[Footnote 86: The whole force of the passages referred to can be felt only by a reader. The Othello of our stage can never be Shakespeare's Othello, any more than the Cleopatra of our stage can be his Cleopatra.] [Footnote 87: See p. 9.] [Footnote 88: Even here, however, there is a great difference; for although the idea of such a power is not suggested by _King Lear_ as it is by _Hamlet_ and _Macbeth_, it is repeatedly expressed by persons _in_ the drama. Of such references there are very few in _Othello_. But for somewhat frequent allusions to hell and the devil the view of the characters is almost strictly secular. Desdemona's sweetness and forgivingness are not based on religion, and her only way of accounting for her undeserved suffering is by an appeal to Fortune: 'It is my wretched fortune' (IV. ii. 128). In like manner Othello can only appeal to Fate (V. ii. 264): but, oh vain boast! Who can control his fate?] [Footnote 89: Ulrici has good remarks, though he exaggerates, on this point and the element of intrigue.] [Footnote 90: And neither she nor Othello observes what handkerchief it is. Else she would have remembered how she came to lose it, and would have told Othello; and Othello, too, would at once have detected Iago's lie (III. iii. 438) that he had seen Cassio wipe his beard with the handkerchief 'to-day.' For in fact the handkerchief had been lost _not an hour_ before Iago told that lie (line 288 of the _same scene_), and it was at that moment in his pocket. He lied therefore most rashly, but with his usual luck.] [Footnote 91: For those who know the end of the story there is a terrible irony in the enthusiasm with which Cassio greets the arrival of Desdemona in Cyprus. Her ship (which is also Iago's) sets out from Venice a week later than the others, but reaches Cyprus on the same day with them: Tempests themselves, high seas and howling winds, The gutter'd rocks and congregated sands-- Traitors ensteep'd to clog the guiltless keel-- As having sense of beauty, do omit Their mortal natures, letting go safely by The divine Desdemona. So swiftly does Fate conduct her to her doom.] [Footnote 92: The dead bodies are not carried out at the end, as they must have been if the bed had been on the main stage (for this had no front curtain). The curtains within which the bed stood were drawn together at the words, 'Let it be hid' (V. ii. 365).] [Footnote 93: Against which may be set the scene of the blinding of Gloster in _King Lear_.] [Footnote 94: The reader who is tempted by it should, however, first ask himself whether Othello does act like a barbarian, or like a man who, though wrought almost to madness, does 'all in honour.'] [Footnote 95: For the actor, then, to represent him as violently angry when he cashiers Cassio is an utter mistake.] [Footnote 96: I cannot deal fully with this point in the lecture. See Note L.]