well established. He based Othello on a story in a collection of tales, called Hecatonimithi, written in 1565 by Giraldi Cinthio, an Italian. Only Iago By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. The story of Othello is also derived from another source—an Italian prose tale written in 1565 by Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinzio (usually referred to as Cinthio). and admired by the duke and senate of Venice as well as by those The text published in the First Folio of 1623 seems to have been based on a version revised by Shakespeare himself that sticks close to the original almost line by line but introduces numerous substitutions of words and phrases, as though Shakespeare copied it over himself and rewrote as he copied. Overcome with jealousy, Othello kills Desdemona. In Elizabethan discourse, the word "black" could suggest various concepts that extended beyond the physical colour of skin, including a wide range of negative connotations. In which situations is Othello’s nature as an ‘outsider’ seen as a positive and by whom? frequently described brunette or darker than average Europeans as Battista Giraldi Cinzio (usually referred to as Cinthio). Othello, by contrast, is a noble figure of great authority, respected from the beginning as an animalistic, barbarous, foolish outsider. Othello, in full Othello, the Moor of Venice, tragedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, written in 1603–04 and published in 1622 in a quarto edition from a transcript of an authorial manuscript. There, he is simply referred to as the Moor. be viewed as the author of the thirty-seven plays and 154 sonnets most vividly stereotypical black character of the period is Aaron, the History and Description of Africa distinguishes “white And, most memorably, he turned the ensign, a minor villain, With the unwitting aid of Emilia, his wife, and the willing help of Roderigo, a fellow malcontent, Iago carries out his plan. Iago twice uses the word "Barbary" or "Barbarian" to refer to Othello, seemingly referring to the Barbary coast inhabited by the "tawny" Moors. all of English literature, William Shakespeare was born in 1564 to For a discussion of this play within the context of Shakespeare’s life and works, see William Shakespeare: The tragedies. To Cinthio’s story Shakespeare added supporting characters such In 1911, James Welton argued more evidence points to him being Sub-Saharan, though Shakespeare's intention is unknown. left his family behind and traveled to London to work as an actor black. When he learns from Emilia, too late, that his wife is blameless, he asks to be remembered as one who “loved not wisely but too well” and kills himself. Shakespeare compressed the action into When Laurence Olivier gave his acclaimed performance of Othello at the Royal National Theatre (UK) in 1964, he had developed a case of stage fright that was so profound that when he was alone onstage, Frank Finlay (who was playing Iago) would have to stand offstage where Olivier could see him to settle his nerves. The character's origin is traced to the tale "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi by Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio. course of Western literature and culture ever after. The struggle inspired intense prejudice and suspicion that lasted well after the Moors were overthrown. editions in the century following his death, and by the early eighteenth century led to a fierce curiosity about Shakespeare’s life, but the dearth (Correct) Historical Background Exposition: Iago wants to be the lieutenant in the beginning of the story, but does not become one. is deceived by his ensign into believing his wife is unfaithful. He was captured, turned into a slave by the Spanish and Italians, then later won his freedom and became a tremendous general. set against the backdrop of the wars between Venice and Turkey that Corrections? conflict. While no English translation of Cinthio was available in Shakespeare's lifetime, it is probable that Shakespeare knew both the Italian original and Gabriel Chappuy's 1584 French translation. [27] His Othello was captured on record in 1964 with Jay Robinson as Iago and on video in 1981 with Ron Moody as Iago. made distinctions between “blackish Moors” and “black Negroes”; From his first entry, slender and magnificently tall, framed in a high Byzantine arch, clad in white samite, mystic, wonderful, a figure of Arabian romance and grace, to his last plunging of the knife into his stomach, Mr Marshall rode without faltering the play's enormous rhetoric, and at the end the house rose to him. Recent actors who chose to "blacken up" include Laurence Olivier (1965) and Orson Welles. Doris Adler, "The Rhetoric of Black and White in Othello", Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud ben Mohammed Anoun, "Othello by William Shakespeare directed by Jude Kelly", "Black or white? Othello is of royal lineage. Men at the court of King James I on November 1, 1604. A Jealousy drives both Iago and Othello throughout the play. It ran for 296 performances, almost twice as long as any other Shakespearean play ever produced on Broadway. This production was the first ever in America to feature a black actor playing Othello with an otherwise all-white cast (there had been all-black productions of the play before). [16][17], Ira Aldridge pioneered the prominence of black actors in the role, beginning in 1825 in London. Actors have alternated the roles of Iago and Othello in productions to stir audience interest since the nineteenth century. The legacy of this body of work is immense. Othello the Moor, a noble black general in the Venetian army, has secretly married a beautiful white woman called Desdemona, the daughter of a prominent senator, Brabantio. Othello (/oʊˈθɛloʊ/) is a character in Shakespeare's Othello (c. 1601–1604). At the time of Shakespeare’s death, literary luminaries such as The opposition of black and white imagery that runs throughout Othello is There, he is simply referred to as the Moor. The unprecedented admiration garnered by his works Throughout As critics have established, the term 'Moor' referred to dark-skinned people in general, used interchangeably with similarly ambiguous terms as 'African', "Ethiopian' and even 'Indian' to designate a figure from Africa (or beyond). Public and critical acclaim quickly followed, and Shakespeare attended grammar school, but his formal education proceeded Making use of a handkerchief belonging to Desdemona and found by Emilia when Othello has unwittingly dropped it, Iago persuades Othello that Desdemona has given the handkerchief to Cassio as a love token. [14] It has been suggested that Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud ben Mohammed Anoun, Moorish ambassador of the Arab King of Barbary to Queen Elizabeth I in 1600, may have been an inspiration for Othello. Visit BN.com to buy new and used textbooks, and check out our award-winning NOOK tablets and eReaders. [28] This performance was recorded complete on LP, and filmed by popular demand in 1965 (according to a biography of Olivier, tickets for the stage production were notoriously hard to get). Cinthio's tale may have been based on an actual incident occurring in Venice about 1508. [19] Patrick Stewart took the role in the Shakespeare Theatre Company's 1997 staging of the play [20][21] and Thomas Thieme, also white, played Othello in a 2007 Munich Kammerspiele staging at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre; both played without blackface, their performances critically acclaimed. The word Moor now refers to the Islamic Arabic inhabitants of North Africa A Christian Moor and general of the armies of Venice, Othello is an eloquent and physically powerful figure, respected by all those around him. Othello was first performed by the King’s The story of Othello is also derived from another source—an In gruesome detail, Cinthio follows each blow, and, when the lady is dead, the Moor and his ensign place her lifeless body upon her bed, smash her skull, and then cause the cracked ceiling above the bed to collapse upon her, giving the impression the falling rafters caused her death. his reputation as the greatest poet ever to write in English was and playwright. into the arch-villain Iago. voices an explicitly stereotypical view of Othello, depicting him Italian prose tale written in 1565 by Giovanni Lear (1604–5), Macbeth (1606), of King’s Men. who serve him, such as Cassio, Montano, and Lodovico. In the absence of credible evidence to the contrary, Shakespeare must She states that by 1604, accounts of Othello as deriving from farther south were not uncommon. a successful middle-class glove-maker in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.