OTHELLO THE MOOR OF VENICE INTRODUCTION OUR best authority for the text of Othello is the folio of 1623; but a quarto derived from an independent manuscript had appeared in the preceding year, and had been entered in the Stationers' Register in October 1621. The occurrence of many oaths and expletives in the quarto which do not appear in the folio suggests the idea that the manuscript from which the former text was produced may have been a transcript preceding in date the enactment against swearing passed early in the reign of James I. A few lines absent from the folio are found in the quarto; but a far larger number of lines-about 160-wanting in the quarto are found in the folio. Some of these differences apparently arose from carelessness in printing the quarto; some omissions were probably made to shorten the performance of the play; a few lines may be additions of the author, found in the manuscript used for the folio. The subsequent quartos of 1630 and 1655 are of comparatively slight importance in ascertaining the text. In the words (Act III, Scene iv, lines 47, 48): A liberal hand; the hearts of old gave hands, But our new heraldry is hands not heartsWarburton supposed that there was a satirical allusion to the baronets created by King James in 1611, to whom by a second patent of the following year the arms of Ulster were granted-in a field argent, a hand gueles, or a bloodie hand.' If the reference be as Warburton imagined, the words, as will be shown, must be an insertion after the play had appeared upon the stage. But 'hands' and 'hearts' were brought into conjunction or contrast by other writers than Shakespeare. Mr. H. C. Hart has cited the description in Peele's Polyhymnia of a tilter who appeared before the queen in 1590: A liberal Hand, badge of nobility, A Heart that in his mistress' honour vows No one with a feeling for Shakespeare's art or for the changes of his verse could now place the tragedy among the romances of his closing period of authorship. Its affinities are obviously with Lear and Macbeth, not with The Tempest and Cymbeline. The metrical evidence alone renders a very late date incredible. And fortunately we have evidence of another kind which may be regarded as almost indisputable. Malone, an entirely trustworthy writer, declared that he had decisive proof that the play was acted in 1604. What that proof was remained for a time uncertain. He had obtained permission to search the manuscript book of the Court Revels. Among his papers was found onenot in his own handwriting-which mentions The Moor of Venis as having been presented by the king's players in the Banqueting House at Whitehall on the first of November 1605, an error for 1604 as appears from other entries in the book. When in 1842, extracts from the Revels Book were printed for The Shakespeare Society' this entry appeared; it was before long thought to be a recent forgery, substituted for the original document, together with other entries relating to the dates of production of Measure for Measure, A Winter's Tale, and The Tempest, but Mr. Ernest Law, with the assistance of other highly qualified investigators, seems to me to have proved, in his Some Supposed Shakespeare Forgeries, 1911, that these entries are in fact genuine. That Warburton's date is erroneous is sufficiently shown by the fact that in April 1610 the play was witnessed at the Globe by Lewis Frederick, Prince of Wirtemberg, of the secretary who penned a manuscript account of his journey to England, now in the British Museum. There is a general agreement among recent critics that the play was written in or about the year 1604. The tale which supplied a basis for Shakespeare's tragedy is found in the Hecatommithi of Giraldi Cinthio, published in 1565, and translated into French by Gabriel Chappuys nineteen years later. It is supposed to be related by the wife of the wicked ensign who plays the part of the dramatist's Iago, but none of the persons, with the exception of the heroine 'Disdemona', receives a proper name. In Venice lived a Moor very valiant, and highly esteemed by the Signoria. Moved by his valour a lady of great beauty fell deeply in love with him, and rejecting the proposals of her parents for another match married him. Her husband being ordered to Cyprus, she declares that she will accompany him, and would do so were he to pass through fire. So they set sail, and in a tranquil sea arrive at their destination. Among the soldiery was a certain Ensign of handsome presence, but depraved in character, who concealed his malice under proud and valorous speech, and was held in high favour by the Moor, while to Disdemona the Ensign's wife, fair and virtuous, was especially dear. With them sailed also a Captain, to whom the Moor was much attached. Now the wicked Ensign sought to obtain the secret love of Disdemona, but, making no impression upon her, supposed that she had bestowed her affection upon the Captain. The Ensign's passion thereupon changed to hate, and he resolved to accuse her to the Moor of unfaithfulness and to represent the Captain as her paramour. Having struck in anger a soldier of the guard the Captain was deprived of his rank by the Moor; but Disdemona, deeply grieved, strove to reconcile her husband to the offender. Perceiving his opportunity, the Ensign hinted to his master that her interest on behalf of the Captain proceeded from a dishonest motive. For the first time angry words were uttered to his wife by the Moor, but she, astonished and alarmed, spoke to him with all gentleness and humility. The Ensign, advanc. ing further, now declared that the Captain had confessed his conquest of the lady's affection, and that she had taken an aversion to her husband's blackness (nerezza). 'Make thou these eyes self-witnesses of what thou tellest,' cried the Moor, or on thy life I will make thee wish thou hadst been born without a tongue.' While Disdemona was caressing the Ensign's little daughter, he stole from her a kerchief, embroidered in Moorish fashion, her husband's gift, and conveyed it into the Captain's room. The Captain sought at once to return it to Disdemona, but alarmed by her husband's voice heard from within the chamber he fled from the door. The knock at the door and the disappearance of the caller still further heightened the Moor's suspicions. Then follows the meeting between Ensign and Captain, witnessed by the Moor, when the conversation is perverted by the villain into the most sinister meanings (refashioned by Shakespeare in Act IV, Scene i). The Captain-so reports the Ensign-had confessed that the handkerchief was given to him by Disdemona at his last interview with her. On the Moor's demand for the kerchief, Disdemona, overcome with fear, seeks for the love-token but cannot find it. Her husband is convinced of her unfaithfulness, and Disdemona, weeping, confesses to the Ensign's wife his strange bearing towards her. Presently the Ensign's wifeherself innocent of any plot-is pointed out to the Moor at a window copying the embroidery of the handkerchief. He plans with the betrayer how to slay Disdemona, and bribes him to procure the Captain's death. As in the play the Captain is wounded, but not killed. The Moor and his wife retire for the night, while the Ensign lurks in a closet of the chamber. A noise being heard in the closet, her husband bids Disdemona rise and ascertain the cause. Out rushes the Ensign and fells her brutally to the ground with strokes of a sandbag. She calls to her husband for help, but he loads her with reproaches. Her body is placed upon the bed, and a portion of the ceiling is pulled down upon it, so that her death may seem |