My mother had a maid call’d Barbary:
She was in love, and he she loved proved mad
And did forsake her: she had a song of "willow;"
An old thing ’twas, but it express’d her fortune,
And she died singing it: that song to-night
Will not go from my mind.
– William Shakespeare
Othello, Act 4, Scene 3. Desdemona tells the tragic story of her mother’s maid Barbary, forsaken by her lover who went mad. The maid died while singing "The Willow Song" about her lost love. There are parallels between Desdemona and Barbary and much foreshadowing in this passage of Desdemona’s terrible fate. Othello will be driven to madness by jealousy and Desdemona will die by her husband’s hands soon after singing this song.