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moment returned; full of tormenting distrust, he ran hastily to see who the stranger was: the Captain fled. The enraged General darted to the apartment of his wife, and it was impossible to convince him that she uttered truth, when the innocent Desdemona declared her ignorance of the person who had been knocking at the door. The Moor restrained his passion, for he was resolved to take no decisive measures till he had consulted his wicked confederate.

The villain was now prepared with a new device. He placed the Moor in a situation where he could see, but not hear, the Captain and himself. They talked on indifferent subjects; but the Lieutenant contrived by signs and gestures to impress the jealous husband with the idea, that they were jesting at his dishonour; an impression the Lieutenant afterwards confirmed by relating a feigned confession of the Captain, that, at their last interchange of endearments, Desdemona had presented him with a handkerchief given her by her husband on the day of their marriage. Positive proof now appeared attainable, and the Moor immediately hastened to demand of Desdemona the production of his handkerchief. Having missed it for some time, the lady blushed and was confused while she endeavoured to evade further question.

Every suspicion of her lord was soon afterwards ripened into certainty by his beholding the gift of love in the hand of the Captain's courtezan. The Moor was now resolutely bent on the murder of Desdemona, and, by intreaties and bribes, induced the Lieutenant to execute a similar vengeance on her supposed paramour. The Lieutenant attacked him as he returned from a visit to his mistress, and with one blow cut off his leg. The cries of the wounded man speedily brought assistance. Fearing discovery, the Lieutenant fled, but immediately returning by another road, mingled with the crowd, and lamented the misfortune of his brother officer with fraternal solicitude.

The news of this event quickly reached Desdemona her natural expressions of regret were interpreted into a conclusive proof of her guilt, and the jealous monster immediately sought the Lieutenant, to concert the means of putting her to death. Poison and the dagger were proposed and rejected: they beat her to death with a bag of sand, and breaking down a beam in the ceiling, placed it as if it had fallen by accident and killed her. No doubts were entertained of the cause of Desdemona's death, and the perpetrators of the horrid deed appeared secure from discovery. And now the resentment of the

Moor expired, and love for the innocent victim of his jealousy resumed its empire in his breast. The Lieutenant became odious to his sight, and he shortly deprived him of his command to rid himself of his reproachful presence. Exasperated by such treatment the villain sought revenge. He disclosed the murder of Desdemona, and cleared himself from its guilt by relating that the Moor had in vain endeavoured, by the promise of great rewards, to seduce him into a participation in his crime. The Moor was arrested, carried to Venice, and publicly tried. Persisting in a denial of the deed, he was put to the rack, but the utmost torment forced no confession from his lips. He was remanded to prison, and some time after dismissed into exile, where the relations of Desdemona procured his assassination.

The punishment of the Lieutenant resulted from his perseverance in crime: he accused one of his companions of an attempt to bribe him to the commission of murder: the gentleman was seized and racked, but denied the fact so resolutely, and laid open so much of the depravity of the Lieutenant, that the accuser was in his turn tortured, and, with such extreme severity, that he died while he was being taken from the wheel.

We immediately perceive that Shakspeare's drama is founded on the novel of Cinthio: it remains to compare them with each other, and a more commodious method of doing so cannot, perhaps, be found than the selection of the character of Iago for minute examination. Iago is the master-spirit from whom the action of the drama emanates; and in following him through his devious path, and tracing the mazes of his intricate policy, occasions will present themselves for the notice of every important point of accordance and dissimilarity between the play of Shakspeare and the tale of Cinthio."

The outset of the tragedy is marked by a singular deviation from the novelist. The Lieutenant in the tale very naturally continues in the service of the Moor for the sake of the opportunity of corrupting the virtue of Desdemona. Her disregard of his passion changes his love into hatred, and the gratification of his new, and equally powerful, feeling is only to be accomplished by his adherence to the Moor. Except as a means of vengeance on Desdemona, the infliction of pain upon the Moor forms no part of the Lieutenant's design.

But the object of Iago's hatred is Othello; a change creating a necessity for the assigning of new motives for the villain's conduct. Shak

speare did not overlook the circumstance, but has not altogether succeeded in meeting the difficulty satisfactorily. Iago's motives for hatred are the refusal of the Moor to appoint him to an office previously promised to another, and the general rumour that he had been too familiar with his wife:

"I know not if't be true;

But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will do, as if for surety."*

It is surely straining the matter beyond the limits of probability to attribute Iago's detestation of Othello, whom he hated as he did "hell pains," to causes so inadequate and vague; and to suppose that, for no better reasons, he followed him to put him to "a jealousy so strong that judgment cannot cure," and thence drive him to the commission of murder. Except as a means of accomplishing his vengeance on Othello, the destruction of Desdemona forms no part of Iago's design.

Unwilling entirely to reject the incident of the villain's love of Desdemona, Shakspeare makes Iago contemplate the seduction of Desdemona in retaliation for a similar injury

* Act I. sc. 3.

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