Othello (1623): ACT 3, Scene 3: ” . . . the Greene ey’d Monster”. Oxford’s doubts about his wife, Anne.

Fig. 1: or here                 Othello (1623, 1622), Act Three, Scene III

Fig. 2

Fig. 3               Ferris©2013:  ” . . . the Greene ey’d Monster.”

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

   The letter-strings and clusters virtually scream from the ciphertext. At this point in the play, de Vere has revealed in previous ciphertexts that he is Othello, in that much of what Othello thinks and feels come from his (Vere’s) own personal experience.  Othello is consumed by his suspicion Desdemona has been unfaithful to him; and, as a writer, Oxford is doubtless consumed with his own memories of his suspicions about his own wife, Anne Cecil, Lady Vere, possibly having been unfaithful to him, and of having given birth to a daughter when he was abroad. In writing, Oxford writes from his memories and feelings. Although he was reconciled with Anne after several years of estrangement, it is reasonably certain he returned, in thought, to Anne’s possible infidelity. From an Oxfordian point of view, just as Hamlet is thematically (in part) about what he (Vere) felt was his true right to inherit the Crown of England upon the death of Elizabeth I, Othello is a play about betrayal, jealousy and shame. One cannot not imagine writing the above plaintext passage in Act Three would fill him with “thoughts violent”. Doubtless, his ability to convey the experience of being consumed with anger and suspicion is what gives the play its validity, its realness, its claim to be some of the greatest writing by anyone, anywhere,  in any era.

Fig. 6

The same passage as above, but from the 1622 version

Fig. 5

Fig. 7

 

 

 

IX.II.MMXIII