Dramatic Technique Part 27

_Iago._ To have a foolish wife.

_Emilia._ Oh, is that all? What will you give me now For that same handkerchief?

_Iago._ What handkerchief?

_Emilia._ What handkerchief!

Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona; That which so often you did bid me steal.

_Iago._ Hast stolen it from her?

_Emilia._ No, faith; she let it drop by negligence, And, to the advantage, I, being here took't up.

Look, here it is.

_Iago._ A good wench; give it me.

_Emilia._ What will you do with't, that you have been so earnest To have me filch it?

_Iago._ (_s.n.a.t.c.hing it._) Why, what is that to you?

_Emilia._ If it be not for some purpose of import, Give't me again. Poor lady, she'll run mad When she shall lack it.

_Iago._ Be not acknown on't; I have use for it, Go, leave me. (_Exit Emilia._) I will in Ca.s.sio's lodging lose this napkin, And let him find it. Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ; this may do something.

The Moor already changes with my poison, Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons, Which at the first are scarce found to distaste, But with a little act upon the blood, Burn like the mines of sulphur.[23]

Five times the handkerchief is mentioned. The first time the action is such that Oth.e.l.lo specially notices the handkerchief. The second time we find another reason why the Moor should specially remember the handkerchief, and learn that Iago wants it for some reason of his own.

The third time appears the iteration,

... that same handkerchief?

_Iago._ What handkerchief?

_Emilia._ What handkerchief!

and emphasis on the ideas already stated:

_Emilia._ Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona; That which so often you did bid me steal.

The next time, the action, as Iago s.n.a.t.c.hes the handkerchief and Emilia tries to get it back, holds it before our attention. Finally, Iago, left alone, tells us his malicious scheme in regard to it. Surely, after all this, the audience has been properly prepared for the scenes in which Iago deceives and enrages Oth.e.l.lo by means of this very handkerchief.

In the first few minutes of the play, _Lady Windermere's Fan,_ the attention of the audience is drawn to the fan:

_Lady Windermere._ My hands are all wet with these roses. Aren't they lovely? They came up from Selby this morning.

_Lord Darlington._ They are quite perfect. (_Sees a fan lying on the table._) And what a wonderful fan! May I look at it?

_Lady Windermere._ Do. Pretty, isn't it! It's got my name on it, and everything. [Note the emphasis here.] I have only just seen it myself.

It's my husband's birthday present to me. You know today is my birthday?

_Lord Darlington._ No? Is it really?[24]

Just before the close of the first act, it is with this fan that Lady Windermere points her threat against Mrs. Erlynne:

_Lady Windermere._ (_Picking up fan._) Yes, you gave me this fan today; it was your birthday present. If that woman crosses my threshold I shall strike her across the face with it.

That Lady Windermere owns a fan; that it bears her name; that, as a gift chosen by her husband and recently given her, he must recognize it on sight: all these important facts have been planted by neat emphasis when Act I ends. Even in Act II, the fan is kept before the public. Just before Mrs. Erlynne enters, we have:

_Lady Windermere._ Will you hold my fan for me, Lord Darlington?

Thanks.

_Lady Windermere._ (_Moves up._) Lord Darlington, will you give me back my fan, please? Thanks.... A useful thing, a fan, isn't it?

When Mrs. Erlynne enters, Lady Windermere "clutches at her fan, then lets it drop on the floor":

_Lord Darlington._ You have dropped your fan, Lady Windermere. (_Picks it up and hands it to her._)

Such careful emphasizing makes sure that Lord Windermere's instant recognition of the significance of finding the fan in Lord Darlington's rooms, in the critical scene of the third act, will be immediately shared by any audience.

Mr. Augustus Thomas, in Act II of _As a Man Thinks_, wishes his audience to feel instantly the full significance of the opera libretto picked up by Hoover, as he watches Elinor enter the apartment of De Lota.

Therefore, earlier in the act he emphasizes as follows:

_Elinor._ (_To Burril._) Here's a libretto of Aida. Find that pa.s.sage of which you spoke.

_Burril._ There were several.

_Mrs. Seelig._ Our coffee won't interfere with your cigars.

_De Lota._ Do you mind?

_Elinor._ This room is dedicated to nicotine. (_To Mrs. Seelig._) Besides, we're going to take Dr. De Lota to the piano.

_De Lota._ Are you?

_Elinor._ (_To Vedah._) Aren't we?

_Vedah._ We are.

_Burril._ Here's one place. (_His pencil breaks._) Ah!

_Clayton._ (_Offering a pencil attached to his watch chain._) Here.

_Burril._ (_Giving libretto to Clayton._) Just mark that pa.s.sage--"My native land," etc. (_To Elinor._) Now follow that when Aida sings Italian and note how the English stumbles.[25]

Two pages later, as Elinor goes out to the automobile, in order that the audience may see the libretto of which we have heard so much pa.s.s into the hands of De Lota, we have this:

_Elinor._ Take this for me. (_Hands libretto to De Lota._)

Later in the act, when Judge Hoover is telling Clayton that he saw some woman with De Lota as he was entering the apartment, the dialogue runs: