Smith College - Smith College Yearbook (Northampton, MA)

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that is so dreadful in the serpent, it is the very omnipotence of the earth. It scarcely breathes with its one lung (the other being shrivelled and abortive); it is passive to the sun and shade, and is cold or hot like a stone; yet it can outclimb the monkey, outswim the fish, outleap the zebra, outwrestle the athlete and crush the tiger. It is a divine hierograph of the demoniac power of the earth ; of the entire earthly nature. Such is the serpent Iago Dowden writes. The serpent Iago, the serpent, the basest form of life, the symbol of innate sin, against which every man ' s hand is turned, at the sight of which every man shudders. Such is the serpent Iago. ' Was it not a greater punishment for such a one to live than to die? Learn the lesson that Shakspere would teach, that Phillips Brooks in these later years has taught. The most awful punishment that man can ever receive is the ruin of his soul. You cannot sin and stand still. Just as it would be impossible for the earth to cease to rotate even for the one-millionth part of a second, so it is impossible for the soul to ever be at rest. If the sun did not attract the earth and hold her under his sway, some other fixed star would. All of which is a parable. The soul is active. It, too, is revolving in a universe, attracted by good and evil. Let it cease to follow good, and evil will get possession of it. Iago had lost his birthright. Instead of expanding into the divine, his soul was shrinking into the awful nothingness. It is the lesson which all men must learn. So much for Iago. Let it be granted that he received his retribution, through the death of his soul. What of Desdemona? What of Cordelia, who lay strangled on King Lear ' s breast? What of Imogen? They had not sinned and yet they suffered. 11

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Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy ; It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock The meat it feeds on. Why ! why is this ? Think ' st thou, I ' d make a life of jealousy, To follow still the changes of the moon With fresh suspicions. Yet jealousy, the green-eyed monster came and took possession of the very soul of Othello, and he that was of a free and open nature, that thinks men honest that but seem to be so was changed into a man to whom revenge seemed dearer than life, to whom love seemed almost an evil. Poor Desdemona, still loving though unloved; she passed out of the world, with the tune of Willow, willow echoing in her ear, while with her lips she praised the one who caused her death. What does Shakspere mean by this sad tale? Why should Desdemona die? Why should Othello lose all when life had begun to look so fair? Why was he saved from the flood only to be hurled into a daily death of mistrust and despair? Above all why was Iago spared to live unharmed his dreadful life? What is the law of retribu- tion after all if such things may happen in the world? We have entered the valley of doubt. We cannot understand. Iago lived — yet what a life. Incapable of love, incapable of being loved, the most unhappy man the world has ever seen. It is the strength of the base element, Ruskin says in The Queen of the Air, 10

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Upon a high pinnacle a traveller stood one day and watched the wild winds blow over the earth. Whence they came he could not tell nor whither they went. He watched them as they whirled about, doing what harm they would, without restraint it seemed to him, without control. Then out of the depth of his being he cried aloud Oh, God, if there be a God, give to me the meaning of these winds. Why in this world of law and order can such things be! Poor weak creatures of the earth the God replied, those winds which you have seen, at whose violence you have trembled, are subjected to a law, which they are as powerless to evade as is the earth to stand still or the sun to cease to shine. Man in his weakness and folly cannot understand. Did Shakspere understand the law of retribution? Were there not mysterious passages through which he had to walk unguided? It could not have seemed just to him that Desdemona should have died. It was the final step in the working out of some law. He did not understand the law; yet, not understanding, he recognized its existence. Closely related to the justice of Desdemona ' s death comes this other question : Is man predestined to sin or does he fall through the agency of his own wilful sin? Has he the power to break away from evil and do well or is he bound to follow the path allotted to him ? Macbeth urged on by the witches, going from bad to worse, ruining a mind by nature noble, was he predestined to fall or could he have broken away from the fetters of ambition and lived to be Thane of Cawdor and Glanis if not king of Scotland? 12