precise configurations of these spaces, it is important that in a world where
everyone seems to have a place to be, the Moor is no exception, appearing no
less (if also no more) embedded on the home front than his Venetian, Floren-
tine, or Cypriot peers.
In fact, by aligning Othello with a residence, as a site and subject, the
play signposts the surety and autonomy of his footing within Venice—even
and especially amid circumstances that would otherwise constrain his actions.
From the very moment he appears, the ever-prodding Iago prods him to “go
in” to the lodging they stand before, to retreat from the advancing threat of
an unnamed but powerful “him”—a “magnifico” who turns out to be Braban-
tio ( 1. 2. 30 , 10 , 12 ).^56 In response, Othello takes his own discovery into his own
hands and declares emphatically that he “must be found” ( 1. 2. 30 ). In part,
what he exhibits is an abiding confidence both that the “services” he has “done
the Signory” will “out-tongue” any “complaints” ( 1. 2. 18 – 19 ) and that his
“parts,” “title,” and “perfect soul,” which exceed those “services,” will “mani-
fest [him] rightly” ( 1. 2. 30 – 32 ). Yet his imperative self-positioning emerges in
response and challenge to Iago’s directives and control. In a telling but unnec-
essary explication, Othello commands Iago to “know”: “But that I love the
gentle Desdemona, / I would not my unhousèd free condition / Put into cir-
cumscription and confine / For the seas’ worth” ( 1. 2. 24 – 28 ). In so doing, he
places his own authority to “know” over and against that of the informing
Iago, prescribing what is the crucial knowledge here: that he, and he alone,
sets the terms of his “unhousèd free condition” and, reciprocally, of his “hous-
ing.” Within the symbolic economy of the play, these words anticipate the
tragic limits of Othello’s love, his ominous association of marriage with con-
finement. Yet in and at this moment within the dramatic fiction, the speech
act functions to confirm and secure Othello’s “free condition” on the streets
of Venice and in the face of the overbearing Iago, who would otherwise hem
him in.
Even when Othello comes under pressure from the state, he insists on
standing his ground, literally and figuratively. When Cassio and his faction
enter the scene with urgent political business, Othello continues to direct his
own discovery. The fact that the “business” is “of some heat” is obvious
( 1. 2. 40 ). Cassio emphasizes that the duke “requires” Othello’s “haste-post-
haste appearance / Even on the instant” ( 1. 1. 37 – 38 ), explaining that “many of
the consuls” have already gathered at court, that Othello has already “been
hotly called for” at his “lodging,” and that, when he was not found there, “the
Senate” “sent about three several quests / To search [him] out” ( 1. 2. 43 – 47 ).
172 chapter seven