I did consent,
And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffer’d. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs;
She swore, in faith, ’twas strange, ’twas passing strange,
‘Twas pitiful, ’twas wondrous pitiful:
She wish’d she had not heard it, yet she wish’d
That heaven had made her such a man: she thank’d me,
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story.
And that would woo her.
– William Shakespeare
Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. Othello tells the Duke of Venice and Brabantio the story of how Desdemona fell in love with him. On hearing his harrowing and exotic tales of an adventurous youth, it was the brave Othello’s suffering that won her heart. Desdemona’s compassionate nature is revealed here, also that it was Desdemona who fell in love with Othello first.