The Willow Song and Comedy in Othello

Abstract: Rather than being straightforwardly somber, the Willow Song in act IV, scene iii of Othello can play to the audience as comic and parodic, as it covers not a single willow song but an entire genre. The song's potential resonances in Othello increase our understanding of how songs in early modern drama could be used for comic parody at otherwise somber moments, many resonances of which are lost to modern readers without access to these songs' rich intertextual networks. The article has profound implications for understanding act IV, scene iii in Othello and particularly for the performance of Desdemona's character.