A Twice-Stolen Anecdote

I was surfing the net to prep for seeing King Lear tonight and stumbled on this anecdote that keeps making me giggle, so I pass it on, though give full credit to Daniel Hannan, the British Member of Parliament from whom I stole it, and Tom Utley, the fellow he stole it from in turn.

Just before Othello smothers Desdemona, he says "Put out the light, and then put out the light." Now apparently one of Tom Utley's grade school teachers was convinced that the repetition was a mistake and that the line was a mistranscription. I'm with Hannan in finding this notion preposterous--obviously the first "light" is the candle and the second is Desdemona's life. Regardless, the teacher asked the boys to suggest what the original might have been. I now hand it over to Hannan:

Young Tom stuck his hand in the air: “Could Shakespeare have meant Othello to say: 'Put out the cat, and then put out the light'?"