"In England we are accustomed to deck this
adventurous Moor in the costume of his native country--but is this
correct? The Grand Duke of Reisenberg thought not. Othello was an
adventurer; at an early age he entered, as many foreigners did, into
the service of Venice. In that service he rose to the highest
dignities--became general of her armies and of her fleets; and finally
the viceroy of her favourite kingdom. Is it natural to suppose that
such a man should have retained, during his successful career, the
manners and dress of his original country? Ought we not rather to
admit that, had he done so, his career would in fact not have been
successful? In all probability he imitated to affectation the manners
of the country which he had adopted. It is not probable that in such,
or in any age, the turbaned Moor would have been treated with great
deference by the common Christian soldier of Venice--or, indeed, that
the scandal of a heathen leading the armies of one of the most
powerful of European states, would have been tolerated for an instant
by indignant Christendom.
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