Othello any knowledge or experience in such matters to
fall back on, he might anchor to that, and become definitely either the
trusting husband or the Spartan judge. But as it is, he is whirled
back and forth in a maelstrom of agonized doubt, until compass,
bearings, and wisdom lost, he ends all in universal shipwreck.

The character of Iago is one of the subtlest studies of intelligent
depravity ever created by man. Ostensibly his motive is revenge; but
in reality his wickedness seems due rather to a perverted mental
activity, unbalanced by heart or conscience. As Napoleon enjoyed
manoeuvring armies or Lasker studying chess, so {184} Iago enjoys the
sense of his own mental power in handling his human pawns, in feeling
himself master of the situation. If he ever had natural affections,
they have been atrophied in the pursuit of this devilish game.

With Desdemona the feminine element, which had been negligible in
_Julius Caesar_ and thrown into the background in _Hamlet_, becomes a
prominent feature, and remains so through the later tragedies. There
is a pathetic contrast between the beautiful character of Desdemona and
her undeserved fate, just as there is between the real nobility of
Othello and the mad act by which he ruins his own happiness. For that
reason this is perhaps the most touching of all Shakespeare's tragedies.

+Date+.--The play was certainly published after 1601, for it contains
several allusions to Holland's translation of the Latin author Pliny,
which appeared in that year. Malone, one of the early editors of
Shakespeare, says that _Othello_ was acted at Hallowmas, 1604. We not
know on what evidence he based this assertion; but since the metrical
tests all point to the same date, his statement is generally accepted.
The First Quarto did not appear until 1622, six years after Shakespeare
died and one year before the appearance of the First Folio. This was
the only play published in quarto between Shakespeare's death and 1623.
There are frequent oaths in the Quarto which have been very much
modified in the Folio, and this strengthens our belief that the
manuscript from which the Quarto was printed was written about 1604,
for shortly after that date an act was passed against the use of
profanity in plays.

+Sources+.--The plot was taken from Giraldi Cinthio's _Hecatommithi_
(seventh novel of the third decade). A French translation of the
Italian was made in 1583-1584, and this Shakespeare