Recently I was looking back at my favorite single speech in Shakespeare, Othello’s explanation of how he won over Desdemona in 1.3.  He does a gorgeous humblebrag, stating he never used witchcraft–but then his words are themselves a spell, almost magical enough to get me past the mention of creatures like the anthropophagi.  I know people then believed that such things existed, but as a reader, I have a hard time making that jump.  So I was considering whether it was possible for both Othello and Desdemona to know that his epic tale was all untrue and still find each other through his narrative.  Today I decided to sit down and work through that possibility.  I stuck with mostly blank verse but used intentionally casual, conversational language for most of it; I suppose that reflects the clash of modern and Elizabethan thinking that always trips me up on this passage.  Should be up soon at the link right here .