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Among Shakespeare's other characters, the one that most closely resembles Desdemona is Miranda; the figures are differently draped, the proportions are the same. There is the same modesty, tenderness, and grace; the same artless devotion in the affections, the same predisposition to wonder, to pity, to admire; the same almost etherial refinement and delicacy. But all is pure poetic nature within Miranda and around her; Desdemona is more associated with the palpable realities of everyday existence, and we see the forms and habits of society tinting her language and deportment: no two beings can be more alike in character, nor more distinct as individuals.
The love of Desdemona for Othello appears at first such a violation of all probabilities that her father at once imputes it to magic, "to spells and mixtures powerful o'er the blood."
She--in spite of nature,
Of years, of country, credit, every thing--
To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on!
And the devilish malignity of Iago, whose coarse mind cannot conceive an affection founded purely on sentiment, derives from her love itself a strong argument against her:
Ay, there's the point: As to be bold with you--
Not to affect many proposed matches
Of her own clime, complexion, and degree;
Whereto, we see, in all things nature tends...
Notwithstanding this disparity of age, character, country, complexion, we, who are admitted into the secret, see her love rise naturally and necessarily out of the leading propensities of her nature.
At the period of the story a spirit of wild adventure had seized all Europe. The discovery of both Indies was yet recent; over the shores of the western hemisphere still fable and mystery hung, with all their dim enchantments, visionary terrors, and golden promises! Perilous expeditions and distant voyages were every day undertaken from hope of plunder, or mere love of enterprise; and from these the adventurers returned with tales of "Antres vast and desarts wild--of... [continues]

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