_Emilia._ Do not you chide; I have a thing for you.
_Iago._ A thing for me? It is a common thing--
_Emilia._ Oh, is that all? What will you give me now For that same handkerchief?
_Emilia._ What handkerchief! Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona; That which so often you did bid me steal.
_Emilia._ No, faith; she let it drop by negligence, And, to the advantage, I, being here took't up. Look, here it is.
_Emilia._ What will you do with't, that you have been so earnest To have me filch it?
_Iago._ (_Snatching it._) Why, what is that to you?
_Emilia._ If it be not for some purpose of import, Give't me again. Poor lady, she'll run mad When she shall lack it.
_Iago._ Be not acknown on't; I have use for it, Go, leave me. (_Exit Emilia._) I will in Cassio's lodging lose this napkin, And let him find it. Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ; this may do something. The Moor already changes with my poison, Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons, Which at the first are scarce found to distaste, But with a little act upon the blood, Burn like the mines of sulphur.[23]
Five times the handkerchief is mentioned. The first time the action is such that Othello specially notices the handkerchief. The second time we find another reason why the Moor should specially remember the handkerchief, and learn that Iago wants it for some reason of his own. The third time appears the iteration,
and emphasis on the ideas already stated:
_Emilia._ Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona; That which so often you did bid me steal.
The next time, the action, as Iago snatches the handkerchief and Emilia tries to get it back, holds it before our attention. Finally, Iago, left alone, tells us his malicious scheme in regard to it. Surely, after all this, the audience has been properly prepared for the scenes in which Iago deceives and enrages Othello by means of this very handkerchief.
In the first few minutes of the play, _Lady Windermere's Fan,_ the attention of the audience is drawn to the fan:
_Lady Windermere._ My hands are all wet with these roses. Aren't they lovely? They came up from Selby this morning.
_Lord Darlington._ They are quite perfect. (_Sees a fan lying on the table._) And what a wonderful fan! May I look at it?