Desdem

George Washington University
Unpinning Desdemona Author(s): Denise A. Walen Reviewed work(s): Source: Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 4 (Winter, 2007), pp. 487-508 Published by: Folger Shakespeare Library in association with George Washington University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4625012 . Accessed: 16/03/2013 14:41
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Unpinning Desdemona
DENISEA. WALEN the quarto(1622)and OF THE MORE STRIKING DIFFERENCES between ONE that is in the scene textsof Othello the FirstFolio
it portrays an activeandtragically characters. deeplyinto herfeelings, By delving nuancedDesdemonaand raisesempathyfor her with its psychological expos6. F also containsa surprisingly Emilia,who defends insightfuland impassioned of wivesagainstthe ill usagethey sufferat the handsof theirhusthe behavior structureof the longerF bands.In contrast,Q, while it retainsthe narrative
(1623) presages (4.3) herforbed.While herandprepares undresses as Emilia murder Desdemona's theWillowSong,Q clips 112 linesthatinclude a leisurely F unfolds through Thesetwo versions half.1 the scene 62 with by nearly only lines,cutting along F presents both Desdemona and Emiliaas complex also differthematically.
both of thewomen alters thecharacterization scene, bypresenting significantly astheshalasthepatient Griselda andEmilia Desdemona as one-dimensional:
low,saucymaid.This essayoffersa theoryto explainwhy the two versionsof
thisscenediffer so greatly. the questions The excellent workthat debates posedby F and Qtexts the textualissuesthey and focuseson their manydifferences complicated
raise. Lookingmore closelyat a single difference-that occurringat the end on the of Act 4-raises intriguingpossibilitiesaboutthe texts. Concentrating the curiousissuesof stagingin that sceneis evenmoreenlightening, especially will of Desdemona.This essay analyze questionsabout Emilia's"unpinning"
Research Fundingto carryout this researchcame from a Mellon FacultyEnhancement Awarddistributed Library, espeby VassarCollege.I thankthe staffof the FolgerShakespeare and othermaterial discussedin with the promptbooks ciallyGeorgianna Ziegler,for assistance on an earlyversionof this this essay.Thanksare also due to Alan C. Dessen for commenting for Shakespeare for their and article,the anonymousreviewers thoughtfulcritiques, Quarterly my colleagueHolly Hummel.I must creditthe workof my seminarstudentsin "Shakespeare in Performance" at VassarCollegeduringthe springof 2006 for stimulating my interestwith excellent essayson the topic. 1 In this article, citationsof Q followScott McMillin,ed., TheFirstQuartoof Othello (CamUP, 2001); here,see esp. 130-33. Quotationsfromthe FirstFolioarefrom bridge: Cambridge TheFirstFolioof Shakespeare, Basedon Foliosin the Folger TheNortonFacsimile: Shakespeare Collection, prep.CharltonHinman,2d ed. (New York:Norton, 1996), and are cited Library in the text by through-line number(TLN). For the Folio renditionof Othello 4.3, see pages 841-42.
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original staging practices in order to argue that Othello4.3 was edited when the company moved into the Blackfriars and that this editing had disastrous consequences for the scene and for the character of Desdemona. While the textual history of Othellois fraught with complex questions, one principal concern that impacts this argument revolves around whether F was revised and expanded or whether Q was edited and reduced.2 Scott McMillin augmented Alice Walker's theory that Qoriginated from a version of the script the company used in production. Walker argued that Q is an obviously inferior work, based on an acted version of the play that was compiled from memory by a bookkeeper, and that it suffers from the "insensitive effort"3of an unreliable transcriber, along with the corrupting influence of actors who cut the text for presentation, peppered it with vulgarizations, and forgot or extemporized lines. McMillin contended, instead, that both the F and Q texts derived from separate performance scripts. He blamed "scribalmishearings" for many of the variations between the texts, hypothesizing that the scribe preparing Q for printing was listening to the play, taking dictation from either a performance or an oral reading.4However, McMillin maintained that both F and Q are important as discrete acting versions of the play, which suggests that in order to understand the two texts, authorial intention may be less important
2 Thosewho argue in favor of expansion NevillCoghill, include Shakespeare's Professional as Reviser;' in Skills UP, 164-202; JohnKerrigan, "Shakespeare (Cambridge: Cambridge 1964),
EnglishDrama to 1710, ed. Christopher Ricks (New York:Peter Bedrick Books, 1987), 255-75; at Work(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), 249, 255-78; Norman SandJohnJones, Shakespeare ers, ed., Othello:UpdatedEdition (Cambridge:Cambridge UP, 2003), 203-215; Edward Pechter, "Crisis in Editing?"Shakespeare 59 (2006): 20-38, esp.21-28; andGraceloppolo,RevisSurvey
a complex MA:Harvard UP,1991),154-59. W.W.Gregoffers (Cambridge, ingShakespeare

reading of the relationship between the texts in The ShakespeareFirst Folio, Its Bibliographical and TextualHistory (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955), 357-71. E.A.J. Honigmann first argued Revised Plays: King Lear and Othello;'The Library,ser. for revision in his article"Shakespeare's
of excision in TheTexts thepossibility 6, 4 (1982):142-73, esp.156-73;he lateraccepted of alsoCharl101-2. See Revision andShakespearian 10-12, "Othello" 1996), (London: Routledge, of Othello[" inJoseph Adams Memorial fortheSecond ton Hinman, Quarto Quincy "The'Copy' ed.James et al.(Washington, G. McManaway Studies, DC:Folger 1948), Shakespeare Library,
373-89; Thomas L. Berger, "The Second Quarto of Othelloand the Question of Textual
New Perspectives, ed. Virginia Mason Vaughan and Kent Cartwright Authority," in "Othello":
andBrian Dickinson Vickers, UP,1991),26-47; andDavidLake (Rutherford, NJ:Fairleigh 284-87. of A Notes & for "Scribal Reconsideration;' 48 Othello: Copy Q1 Queries (2001): Textual Problems UP, 1953), Cambridge of the FirstFolio(Cambridge: 3 AliceWalker,
1622 Quartoandthe FirstFolioTextsof Othello," 138-61, esp.140. See alsoAliceWalker,"The
ShakespeareSurvey 5 (1952): 16-24; and Alice Walker and John Dover Wilson, eds., Othello
UP, 1957), 121-35. (Cambridge: Cambridge

1-44; and "The Mystery of the Early Othello 4 Scott McMillin, ed., First Quarto of "Othello,"
New Critical Essays,ed. Philip C. Kolin (New York:Routledge,2002), Texts,'in "Othello":

401-24, esp. 414, on"scribalmishearings.'
UNPINNING DESDEMONA
489
than theatrical practice. Most important here, McMillin believed that 4.3 was reduced for Q, not expanded for F; he hypothesized that Q reflects playhouse cuts made to affect the pace.5 He noted that the cuts occur primarily in the fourth and fifth acts, with half of all missing lines in Q coming from the roles of Desdemona and Emilia, which perhaps indicates that the play was lagging near the end, that the boy actors proved uninteresting, or, finally,that someone decided simply to excise material that failed to advance the plot.6 I would argue that, in the case of 4.3, the F version of Othellooffers more than a longer text that someone decided to cut; as McMillin implies, it also requires notably different staging. This issue of staging provides compelling evidence that affects the debate surrounding the play'stextual history. McMillin argued that both F and Q originate from playhouse books and that significant variants between the texts reflect different production requirements. An examination of theatrical practice suggests that F prints a version of the play as performed at the Globe and that Q represents a separate, generally later, version that shows signs of the cuts made in F to accommodate performance at Blackfriars.
STAGING THE TEXT
Of the 160 lines that appear exclusively in F Othello,50 are found in 4.3. Thus, nearly a third of the large-scale differences between the texts pertain to this one scene of the play. While many variants between F and Q can be ascribed to printing errors, scribal negligence, or memorial corruption, this sizable and visible discrepancy between the texts must originate in conscious choice, either by Shakespeare himself or by the company. Scholars such as E.A.J. Honigmann have long wondered if the scene was cut because the boy actor who played Desdemona left the troupe or lost his singing voice, leaving the company without a boy to perform the song.' While this may be the case, as Lois Potter points out, this would not explain the loss of Emilia'sspeech.8 One point at issue is how long each version of Othellotakes to play. W. W, Greg, who accepted the "cutting" theory, nevertheless thought that cutting the
5 Michael Neill, in his recent Oxford edition of the play,agrees with the theory of reduction; see Othello, the Moor of Venice (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006), 408, 421-32. Pervez Rizvi, "Evidence of Revision in Othello," Notes and Queries 45 (1998): 338-43, esp. 341, argues that Shakespeare reduced F but that he did not cut the text in response to production needs, 6 See McMillin, ed., First Quarto of "Othello," 8-13; and McMillin, "Mystery of the Early OthelloTexts;' 407. 10-12, 39-40; Greg, 358; Walker and Wilson, eds., 123; 7 Honigmann, Texts of "Othello," and McMillin,"Mystery of the Early OthelloTexts,' 409. 8 Lois Potter, Shakespeare in Performance: "Othello" (Manchester: Manchester UP, 2002), 11.
490
160 lines would do "nothing appreciableto shorten the play."9 Nevill Coghill, who calculated that these lines would shave only eight minutes of performance time, contended that the company would not have edited the text for so slight a saving.10 Therefore, for him, the discrepancies between F and Q must point to later additions. McMillin believed that Coghill's estimate was low overall, especially in regard to the Willow Song, which he suggested would take considerably longer to perform than spoken dialogue.ll Based on Ross Duffin's conjectural reconstruction from the existing consort music, the song takes roughly two minutes to perform.12The loss of Emilia's speech cuts another minute. In a scene that probably ran under seven minutes, some three minutes is proportionately long; the amount of time saved overall in performance is not. I would argue, however,that these cuts entail the excision of more than the song, which itself covers a physical action: Desdemona's unpinning as Emilia prepares her for bed. While the song alludes to themes of infidelity, madness, melancholy, and death, it also functions practically to cover the rather complicated business of unpinning and unlacing various articles of clothing that constituted the dress of an aristocratic Englishwoman. The undressing itself symbolizes Desdemona's vulnerability and innocence.1 In modern productions, it is often Desdemona's hair that is unpinned, since this offers an easily accomplished physical action and since the text does not seem to allow time meant in the early sevfor much else; but that action is not what "unpinning" Dessen has for Alan C. enteenth century.14 years encouraged scholars to look
9
Greg, 358.
10 Coghill, 178. See also Honigmann, "Shakespeare's Revised Plays,' 157.
13n. 11 McMillin, ed., First Quarto of "Othello," Ross W Duffin, Shakespeare's Songbook(New York: W. W Norton & Company, 2004), 467-70. Duffin's book includes a CD with his versions of the songs, which provided the estimate of the song's duration in performance. An alternate version of the Willow Song also appears on a Web site associated with the book, http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/ nael/noa/audio_shakespeare.htm (accessed 13 October 2007).
12
Theatrical AlanC. Dessen, Cambridge Recovering Shakespeare's (Cambridge: Vocabulary sceneof Othello, usedin theopening wereprobably UP,1995),28-30, notesthatnightgowns of a character theunreadiness thenightandto signify to indicate in 2.3,andin thefinalscene When Desdemona state. the vulnerable As character's from roused sleep. such, theysymbolize her in theother andOthello in 4.3,she(likeBrabantio undresses scenes) highlights vulnerabilinnocence. lack of naked underscores her but the also deception-her ity, gesture 14 The Oxford the dressof(a woman)by as"to undo (OED) defines"unpin" Dictionary English
13
See OED,2d ed.,J. A. Simpson lines fromOthello. of pins" and cites Desdemona's the removal 20 vols. and E.S.C.Weiner, Clarendon, (v.),3. Neill'sedition 1989), (Oxford: s.v."unpin" prep., was"usually this shift in stagingby notingthat"unpin" identifies played(sincethe time of Ellen hair;but OED entries(v. 3-4) suggestthat Terryat least)as a directionto unpinDesdemona's dress" of a lady's to the unpinning fromthe 16th centuryto the 18th it referred (357n).
UNPINNING
DESDEMONA
491
Figure 1: A Dutch caricatureshowing a woman being fitted with a French farthingale, c. 1600. Reproduced from Norah Waugh, Corsets and Crinolines (London: B. T. Batsford, 1954), 31 (Figure 9).
closely at Shakespeare's"theatricalvocabulary"as an important method in the interpretation of his plays.15Arguing that the specificity of original performances-when, where, and by whom they were produced-had a significant impact on their construction, Dessen advocates examining the plays in the theatrical context in which they were written. His concern is that we not simply analyze what is said but also look at "whatthe original playgoers saw or might have seen."16 It follows that to understand Othello4.3, we must pay attention to the stage action-in this case, to the undressing. Dress for a woman of Desdemona's social standing would have included a shift (or chemise or smock): a long, simple, loose-fitting gown that served as both sleepwear and undergarment. Over this, a woman wore a bodice or "pair of bodies," a stiffened outer garment that covered the area above the waist, functioning something like a corset but producing a different silhouette, To the bodice might be attached sleeves, if they were not already sewn to the bodice, as well as a stomacher, lace collar, and cuffs. Below the waist, a woman wore a petticoat over a farthingale, with a skirt-sometimes split to reveal the petticoat or a decorativepanel called a forepart-covering both (Figure 1). Over all these, a woman wore a gown, from which she could choose various styles, both
16
15
TheatricalVocabulary, 1-18. Dessen, Recovering Shakespeare's
Theatrical Dessen, Recovering Shakespeare's Vocabulary, 3.
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SHAKESPEAREQUARTERLY
open and closed.17Variety was key, and women achieved an infinitely varied wardrobeby combining different articles of clothing. All these pieces, and other decorative accessories, were fastened by various buttons, hooks, ribbons, and
laces,but chieflyby pins.18

Dressing a woman was not a simple process in early modern England, and playwrights found an easy comic target in the subject. For example, in Thomas Tomkis's play Lingva,Tactus offers the following complaint to explain why his intended entertainment has not begun: Thus 'tis, five houresagoe I set a douzen maidesto attirea boy like a nize but there is such doing with their looking-glasses, Gentlewoman: pinning, ... such stirrewith setting,vnseting,formingsand conformings, vnpinning,
Stickes and Combes, .. Bodies, Scarffes, Neck-laces,... Pendulets, Amulets,
andso manylets,thatyet sheeis scarsedrestto the girdle: Annulets,Bracelets, and now there'ssuch callingfor Fardingales, Kirtlets,Busk-points, shootyes Fairewill scarsefurnishher: &c.that seauenPedlersshops,nayall Sturbridge madeready.19 then a Gentlewoman a Ship is soonerrigdby farre,
John Heywood'sApothecaryoffersa similarcomplaintabout "pynnynge" womenin TheFourPs:

An othercausewhy they comenat forwarde Whichemakeththem daylyto drawebackwarde And yet is a thyngethey can nat forbere The trymmynge andpynnynge up theyrgere with the taylepyn Specyally theyrfydlyng And when they woldehaueit pryckein If it chaunce to doublein the clothe Thenbe they wode and swerethan othe it.... Tyllit standeryghtthey wyll nat forsake But pryckethem andpynnethem as nyche,as ye wyll And yet wyllthey loke for pynnynge styll.20
17 On the styles and fashionsof women'sclothing,see Susan Vincent,Dressingthe Elite: and Clothes in EarlyModernEngland (Oxford:Berg,2003), 23-41; C. Willett [Cunnington] in theSixteenth Costume PhillisCunnington, Handbook (London:Faberand Century of English and Costume in theDramaof Shakespeare Faber, 1954), 80-128; and M. ChanningLinthicum, 177-92. Clarendon Press,1936), (Oxford: His Contemporaries and Cunnington, of pins to femaleclothing,see Cunnington 189; and s18On the importance 280-82. Linthicum, 19 ThomasTomkis,Lingva: and theFiveSenses Or theCombat for Superiority, of the Tongue, Edition(n.p.:n.p., 1913), sig.12v(4.6.17-30). Facsimile Old EnglishDramaStudents' 20 JohnHeywood,"The and"The FourPs,"prep.G. R. Proudfootand andtheFriar" Pardoner J,Pitcher,MaloneSocietyReprints(Oxford:OxfordUP, 1984), sig.B1v.
UNPINNING DESDEMONA
493
Comic exaggerationaside, the dressing and undressing of an Englishwoman took time, which raises provocative questions about the action of F Othello. What actually took place on stage during this scene, and how long did it take? Of course, it is impossible to know exactly what happened in performance,and it should be assumed that actors who managed the infinitely more shocking, if not necessarily more difficult, tasks of gouging out the eyes of Gloucester and cutting off the hand of Titus onstage could find a way to undress a boy actor with little fuss. And yet, the scene calls attention to the time and effort it takes to undress a woman. When the Folio scene begins, Lodovico takes his leave of Desdemona, accompanied by Othello, who instructs his wife to dismiss Emilia and go immediately to bed. His command infects the scene with a grave urgency, as a despondent Desdemona complies with his order. She entreats Emilia to help her change and then to leave: "Giue me my nightly wearing, and adieu" (TLN 2985). The text implies that Emilia undresses Desdemona during the next forty-two lines of the script. Desdemona twice calls for Emilia to "vn-pin me" (TLN 2990, 3005), urges the prompt completion of her work ("prythee dispatch" [TLN 3003]), asks her to put aside articles of clothing that have been removed ("Layby these" [TLN 3018]), and implores her to work faster ("Prythee high thee: he'le come anon" [TLN 3019]). When Emilia is presumably finished with the task, Desdemona dischargesher ("So get thee gone, good night" [TLN 3027]). The scene continues for another fifty-plus lines but makes no more mention of the condition of Desdemona's clothing. She is by this point either already undressed or too distracted to allow Emilia to continue. Since her short, digressivecomments, which interrupt both her dialogue with Emilia and the Willow Song, demonstrate her desire to follow Othello's directions, we can surmise that the reason these comments end midway through the scene is because Desdemona has undressed to her smock and is readyfor bed (Figure 2). Perhaps Emilia inventories these very items later in the scene when she mentions measures of lawn, gowns, petticoats, and caps.21 What is not clear from the text, however, is how the actors could complete the business. Emilia has little time to undress Desdemona in the space of the song printed in F, and a fair amount of clothing would need to come off to complete Desdemona's preparationsfor bed. Desdemona begins the scene fully dressed, havingjust dined with Othello and Lodovico. She rejects Emilia'soffer to "go fetch your Night-gowne" (TLN 3004), a "Night-gowne"being a loose gown usually worn in the evening at home, although it could be worn outside
21
My thanks to one of the anonymous reviewers for suggesting this idea.
Figure2: Theodore Chasseriau (1819-56), Othello,Plate 8 (1844). The Baltimore Museum of Art: The George A. Lucas Collection, purchased with funds from the State of Maryland and the Laurence and Stella Bendann Fund and contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations throughout the Baltimore community. BMA 1996.48.12480.
UNPINNING DESDEMONA
495
during the day as well.22Instead, she directs Emilia to "vn-pinme here"(TLN 3005), obediently following Othello's earlier directive to get ready for bed "on th'instant" (TLN 2975). The script thus carefully explains that she is not slipgown, i.e., simply ping into more comfortable and casual attire such as a "night" her clothes so that another. is for She one outer removing replacing garment she may go to bed. Still, the two minutes of song time printed in F seems inadequate to allow the two actors to remove all of Desdemona's outer garments. A closer examination of the text suggests a possible explanation. The script provides a number of the song's lines and the accompanyingrefrain. However, the extant versions that probably served as sources for Shakespeare provide many other verses not printed in F.23The text is also careful to provide Emilia with prose cues; she never responds to singing. Finally, Desdemona's interjections at TLN 3018 and 3019 are printed next to repeating refrains. Given this evidence, it is certainly possible that the script provided the boy actors with the lines they needed to give and receiveclear cues, but that in the interval between the first interjection, "Lay by these" (TLN 3018), and the second, "Prythee high thee: he'le come anon" (TLN 3019), the actor introduced other verses to cover the physical action of undressing. That this was an old familiar song is The exactly why, according to Joel Fineman, Shakespeare used it in the play.24 actor playing Desdemona might have supplied verses of this popular tune not printed in F to fill time on stage while being undressed by the actor playing Emilia. Certainly, such a theory is highly conjectural, as theories surrounding the Othellotexts tend to be. It suffers from what Dessen terms "the Three Ps" those contingent expressions of conjecture (perhaps,probably,and presumably), and hypothesis that necessarily follow attempts to recoverthe theatrical action of Shakespeare'sstage.25Still, it offers a plausible rationalefor why the company
See Linthicum, 184-85; and OED,s.v."nightgown" (n.). Duffin (467-70) showsthat the forlornloverof the originalsong was male.Shakespeare the boy actorwouldhavehad to situation; changedthe loverto a womanto suit Desdemona's switchpronounsfor these and anyverseshe mighthaveadded. 24 in Critical The Realof the Tragedy of Desire,"' "TheSound of O in Othello: Joel Fineman, Hall on ed. Gerard K. & Co., Othello, York: G. (New Essays Shakespeare's Anthony Barthelemy 1994), 104-23, esp. 116. StephenOrgel emphasizesthis point in the forewordhe provided for Shakespeare's "The'Willow' (11-14, esp. 13). See also Alisoun Gardner-Medwin, Songbook Motif in Folksongs in BritainandAppalachia,' Studies in Scottish Literature 26 (1991): 235-45, who explains that the willowmotif symbolized aftera lost loverin sixteenth-century mourning The audience, to JohnGouws,wouldhavealsoeasilyrecognized the songas England. according a moriturus and the Moriturus Webster, lyric.See John Gouws,"Shakespeare, Lyricin RenaissanceEngland,' in Southern Shakespeare Africa3 (1989): 45-57. 25 Alan C. Dessen,"Recovering A Reconsideration of the Evidence;' in Elizabethan Staging: Textual and Theatrical ed. Edward Pechter(IowaCity:U of Shakespeare: of Evidence, Questions IowaP, 1996), 44-65, esp.62.
23 22
496
may have found it advisableto cut the Willow Song: what was being cut was the part of the scene, which would have taken a long time and which "unpinning" adds nothing to the plot. Emlia'sexcursus on infidelity could have been seen as similarly slow and, in terms of plot, unnecessary. According to A. C. Bradley,4.3 was specifically designed to provide a pause in the action. The great tragedies, he explained, never proceed immediately to a conclusion after the conflict has been established. Instead, these plays provide a bit of relief and create interest with a "momentarypause,"which results in "a decided slackening of tension." True to this model, Othello4.3 focuses on the unfamiliar"characters of Desdemona and Emilia and relieves "comparatively the mounting tension of the plot with a scene of great pathos.26Scholars have commented appreciatively on this aspect of the scene. John Russell Brown and reflectivemoment that offers a describes this as an "intimate," "unhurried," from the violence"that has been escalating.27 "release According to AnnJennalie Cook, it is a moment of"stas[i]s... where the movement of the action pauses."28 Martha Ronk describes the scene as "slowedand curtained off from the rest of the action."29 Eamon Grennan elegantly echoes these thoughts in his sensitive study of the "pivotalposition"the female voice "occupies... in the play'smoral world."Pointing to the "willowscene"as "oneof the most dramaticallycompelGrennan writes of its "unhurriedsimplicity,"saying ling scenes in Shakespeare," it "composesboth a 'theatrical'and a 'dramatic'interlude suggesting peace and freedom, within the clamorous procession of violent acts and urgent voices."30
26 A. C. Bradley, ShakespeareanTragedy:Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth (London: Macmillan and Co., 1904), 56-60, esp. 56. See also Maynard Mack, "TheJacobean Shakespeare:Some Observations on the Construction of the Tragedies,' in Essaysin Shakespearean Criticism,ed.James L. Calderwood and Harold E. Toliver (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall, 1970), 22-48, who believes these scenes not merely relief but offer provide an exposition of the "predicamentof being human"(31-32). For him, the scene shows the soul (Desdemona) in conversation with the body (Emilia) (30-31). For Kenneth Burke,this scene is typical of oth-
An Essay to Illustrate thatelicitpity;see"Othello: ersin thefourth actsof Shakespeare's plays in "Othello": a Method,"' Critical Garland, ed.Susan 1988),127-68, (NewYork: Essays, Snyder esp.136-37. 27 UK: Palgrave, The Tragedies 2001), (Houndmills, John RussellBrown, Shakespeare: 209. 209-12, esp.
28
Studies 13 (1980):187-96,esp.194. 52-72, esp.61-62.

30
Ann Jennalie Cook, "The Design of Desdemona: Doubt Raised and Resolved,' Shakespeare
29 Martha Ronk, "Desdemona's Self-Presentation,"English Literary Renaissance35 (2005):
Eamon Grennan, "The Women's Voices in Othello: Speech, Song, Silence,' Shakespeare
Quarterly38 (1987): 275-92, esp. 276-77. Other critics, despite their appreciation of the scene and the theatrical quality of its separation from the action, suggest the potential danger inherent in its construction. Ronk calls it"artificial" (61); Joel Fineman finds it"strangeand haunting (116-17) but believes this is a pivotal scene in the play and that Shakespeare interrupts the
UNPINNING DESDEMONA
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While such critics champion the exquisite beauty of Othello4.3 and find its isolation critical, these same characteristicsof emotional intensity and interruption may be the very reasons Shakespeare'scompany cut it. Made long by the undressing, and of a slow, somber pace, the scene may have been more effective on the Globe stage with its practice of continuous staging than it became once the company acquired the Blackfriars and began using intervals between the acts. According to Gary Taylor, before 1608 theatrical presentation occurred without interruption-no act or scene breaks, no intervals, no intermission. However, after the troupe gained control of the Blackfriars,performance conditions changed and the company paused for a musical interval between each act of a play.31 At the Globe, where the King's Men would have first presented some time around 1604, a scene such as 4.3 functioned exactly as BradOthello ley suggested-the long, measured pace of Desdemona's unpinning relieved the dramatic tension and replaced it with pathos, providing the audience with a slight respite before the play moved on to the concluding violence. Once the company began using act breaks at the Blackfriars, they had less need for a pause written into the script because the interval provided its own relief from the dramatic tension of the plot. The company no longer needed to slow down the action with Desdemona's undressing and Emilia's disquisition on marital infidelity. The Willow Song became superfluous, since music generally filled the intervals at the private theaters.32In fact, the new staging practice might have heightened the theatricality of the Folio-length scene and made it appear artificial. The shift in staging also led to, or fed, changing tastes of dramatic style. Jacobean and Caroline plays became more sensational, as Taylor explains, with
narration to highlight its critical importance. Lisa Hopkins notes that Shakespeare made an "unusualdecision"when "he suspends the action"to allow Desdemona to sing; see "'What did Yearbook 4 (1994): 61-70, esp. 63, thy song bode, lady?':Othelloas Operatic Text;' Shakespeare of that choice is what makes the scene so similar to the 69. Hopkins argues that the "falsity" "luxuriantartificialityof opera:" 31 Gary Taylor and John Jowett, ShakespeareReshaped: 1606-1623 (Oxford: Clarendon bean Plays, 1583-1616 (Hamden, CT: Shoe String Press, 1958), 76, 91, 99-101. As early as acquired the Blackfriars;see "Act- and Scene-Divisions in the Plays of Shakespeare: A Rejoin-
ActDivision in Elizabethan and Press, 1993),12-15, 30-31. SeealsoWilfred T.Jewkes, Jacothatthe King's Menbegan at act divisions afterthey 1927,J. DoverWilsonargued pausing
derto SirMark Review Studies 3 (1927):385-97. ofEnglish Hunter;' 32 Gary thatwhentheKing's Menobtained theBlackfriars, Taylor suggests theyassimilated
some of the boy companies' "more attractive conventions of performance;' such as pausingfor music-filled intervals betweenacts;see TaylorandJowett,31-32, esp. 32. TiffanySternclaims that musickeptthe audience fromgrowingimpatient whenthe stagecandlesat duringintervals the Blackfriars wouldhavebeentrimmed; see Making FromStage to Page(London: Shakespeare: See 30-32. also Andrew The 3d ed. Gurr, 1574-1642, 2004), Shakespearean Routledge, Stage, UP, 1992), 177-78. (Cambridge: Cambridge
498
a strong event required to end each act and sustain interest during the break.33 Allardyce Nicoll had long ago noted such a trend when he found that Jacobean dramatists, driven by audience demand, increasingly turned away from charWhile the melancholy acterization toward situation and "thrilling events."34 Willow Song and Emilia's defense of wives are clearly not sensational enough to cause the kind of intense excitement Nicoll describes, the plot to murder Cassio is. Q focuses the end of Act 4 on that scheme and leaves the audience to ponder the prospects of murder orchestrated for the final act. The Q version drives the narrative more quickly toward its conclusion without the lengthy detour for Desdemona and Emilia, and it thereby heightens the dramatic tension of the play in performance. It seems probable, then, that Shakespeare or the company created from the F source copy a trimmed version of the play that would become the Q text, and that they created this tighter version in response to new staging practices at their privatetheater and to changing tastes in drama.35 CONSEQUENCES While the full version of 4.3 had a specific function within the continuous staging of the amphitheater, the scene's dramatic purpose diminished in the private theater, where an entr'actepaused the action. Thus, when the play was taken out of its original circumstances, and the scene did not work as it once did, it was edited. The further the play moved away from its original performance conditions, the less functional the scene became. As later theater practices fragmented the narrativewith a progression of elaborate scenic demands and staging conventions that required more frequent and longer periods of pause and separation, 4.3 became increasinglydispensable.36
and 37. Jowett, 33Taylor 34 Allardyce to thePresent An Historical Nicoll,British Drama: Survey fromtheBeginnings 111. G. and 4th rev. ed.(London: Time, Co., 111-15, 1949), esp. George Harrap of theRevels for F Othello themaximal textauthorized represents bytheMaster 35 Perhaps a transcription frompera version, at the Globe. Q wouldthenreflect performance possibly deletions to his original made or allowed of a Blackfriars formance, text,in which Shakespeare halltheater. Whenactintervals were conventions forthe smaller necessitated bythetheatrical the standard text. have become into at the could later John Q incorporated performance Globe,
text for the versionof to the maximal Hemingsand Henry Condellwouldhavethen returned term in Folio. For an of the the Othello explanation printed "'maximal text;"see AndrewGurr, 52 (1999): 68-87, v.the Globe,'Shakespeare "Maximal andMinimalTexts:Shakespeare Survey esp.70. 36 Fora usefuloverview in Production: of the cutsto Othello, seeJulieHankey, ed.,Shakespeare 2d ed. (Cambridge: "Othello," UP,2005), 14-19, 255-60. Cambridge
UNPINNING DESDEMONA
499
In the Restoration, companies apparentlyperformedthe scene as it had been done at the Blackfriars.The playhouse book for a production at Smock Alley in 1670, while it uses the F text, clearly shows cuts to both the Willow Song and Emilia's concluding speech.37By the mid-eighteenth century, standard acting editions of the play cut the scene even further, leaving only the first eighteen lines.38For example, the 1761 edition printed for C. Hitch, which John Palmer used as the Haymarket promptbook, ends the scene at the eighteenth line with Emilia'sentreaty, "Iwould you had never seen him!"39 The popular acting editions J. P. Kemble published in the early 1800s end the scene here as well. Kemble'sCovent Garden promptbook from 1807-8 includes blocking notation for this abbreviatedversion of the scene, which at least provides evidence the company performed (or planned to perform) it.40 Other promptbooks dispense with Desdemona and Emilia altogether. Books belonging to John Moore and Samuel Phelps and a book used at Drury Lane from 1820 to 1843 for productions by many of the great nineteenth-century actors all show blocking annotation for the shortened scene; but they also indicate that, in many cases, the scene was cut entirely.41 For example, the book
8 vols. Evans,ed., Shakespearean Prompt-Books 37 G. Blakemore Century, of the Seventeenth of Virginia,1980), 6:n.p. (Charlottesville: Bibliographical Societyof the University 38 WilliamP.Halstead's exhaustive andactingeditionsshowsthat the studyof promptbooks of productions fromthe mid-seventeenth the cut all majority through late nineteenthcenturies or partof the scene;see Shakespeare A Collation as Spoken: Editions andPromptof 5000 Acting 12 vols. (Ann Arbor,MI: University Microfilms books International, 1977-79), of Shakespeare, 11:SS 904a-SS 905a. 39 William Shakespeare, the Moorof Venice. A Tragedy. As It Is Now Actedat the Othello, in Covent-Garden C. Hitch et al., Theater (London: 1761). John Palmerpromptbook, Royal 8 August 1766. FolgerShakespeare PROMPT Oth. London,King'sand Haymarket, Library 27, page 58. This and subsequentbibliographic descriptionsof FolgerShakespeare Library andon Charles H. Shattuck, TheShakespeare promptbooks relyon the Folger catalogue PromptA Descriptive U of IllinoisP, 1965), 354-79. books: (Urbana: Catalogue 40 William theMoorof Venice, a Tragedy, Revised Othello, Shakespeare, Shakespeare's byJ. P. and Now First It Published as Is at Acted the in Garden Kemble; Theatre (London: Royal Covent T. N. Longmanand O. Rees, 1804). Promptbook, markedoriginally by J. P. Kemble.Checked for Iago and playedby Kemblein the 1807-8 season at CoventGarden.FolgerShakespeare PROMPT Oth. 45, page67. Library 41 William Othello NicholsandSon;F.C. andJ.Rivington; Shakespeare, (London:J. J. Stockmade by John Moore dale, 1811). Promptbook[pages291-424 from volume9 of a Works] and used overa periodof several PROMPT Oth. 26, pages years.FolgerShakespeare Library 397-401. WilliamShakespeare, the a Tragedy, Moor Revised Othello, Venice, Shakespeare's of byJ. P.Kemble; AndNowFirst Published as It Is Actedat theTheatre in Covent Garden (London: Royal T. N. Longman andO. Rees,1804). Promptbook, inscribed at headof Act 1:T[heatre].R[oyal]. D[rury].L[ane].P[rompt].B[ook]. Markedby several, John Willmott and George including Ellis. FolgerShakespeare PROMPT Oth. 20, page67. WilliamShakespeare, Othello, Library, TheMoorof Venice. A Tragedy. Hind'sEnglish ActingEdition,withAccurate StageDirections, and Co., 1838). Promptbook, of Macready's Stage (London:Simpkin,Marshall, transcription
500
Phelps used for many years is carefully annotated for performance, but the scene is also bracketed and shows a line struck through the center, indicating that while it was rehearsedand probablyperformed when the promptbook was first used, the scene was later cut from performance (Figure 3). Other books show that even the abbreviatedversion of 4.3 was dropped early in the production process. Edmund Kean'spromptbook from Drury Lane, for example, has no blocking but has instead a marginal note that reads, "omitted by Mr. C. Kean, and generally now" and the word "out"written at the top of the page.42 The promptbook belonging to the Tremont Theatre, used there between 1820 and 1840, shows the scene crossed out with no blocking notation.43 By the late nineteenth century, certain acting editions fail to print even the shortened version of 4.3. Charles Fetcher'sedition of 1861, for instance, leaves it out altogether, so that lago and Roderigo exit only to reenter again for the beginning of Act 5. However, Fetcher'sscript calls for the "Song of Willow" to be played in the distance as the last scene of the play opens.44Edwin Booth's promptbook includes only the Willow Song and moves it to a point earlier in the fourth act.45Cutting the scene apparentlybecame so entrenched in theater practice that attempts to reinstate it in the early twentieth century were not always successful. For example, Lewis Waller's 1906 promptbook, which uses the F text, shows blocking for the scene, but the stage manager crossed out the dialogue; a marginal note reads, "at Lyric Theatre / this Scene rehearsed but not played.'46Othello4.3 was not fully restored to its proper place and length
book made by George Ellis for Samuel Phelps and used by Phelps for years. Folger Shakespeare Library PROMPT Oth. 24, page 60. (See Figure 3 below at page 501.)
William theMoor a Tragedy, Revised and Shakespeare, [Othello, of Venice, byJ.P.Kemble; asIt Is Acted in T. N. NowFirst at theTheater Covent Garden Published (London: Royal Longin several marked includmanandO. Rees,1804)](titlepage is missing). hands, Promptbook, PROMPT Kean. Oth. 12,page67. Page67, Shakespeare Library Folger ingthatof Charles thatthe to ensure theentire withwaxto page66, apparently which contains wassealed scene, it would performance. manager disregardduring prompter-stage 43 William a Tragedy; Revised theMoor Othello, Shakespeare, Shakespeare's of Venice, byJ.P. at theTheatres in Covent Garden andNowPublished asIt Is Performed Kemble; (London: Royal Tremont usedformany Boston, Massachusetts, Miller, Theater, 1814).Promptbook, John years or a theater rather thanan actor. PROMPT Oth. Shakespeare by a prompter Library Folger 5, page68. Edition. Five 2d ed. Fechter's Acts, Othello. Charles Shakespeare, Shakspere. Acting 44 William W R. Sams, PROMPT Oth.6, page99. 1861).Folger ([London:] Shakespeare Library
ed. William Winter (New EdwinBooth's 45 William Shakespeare, Prompt-Book of Othello, York: Hart & Company, Francis 1878). Studybook of CharlesB. Hanford.FolgerShakespeare PROMPT Oth. 9, pages89-90. Library 46 WilliamShakespeare, Othello (frommiddleof Act 3 only) (n.p.:n.p.,n.d.). Promptbook London.FolgerShakespeare at the LyricTheater, LewisWaller's Library production recording PROMPT Oth. 35, page111.
42
Figure 3: Page 60 from the Samuel Phelps promptbook showing Othello,4.3. Folger Shakespeare LibraryPROMPT Oth. 24.
502
SHAKESPEAREQUARTERLY
in regularproductions until after the 1930s, when Paul Robeson began playing Othello.47 Once removed from the circumstances of the early Elizabethan playhouse, the purpose of 4.3 within the larger dramatic structure of the play became unclear, and critics found the scene offensive. Thomas Rymer, who was no fan, thought that the piquant barbs of Emilia'sconcluding speech were all that saved spectators from the dangers of indigestion brought on by its unappetizing In 1770, Francis Gentleman offered a more balanced view of the melancholy.48 still but he found this moment extremely distasteful. He wrote, "If Desplay, demona was to chaunt the lamentable ditty, and speak all that Shakespeare has allotted for her in this scene, an audience... would not know whether to laugh or cry."He went on to say that Emilia's "quibblingdissertation on cuckoldWhen not deployed to relieve the making is contemptible to the last degree."49 dramatic tension, the scene lost its power, and critics perceived or experienced it as maudlin. Cutting 4.3 has had disastrous consequences for both of the female characters, but especially for Desdemona. Helena Faucit, who never played the scene in her productions of Othelloand never saw it presented except in a German of the nineteenth-century stage that the "exigencies" production, found it "sad" "require[d]the omission" of such an "exquisitescene ... a scene so important for the development of her character."50 Contemporary critics blame the cuts for diluting the character and causing an "unenthusiastic"response to her.51 Edward Pechter argues brilliantly that the theatrical and critical "interpretive tradition"rendered Desdemona silent and submissive for centuries. To demonstrate the silencing of Desdemona, he highlights 4.3 and points to both "'theatrical exigencies"'and "culturaldeterminants,"such as the eighteenth-century belief that "domestic female babble"would "diminish the dignity of tragedy."52
47 See, for example, William Shakespeare, The Scriptof "Othello" as Producedat the Savoy Theater London, on Monday, May 19th 1930 (n.p.: n.p., n.d.). Souvenir promptbook of the Maurice Browne-Ellen Van Volkenburg production with Paul Robeson, Browne, Peggy Ashcroft, and Sybil Thorndike. Folger Shakespeare LibraryPROMPT Oth. Fo.2. 48 Thomas Rymer, A Short View of Tragedy;Its Original, Excellency,and Corruption. With
onShakespear, andOther Practitioners Some (London, 1693),sig.K4v. for theStage Reflections 2 vols. Francis Dramatic Critical The Or, Censor; Gentleman, J.Bell Companion, (London: 49 andC. Etherington, 1:146. 1770), On Some Women Faucit Martin, byOneWhoHas Impersonated ofShakespeare's 50 Helena various for Them 188; 49-90, esp.85. circulation, (printed private paginations),"Desdemona,"'
TheMasksof Othello: in Performance, 49; and MarvinRosenberg, Shakespeare The 51 Potter, Centuries and Desdemona the Search Othello, by Three of Actorsand Critics Identity for of Iago, U of California P, 1961), 215. (Berkeley: 52 EdwardPechter,"Othello" and Interpretive Traditions (Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1999), 113-31, esp. 114-16.
UNPINNING
DESDEMONA
503
The cuts to and eventual elimination of 4.3 have clouded the response to Desdemona because, as Cook and others have pointed out, the scene clarifies the character in ways that do not exist elsewhere in the play.53But as successive productions reduced and then eliminated 4.3, they created a character in performance wholly at odds with the version that exists in the Folio. Cook proposes that Shakespeare deliberately constructed Desdemona as morally
couldsympathize with Othello earlyin the playso that spectators ambiguous to Cook, and Marvin because,like him, they doubt Desdemona.54 According scene is to as the Willow essential DesRosenberg well, Song understanding demonabecauseit clarifiesthe ambiguityin the character by presentingher qualitiesof lovingdevotion,fidelity,and obedience,55
CONCLUSION
wrote, and F reflects,exactlythe kind of scene that Othello Shakespeare neededlate in the fourth act at the Globe-a scene,as Bradleysays,of great pathos.No doubt,the domesticactionof EmiliaunpinningDesdemonaprovided a welcomepause from lago'splots and schemes,Indeed,it servedas a momentwhen the Globe audiencecould catch its breathand readyitself for the denouement.At the Blackfriars, the scene must have appeared however, awkwardand artificial,slowingdown the productiontoo much and for too the undressing just beforethe interval,Structurally, long with Desdemona's end of the act no longer suited the stagingpracticesat the smallertheater and did not fit a new style of dramathat emphasizedsituation and action, Therefore,the scene was shortened;gone was Desdemona'stouching song or the company, excisedthe singingand the and Emilia's tirade,Shakespeare,
that4.3 is one of two"littleislands" in the playwhereDesdemona's "character 53 Cook argues is illuminated"; the othersceneis Desdemona's conversation with Iagoin Act 2, uponhis arrival in Cyprus(194). Ronk assertsthat the Willow Song is the only point where"theaudienceis ableto'see' her andto knowher'inwardly"' to ErnestBrennecke, (52-72, esp.62, 65). According the Willow Song alone"gives us a surprising flashof insightinto the recessesof the heroine's 4 (1953): 35-38, esp. 35. EvelynGajowskiemphasizeshow importantthe speareQuarterly
see "'Nay,That'sNot Next!': The Significance of Desdemona's'Willow Song;" Shakecharacter"; Willow Song scene is to representing the "realityof women"against the "fragmentednotions of them held by men"in the play; see"The Female Perspective in Othello; in "Othello": New Perspec-
tives(see n. 2 above),97-114, esp. 97. Finally, LindaPhyllisAusternshows how Desdemona ... Othello's earlier accusations" and "becomes an objectof pity and noblefeminin"transcends
ity" when she sings; see "'No women are indeed': The Boy Actor as Vocal Seductress in Late Sixteenth- and Early Seventeenth-Century English Drama,' in Embodied Voices:Representing Female Vocalityin WesternCulture,ed. Leslie C. Dunn and Nancy A. Jones (Cambridge: Cam-
bridgeUP, 1994), 83-102, esp. 102.

54 Cook, 194. 55 Cook, 194-95; Rosenberg, 215.
Figure4: Henry Singleton (1766-1839), Desdemona,n+p,n+d.Folger Shakespeare Library.
Figure5: Richard Redgrave (1804-88), The Song of Poor Barbara,n.p., n.d. Folger Shakespeare Library.
Figure 6: Th6odore Chasseriau (1819-56), Othello,Plate 9 (1844). The Baltimore Museum of Art: The George A. Lucas Collection, purchased with funds from the State of Maryland and the Laurence and Stella Bendann Fund and contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations throughout the Baltimore community. BMA 1996.48.12479.
Figure 7: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Desdemona'sDeath-Song (1875/1880). Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; purchased through the New Century Fund and the Paul Mellon Fund.
508
long speech in favor of the quicker, snappier dialogue in order to move the action into the break at a brisk clip, and in doing so produced the version that became Q. Later generations had little opportunity to experience the scene in its original state and lost sight of its effect; they began to find it sentimental, even mawkish (Figures 4-7), and it was further cut until it disappeared from production. Performative and textual disruptions to the scene eliminated the sense of pathos this scene provided, which caused more textual interference. These changes greatly influenced the way critics interpreted Desdemona. The troubled, fragmented stage history of Othello4.3 indicates the value of examining Shakespeare'stexts with sensitivity to the performance conditions that governed his writing. Unfortunately, the performance history of Othello4.3 also reveals an inclination to suppress and restrain female agency. While staging prompted the initial edits, later deletions were perhaps made easier by the scene's content: its failure to advance the plot, the troublesome business of the undressing, its focus on minor characters, the fact that those characters are women and that they discuss female infidelity.56Certainly, successive generations express little compunction at sacrificing Desdemona and Emilia. The history of this scene in performance shows an unnerving disposition to still the female voice, which makes it all the more remarkablethat Shakespeare wrote the scene at all.
56 Recently, or the companycut 4.3 becauseit "wasan Lois Potterarguedthat Shakespeare embarrassment" for two womento discussmen and adulteryon the publicstage;see "Editing ed. Ann in In Arden: Shakespeare, Proudfoot, Essaysin Honourof Richard Editing Desdemona,' Potter 91. Arden McMullan Gordon and 81-94, 2003), esp. (London: Shakespeare, Thompson betweenF and Q of the relationship offersa plausible andhistorically interpretation significant worksin moderntextualediting. and demonstrates the waygenderprejudice

Desdem

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low,saucymaid.This essayoffersa theoryto explainwhy the two versionsof

a complex MA:Harvard UP,1991),154-59. W.W.Gregoffers (Cambridge, ingShakespeare

UP, 1957), 121-35. (Cambridge: Cambridge

New Critical Essays,ed. Philip C. Kolin (New York:Routledge,2002), Texts,'in "Othello":

10 Coghill, 178. See also Honigmann, "Shakespeare's Revised Plays,' 157.

TheatricalVocabulary, 1-18. Dessen, Recovering Shakespeare's

Theatrical Dessen, Recovering Shakespeare's Vocabulary, 3.

laces,but chieflyby pins.18

John Heywood'sApothecaryoffersa similarcomplaintabout "pynnynge" womenin TheFourPs:

My thanks to one of the anonymous reviewers for suggesting this idea.

Studies 13 (1980):187-96,esp.194. 52-72, esp.61-62.

29 Martha Ronk, "Desdemona's Self-Presentation,"English Literary Renaissance35 (2005):

bridgeUP, 1994), 83-102, esp. 102.

Figure4: Henry Singleton (1766-1839), Desdemona,n+p,n+d.Folger Shakespeare Library.

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