TRACK LIST:
- SEE THAT SAIL THERE!
- WE'RE VICTORIOUS!!
- RODERIGO... WHAT DO... YOU THINK OF?
- FIRE OF REVELS!!
- I'M ALREADY LIGHTHEADED
- WHO DARES WINS, LIEUTENANT!
- ALLONS-Y!!
- SINCERE IAGO, SPEAK TO ME
- NOW IN THE STARLIT NIGHTTIME
Right outside the keep: the docks in the foreground, a tavern with a trellised arbour of climbing plants and a pub sign shaped like a Sagittary (a centaur drawing a longbow), and some fisherfolk's homes, right outside the keep walls. A stormy evening: thunder, lightning, gale, downpour.
RANKERS:
See that sail there!
It's a galley!
...
See her colours!
See her colours!
THE FORMER GOVERNOR:
It's our lion with wings!!
(Flash of lightning.)
CASSIO:
Lightning shows her so clearly!!
RANKERS:
That's a signal! Hear that signal!
(Cannon fire.)
RANKERS:
It's her cannon that rings...
CASSIO:
It's our General's flagship!
THE FORMER GOVERNOR:
Now she's falling...
is she rising?
CASSIO:
Now her figurehead's rising!!
RANKERS:
In the tide or the cloud now concealed...
now in flashing white lightning revealed...
...
RANKERS, SAILORS:
Lightning! Thunder! Downpour!
Ominously surging maelströms!
Shiver timbers! Shiver ocean!
Shiver skies themselves, it seems...
Through the air, a raven-winged and sinister spirit flies...
quenching all the stars and shaking, like a veil, the skies...
Everything's on fire... everything's on fire!!
Through red flames and gunsmoke...
the conflagration...
then it's quenched... far more lurid...
The universe is reeling...
a wraith-cold gale courses right through the darkness...
the dread Gjallarhorn of Heimdall
chimes in the end of days!!
PRAYING WOMEN (including Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca):
Lord, hear your weak subjects' prayer...
Be the saviour of this strand now...
Save from dark downfall the fair
banner of the motherland now!
Ruler of the constellations...
ruler of the Earth and sky...
Th'anchor of our expectations
let fall as calm night draws nigh...
(Lightning.)
IAGO:
The mizzen mast just broke!
...
RODERIGO:
The figurehead plunges on those rocks there!
...
CREW OF THE FLAGSHIP:
Mayday! Mayday!
IAGO:
My lord will find a watery grave right once she knocks there!
(The flagship docks as the storm loses violence.)
RANKERS, WOMEN:
They're saved... and we're saved too!
(Cassio running left and right, giving orders, as his men prepare the landing with a gangway; then, once it's done, stand in formation flanking the gangway, the lieutenant at the end to greet his general once the latter has landed.)
RANKERS, SAILORS:
The halyards are all ready!
All right, hold tight now!
CASSIO:
Steady!
RANKERS:
That's a gangway!
On the strand now!
They're all ready for landing...
On land now!
On land now!!
On land now!!!
OTHELLO (as he walks down the gangway):
We're victorious!!
The enemy's pride lies
fathoms below...
Ours are peace and glory!!
What our weapons escaped, the ocean's vanquished!
RANKERS, SAILORS, WOMEN:
Long live Othello!
Our hero! Our hero! So glorious! Victorious! Victorious!
...
Victorious, victorious, and ever so glorious...
They're scattered, they're shattered, they've plunged down beneath the cold waves,
down to the last man!
Victorious, victorious, and ever so glorious...
They're scattered, they're shattered, they've plunged down beneath the cold waves,
down to the last man!
Their requiem will be the rise of highwater,
their requiem will be the rise of highwater,
the swirling of maelströms, the swirling of maelströms,
in the deep, dark, cold halls of Rán!
Victorious, victorious!
Victorious, victorious!
They're scattered, they're shattered,
They're sc-a-attered, they're sh-a-attered,
They're scattered, they're shattered, they've plunged down beneath the cold waves,
down to the last man!
Victorious, victorious!
Our hero!!
Victorious, victorious!
Our he-e-ero!!
(The storm finally calms, revealing a starry night sky with a waxing moon. Othello, as he lands and reviews his subjects, greets Cassio like a friend and Desdemona like his newlywed wife, completely overlooking Iago.)
RANKERS, SAILORS, WOMEN:
The tempest now is over...
(In the meantime, Roderigo is crossing himself and ready to jump off the pier -the end of the stage-, but restrained when Iago grabs his shoulders and pulls him backwards, startling the suicidal lordling.)
IAGO
Roderigo... what do... you think of?
RODERIGO:
Drowning myself...
IAGO (tossing Roderigo's sword-cane into his grasp, as the lordling catches it):
Fools are th'only ones who end their lives for love's sake...
RODERIGO:
What should I do?
(He sits down on the edge of the pier, listlessly toying with the pommel of his sword-cane, which he has tightly squeezed between his thighs, as if he were "milking himself")
(He sits down on the edge of the pier, listlessly toying with the pommel of his sword-cane, which he has tightly squeezed between his thighs, as if he were "milking himself")
IAGO:
Come on, my lad, and reason,
and wait for the times to get better...
your ladylove Desdemona,
whom you still long for in your secret wet dreams,
will soon grow weary of chocolate kisses
from that thick-lipped beast before you know it...
Good Roderigo,
see me as your best friend, for good or evil;
and close to me's the answer to your broken heart's distress...
...
(Roderigo stands up, seizing his sword-cane.)IAGO:
If her frail vow is a nut to crack
not too hard for my wits or those skills of mine, I swear, Roderigo...
I swear that you'll soon be cradling her in your arms.
Now listen...
Though I pretend to love him, I hate Othello...
You want to know the reason? There he is, right there!
(Pointing at Cassio, who is flirting with Bianca and other women)
That frilly little stripling there wrested my rank from me;
usurped the rank that
is mine by right, and that I have deserved in many
hard-contested battles!
...
He chose that young lieutenant,
and I remain still on His Moorish Lordship's service...
as ensign.
...
Yet, as sure as Roderigo's your name,
as true that, if I were Cassio or Othello...
I'd never trust or even hear a Iago...
...
If you would listen...
(During all of Iago's rant, Cassio also commands the men to get the fireworks and the bonfire ready for the victory revels, and also to hang brightly coloured lanterns on the tavern arbour. The first fireworks are fired.)
(The fireworks begin to be fired, the rankers light the arbour lanterns one by one, and the bonfire gradually blazes up)
CHORUS:
Fire of revels!!!
Fire of revels! Merrily blazing,
merrily blazing,
turn into daytime...
turn into daytime...
turn into daytime the darkness of night!
Sparkle, flutter,
sparkle, flutter,
sparkle, flutter, crackle, blazing...
Sparkle, flutter, crackle, blazing...
fill every heart with warmth and with light!
Fill each heart... with warmth and light...
(Iago and Roderigo, the latter with his sword-cane in hand, stroll by the fireside, detached from the rest of the crowd. Meanwhile, Cassio is pacing back and forth until he suddenly stops, then wipes the perspiration from his brow and signals to Bianca; the barmaid, tankard in one hand and flagon in the other, saunters up to the lieutenant and pours him a drink, which he eagerly drains to the last drop. After handing her the empty tankard, he waves her goodbye and then tries to retire into a corner, visibly dizzy -it was obviously an at least slightly strong drink that goes to his head-, while she suddenly packs him by the wrist and drags him close to the fireside to watch the fireworks; he reluctantly lets himself be led.)
(Iago and Roderigo, the latter with his sword-cane in hand, stroll by the fireside, detached from the rest of the crowd. Meanwhile, Cassio is pacing back and forth until he suddenly stops, then wipes the perspiration from his brow and signals to Bianca; the barmaid, tankard in one hand and flagon in the other, saunters up to the lieutenant and pours him a drink, which he eagerly drains to the last drop. After handing her the empty tankard, he waves her goodbye and then tries to retire into a corner, visibly dizzy -it was obviously an at least slightly strong drink that goes to his head-, while she suddenly packs him by the wrist and drags him close to the fireside to watch the fireworks; he reluctantly lets himself be led.)
Flitting around, the golden light's bringing
shape-shifting lovely shapes in the sky...
And now they're maidens, and now they're maidens
with lively singing, first love's singing,
and now on flame wings, and now on flame wings
they flutter by, last flutter by...
Now burn the sycamore and the palmwood...
Now burn the sycamore and the palmwood...
Now burn the sycamore and the palmwood...
Sing, my beloved, raise your feelings high!
Over the golden flames and the chorus
breathes the cool breeze in the springtime sky...
Now burn the sycamore and the palmwood...
Sing, my beloved, raise your feelings high!
Fire of revels... hastily kindled...
hastily quenched... hastily the flame of love will burn out!
hastily the flame of love will burn out!
Shining, then darkening, throbbing and dwindling...
That one last spark in ashes is out...
Fire of revels...
Fire of revels...
Shining, then darkening,
throbbing and dwindling...
throbbing and dwindling...
That one last spark in ashes is out...
In ashes is out...
Fire of revels...
hastily kindled...
hastily quenched...
love will burn out...
Shining, then darkening,
throbbing and dwindling...
throbbing and dwindling...
That one last spark in ashes is out...
That one last spark in ashes is out...
In ashes...
is out...
(Iago, Cassio, and Roderigo sitting at the same table, before their drinks, in the rainbow light of the lanterns, under the Sagittary sign, before the entrance to the tavern arbour; other officers and non-coms at other tables; Bianca serving, in turn, the thirsty uniformed men at each table, while acting a little sexy herself.)
IAGO:
Roderigo, drink up!!
Here's your tankard, Ser Lieutenant...
CASSIO:
I've quenched my thirst.
IAGO:
Just down this only sip, Ser...
CASSIO:
No!
IAGO:
Look 'round! It's a night of celebration!
Everyone's going crazy! Therefore...
CASSIO:
Let go... I'm already lightheaded
from one glass, and our guard shift's soon!
IAGO:
Still, here's a toast to the marriage
of our General Othello... and his lady wife!!
RANKERS:
Long live them!!
CASSIO (sipping):
She's the jewel of this coastline...
IAGO (to Roderigo):
Now listen!
CASSIO:
Her loveliness makes all hearts and all flowers bloom before her...
RODERIGO:
And still, isn't she modest?
CASSIO:
Iago, sing to praise Desdemona!
IAGO:
(to Roderigo) Now listen!
(to Cassio) I am nought but a critic, Ser.
CASSIO:
She is too lovely for any praises!!
IAGO (to Roderigo):
Watch out for Lieutenant Cassio!
RODERIGO:
And why him?
IAGO:
Haven't you heard how passionately he spoke?
Youthful hot blood through every vein, right?
A resourceful seducer, and she's found him already!!
RODERIGO:
And then?
IAGO:
If he's intoxicated,
he will fall...
(To Bianca, currently the barmaid): Fill... our three cups... there, steady!!
(Bianca arrives at Iago's command and fills all three men's tankards with a golden liquor. She also places the flagon on the table. As she pours Cassio his drink, the lieutenant winks an eye at her, then blows her a kiss as she leaves.)
CASSIO (doubtfully sipping):
IAGO:
RANKERS:
IAGO:
IAGO:
CASSIO (after downing a deeper draught):
IAGO:
RANKERS:
IAGO:
IAGO:
(By now, the young lieutenant has drained his third or fourth tankard --excluding the one he quenched his thirst with before Iago's temptation--, and is draining the flagon of the liquor there is left.)
THE FORMER GOVERNOR:
Ser Lieutenant, the changing of the guard awaits your orders.
CASSIO (reeling, staggering, trying to salute but facepalming instead):
Allons-y!!
THE FORMER GOVERNOR:
What ever...?
IAGO:
That's the way every evening
he gets his liquid courage...
THE FORMER GOVERNOR:
Othello'll know it...
CASSIO:
The changing guard awaits me!
RODERIGO:
Ha-ha!
RANKERS:
Ha-ha!
CASSIO:
Who's laughing?
RODERIGO:
Can't you deny it?
CASSIO:
I will make you cry it, you scoundrel!!
RODERIGO (drawing steel - the blade from his sword-cane):
What, Ser Lush-tenant?!
CASSIO (drawing steel - his own officer's sword):
You traitor! There's no way out of this!!
THE FORMER GOVERNOR:
Hold that hand, Lieutenant,
no bloodshed, I beg you...
CASSIO:
Whoever gets in between us will get knocked out...
THE FORMER GOVERNOR (drawing steel - his own officer's sword):
Says this young man, wasted...
CASSIO:
I, wasted!!??
IAGO (to Roderigo):
Run up all the way to the tower,
and ring the alarm bell with all of your power!
RODERIGO (tossing his sword-cane -the blade without the scabbard- to Iago):
Right!
IAGO (seizing the sword-cane):
Spread all this dread 'round like wildfire...
make it sound like an enemy storming!
(Thrusting himself into the swordfight, sword-cane in hand)
Dear comrades! Please stop at once this confrontation!!
WOMEN:
Run!
IAGO:
Gasp! Our former governor's bleeding!
And tension is mounting!
(Restraining Cassio)
Stop this!
RANKERS:
Stop this!
WOMEN:
They'll both be dead...
IAGO+RANKERS:
Stop this!
IAGO:
Say, isn't there anyone who can restrain him?
The storm-bells are ringing... we'll knock out or chain him!!
RANKERS:
To weapons! To weapons! A storming, a storming, a storming, a storming!
To weapons! To weapons! A storming, a storming, a storming, a storming!
(They knock Cassio out. At the same time, a rumpled Othello and Desdemona arrive on the scene)
(Iago, Cassio, and Roderigo sitting at the same table, before their drinks, in the rainbow light of the lanterns, under the Sagittary sign, before the entrance to the tavern arbour; other officers and non-coms at other tables; Bianca serving, in turn, the thirsty uniformed men at each table, while acting a little sexy herself.)
IAGO:
Roderigo, drink up!!
Here's your tankard, Ser Lieutenant...
CASSIO:
I've quenched my thirst.
IAGO:
Just down this only sip, Ser...
CASSIO:
No!
IAGO:
Look 'round! It's a night of celebration!
Everyone's going crazy! Therefore...
CASSIO:
Let go... I'm already lightheaded
from one glass, and our guard shift's soon!
IAGO:
Still, here's a toast to the marriage
of our General Othello... and his lady wife!!
RANKERS:
Long live them!!
CASSIO (sipping):
She's the jewel of this coastline...
IAGO (to Roderigo):
Now listen!
CASSIO:
Her loveliness makes all hearts and all flowers bloom before her...
RODERIGO:
And still, isn't she modest?
CASSIO:
Iago, sing to praise Desdemona!
IAGO:
(to Roderigo) Now listen!
(to Cassio) I am nought but a critic, Ser.
CASSIO:
She is too lovely for any praises!!
IAGO (to Roderigo):
Watch out for Lieutenant Cassio!
RODERIGO:
And why him?
IAGO:
Haven't you heard how passionately he spoke?
Youthful hot blood through every vein, right?
A resourceful seducer, and she's found him already!!
RODERIGO:
And then?
IAGO:
If he's intoxicated,
he will fall...
(To Bianca, currently the barmaid): Fill... our three cups... there, steady!!
(Bianca arrives at Iago's command and fills all three men's tankards with a golden liquor. She also places the flagon on the table. As she pours Cassio his drink, the lieutenant winks an eye at her, then blows her a kiss as she leaves.)
IAGO (tankard in hand):
Young man, wet your whistle,
quaff even quicker...
Ere your lively nights and
summer days turn to foam!
CASSIO (doubtfully sipping):
This real amber nectar of a liquor
will thrust bright reason off
her rightful throne!
IAGO:
One li'l sip can you hold
under our pennant;
who dares wins, Lieutenant!
Drink now with me!
Drink now with me!
Drink, Lieutenant...
----
Drink, Lieutenant...
----
Drink, Lieutenant...
--
Drink now with me,
drink now with me!
(Throughout the refrain, Cassio is gradually encouraged more and more to drink hard, gradually drinking deeper and deeper, draining two or three tankards, as Iago refills the lieutenant's cup from the flagon.)
(Throughout the refrain, Cassio is gradually encouraged more and more to drink hard, gradually drinking deeper and deeper, draining two or three tankards, as Iago refills the lieutenant's cup from the flagon.)
RANKERS:
One li'l sip can you hold
under our pennant;
we dare win, Lieutenant!
Drink now with me!
Drink now with me!
IAGO:
Drink, Lieutenant...
RANKERS:
Drink now with me!
IAGO:
Drink, Lieutenant...
RANKERS:
Drink now with me!
IAGO:
Drink, Lieutenant...
--
RANKERS:
Drink now with me,
drink now with me!
IAGO:
One little sip more, and drunk he'll be!
RODERIGO:
One little sip more, and drunk he'll be!
IAGO:
I get quicker thinking
when intoxicated...
challenging all these notorious
ironies of destiny!
CASSIO (after downing a deeper draught):
After this much drinking,
I'm so elated...
Everything feels glorious,
and I'm so free!!
IAGO:
One li'l sip can you hold
under our pennant;
who dares wins, Lieutenant!
Drink now with me!
Drink now with me!
Drink, Lieutenant...
----
Drink, Lieutenant...
----
Drink, Lieutenant...
--
Drink now with me,
drink now with me!
(Throughout the refrain, Cassio is gradually encouraged more and more to drink hard, emptying two or three tankards)
(Throughout the refrain, Cassio is gradually encouraged more and more to drink hard, emptying two or three tankards)
RANKERS:
One li'l sip can you hold
under our pennant;
we dare win, Lieutenant!
Drink now with me!
Drink now with me!
IAGO:
Drink, Lieutenant...
RANKERS:
Drink now with me!
IAGO:
Drink, Lieutenant...
RANKERS:
Drink now with me!
IAGO:
Drink, Lieutenant...
--
RANKERS:
Drink now with me,
drink now with me!
IAGO:
One little sip more, and drunk he'll be!
RODERIGO:
One little sip more, and drunk he'll be!
IAGO:
Down the throat leads to young man's heart a byway...
CASSIO (drinking deeply once more, reeling):
Look deep into my chest and read my true self, my way!!
IAGO:
...revealing hidden deception...
CASSIO (slurred, up until he comes to in a later scene):
Of my true self I am not afraid!!
'Tis crystally-clear! I've nothing to hide!
IAGO:
One li'l sip under our pennant...
drink now with me!
drink now with me!
drink now with me!
drink now with me!
CASSIO:
I'm not afraid... of my true self! Nothing to fear, nothing to hide!
(he stumbles and falls on the ground)
RODERIGO:
Ha-ha!
RANKERS:
Ha-ha! Ha-ha!
Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha-ha!
CASSIO:
A sinner, I...
IAGO (to Roderigo):
He's as drunk as a stewed prune! Get ready,
his hot blood is boiling,
provoke him, and he'll draw steel against you!
CASSIO:
A sinner, I... have drunk, sure...
IAGO (to Roderigo):
Think that this way we'll ruin your ladylove's
and her commander's sweet first night of love!
RODERIGO (seizing his sword-cane):
Count on me, that's a given!
CASSIO (raising his right hand, and then his left, confusing left and right):
This is... my left... this is my right!
RANKERS:
Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha-ha!
Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha-ha!
Drink, Lieutenant, drink now with me!
Drink, Lieutenant, drink now with me!
Drink, Lieutenant! Drink, Lieutenant!
IAGO:
Drink, Lieutenant...
RANKERS AND CASSIO:
Drink now with me!
IAGO:
Drink, Lieutenant...
RANKERS AND CASSIO:
Drink now with me!
IAGO:
Drink, Lieutenant...
--
RANKERS AND CASSIO:
Drink now with me,
drink now with me!
Drink, Lieutenant...
RANKERS AND CASSIO:
Drink now with me!
IAGO:
Drink, Lieutenant...
RANKERS AND CASSIO:
Drink now with me!
IAGO:
Drink, Lieutenant...
--
RANKERS AND CASSIO:
Drink now with me,
drink now with me!
(By now, the young lieutenant has drained his third or fourth tankard --excluding the one he quenched his thirst with before Iago's temptation--, and is draining the flagon of the liquor there is left.)
THE FORMER GOVERNOR:
Ser Lieutenant, the changing of the guard awaits your orders.
CASSIO (reeling, staggering, trying to salute but facepalming instead):
Allons-y!!
THE FORMER GOVERNOR:
What ever...?
IAGO:
That's the way every evening
he gets his liquid courage...
THE FORMER GOVERNOR:
Othello'll know it...
CASSIO:
The changing guard awaits me!
RODERIGO:
Ha-ha!
RANKERS:
Ha-ha!
CASSIO:
Who's laughing?
RODERIGO:
Can't you deny it?
CASSIO:
I will make you cry it, you scoundrel!!
RODERIGO (drawing steel - the blade from his sword-cane):
What, Ser Lush-tenant?!
CASSIO (drawing steel - his own officer's sword):
You traitor! There's no way out of this!!
THE FORMER GOVERNOR:
Hold that hand, Lieutenant,
no bloodshed, I beg you...
CASSIO:
Whoever gets in between us will get knocked out...
THE FORMER GOVERNOR (drawing steel - his own officer's sword):
Says this young man, wasted...
CASSIO:
I, wasted!!??
IAGO (to Roderigo):
Run up all the way to the tower,
and ring the alarm bell with all of your power!
RODERIGO (tossing his sword-cane -the blade without the scabbard- to Iago):
Right!
IAGO (seizing the sword-cane):
Spread all this dread 'round like wildfire...
make it sound like an enemy storming!
(Thrusting himself into the swordfight, sword-cane in hand)
Dear comrades! Please stop at once this confrontation!!
WOMEN:
Run!
IAGO:
Gasp! Our former governor's bleeding!
And tension is mounting!
(Restraining Cassio)
Stop this!
RANKERS:
Stop this!
WOMEN:
They'll both be dead...
IAGO+RANKERS:
Stop this!
IAGO:
Say, isn't there anyone who can restrain him?
The storm-bells are ringing... we'll knock out or chain him!!
RANKERS:
To weapons! To weapons! A storming, a storming, a storming, a storming!
To weapons! To weapons! A storming, a storming, a storming, a storming!
(They knock Cassio out. At the same time, a rumpled Othello and Desdemona arrive on the scene)
OTHELLO:
Down with all those rapiers!!
...
'Allo? What occurred?
Am I among barbarians?
Or did a fit of rage enter into you,
turn you against one another...?
Sincere Iago,
speak to me, you who love me as a
speak to me, you who love me as a
brother...
IAGO:
Don't know...
Here we were all lively companions, courteous and ever...
All of a sudden,
this stripling's wits were confused, and thus, slightly offended,
he drew his blade, and his stance stubbornly defended...
I would have rather had both my legs
severed by a shot of cannon!
OTHELLO:
Cassio... what made you forget the one you were?
CASSIO (coming to):
Pardon... at all...
I can't recall...
OTHELLO (to the former governor):
You're injured...
THE FORMER GOVERNOR:
It's quite serious...
OTHELLO:
Sore wounded!! Good Heavens, how my blood is boiling over!
Ah... Will she come, our rage-quenching angel of sweet loving?
(A rumpled Desdemona comes forth. She is worried by seeing Cassio coming to and in a daze)
OTHELLO:
Here's... fair Desdemona herself startled
from her sweet dreams by your dreadful uprising?
Cassio, never more be aide-de-camp of mine!
(He takes off Cassio's rank insignia and gives it to Iago)
IAGO (to himself):
As I expected!
OTHELLO:
Iago, survey now the whole town and fortress
with a detachment, to calm the folk's spirits.
And we'll tend to the wounded!
(They bring the former governor and Cassio to the surgeon's, as Iago leaves at the head of his detachment)
OTHELLO:
Everyone else, now
return back home. I will not leave this spot till
I see there's not a person left on the keep walls!
(Everyone else leaves, leaving Othello alone with Desdemona)
OTHELLO:
Now in the starlit nighttime,
all clamour fades away;
right now, my restless heart is
within your embrace soothed and
comes to its senses...
Let war break out, and let the end of days come,
should, after that great fury,
come even greater love!
DESDEMONA:
My warrior, so proud and tall!
How much I've sighed, how much I've shuddered, my darling,
and how much hope that
has led me to such soft, warm embracing!
Oh, how sweet is our lively conversation!
Do you remember? (Pause.)
When you told me of all your wayward lifetime,
shocking events that so long pain had wrought...
I listened to you, entranced... rather enraptured...
shuddering, teary, my heart 'gainst reason fought!
OTHELLO:
I painted for you battlefields,
and stormings,
perilous breachings through keep walls...
or climbing, clinging to ivy ropes,
up all the way to battlements,
as gunshots rang around!
DESDEMONA:
Then, you took me to dazzling remote wastelands,
to the parched grasslands of your own native soil...
how you, one day, were torn away from everything,
orphaned, enchained, constrained to want and toil...
OTHELLO:
Sweetened with crystal tears was
the story, by your lovely visage,
upon your lips, a sigh...
Upon my darkness then descended
glory, paradise, and...
all the stars in the sky...
DESDEMONA:
And I saw then upon your raven tresses
of wit the bright, unearthly beauty shine...
OTHELLO:
And you loved me for all of my distresses,
and your compassion made your heart be mine...
DESDEMONA:
And I loved you for all of thy distresses,
and my compassion made my heart be thine...
OTHELLO:
And your compassion...
DESDEMONA:
And my compassion...
OTHELLO:
And your compassion made your heart be mine...
DESDEMONA:
...made my heart be thine...
OTHELLO:
If I could die now!
May I pass away in the elation of these embraces,
as we crown all our pleasure!
Such is my heart's enjoyment, that I dread that...
dread that...
that I will nevermore be given
this instant of such glee
within my unknown future destiny...
DESDEMONA:
Ne'er be to me a stranger,
may love with the years ne'er change him or change her!
OTHELLO:
May granted be your prayer...
How wonderful the stars are, and the power of love is!
DESDEMONA:
May it be granted...
OTHELLO:
Ah!! The floodgates of joy within me have opened!
I lie down to rest now...
Please kiss me!
(They kiss.)
DESDEMONA:
Othello!
OTHELLO:
Please kiss me!
(They kiss a second time.)
Please kiss me once more...
(They kiss for the third time.)
Right now, the Seven Sisters are descending!
DESDEMONA:
It's early morning...
OTHELLO:
See? Venus is shining!
DESDEMONA:
Othello! (They kiss for the fourth time.)
(Exit Othello and Desdemona, hand in hand.)
Critical remark on the Wilde fragment employed in this retelling:
ResponderEliminar"...over the palace, as the only serious concern of the upper classes seems to be their dancing, the romantic atmosphere with the stars above, and the approaching Court-ball."
In this quoting instance, Dermark stresses that "the only serious concern of the upper classes seems to be ... the romantic atmosphere with the stars above, ..." One thing Dermark adores about tragedy is its escapist nature due to the high-rank protagonists and their intense emotions, what Spaniards call the soap opera aspect of "amor y lujo" (love and luxury); ie the reason why Frye classifies tragedy as "the mythos of autumn (ie of decadence)."
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EliminarJacobs writes that Wilde inverts the usual stereotypes of the "manly male" and the "romantic female" rendering the last as materialistic, callous, and aggressive.
EliminarAnd the romantic couple on the palace balcony are a surprise. Readers usually expect the comment about the lovely stars and the wonderful power of love to be attached with 'she said to him' but it's 'he said to her', inverting the usual stereotypes of the manly male and the romantic female. Not only that but, in a particularly sharp and even brutal piece of manipulation by Wilde, the beautiful girl is shown to be not only unromantic, and not only materialistic and callous, but her coldly aggressive remark cruelly contradicts what we ourselves know to be the case,... on this girl's dress. So this relationship presumably will break down and it will be the young woman's fault, because she's a - well, choose your own term of abuse.
(Richard Jacobs)
Another critic responds to this gender-role-reversal interpretation denying it:
EliminarThe second couple in the tale are also heterosexual. The lovers on the balcony do not seem to be successful in their relationship and have communication problems. The man is romantic and passionate whereas the maid-of-honour is portrayed as being cold, selfish, vain, and loveless. For example, the man romances the girl saying: "How beautiful the stars are, and how wonderful is the power of love!"; however, she replies that she is worried her dress will not be ready for the State-Ball and complains that the seamstress is "so lazy". Jacobs predicts that the indifference of the maid-of-honour and her inability to understand the lives of those who work for her will break down the lovers' relationship and the girl will be to blame. The relationship between the lovers... The female character conveys an attitude towards life and is unfocused on the fundamental needs of her relationship.
It is interesting to note that prior to the twentieth century, it was fully acceptable for men to express themselves romantically with poets such as Keats, Shelley, and Wordsworth as their role models.
Jacobs writes that Wilde inverts the usual stereotypes of the "manly male" and the "romantic female" rendering the last as materialistic, callous, and aggressive.
Wilde is merely presenting the Victorian society stereotypes rather than expressing a mysoginistic attitude of his own.
"And the romantic couple on the palace balcony are a surprise. Readers usually expect the comment about the lovely stars and the wonderful power of love to be attached with 'she said to him' but it's 'he said to her', inverting the usual stereotypes of the manly male and the romantic female."
EliminarLike the maid-of-honour and the lover, Othello and Desdemona are a straight couple that flaunts gender roles; the man is romantic and passionate whereas the woman is portrayed as being aggressive (my fair warrior!). Iago's rendering of a callous, unromantic Desdemona who causes relationships to break down is a misogynistic reaction to female agency and power by demonising them... but the Dermarkian Othello libretto also intertextually deconstructs the character of the loveliest of the Queen's maids-of-honour / a beautiful girl; while giving her lover more nuances; by means of entwining this trifling subplot with Shakespearean mimetic tragedy. The straight romantic couple who were merely one-note characters in the Wildean tale have become Dermarkian characters in their own right.
In this context, re-reading Judith Butler's theory of gender performance/performativity, or at least the basics thereof, would be recommended.
Eliminar...unas pasionarias en un vestido que lucirá una camarera de la reina en un baile, ...
EliminarEn contraste, la mujer que usará el vestido, y a quien su amante le expresa la maravillosa fuerza del amor al ver las hermosas estrellas, se queja de la pereza de las costureras, ...
La mujer a quien su amante le expresa la maravillosa fuerza del amor al ver las hermosas estrellas, una camarera de la reina en el cuento wildeano, se ha vuelto una cita frecuente en las obras de Sandra Dermark --sobre todo porque es el amante varón quien le expresa la maravillosa fuerza del amor al ver las hermosas estrellas a la mujer, una camarera de la reina, que se queja--: la asexualidad de la autora y el trauma del divorcio.
El que, en el Otelo verdiano, el protagonista masculino, como el amante de la camarera de la reina, le expresa a su amada la maravillosa fuerza del amor al ver las hermosas estrellas, da como resultado que Arrigo Boito y Max Kalbeck le proporcionen a Dermark el pretexto ideal para citar a dichos personajes secundarios de Wilde, que dicha traductora ha apropiado como suyos.
This real amber nectar of a liquor
ResponderEliminarwill thrust bright reason off
her rightful throne!
COMPARE ELIZA COOK, "THE SACRILEGIOUS GAMESTERS:"
The strong potation of the night
Drowned all that might remain
Of feeling; and his hand shrunk not
While madness fired his brain!
But now the charm hath lost its spell,
The heated fumes have passed;
And banished reason to her throne,
Usurped, advances fast.
The coup d'état metaphor, during those times of liberal revolutions and temperance movements, was charged with a vivid je ne sais quoi.
EliminarThe phrase "dethroned reason," was potentially unsettling, for it suggested that reason was a monarch ruling over the rest of the body: an old metaphor but one not quite appropriate in a free Western world in the aftermath of revolutions. As one temperance physiologist puts it, "The lower passions being thus left without a master, the tendency to evil of every sort is greatly augmented." Put this way, intoxication begins to sound less like invasion and more like insurrection. Alcohol is not exactly causing the drinker to be something other than "himself"; it is enabling one part of him to revolt against its betters. As another physiology text explained, when one becomes intoxicated, "the hidden nature comes to the surface. All the gloss of education and social restraint falls off, and the lower nature stands revealed." In the late nineteenth century, poised between the faculty psychology of the early century and the Freudianism soon to come, the status of this repressed hidden nature, this beast within, had become increasingly uncertain. On one level, strong drink was an external force attacking a body that could be imagined as being somehow sound underneath the attack. That is, one could imagine extracting or driving out the invader to reveal a pure and whole body. On another level, though, drink was an infiltrating force not so much itself attacking the body as revealing the body's preexisting fissures and corruption.
Temperance advocates' metaphor of invasion, then, was entirely complicated. Certainly they continued, in many formats, to insist that the nation, the community, the home, and the body were essentially pure though temporarily invaded. However, they interspersed these repeated assertions with the metaphor was in tension. Drinkers, homes, communities, and nations were pure, yet there was something within them that caused them to allow alcohol to enter, and some part of their putatively pure bodies acted as a fifth column on behalf of invading alcohol.
At times, particularly when they insisted upon the metaphor of the perfect body, this characterization seems fairly accurate --both for temperance reformers and for their opponents. Taken as a whole, however, the discouse of strong drink was not a comforting discourse. Often it was too inconsistent and self-questioning to provide any answers, and often the implications of the invasion metaphor were deeply unsettling. Temperance reformers wrestled with the question of purity. They mobilized the potentially comforting metaphor of the pure body beset by external invaders, but they also insistently and continually undermined that metaphor by telling stories in which the invaded body was in some way identical with or sympathetic to the invader. Certainly it would have been possible for them to focus on hoary nativist arguments and to insist upon young humankind's pristine purity. By and large, however, temperance reformers did not take that path. If anything, they seem to have dwelled the most upon those things that rendered the metaphor of the invaded body most problematic, rejecting again and again the comfort it offered.
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EliminarGender, intoxication, disability, relationships, discrimination.
ResponderEliminar