"Vanish into thin air"

"Vanish into thin air"
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Constantin Stanislavski as Othello.Wikimedia

"Then put up your pipes in your bag, for I'll away. Go; vanish into air; away!" (Othello)

How Shakespeare uses it: The Clown says this to the musicians in "Othello" to make them go away.

But some have also suggested that there is a darker underlying meaning. Act 3 in Othello is the final act that suggests that all of this might have a happy ending. It gets pretty dark starting in Act 4. So the Clown might be symbolically asking musicians and all happy things to "vanish into thin air" because there's no more room for them in the play.

A similar phrase is also found in "The Tempest."

Modern definition: To disappear without a trace.

Sources: "Othello," Act 3, Scene 1, "The Tempest," Act 4, Scene 1

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