Page:The Moor of Venice.djvu/25

14 beyond the pale of art; the character of Othello may be in itself perfect,—faultless; and yet, when a nationality is affixed to it, it may violate the physical and moral laws of nature displayed in the distinction of races. This is a very minor point of mere speculation, not of criticism; still it is open to discussion. The novelist speaks of the blackness (negrezza) of the Moor, and that Shakspere had the outward figure of a black present to his thoughts appears more than probable, from numerous allusions in the Play;—such as "thick lips," "devil," "sooty-bosom," "more fair than black." "Haply for I am black," Othello says expressly; and again, "My name is now begrimed and black, as mine own face." Nothing can be more conclusive than these expressions, and the tradition of the Stage (there is reason to believe) has uniformly represented Othello as a black from Shakspere's day to the present. Nevertheless, this in no degree affects the character of the Moor, for the reasons just stated.

It is needless to remark on the differences in the concluding portion of the Tragedy and Novel; amongst others, Shakspere has omitted the Ensign's accusation of the Moor to the Senate: Iago's vengeance on Othello had reached its culminating point, and his task of villainy was perfected; to have afterwards repeated his revenge in a mitigated form would have marred the structure of the drama,—the epos perfected, the curtain falls.