n III. iii. and III. iv. And here Mr. Fleay would imagine a gap of
at least a week. The reader will find that this supposition involves the
following results, (_a_) Desdemona has allowed at least a week to elapse
without telling Cassio that she has interceded for him. (_b_) Othello,
after being convinced of her guilt, after resolving to kill her, and
after ordering Iago to kill Cassio within three days, has allowed at
least a week to elapse without even questioning her about the
handkerchief, and has so behaved during all this time that she is
totally unconscious of any change in his feelings. (_c_) Desdemona, who
reserves the handkerchief evermore about her to kiss and talk to (III.
iii. 295), has lost it for at least a week before she is conscious of
the loss. (_d_) Iago has waited at least a week to leave the
handkerchief in Cassio's chamber; for Cassio has evidently only just
found it, and wants the work on it copied before the owner makes
inquiries for it. These are all gross absurdities. It is certain that
only a short time, most probable that not even a night, elapses between
III. iii. and III. iv.

(B) Now this idea that Othello killed his wife, probably within
twenty-four hours, certainly within a few days, of the consummation of
his marriage, contradicts the impression produced by the play on all
uncritical readers and spectators. It is also in flat contradiction with
a large number of time-indications in the play itself. It is needless to
mention more than a few. (_a_) Bianca complains that Cassio has kept
away from her for a week (III. iv. 173). Cassio and the rest have
therefore been more than a week in Cyprus, and, we should naturally
infer, considerably more. (_b_) The ground on which Iago builds
throughout is the probability of Desdemona's having got tired of the
Moor; she is accused of having repeatedly committed adultery with Cassio
(_e.g._ V. ii. 210); these facts and a great many others, such as
Othello's language in III. iii. 338 ff., are utterly absurd on the
supposition that he murders his wife within a day or two of the night
when he consummated his marriage. (_c_) Iago's account of Cassio's dream
implies (and indeed states) that he had been sleeping with Cassio
'lately,' _i.e._ after arriving at Cyprus: yet, according to A, he had
only spent one night in Cyprus, and we are expressly told that Cassio
never went to bed on that night. Iago doubtless was a liar, but Othello
was not an absolute idiot