--So delicate with her needle!--An
admirable musician! O, she will sing the savageness out of a bear.--Of
so high and plenteous wit and invention."
Shakespeare himself speaks in this passage. For when has Desdemona shown
high and plenteous wit or invention? She is hardly more than a symbol of
constancy. It is Mary Fitton who has "wit and invention," and is "an
admirable musician."
The feminine tenderness in Shakespeare comes to perfect expression in
the next lines; no woman has a more enduring affection:
"
Iago. She's the worse for all this.
Oth. O! a thousand, a thousand times. And, then of so gentle a
condition!
Iago. Ay, too gentle.
Oth. Nay, that's certain:--but yet the pity of it, Iago!--O,
Iago, the pity of it, Iago!"
The tenderness shrills to such exquisite poignancy that it becomes a
universal cry, the soul's lament for traitorism: "The pity of it, Iago!
O, Iago, the pity of it!" Othello's jealous passion is at its height in
the scene with Desdemona when he gives his accusations precise words,
and flings money to Emilia as the guilty confidante.
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