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The Worlds of the Renaissance Projects, 2000

Women in the Renaissance Lab

  (12)Document 10  William Shakespeare, Othello. ed. T.J.B. Spencer and Stanley Wells, (London: Penguin Books, 1996)
   Shakespeare wrote Othello between 1602 and 1604. In this story Othello kills his wife Desdemona after his aid Iago lies and makes him believe Desdemona had an affair.
E M I L I A Yes, a dozen: and as many to th'vantage as would
store the world they played for.
But I do think it is their husbands' faults
If wives do fall. Say that they slack their duties,
And pour our treasures into foreign laps;
Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,
Or scant our former having in despite -
Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace,
Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
Their wives have sense like them: they see and smell,
And have their palates both for sweet and sour
As husbands have. What is it that they do,
When they change us for others? Is it sport?
I think it is. And doth affection breed it?
I think it doth. Is't frailty that thus errs?
It is so too. And have not we affections, me
Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
Then let them use us well: else let them know
The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.