Unobserved by the play’s male characters, Desdemona shares a private moment with Emilia in her bedroom as Emilia helps her get ready for bed in Act 4, Scene 3 of William Shakespeare’s Othello. Compare their exchange in this scene with Aemilia Lanyer’s representation of an all-female space in “The Description of Cooke-ham.” What kinds of gendered expression does female community make possible in these texts? What kinds of social commentary or critique emerge from these marginal spaces? You may also want to consider how performance and publication complicate our understanding of “private” female spaces and conversations in these texts.