). From his youth Yeats was interested in mysticism and occult. In the summer of 1912 he participated in séances, in which he started making contacts with a spirit called 'Leo'. Two years later, the contact became closer and the spirit identified itself Leo Africanus and offered the poet his insights and advice. If Yeats wrote to him, Leo would respond through Yeats’s own hand. Yeats considered Leo his 'Daimon', an alter-ego and a heroic ideal. However, Leo’s influence on Yeats gradually waned and the contact ended finally by 1917."________________________________________
.Tia.
58
Heaps of black cherries
Glittering with drops of rain
In the evening sun.
V,1,3288
I am no strumpet; but of life as honest
As you that thus abuse me.
>
"Tia"
________________________________________"Tia"
Amanda Mabillard, "Othello Analysis." Shakespeare Online, 19 Mar. 2000. (14 April 2008):
The following is from the translation by John Pory (1600) (con't):
Their mindes are perpetually possessed with vexation and strife, so that they will seldome or neuer shew themselues tractable to any man; the cause whereof is supposed to be; for that they are so greedily addicted vnto their filthie lucre, that they veuer could attaine vnto any kinde of ciuilitie of good behauiour. The shepherds of that region liue a miserable, toilsome, wretched and beggarly life: they are a rude people, and (as a man may say) borne and bred to theft, deceit, and brutish manners. Their yoong men may goe a wooing to diuers maides, till such time as they haue sped of a wife. Yea, the father of the maide most friendly welcommeth her suiter: so that I thinke scarce any noble or gentleman among them can chuse a virgine for his spouse: albeit, so soone as any woman is married, she is quite forsaken of all her suiters; who then seeke out other new paramours for their liking. Concerning their religion, the greater part of these people are neither Mahumetans, Iewes, nor Christians; and hardly shall you finde so much as a sparke of pietie in any of them. ...The inhabitants of Libya liue a brutish kinde of life; who neglecting all kindes of good artes and sciences, doe wholy apply their mindes vnto theft and violence. Neuer as yet had they any religion, any lawes, or any good forme of liuing; but alwaies had, and euer will haue a most miserable and distressed life. There cannot any trechery or villanie be ijuented so damnable, which for lucres sake they dare not attempt. They spend all their daies either in most lewd practises, or in hunting, or else in warfare: neither weare they any shooes nor garments. The Negroes likewise leade a beastly kinde of life, being vtterly destitute of the vse of reason, of desteritie of wit, and of all artes. yea they so behaue themselues, as if they had continually liued in a forrest among wilde beasts. They haue great swarmes of harlots among them; whereupon a man may easily coniecture their manner of liuing; except their conuersation perhaps be somewhat more tolerable, who dwell in the principall townes and cities: for it is like that they are somewhat more addicted to ciuilitie.________________________________________
Last night, among the cigarette smoke, beer and wine, I had an epiphany.
We were watching a film. Laurence Olivier was acting in Stuart Burge's movie, "Othello," (1965) and three of us from the Chicago Parks stage production of the play were sitting around talking. Olivier was done up in eggplant-colored greasepaint, acting in front of vast, flatly-lit stage-sets that looked like something out of "Lost in Space." The 1965 TV show - not the movie.
We tried to ignore the shot composition that took every opportunity to contrast Oliver's heavily-made-up "blackness," with something-- anything-- white: his head-dress; the brightly-lit cyclorama ever-present in the background, that placed the setting somewhere between the planet Mars and Lincoln Center; Maggie Smith's face, parchment-pale, framed by the flaming red of her hair. We tried to ignore all of this, but it was impossible. Olivier, it was understood, even in the enlightened mid-60s, was an actor of such monumental stature he remained, even then, remote from the racist onus of blackface.
Seeing this repressed Englishman trying to approximate what he supposed was the affectionate, passionate, physical, equatorial familiarity of what he imagined was a 17th-century black mercenary from the Barbary Coast, Cadiz, Malaga, Oran or points east was fascinating in an anthropological way; but to many of us, the film was unwatchable.
Orwell also wrote, "I have not written a novel for seven years ["Animal Farm"], but I hope to write another fairly soon. It is bound to be a failure, every book is a failure, but I do know with some clarity what kind of book I want to write." Today's transcendent genius may be tomorrow's fool, but one cannot ignore the challenges of the controversial by making good an escape from expression, from creativity. In other words you have to write the book, to be true to yourself, even if you know it will fail.
The epiphany to which I refer was the discovery that authoring this blog seems, by its very nature, to violate-- and validate-- Orwell's advice, "one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality." Writing something as personal as this must violate his advice, but, paradoxically, does not contraindicate his idea. Creativity is always destruction; destruction of old paradigms, of error, of prejudice, of the walls of silence; dismissing the preconceptions of yesterday: shedding one's old way of acting, one's own personality, like a useless caul.
So, I will persevere. My struggle to achieve Orwell's coolness, detachment, and bloodless disdain for sentimentality and irony, both, continues apace. You may well say of my effort, here, "it does not answer to my humour," and yet I would be consoled, since like Shylock, "I am not bound to please thee with my answers."
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http://baheyeldin.com
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.bl.uk
http://www.classical.net
http://www.cwo.com
http://www.folger.edu
http://www.geocities.com/vahey_99/iago.htm?200811
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114057/externalreviews
http://www.islamunity.com/blogs/?p=53
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/othello
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/playanalysis/othello.html
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sources/othellosources.html
http://www.the153club.org/leo.html
http://www.thefreelibrary.com
http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/playcriticism.htm
http://www.eiu.edu/~ipaweb/welcome.htm
http://purl.oclc.org/emls/07-2/gilboth.htm
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Who's that? A man. Alas, what is a man?
A scuttle full of dust, a measured span
Of flitting time, a vessel tuned with breath,
By sickness broached, to be drawn out by death.
But what's that in his hand? Life's Lease, you say:
And what's a life? The flourishing array
Of the proud Summer Meadow, which today
Wears her green plush, and is tomorrow hay.
-Francis Quarles, (1592-1644)
~
səˈlæn
2 comments:
There is a full-time dramaturg in you, fighting to get out. Awesome exposition of the play.
Hey, that's great, Luke; appreciate it.
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