The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-01-01

evil prevails so far as evil can ever
prevail. We pity and tremble and are
cbastened
Can anything new be said about this
stupendous work? For 100 years now
learned critics and lovers of Shake
speare, from Schlegel and Coleridge to
George Brandes and Sidney Lee, have
given US the results Of their studies
upon the subject in all its phases. As
we turn from the survey of the mass Of
writings that have gathered about the
play we are apt to feel as though there
were nothing more, either wise or fool
ish left to be said. The better we know
the piece the more we are likely to feel
with DR. Johnson that "the beauties Of
this play impress them selves so strong
ly upon the attention of the reader that
thew can draw no aid from critical IL
lustration"; and perhaps the most help
full advice one can give is, TO read, and
to reread, and to read again. For one
to attempt to summarize, abridge or IN
terpret plecemeal for another, seems al
NEST an impertinence.
IN plot structure "Othell3" shares
with "CorioIanus" the distinction Of
being the most symmetrical and evenl--
sustained OF the authors works. kne
explanation Of this in the case in hand
may be seen in the nature Of the theme
and in the form of the original story.
In Cinthio's tale the plot is simple and
the characters are few Only one or
his persons bears n name CDisde-
mona" the ill-starTed). Shakespeare
selects names for the others, and in
place of the wife's relatives" puts
BrabanitiO. To this small group he
adds the dupe Roderigo, a creature Of
his own invention and to what inn
portant use he puts him in bringing
out the real nature Of IagO is speedily
apparent. In their first words together
we early discover the eternal villain,
''the busy and insinuating rogue" as
he acts out his dastardly plans. Not
less clearly appears the noble, unsus-
pecting, free and open nature of his
victim, the Moor The lines of attack
are worked out with precision, and the
nature Of the struggle is plainly fore
Swallowed. In spite of all his efforts to
escape the hero is gradually but Sc
curely entoiled. and the plot proceeds
with steady and relentless movement
to the tragic close. The climax or
height of enlargement is reached in
the third act. and the curtain quickly
falls upon the catastrophe in the fifth.
There is no digressiOn; scene follows
scene uninterruptedly and remOTseless-
". No explanations Of the awful con-
sequences are offered; no moral drawn.
Let the student compare the finished
play with the italian original (given IN
full in Furness0 and learn once for all
how Shakespeare handled his materials.
In character development this play
is again somewhat exceptional among
our authors works. The time is too
short for growth. OthellO, indeed, ap-
pears a very different man at the end
from what he was at the opening OF
the play, but the change is mostly due,
not to any growth in character, but
merely to the rousing OF passions al
ready dormant in his breast. The IN
folding Of character, however, seen in
all the principal persons Of the plot,
has nowhere been surpassed.
As a stage play "OthellO'' has always
been a favorite with the public and
with the profession. All the great &C
tors of modern times, from Burbage to
the elder Salvini, have appeared in it,
several Of them with WOrid--enOwned
success. Of the last it was common to
9ay that he did not play Othello; that
he was Othello. A Ike judgment gas
passed upon Edmund Kean by his con-
In studying any work Of Shake
speares we do we'll to remember that
ne wrote for a London audience, and
hat he was thoroughly English. ESpec- |
ally do we need to keep this in mind
when confronted with the mass Of an
iaua-ian and other matter that has
been literally piled upon his pays in /
'ecent years, much of which serves to /
larken rather than to elucidate their /
meaning. We are not to suppose, for /
Example, that in writing Hamlet he /
AIRED much for Danish customs as /
ucs: or in writing ''Ceriolanus' for the 1
ife of prehistoric Rome. For romantic !
purposes his scenes were generally laid /
n remote places or distant times, or /
10Th, and he preserves in varying de- I
,ree the local coloring of his sources. /
This, however. is often little more than +
. matter Of names. In his Italian and 4
scotch scenes he has preserved more /
ully than elsewhere the local atmOs- /
here. and from this it has been claim /
d that he must have visited those /
Ountries in person. However that may
,e. as he wrote for an English audience I
nd in the English tongue, he natur-
lily made his characters men and i
gonien not too foreign to English
Hood. Accordingly, Theseus becomes
n English aobleman. Hamlet an Eng
sh prince. DesdemOna an English
fife. Even his supernatural characters
re English English fairies dwell in
Athsaian groves, and English witches
n the blasted heath OF Scotland.
Does this rule hold for Othelio2
Tot & few critics. following the lead of
I. ". Schlegel, have maintained that
Dthello can only be understood in the
ght of his racial peculiarities. We
ecognize in Othello saws Schlegei