born drew all such humours from him.

In a short speech of Aemilia's there occurs one of those side-
intimations of the fluctuations of passion which we seldom meet with
but in Shakespeare. After Othello has resolved upon the death of his
wife, and bids her dismiss her attendant for the night, she answers:

I will, my Lord.

Aemilia. How goes it now? HE LOOKS GENTLER THAN HE DID.

Shakespeare has here put into half a line what some authors would
have spun out into ten set speeches.

The character of Desdemona herself is inimitable both in itself, and
as it contrasts with Othello's groundless jealousy, and with the
foul conspiracy of which she is the innocent victim. Her beauty and
external graces are only indirectly glanced at; we see 'her visage
in her mind'; her character everywhere predominates over her person:

A maiden never bold:
Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion
Blushed at itself.

There is one fine compliment paid to her by Cassio, who exclaims
triumphantly when she comes ashore at Cyprus after the storm:

Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds,
As having sense of beauty, do omit
Their mortal natures, letting safe go by