Othello is a tragedy. Published in 1622, it was published decades after it was first shown on the English stage, years after Shakespeare’s death, and printed only upon the death of his wife and just before the release of his First Folio in 1623. If not for the First Folio, we would have no written record over roughly half of Shakespeare’s great plays, including many of his Catholic masterpieces like Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and The Taming of the Shrew.
When we wonder about the Catholic message in Shakespeare’s plays, it is helpful to know the year of publishing. Anything published, for the first time, after Shakespeare’s death is a likely done so due to the heavily Catholic message contained within. Remember, it was illegal in Elizabethan England and for most of Jacobean England for Catholics to publish. This ban impacted many of Shakespeare’s works.
Let us remember, it was under Jacobean persecutions that the first English settlers took charters of new colonies to our New World. Those Englishmen were fleeing the rights denied them in England – the right to worship in Spirit and Truth, the right to free speech, the right to a free press, among other important inalienable and God-given rights. Shakespeare did not have the right to free speech, but he had a creative mind and a Catholic method for writing and interpreting scriptures to mask his messages bravely. Catechism paragraphs 101 to 141 are particularly instructive in how Catholics approach the sacred scriptures, including how to interpret them.
Paragraph 118 has the medieval couplet that functions as a beautiful summary of Shakespeare’s method,
The Letter speaks of deeds; Allegory to faith;
The Moral how to act; Anagogy our destiny.
And Othello is a Catholic allegory. Let us understand how.
Last time, we talked of the timing of the stage of the play, the New Regime of King James of Scotland was embarking in its rule over England. And so the Moor who led Venice stands as a warning to the Scot now ruling England. An outsider has come to leadership in England. Shakespeare hides his message to him through a play.
From the beginning of the play, we know that one of the Moor’s ancients, Iago, is set against serving him and will do all he can to undermine him. Confessing to a fooled conspirator, “I hate the Moor” and the diabolic misuse of the divine name via his self-described, “I am not what I am,” the audience knows Iago is evil, even if Othello does not.
The play is clearly Christian. But for the distinction between a Protestant or Catholic story, we need clues about the Catholic symbolism. Those come in the 2nd Act.
Of Our Lady
Desdemona sounds like the Latinization ‘Of our Lady.’ Desde means ‘from’ and Mona means ‘My Lady.’ Between the prominent churches in England at the time, it is only the Catholic who claim a special reverence and honor for our Lady, Mother Mary.
From the turn of the first millennium England was known as “Our Lady's Dowry.” Merrie England was truly Marian before Shakespeare penned beautiful poems, as evidenced by Shakespeare’s words found in Richard II (who lived A.D. 1367 - 1400),
This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
this Precious stone set in the silver sea…
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
Feared by their breed and famous by their birth,
Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
For Christian service and true chivalry,
As is the sepulcher in stubborn Jewry
Of the world’s ransom, blessed; Mary’s son;
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world…
So, how we do we make sense of the allegory that is Desdemona?
By listening and hearing Shakespeare’s characters.
Hail to Thee
In Act 2 of Othello, we hear the wars against the Turks are won. The people are rejoicing. But when the wars are done is when the sinister plots are begun. And this is where the story picks up steam.
Cassio, who at this point is known to be disliked by Iago because Cassio was chosen to be Othello’s lieutenant and not Iago. After the wars are won in Act 2, Scene 1, we hear Cassio’s descriptions of Desdemona, which take on strong Catholic imagery about the Church,
Most fortunately. He hath achieved a maid
That paragons description and wild fame
One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens,
And in the’essential vesture of creation
Does tire the ingeniver.
A moment later he calls her “the divine Desdemona,” and upon her entering the stage he leads the men in obsequious demonstration of respect,
O, behold,
The riches of the ship is come on shore
Ye men of Cyprus, let her have your knees.CASSIO AND THE OTHERS KNEEL
Hail to thee, lady, and the grace of heaven,
before, behind thee, and on every hand
Enwheel thee round!
Using the same imagery of the angel Gabriel’s words to Mother Mary, “Hail thee full of grace,” Cassio invokes the religious words of the sacred scriptures and the rosary onto Desdemona. Shakespeare imprints the Catholic imagery of our lady onto this important character in the play.
The rest of the story is about hearing Shakespeare’s insights in this context.
Historical Context
Between the two main churches at the time – the State and Anglican church or the universal and Catholic church – there were two distinct and different cultures surrounding respect and obsequiousness towards our Lady, Mother Mary, the blessed ever-virgin essential vesture of creation.
And whereas the State church was quick to slander the Catholic church as “whore of Babylon” and diminish the role of our Queen Mother in society, the Catholic church had to withstand those slanders. Likewise, the evil Iago planted slanders in the mind Othello to get him to commit evil acts of murder in jealousy and haste against Othello’s own lieutenant, Cassio, and falsely-slandered wife, the divine Desdemona.
Like a true Catholic martyr, Desdemona requests aide from Heaven and advises her husband to seek truth. She confirms to him the opposite of Iago’s hidden and diabolical “I am not what I am” and tells Othello “I am a Christian.”
Othello, blinded by rage and jealousy, fooled by Iago, commits a murder he deems a sacrifice. Only after he realizes he was fooled does he also commit suicide.
The play is a clear warning to the outsider, not the Moor but the Scot – beware who is advising you. For the Catholics are not the whore of Babylon they are slandered and accused to be, but instead the divine instrument used by God to be salt and light in this world. And we shall soon see and hear the heavenly song, if only we attend the heavenly liturgy,
“Alleluia! The Lord has established his reign, God, the almighty.
Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory.
For the wedding day of the Lamb has come,
His bride has made herself ready.
She was allowed to wear a bright, clean linen garment.”
The linen represents the righteous deeds of the holy ones.
the Wilton Diptych (c. 1395)