There was a great deal of attention on this handkerchief. I couldn't help thinking so what, it's a handkerchief, the default present for uncles at Christmas. I remembered, from reading Henry Mayhew's London Labour London Poor, that handkerchiefs used to be quite valuable objects; hence Fagin's boys stealing them in Oliver Twist. It still seemed like a McGuffin, using Alfred Hitchcock's phrase. Then I read in the introduction that it had been dyed with mummy goo (nice), which might allude to bloodied sheets on a honeymoon night. Othello's father gave it to his mother. It was a very big deal. Was she allowed to blow her nose in it? To me the whole handkerchief thing seemed like an unsatisfactory plot device.