POETRY AND IMAGINATION 



on the sea-coast. There is none of his contemporaries 

 whose works are so full of the sentiment of the sea. 

 To take one play out of many that would serve equally 

 well, in Othello the scene is laid at Venice and Cyprus, 

 so that nautical affairs bulk largely in it. But this is 

 not enough to explain the frequency and the magnificence 

 of Shakespeare's allusions. The height of joy and of 

 tragic passion constantly find their most adequate expres- 

 sion in the language of the sea. So in the meeting of '^^hello. 

 Othello with Desdemona at Cyprus : 



* O my soul's joy ! 

 If after every tempest come such calms, 



May the winds blow till they have waken'd death ; 

 And let the labouring bark climb hills of seas, 

 Olympus-high, and duck again as low 

 As hell's from heaven ! If it were now to die, 

 'Twere now to be most happy.' 



So, again, in Othello's reply to lago's counsels of 



patience : 



* Never, lago. Like to the Pontic sea 

 Whose icy current and compulsive course 

 Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on. 

 To the Propontic and the Hellespont ; 

 Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace, 

 Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love. 

 Till that a capable and wide revenge 

 Swallow them up.' 



So, again, in Ludovico's last apostrophe to lago : 



* O Spartan dog 

 More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea.' 



In the greatness of Othello's passion there is the lift 

 and the wash of the sea ; in the inhuman treachery of 

 lago there is its cruelty and its mystery. 



There is evidence enough, in well-known passages. Borrowed 

 of Shakespeare's acquaintance with the discoveries of 



III 



names. 



