The "cannibals" are also mentioned in the narrative.

I should like now to point out, by some parallels, how closely Shakespeare seems to follow the circumstances of Ralegh's courtship and marriage in the play of Othello. It appears to me probable that we have in that character a presentment, to some extent, of Ralegh's personality and temperament, and the villainy of Iago may, in that case, have suggested to the author an analogy with that shown by Northampton (abetted, as it seems, by Cecil, though, in his case, perhaps on some conviction of public interest) in his intrigues against Ralegh, by which, and his own unguarded speeches (see Aubrey), the mind of James seems to have been poisoned against him. I refer, of course, to the treatment. The plot, it appears, was drawn, more or less, from an Italian tale. It is noteworthy that the play was produced at the Court in 1604, the year after Ralegh's sentence.

Ralegh's early life, like Othello's, was passed in war and hardships, and his story may well have appealed to Elizabeth Throgmorton. In reading the following passage in Edwards' Life, the analogy of Othello and Desdemona at once presents itself:

Her charms subdued Sir Walter Ralegh. The noble presence, the warlike fame, the ready tongue, the various accomplishments of such a lover, subdued in turn-and subdued entirely-the Queen's fair maid of honour.-i. 137.

Compare with this the defence of Othello:

Her father loved me; oft invited me ;

Still question'd me the story of my life,

From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
That I have pass'd.

I ran it through, even from my boyish days,

To the very moment that he bade me tell it;

Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,

Of moving accidents by flood and field,

Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach,

Of being taken by the insolent foe

And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence

And portance in my travels' history:

Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,

Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven,

It was my hint to speak,-such was the process;

And of the Cannibals that each other eat,

The Anthropophagi and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline:

But still the house-affairs would draw her thence:
Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
She'ld come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse: which I observing,
Took once a pliant hour, and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
But not intentively: I did consent,

And often did beguile her of her tears,

When I did speak of some distressful stroke

That my youth suffer'd. My story being done,

She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:

She swore, in faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange,
'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful :

She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd

That heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me,

And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,

I should but teach him how to tell my story,

And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake :

She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd,

And I loved her that she did pity them. (i. 3.)

Allusion to the hardships which Ralegh had gone through seems also to be intended in the account of Belphoebe bringing restoratives to the Squire Timias in the Faerie Queene, Bk. III. v.

The following are the other noticeable passages in this connection in the play :

The sea-image in the following (ii. 1):

Oth. It gives me wonder great as my content
To see you here before me. O my soul's joy!
If after every tempest come such calms,

May the winds blow till they have waken'd death;
And let the labouring bark climb hills of seas
Olympus-high and duck again as low

As hell's from heaven!

Othello is represented as in middle life when he married. Ralegh was the same, being about forty. But Othello is a vigorous man (as Ralegh was), and dismisses the thought that that can account for Desdemona's supposed infidelity (iii. 3):

Haply, for I am black
And have not those soft parts of conversation
That chamberers have, or for I am declined
Into the vale of years,-yet that's not much.

Ralegh, like Othello, was a man of commanding presence, and at the same time of unusual appearance; see Aubrey's account quoted on p. 419. Iago's speech (ii. 1) contains a reference to this:

there should be . . . loveliness in favour, sympathy in years, manners and beauties; all of which the Moor is defective in.

The following lines put into the mouth of Iago (ii. 1) also perfectly apply to Ralegh on his best side :

The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not,

Is of a constant, loving, noble nature,

And I dare think he'll prove to Desdemona

A most dear husband.

Lastly the Moor, like Ralegh (see letter quoted at p. 424), had not contemplated marriage.

Oth. But that I love the gentle Desdemona,

I would not my unhoused free condition
Put into circumscription and confine

For the sea's worth.

I do not, of course, suggest that an artist in drawing a character is tied to a particular model, but I do maintain

that all creative artists draw on their experience, and these parallels are therefore striking enough to deserve attention.

I have given some reasons in Chapter III. for thinking that the knight "Scudamore" in the Faerie Queene represents Ralegh. I will supplement them here by some

passages from the poem.

In Book IV. i. Paridell attacks Scudamore, and the shock of their meeting is described as follows:

As when two billowes in the Irish sowndes,

Forcibly driven with contrarie tydes,
Do meete together, each abacke rebowndes
With roaring rage; and dashing on all sides,
That filleth all the sea with fome, divydes

The doubtfull current into divers wayes,

So fell those two in spight of both their prydes ;

But Scudamore himselfe did soone uprayse,

And, mounting light, his foe for lying long uprayes. (42.)

Blandamour, who had been wounded in an encounter with Britomart, being unable to fight, rails at Scudamore, who restrains his anger:

He little answer'd, but in manly heart
His mightie indignation did forbeare;
Which was not yet so secret, but some part
Thereof did in his frouning face appeare :
Like as a gloomie cloud, the which doth beare
An hideous storme, is by the Northerne blast
Quite overblowne, yet doth not passe so cleare,
But that it all the skie doth overcast

With darknes dred, and threatens all the world to wast.

(45.)

Strength and self-reliance, dark colouring, and a formidable appearance when roused, are the features of this description, and they accord with the information as to Ralegh which has been placed before the reader in this chapter. The Irish allusion is also appropriate in view of his large interests there.

The same strength of nature is shown in the description

in Book III. xi., where Scudamore is found by Britomart in despair at the loss of Amoret:

His face upon the grownd did groveling ly,
As if he had beene slombring in the shade;
That the brave Mayd would not for courtesy
Out of his quiet slomber him abrade,
Nor seeme too suddeinly him to invade.

Still as she stood, she heard with grievous throb
Him grone, as if his hart were peeces made,
And with most painefull pangs to sigh and sob,

That pitty did the Virgins hart of patience rob. (8.)

In some noble lines, most applicable to the vicissitudes of Ralegh's life, Britomart comforts him :

Ah gentle knight! whose deepe conceived griefe
Well seemes t' exceede the powre of patience,
Yet, if that hevenly grace some goode reliefe
You send, submit you to high providence ;
And ever in your noble hart prepense,
That all the sorrow in the world is lesse

Then vertues might and values confidence:
For who nill bide the burden of distresse,

Must not here thinke to live; for life is wretchednesse.

(14.)