The Meaning of Strawberries in Shakespeare

Shakespearean details of rather minor intrinsic significance sometimes can be worth the most careful examination not only because they previously have been ignored or misinterpreted, but also because such study may serve to indicate neglected resources of the playwright's dramatic language and the methods of historical criticism requisite to master them. The concern of this article is to demonstrate that Shakespeare's references to the strawberry, appearing in quite different dramatic contexts in three plays widely spaced through his career, are examples of such details. Of course the most memorable of these references (and the one to which our main attention will be drawn) occurs in Othello (III.iii.433—4.35) where mention of the strawberry ‘spots’ on the fatal handkerchief helps to vivify Iago's climactic flourish of evidence in the temptation of the Moor.