Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: Jessica Slights
Peer Reviewed

Additional Notes on Othello

TLN 599: storm

Q1 has scorn here. A misreading seems likely given the ease with which both "t"/"c" and "m"/"n" might be mistaken for each other, but this does little to resolve the issue of which word to prefer here since, as Honigmann notes, "both scorn and storm of fortune were commonplaces." Neill argues for scorn on the grounds that Desdemona has yet to experience fortune's storms. This edition prefers F1's storm both for the rhetorical force offered by its pairing with violence, and in recognition that Desdemona might well understand being dragged out of bed in the middle night, brought before the Senate, publically disowned by her father, and learning that her new husband is to be deployed to a combat zone as tempestuous consequences of her marriage.