Mactacio Desdemonae: Medieval Scenic Form in the Last Scene of Othello

Mactacio Desdemonae: Medieval Scenic Form in the Last Scene of Othello Cherrell Guilfoyle When he finished editing the last scene of Othello, Johnson wrote: “I am glad I have ended my revisal of this dreadful scene. It is not to be endured.”l In contrast to Shakespeare’s next use of murder in bed, the off-stage killing of Duncan in Macbeth, the murder scene in Othello may seem brutal, clumsy in staging, and overloaded with a swift succession of plot de­ velopments—the confrontation of Othello and Desdemona, the murder of Desdemona, the unmasking of Iago, the murder of Emilia, the suicide of Othello. This density of action is matched by the density of the imagery, much of which is parallel in scenic form to the mystery plays. Shakespeare is not concerned with doctrine, but he uses religious imagery to strengthen his theme of innocence and its murderers, and the scenic forms in the last scene of Othello relate to the sacrifice of the innocent, a theme recurrent in the mystery cycles. The use of arcane imagery would not appeal to Johnson’s eighteenth-century mind, nor indeed to Dryden, who had earlier accused Shakespeare of affectation and obscurity in his style “pestered with figurative expressions.” Some of the violent and proliferating action which Johnson found unendurable is linked to the development of the imagery, and that in turn illuminates the action. Dover Wilson noted “the Christian background which adds so much to the terror and sublimity of the final scene”; for Charlton, “the culminating scene . . . is wrapped about with a holy atmos­ phere of solemn sacrifice.”2 The present study is a consideration CHERRELL GUILFOYLE currently is an Honorary Research Associate in Eng­ lish at the University of Western Australia. Previous articles by Mrs. Guilfoyle on Hamlet have appeared in Comparative Drama, and she also has published in The Yearbook of English Studies, Milton Studies, Milton Quarterly, Etudes Anglaises, and The Review of English Studies. 305 306 Comparative Drama of religious imagery in this scene as one of the means whereby Shakespeare transmuted what Helen Gardner described as “Cinthio’s powerful but sordid story of a garrison intrigue”3 into high tragedy. Religious reference on the Elizabethan stage was necessarily cryptic; for political as well as for artistic reasons Shakespeare could not make it explicit. The unquestioned assumption in the mystery cycles that the literal representation on stage had another—i.e., a figural—meaning gave way to occasional ref­ erence for the purpose of pointing or illuminating a text. Shakespeare was able to use this reference both in his text and in the staging of his plays. The characters do not appear as figures, but as players assuming and changing roles in accordance with the imagery. In Othello, the ambivalence apparent in the main characters works to this end, when in the final scene they at last show up in archetypal roles, for which purpose Desdemona’s passive suffering, Othello’s transports of rage, and Emilia’s theft of the handkerchief can be seen to have been made integral parts of the image structure. There are three sets of religious images in this scene, all related to sacrifice. At first Othello speaks as Abraham, the good man responding to a righteous call to sacrifice the white figure on the bed, a symbol of the altar. When his heart is “stoned” and his violent temper erupts, he is like Cain, the wicked man as the instrument of sacrifice. At the end, there is brief reference to the ultimate betrayal, that by Judas, which led to the supreme sacrifice of innocence. It is difficult to draw verbal parallels, as most of the Coventry plays, those most likely to have been seen by Shakespeare, are lost. Parallels in scenic form are mainly derived from similarities in dramatic structure, sequence and import, but in some of the instances cited below, particularly from the Towneley cycle, there seem to be echoes of wording as well as of action.4 Before the last scene opens, Desdemona has been established as the victim—betrayed by Iago’s lies, assaulted by her husband, undressed and laid on the altar/bed for sacrifice. Her name, which...