These reports about monstrous births reflect fears surrounding miscegenation. At the same time that Othello, a play about the mixing of races through the sexual union of Othello and Desdemona, is performed on the stage, such creatures were thought to exist. According to European sources from the era, the sexual union of different races and even distinct religions created horrible monsters. Ambroise Paré, a physician who lived in sixteenth-century France, wrote a book on these horrors, titled Des Monstres et Prodiges, in which he described the dangers of such relations:

XREF: Connects Othello to contemporary fears about miscegenation, showing Shakespeare's play engaged live anxieties rather than abstract themes.

Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 312