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

to the real significance of this marvel
/ Gus presentation of universal fact, as
/ mysterious as il is universal the pres
/ ence in the world Of malignant and
deadly forces in human shape, and the
! consequent danger that threatens. We
may almost say is inherent in, the pos
! session Of the nOblest virtues
/ Does the wickedneSs of IagO pass be-
lief? We should be glad to think so;
/ and yet our desire to think so may
/ blind US to the real truth about wicked
men, as the simplicity Of DesdemOna
/ and OthellO closed their eyes to the
real nature Of their adversary. That
, cold, calculating, serpentlike intellect
uality, which considers truthfulness
/ folly and virtue a fig, Is still present in
; thu world in which we live. st. Paul
I found it in his day; Shakespeare had
evidently encountered it; the scripture
I paradox, BE We wise as serpents and
harmless as doves" points to its ex-
( isteEce. Yet, bad as Iago is. true TO
human nature even in it's most william
Gus form, he goes seeking for motives
to justify his diaboliCal schemes. The
Moor had passed him by unjustlyr' In
this connection CoIeridgefs weII-woTn
phrase" the mOtive-hunting Of a
motiveless malignity do duty
once more.
Was Othello a blackamoor? We have
no means Of knowing how Burbagc
presented the character; but from the
elegy written upon him at the time Of
his death we may infer that this was
his greatest triumph
But let me not forget one ehiefest part
Wherein. beyond the rest. he moved the
The grieved Moor made jealous by a
slave,
Who sent mis- wife to fiji a tin1eless grave,
Then slew himself upon the bloody bed
The language of the play seems to
make Othello black not tawny. One
passage especially leaves room for lit
tie doubt on this peint:
Her name, that was as fresh
As dams visage, is now begrim'd and
AS mine own face" Oil, 3. sss-sSs.)
Throughout the eighteenth century,
from BGttertOn to Kemble, he was uni
fOrmly so represented upon the English
stage, and generally in the scarlet uni
form of a British officer. Garrick so
played the part. The elder Kean (1S14)
was the first to break the tradition in
this case. as in the case of Shylock,
and acted the part as tawny Moor.
His example has been generally fOl-
lowed from that day to this.
The question Of color divides Itself
int two parts-what was Shakes
paare's intention? and what is most
effectives on the modern stage? On the
second point we may safely assume
that the lighter coIor is the only one
acceptable to the audience Of today.
Did Shakespeare himself consider the
matter important? In Cinthios tale
the wicked ensign urges the blackness
(nerezza) of the Moor as a reason for
40 eli 4
husband. Did the poet take this liter
ally and think it not worth while to
modify it. or did he deliberately choose
to startle US by another of those dar-
ing contrasts which approach the very
limits Of probability, such as the WOO
ing of Anne in Richard ILL.," or the
opening scene Of Lear o. Hamlet's
cruelty to Ophelia2 Christopher North
held to the latter opinion and argued it
with no little persuasiveness. Black
is the utter antithesis.' PITY for the
contrast and the thought of the I'M
nense love that has overcome it"
Every jot of SCOT you take from his
complexion you take an iOta from the
signified power of love" Such are his
words; but he tempeTs them with the
reflection that ION the stage some con-
seriousness that everything, is not as
literally meant as it seeans-that SYM
bols of humanity, and not actual men
and women, are before you-saVes the
play" wilson's view ds50) had been
anticipated by Charles Lamb OSf1) in
his delightfully."- semi -qufzzical essay
''On the Tragedies Of Shakespeare
The love of Desdsmona for Othello is
there cited as an illustration of the
perfect triumph Of virtue over acct
dents, of the imagination. over the
senses But while he justifies this in
a reading play. he objects to its visual
presentation upon the stage
Was Othello jealous? Coleridge
argued, with his usual subtlety, that
he was not. The answer TO the ques-
ton depends upon our definition of the
term. Othello is certainly not such a
Jealous man as was Le0ntes. We COM
monty associate with the word the ele-
ment of morbid distruff. Othello was
clearly not Jealous in this baser sense.
He is wholly unsuspecting at first
lagos insinuations surprise and
brighten him.
Therefore these stops Of thine fright me
the more
He does not welcome distrust: he
fights against it. Yet his suspicious
are finally aroused and confirmed by |
of fate, and his great /
heart is fired and torn by the pains of |
jealousy This he himself realized /
when it was too late; and perhaps the |
best answer to ouf question after all, |
is that given in his own words
zone not easily jealous. but. being
Psrnlexssi in the extreme"