...pp. 1o7-31. The threads of this argument may recall Othello's own confusion in the temptation scene: I think my wife be honest, and think she is not; I think that thou art just, and think thou art not. (3.3.385 86} I think this play is racist, and I think it is not. But Othello's example shows me that...

...shouldst be honest. IAGO I should be wise; for honesty's a fool And loses that it works for. OTHELLO By the world, I think my wife be honest, and think she is not; I think that thou an just, and think thou art not. I'll have some» proof. Her name that was as fresh As Dian's visage...

...that killed her. Emilia: O, the more angel she, And you the blacker devil, (v. ii. 131-2) . . . My name, that was as fresh As Dian's visage, is now begrim'd, and black As mine own face . . . (ill. iii. 392—4) 'My name' is the Folio reading; the second Quarto has '//ornarne', and Othello...

...shouldst be honest. 430 lago I should be wise; for honesty's a fool And loses that it works for. Othello By the world, I think my wife be honest, and think...think that thou art just, and think thou art not. 435 I'll have some proof. Her name that was as fresh As Dian's visage is now begrimed and black As...

...despair, about himself and his entire race: Her name, that was as fresh As Dian's visage, is now begrimed and black As mine own face. If there be cords or knives, Poison or fire or suffocating streams, I'll not endure it. (3.3.388-93) Though emphatic, this last sentence fails to clarify whom he intends...

...moral value and skin color is anticipated by Othello's tangled premonition: "I'll have some proof, my name, that was as fresh / As Dian's visage, is now begrim'd, and black / As mine own face." Othello's color is not only ocular proof but also verbal proof against himself. Every time he tries...

...and to Desdemona's body, Othello can come up with no term of comparison other than his own face ("My name, that was as fresh / As Dian's visage, is now begrim'd, and black / As mine own face" [S.3.392-94]).5 Othello's "discovering" that his blackness is a stain — a stain specifically associated...

...shouldst be honest. IAGO I should be wise; for honesty's a fool, 380 And loses that it works for. OTHELLO By the world, I think my wife be honest, and think...Her name that was as fresh As Dian's visage, is now begrimed and black As mine own face. If there be cords, or knives, Poison, or fire, or suffocating...

...bereits jegliche Sicherheit in seinem Urteil über die Menschen, die ihm nahestehen, verloren hat. I think my wife be honest, and think she is not, I...just, and think thou art not; I'll have some proof: ... (III, 3, 390-392) ... ich glaube, meine Frau ist ehrbar und glaube, sie ist es nicht; ich glaube,...

..."think" becomes a selfwounding thing in Othello's mouth: "I do not think but Desdemona's honest" (229); "I think my wife be honest, and think she is not,...think that thou art just, and think thou art not" (387-88). "Think" itself becomes an obscenity in such lines — though of a sort that no censorship...