Barbara Shelley

           On Monday morning I memorized the chorus for “Rock n Rose” by Serge Gainsbourg. 

           Around 10:30 I logged on for my first British Literature lecture in two weeks, since we’d skipped one because of Reading Week. The entire lecture was on the subject of Shakespeare’s Othello and the era in which it was written. 

           Aemelia Lanyer may have been the basis for the character of Amelia in Othello. 

           He mentioned a student hangout that took place on Gather and said that another one is planned. I don’t know how anyone has time to hang out. Maybe if my fellow students were my age it might be more appealing. 

           Dramatic theatre explores society. In the early modern era of Othello the word “race” was not used. We will use the word "racism" anyway because it captures how the play is hard to compartmentalize from its legacy. Hugh Quarshie's exploration on BBC radio of whether or not Othello is a racist play will be a compliment to this lecture. What the play tells us about racism, whatever its intent, makes it a detailed document to ask questions. 

           Shakespeare has a prominent place in literature now but did he think he think that he was great? He wrote to perform but the industry was young at the time and only came into being when he was a child. There was drama but the Corpus Christi plays died out when Shakespeare was a child, at the same time the first playhouse was built. 

           Mysteries were for the community by the community. In Chaucer's "The Millers Tale” a character had a day job but also performed in mystery plays. 

           In 1660 theatre started becoming a profession. It was mainly associated with London in Shakespeare’s time. London was a hub for the community stage and it was centralized. In Shakespeare’s lifetime there grew twenty playhouses and London gained a reputation abroad. In 1626 it was said that London produced more plays than all the world. 

            The drama and literature Shakespeare would have encountered in his education would have featured three prominent figures. The class plays of Seneca's tragedies, the comedies of Plautus but most important was the North African Terrence who was considered indispensable for education. There was not much English drama. The Corpus Christi plays were not published. In the 16th Century some were published but anonymously and they made no claim to greatness. Sir Philip Sidney didn’t like English drama. He liked Gorbuduc but thought it was not formal enough. He thought they mixed genres too much and blended tragedy and comedy. At that time theatre was young in England and drama was not considered to be literature. 

            When Shakespeare arrived in London he came as an actor. When plague closed the theatres, during the closure he wrote Venus and Adonis and Lucrece. He might have considered quitting but became a shareholder in The Lord Chamberlain's Men and he acted. In 1598 he was in Every Man Has Humour by Ben Jonson. 

            One of first theatres was just called "The Theatre" but Elizabethans liked the name. "Theatre” is Greek for "behold” and “space for looking". It was the first permanent theatre in England since the Roman occupation. The Burbages built and owned the theatre but not the land. When the lease expired in the winter of 1598 they snuck onto the land, dismantled the theatre and took it across Thames to use the material to build The Globe Theatre, which opened that year and where Shakespeare would show some of his greatest plays. 

            Most playhouses were outside London and so entertainment districts grew in the suburbs that included prostitution and bear baiting. The Globe had a circular open roof and so there was natural light but it was exposed to the elements although the stage was covered. There were three tiers of seating but the circular arrangement made it very intimate. One was never far away from the actors who had nice costumes but cheap sets. Boys played girls and some did so until they were 21. The literate went to plays but literacy was an impediment. The Globe was accessible to everyone and only cost a penny, plus and extra penny for each level. It was both socially hierarchized and communal. Prostitutes frequent came to the plays to work the crowd and some of them came so often that they knew every line of the plays by heart. 

            Aristocrats came to the theatre but there is no record of Elizabeth coming although the players did go to court and perform for her. The plays were written for a wide social range. At The Globe one saw everybody in the audience and saw society sharing something in common. Comedies explored community and how social norms survived tensions and threats; history plays showed England's glory; tragedies probed leadership. Plays asked questions about society. 

            In 1604 Liz had just died and the throne was passed to James Stuart the king of Scotland. The smooth transition was a relief but there was cultural friction between the Scottish and the English because they were culturally distinct. James had a Scottish accent and there was resentment that he brought a large Scottish entourage to court. Playwrights made jokes about it. In Eastward Hoe a character convinces someone to go to Virginia and says that the Scottish would be friends to the English if they left England. The playwrights George Chapman, Ben Jonson and John Marston were imprisoned.

            During King James’s reign demographics were changing. With urbanization the population started looking different. Immigration brought hundreds of Africans to England. In London there were fifty seven in Shakespeare’s time. Spain and Portugal were slaving but not England. Hector Nunes sued an Ethiopian and said he’d purchased him as a slave but the case was thrown out because there was nothing in English law that made people property. John Reason was of the Afro diaspora in London and was a successful silk weaver with the ability to pay church tithes. He lived in the theatre district. 

            What was the social perception at the time? There was stigma of racial features around intelligence and some associated dark skin with irreligion. Queen Liz was said to have said black people should be deported but it was really a petition by a Dutch slave trader. Some believed the trope. But in general black people were welcomed in Christian communities and there was also intermarriage. It was a time of racist language but not a uniform belief. 

           Othello was about understanding differences and how he negotiates in the world as other. What is a Moor? There were two definitions. A Moor was either someone from Mauritania in Africa or a Muslim. Whether geographical or religious the name Moor was capacious. It could be location or appearance. The word Moor was elastic.

            Elizabeth opened relations with the Ottoman Empire when historically there was conflict. In 1600 she invited Ottoman ambassador Muhammad Al Anuri to negotiate a joint invasion of Spain. While England was in war with Catholic countries it was thought that Islam was closer to Protestantism. English trade with continental Europe was curtailed because of religious conflict and so trade opened up with the Ottomans. 

            In the transition from Liz to James it was a big moment when Shakespeare's company became The Kingsmen. Spain came to negotiate a treaty in 1603 at Summerset House. In 1604 Shakespeare may have come to attend the Spanish ambassador. With England being transformed, how to make peace became the theme. Othello was performed for King James. 

            Othello is set in the Mediterranean. Venice as a city state fascinated England. Venetians were famous for their humanity to strangers, delicacy of entertainment, the beauty and style of its women, their finesse at having a good time, openness to foreigners and zeal in religion.

            In Othello Venice is an empire at war with the Ottoman empire. The Venetian senate is in emergency. The Duke hears news of an attack by the Turkish fleet to Cyprus. The messenger says the fleet is heading for Rhodes instead. The senator is sceptical. It must be a trick. The Senate meets in night. 

            There are two crises: one war and one domestic. The two intertwine. Threat to identity. Figuring intentions. The first act sets up the domestic crisis. Roderigo and Iago wake Brabantio. Unlike the attack on Cyprus Rod and Iago are manufacturing crisis. 

            Rod and Iago lay the foundation for the idea of robbery violation. They set up Brabantio’s reaction before he has the details. The language is dehumanizing and animalistic. Brabantio is primed to hear that Othello is inhuman and black and white coupling is cause for alarm. Othello’s race is identified and reduced with being licidious. Brabantio thinks it’s an emergency. The play is about whiteness. Brabantio can’t fathom free will and thinks magic. Desdemona is opposite to marriage. Her father is desperate to make it real. Othello is referred to as “A thing”. Brabantio goes to the senate and complains that the marriage is against nature. The accusation goes from possible to certain. His reality is disturbed. 

            The first act takes place at night when the characters can’t see each other. Characters are anxious about the identity of those in front of them. The play asks what we know and how well. By the time Othello arrives he’s already been set up as something low for his race. The audience is challenged. Othello is confident and not threatened. He trusts his own integrity. Othello calmly eases the tension. The Duke says to Brabantio there is no proof. 

            Othello tells how he told his life story to Desdemona and Brabantio and she loved him for his life. This embodies the power of story. The play is about the power of language. Counter to racism Othello is indispensable to the state, but limited. 

            Is Brabantio’s racism typical? Venice was cosmopolitan and had a mixed population. Especially the military had foreigners in major positions. Non Venetians in military avoided coups. All the military in Othello are outsiders. Cassio is from Florence and Iago is Spanish. The first act is complicated. Othello is valued but from his perspective even someone who loves you may be prejudiced. Venetian cosmopolitan prominence can still be challenged if one is from outside. 

            How racism catches on when engineered by Iago. Brabantio uses the language of natural and unnatural based on Iago’s argument because Iago gets into people’s heads. The ship to Rhodes can’t be real and so must be a pageant. The spectacle is misleading. 

            Shakespeare’s audience is referred to a performance within a play. This is metatheatre, a term used in theatre about theatrical moments that draw attention to artifice, parallels between action and the play, and the language of theatre in the play. 

            The epistemological problem is how trust comes from appearances. This is at the heart of the medium of drama. Iago is the patron saint of duplicity. “If I were the Moor I would not be Iago”. “I am not what I am”. He’s pathological. God says to Moses “I am what I am.” Why tell Rod this? Because he wants to convince him he hates the Moor. 

            Ensign is a military position. He bore the flag that protected the general’s honour. This role is appropriate for Iago. He shows a flag or design of love. He’s about symbols. His love is a flag that appears as allegiance. He’s pretending to be concerned about Othello’s honour. He’s extravagantly disingenuous. He always says he is honest and so does everyone else. 

            The Turkish fleet is drowned and Othello becomes governor of Cyprus. The rest of the play takes place there. The thematic significance of Cyprus is that it is adjacent to the Ottoman Empire in the shadow of threat, but the real threat is within. Othello asks “Are we turned Turks?” 

            Cyprus is strategic. In ancient Greece Cyprus is the birth place of Aphrodite. Iago's plot is about love. 

            Iago ‘s plan is to convince Othello that Cassio is fucking his wife. He abuses Othello’s ears. Iago turns virtue into a liability. Cassio’s good looks, Othello’s trust and Desdemona’s kindness are manipulated. What consolidates Othello’s innocence in the senate is Desdemona’s testimony. She goes to battle with Othello. She declares that she will be with him in valour. She wants sex and says they can have it. Othello calls her “My fair warrior.” Their love and sex is intense and dangerous. Othello asks her request be granted. He insists his performance will not be affected. The falcon is a bird tamed with eyes sewn closed. 

            When together on Cyprus he has doubts. Too much joy. Iago recognizes Othello’s love is vulnerable. He is predatory. Iago is a spider, a weaver of fiction. He knows how to speak and shifts his speech to circumstances. Slithers when Othello soars. Iago uses few words to suggest more. He is seductive and pretends to conceal things, echoing back words. “The deed.” Eyes and eyesight are referenced a lot. Iago will show Cassio’s confession. But it is all theatre and Iago is also director and playwright. 

            Iago finds the material of his work in a handkerchief. Trifles are to the jealous proof. It’s slight. One critic a hundred years later thought the obsession with the hanky was ridiculous. Why not call it “The Tragedy of the Handkerchief?” But the handkerchief’s woven threads are a net and the spare fabric is a flag of ensign Iago. He makes the handkerchief into another fabric captured by the enemy, threatening honour. Its importance is as a flag, a symbolic sign of love perverted. It is made almost as important as a wedding ring. The sentimental hanky marked the beginning of Othello’s courtship. It’s a proxy for wedding sheets with strawberries as blood. 

            But the symbolism goes deeper. The hanky was given by an Egyptian who could read thoughts to his mother. It was used to subdue his father and if she were to lose it his eyes would wander. It’s magic that creates or destroys love. Magic in that the web was sewn by a sibyl in prophetic fury. This takes us somewhere else as the 200 year old Sibyl colour dyes it in mummy from mummified virgins, symbol of chastity. The worms breeding the silk is sexual speech and draws parallels with Brabantio’s accusations of magic. Is Othello telling the truth or under pressure while convinced of infidelity? 

            Iago mirrors at the level of language. He convinces Brabantio that his daughter has no control because the Moor deceived her. Iago makes Desdemona look deceptive because she deceived her father. Iago says all Venetian women are like that. Othello as an outsider women would hide things from him because he is culturally distant. Brabantio says Desdemona is bewitched to love Othello against nature. Iago adopts the racist argument that it’s natural to seek one’s own kind he turns Desdemona’s love to something pathological and says she will change This gets to Othello. It’s a tragic passage on destructive power of race to undermine love. 

            Ianna Thomson says Othello is affected by everyone that touches it. Othello exists in and through history. It has baggage. The pattern is its reputation as one of Shakespeare’s most horrible plays to watch. There are stories of the audience shouting at Othello and of one soldier shooting a fun. What makes it horrible is because Desdemona’s death is unnecessary. 

            Work of tragedy according to Aristotle is to explore why things come to pass and to locate causes in the flaws of individual characters. There are also tragic flaws in the society that allows this unfolding. This could be what happens when racism and sexism infects society. 

            The metatheatre under the direction of Iago turns Cyprus into a theatre where the actor also the director and writer. We become aware of the play itself as theatrical representation. Actors are rarely the people they play. Othello tells a story of life. If the hanky is magic Brabantio is right. 

            After the murder when Othello is confronted he says the handkerchief is an antique token his father gave his mother. This is the opposite of what he told Desdemona. Is it a mistake or did Othello lie to Desdemona to cast himself as an outsider. 

            He says in the end speak of me as I am but speak of one who loved unwise but well. He changes from I to one as he becomes detached from life. He reminds of his service in Aleppo when a Turk beat a Venetian and he killed him “this way” and then kills himself the same way. Why? This anecdote reminds us that he defended Venice. Othello reinforces the xenophobia by smiting himself as the threat to Venice. Suicide as civic duty. Is he a threat because he allowed himself to be racist to himself? 

            How language shapes us is a constant question. The echo chamber of deception in Othello attempts the truth. Don’t accept falsehood. Don’t distort but seek the full complex truth of humanity of others. 

            I finished listening to the lecture at around 12:45. Two hours and fifteen minutes. 

            I had chips, salsa and yogourt for lunch. After a siesta I spent the rest of the day until dinner editing the notes I’d typed so they made sense. 

            I had a potato, a warmed up steak and gravy for dinner while watching the final episode of Interpol Calling. 

            This story begins in Tel Avis with a woman on the ledge of a tall building and a crowd gathered below. Meanwhile two armoured car guards leave the building and are about to get in their truck when David Baker uses the distraction of the woman on the ledge to shoot the men and steal 70,000 pounds. Later Diana, the woman on the ledge meets with David on a plane to Rome. The police are looking for David but the Rome papers have been notified that Diana is a famous beauty queen and while photographers swarm her David catches a plane to Madrid. Diana meets David in Madrid. Duval comes to David’s hotel room and sees the money but David is smug because he knows there is no extradition treaty between Spain and Israel. David needs to cash his stolen money but the police give the serial numbers to the banks so they won’t touch it. David can’t leave without being arrested and he can’t spend any money. Finally he sends Diana to Paris to connect with someone he knows there named Pruselle who would exchange the money. But Duval gets to Pruselle before Diana and makes sure he doesn’t meet her. Since Diana has never met Pruselle Duval poses as him and he plays on David’s nerves as he waits in Madrid. Two weeks go by. Duval takes Diana out to dinner and they are photographed. Interpol alters the photo so that Pruselle is with her and then puts it in the paper. David has a contact in Madrid pose as him on his balcony to fool the cops while he goes to Paris. He sneaks into Diana’s bedroom and tries to kill her. Duval stops him just in time. There is a fight and a final magical judo throw that knocks David out better than all the punches. 

            Diana was played by Barbara Shelley, who started out as a model. In England filmmakers thought models couldn’t act but in Italy they didn’t care, so she started in Italian movies like “New Moon” and “Nero’s Weekend”. But still wanting to make it in England she started doing horror films and became a star. She starred in “Cat Girl” and then started working for Hammer. She had top billing as leading lady in “The Camp on Blood Island”, “Blood of the Vampire”, “Village of the Damned”, “Shadow of the Cat”, “The Gorgon”, “The Secret of Blood Island”, “Dracula Prince of Darkness”, “Rasputin the Mad Monk”, and “Quatermass and the Pit”. She was hammer’s number one female star. Interpol Calling was not a bad series. Duval showed himself to be a clever detective against some smart criminals.