If after every tempest come such calms,
May the winds blow till they have waken’d death!
-Othello
Othello Act II, Scene i, Line 187
It’s interesting. We’ve had quite a few lines from Othello,
and many of them have been lines, or words, that I’ve been able to point out
can be used today in many different situations. There was ‘Good Michael’ and
‘Aye, sooth’ ‘What villain hath done this?’ And now we have
another.
For context’s sake, this is Othello talking to Desdemona on
the docks. She’s been waiting for him and he’s just gotten in, his ship just
having sailed through a tempest at sea that sank a bunch of the Turkish ships.
Well he’s probably happy just to get on terra firma, but he’s doubly happy to
see her there. And so he comes up with this line. And it’s a good line.
If after every tempest come such calms, may
the winds blow till they have wakened death!
So that will be a pretty significant wind if it blows enough
to waken death.
Now to be fair, there’s a lot of bad stuff coming down the
pike for Othello and Desdemona, and this may be a bit of Will foreshadowing
here. But for now things are still good. So these newlyweds may as well enjoy
the calm while they can.
Is it possible that the winds blew here till they have waken'd the dead? No, this probably got knocked over by some delinquent.
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