Othello's+Epilepsy

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The diagnosis of Othello's attack (IV-i. 35-80) as epilepsy which is climaxed by the folio stage direction, “Falls in a Traunce,” has long been accepted, but the significance and the imagery of the seizure have been neglected. It is true that in 1860 a doctor of medicine had objected: “Iago's designation of this [trance] as an epilepsye, of which it is the second fit, appears a mere falsehood.” However, by 1880, medical doctors and others all agreed that Othello has an attack of epilepsy. ([|Emery])

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