Would you, the supervisor, grossly gape on –
Behold her topp’d?
– William Shakespeare
Othello, Act 3, Scene 3. Iago uses crude language and vivid sexual imagery to place the image of Desdemona sleeping with another man in Othello’s mind. It is part of Iago’s pattern of manipulation to torment Othello, making him suffer the pangs of jealousy and provoking him to anger and violence. Iago’s vulgar description of Desdemona having sex is a replay of his equally coarse comment to Brabantio in the opening scene: "an old black ram Is topping your white ewe."