Othello and literary adaptations. Roderigo, a wealthy and dissolute gentleman, complains to his friend Iago, an ensign, that Iago has not told him about the secret marriage between Desdemona, the daughter of a senator named Brabantio, and Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army. Roderigo is upset because he loves Desdemona and had asked her father for her hand in marriage. Iago hates Othello for promoting a younger man named Cassio above him, whom Iago considers less capable a soldier than himself, and tells Roderigo that he plans to use Othello for his own advantage. Iago convinces Roderigo to wake
Desdemona handkerchief from a sash at her waist; his wife is not involved in the mischief as is Shakespeare's Emilia. Later, Cinthio's ensign's wife learns of her husband's villainy in the handkerchief deception but feels constrained to remain silent. Unlike Shakespeare's Emilia, Cintho's ensign's wife lives to tell what she knows of Disdemona's death long after her husband and the Moor are dead. Disdemona's death in Cinthio is strikingly different from Desdemona's death in Shakespeare. The poet's gentle scene between Desdemona and Emilia while preparing for bed does not exist in Cinthio, and Cinthio's murder of Disdemona is accomplished when the