2032TLN 2032: Her name,

The early texts each record this line differently: Q1 omits it altogether, while F1 reads my name and Q2 offers her name. Most editors adopt Q2's her, though, as Malone's gloss notes, my produces a plausible reading of the passage. Since either of the early readings is grammatically viable, this famous crux turns on matters of style and imagery, and it is Q2's her that best matches to the pattern of ethical opposition established in the passage's opening lines (honest/not honest; just/not just) a set of cultural oppositions (white/black; clean/dirty; woman/man) embodied in the differences between Desdemona and Othello. The allusion in the following line to Diana, goddess of women, chastity, and childbirth, also suggests that it is likely a transformation in Desdemona's reputation that Othello describes here.