Title page of the first quarto (1622)
Embedded Files
Surrounding History of Othello
Surrounding History of Othello
Set against the backdrop of the wars between Venice and Turkey that raged in the latter part of the sixteenth century, Othello can easily be considered one of Shakespeare's greatest plays (maybe not the most popular, but great nevertheless). Was the great story influenced by past stories? When were the first performances of Othello?
History of the Play
History of the Play
Written in 1604, Shakespeare's Othello "was first performed by the King’s Men at the court of King James I on November 1, 1604" (SparkNotes Editors). The play was written in what is now known as "Shakespeare’s great tragic period, which also included the composition of Hamlet (1600), King Lear (1604–5), Macbeth (1606), and Antony and Cleopatra (1606–7)" (SparkNotes Editors). Othello follows Shakespeare's class five-part structure which corresponds to the five acts:
"Part One, the exposition, outlines the situation, introduces the main characters, and begins the action. Part Two, the development, continues the action and introduces complications. Part Three, the crisis (or climax), brings everything to a head. In this part, a change of direction occurs or understanding is precipitated. Part Four includes further developments leading inevitably to Part Five, in which the final crisis of action or revelation and resolution are explained" (McCulloch and Carey).
The play was performed at the "most thorughoulty Shaksepearean wedding in history," the wedding of Frederick V of the Palatinate and Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of King James I, in the winter of 1612-13 (Marino). According to the book, Renaissance Shakespeare/Shakespeare Renaissances: Proceedings of the Ninth World Shakespeare Congress, "their courtship and honeymoon the court was shown The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale, Julius Caesar and Othello, Cardenio, Much Ado about Nothing (twice)" (Marino). During Frederick's time in England "there were at least twenty-seven plays and three elaborate masques performed at court, including twenty plays by the King’s Men alone" (Marino).
Princess Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia and Electress Palatine (1613) by Unknown artist
Portrait of Frederick V (1630) by Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt
Giovanni Battista Giraldi
The Source and Inspiration
The Source and Inspiration
William Shakespeare’s Othello is mainly "an adaptation of Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio’s 'Un Capitano Moro,' that was written in 1565; taken from his novella collection Gli Hecatommithi, Decad.III., Novella 7" (Williams). "The original tale, 'Un Capitano Moro,' concerns an unnamed Moor who marries a beautiful lady, Desdemona, despite her parents' opposition. The Moor and Desdemona live happily in Venice, and the Moor is appointed commander of troops sent to the garrison at Cyprus. He takes his wife with him" (About Othello). The story is much the same, but there were key differences that Shakespeare included in order to tighten and dramatize the story, "Shakespeare compressed the action into the space of a few days and set it against the backdrop of military conflict. And, most memorably, he turned the ensign, a minor villain, into the arch-villain Iago" (SparkNotes Editors).
In addition to Cinthio's "Un Capitano Moro," Shakespeare most likely gathered information about the war between Venice and Turkey from "The History of the Turks by Richard Knolles, which was published in England in the autumn of 1603" (SparkNotes Editors).
Cinthio's Hecatommithi (decade 3, story 7; Part 1, p. 571)
Shakespeare's Play and the Time Period
Shakespeare's Play and the Time Period
What is a Moor? and Othello's Blackness
What is a Moor? and Othello's Blackness
The word "moor" is one that has different meanings based on the period in which it is used. For instance, the word "now refers to the Islamic Arabic inhabitants of North Africa who conquered Spain in the eighth century, but the term was used rather broadly in the period and was sometimes applied to Africans from other regions" (SparkNotes Editors). The distinction was so intense that in George Abbott's A Brief Description of the Whole World of 1599, there are distinctions between "blackish Moors" and "black Negroes" (SparkNotes Editors).
It may come to a surprise to modern readers, including myself, but the "opposition of black and white imagery that runs throughout Othello is certainly a marker of difference between Othello and his European peers, but the difference is never quite so racially specific as a modern reader might imagine it to be" (SparkNotes Editors). Yet, the character of Othello is the most major and heroic of all the Moor characters on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage. "Perhaps the most vividly stereotypical black character of the period is Aaron, the villain of Shakespeare’s early play Titus Andronicus. The antithesis of Othello, Aaron is lecherous, cunning, and vicious" (SparkNotes Editors). Othello is the complete opposite of this stereotype as he is shown as a noble man with authority, respect, and admiration from high-ranking officials and military leaders. The only character who sees Othello is a stereotyped manner is of course the villain, Iago, as he depicts Othello as "an animalistic, barbarous, foolish outsider" from the beginning of the play (SparkNotes Editors).
The First Actors of Othello
The First Actors of Othello
Credited with being the first Othello, the famous Renaissance actor Richard Burbage "was amazing in the role according to tributes made to Burbage after his death in 1619" (Mabillard). Burbage was considered to be so amazing in the role of Othello that critics only named one man that "was able to live up to Burbage: Thomas Betterton. Colley Cibber wrote that Betterton was 'an actor as Shakespeare was an author, both without competitors, formed for the mutual assistance and illustrations of each other's genius'" (Mabillard). Richard Burbage was previously mentioned on the Henry V Surrounding History webpage as playing the titular role.
Opposite of Othello is the "great" villain Iago, and although there is no record of the first Iago, "Joseph Taylor, an actor with the King's Men from 1619, was acclaimed in the role of the voluble villain, and during the Restoration Michael Mohun's portrayal of Iago was extremely popular" (Mabillard).
Portrait of Richard Burbage
Thomas Betterton painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller
Portrait of Michael Mohun
'Othello', Act II, Scene 1, the Return of Othello (from the Boydell series) Painted by Thomas Stothard
Works Cited
Works Cited
“About Othello.” CliffNotes, 15 July 2021, www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/othello/about-othello.
Mabillard, Amanda. “The Fascinating Stage History of Othello.” The History of William Shakespeare's Othello, Shakespeare Online, 10 Aug. 2008, www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/othello/stagehistoryothello.html.
Marino, James J. “Chapter 14: The Queen of Bohemia's Wedding.” Renaissance Shakespeare/Shakespeare Renaissances: Proceedings of the Ninth World Shakespeare Congress, UNIV OF DELAWARE Press, 2013.
McCulloch, Helen, and Gary Carey. “Othello.” Shakespeare's Tragedy, 15 July 2021, www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/othello/critical-essays/shakespeares-tragedy.
SparkNotes Editors. “William Shakespeare and Othello Background.” SparkNotes, SparkNotes, www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/othello/context/.
Williams, Cleveland A. “Shakespeare's Adaption of Cinthio's ‘Un Capitano Moro’ into Othello.” OpenCommons@UConn, 16 Dec. 2018, opencommons.uconn.edu/gs_theses/1315/.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse