I heard this during an excellent performance of Othello over the weekend.

Problem:
I’m not sure about William Shakespeare’s time, but “myself” by today’s standard is not the right pronoun for this sentence.

Explanation:
At the risk of treading sacred ground, I must say that I had to wince when I heard “myself will be your surgeon” in the Alley Theatre’s excellent production of Shakespeare’s Othello over the weekend.

I’m not blaming the Alley production company. According to Scribd, the actor who played the part of Othello — David Rainey — said it exactly according to the script.

Perhaps Shakespeare wrote this line as shorthand for “Sir, for your hurts, I myself will be your surgeon: …” and simply left out the nominative singular pronoun “I” because it was the style of the time.

It’s correct to follow “I” with “myself” when one wants to emphasize the “I” (ditto for “you” followed by “yourself”, “he” followed by “himself”, etc.).

In other words, one can emphasize a nominative pronoun by immediately following it with its counterpart reflexive pronoun (e.g., “I myself” or “he himself”).

However, it’s incorrect to use a reflexive pronoun as a substitute for its counterpart nominative pronoun.

Solution:
“Sir, for your hurts, I will be your surgeon.” or “Sir, for your hurts, I myself will be your surgeon.”