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The Epilepsy of Othello

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2018

Robert Lawson
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Extract

I have often stated in conversation that Shakspere, in depicting the agitation into which Othello was thrown by the artifices of Iago, subjected the Moor to an epileptic seizure. Almost without exception, this statement has at first been contradicted; but a perusal and an analysis of Scene 1, Act iv. of the tragedy of “Othello” have, I think, convinced all enquirers that the dramatist's design in the matter was not open to doubt.

Type
Part I.–Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 26 , Issue 113 , April 1880 , pp. 1 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 1880 

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References

∗ “Shakspere's Medical Knowledge.” By Dr. Bucknill, 1860, p. 274.Google Scholar

∗ An illustration taken nt random from Trousseau's Chapter on Epilepsy (Clinical Medicine, Vol. i), will show that Shakspere's idea of epilepsy being primarily produced, and subsequently re-induced by painful emotions, was, to say the least of it, a happy conception, which has its connter-parfc in clinical facts. I shall classify Trousseau's comments on a case to show the close resemblance of its features to those of the conception of Shakspere. Primary Causation.$One night the patient had been suddenly awakened and frightened by terrible shrieks from his wife, and a few days afterwards he had his first attack. The attacks recurred at regular intervals, and were brought on by the slightest painful emotion.Google Scholar

The features of a seizure were quivering of the legs, delirium, convulsions and unconsciousness. He looked exactly tike a delirious maniac. The fits lasted about twenty minutes, and without any transition the patient became calm. The words which I have italicised have their counterpart in lago's description of Othello's state, uiid in the words of Olhdlu himself.Google Scholar

∗ Ulrici, Shakspere's Dramatic Art, Vol. I.Google Scholar

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