Note 91 — LECTURE V
Reading edition
For those who know the end of the story there is a terrible irony in the enthusiasm with which Cassio greets the arrival of Desdemona in Cyprus. Her ship (which is also Iago's) sets out from Venice a week later than the others, but reaches Cyprus on the same day with them:
Tempests themselves, high seas and howling winds, The gutter'd rocks and congregated sands— Traitors ensteep'd to clog the guiltless keel— As having sense of beauty, do omit Their mortal natures, letting go safely by The divine Desdemona.
So swiftly does Fate conduct her to her doom.