Those that do teach young babes
Do it with gentle means and easy tasks:
He might have chid me so; for, in good faith,
I am a child to chiding.
– William Shakespeare
Othello, Act 4, Scene 2. In a metaphor Desdemona compares herself to a child who has been scolded. This is after Othello calls her "that cunning whore of Venice." She says that those who teach children do it gently and Othello might have scolded her gently. Her words emphasize her childlike innocence, her passivity and state of confusion at Othello’s cruelty.