William Shakespeare's Othello

<p>William Shakespeare's <em>Othello</em> (1601-2) has delighted and disturbed theatre audiences for the past four centuries, and remains one of the most frequently performed and widely studied of his plays. This volume is a broad-ranging guide to <em>Othello</em>, providing an introduction to:<br>*the contexts of the play, through a concise, accessible overview, a chronology and reprinted documents from the period<br>*the range of critical responses to the play, through a brief critical history and reprinted critical texts, accompanied by explanatory headnotes<br>*the play in performance, through a selection of clearly introduced readings on this topic, along with illustrations.<br>The sourcebook then examines key passages of the play in detail. Each passage is reprinted in full, along with a headnote and annotations offering crucial guidance to Shakespeare's language and the critical issues which surround the text. Throughout the volume, cross-references link together the contextual materials, critical responses and the play's text.<br>If you are beginning to study <em>Othello</em>, this sourcebook is the one guide you cannot afford to be without.</p> <p>Series Editor's Preface Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction 1. Contexts Contextual Overview Chronology Contemporary Documents: <em>Giraldi Cinthio</em>, Gli Hecatommithi (1566) <em>Leo Africanus (John Leo)</em> The History and Description of Africa, trans. John Pory (1600) <em>Fynes Moryson</em> An Itinery Containing His Ten Yeeres Travell (1617) <em>Thomas Coryat</em> Coryat's Crudities (1611) <em>Christopher Marlowe</em> The Jew of Malta (c. 1590) <em>Robert Greene</em> Selimus, Emporer of the Turks (1594) <em>William Shakespeare</em> Titus Andronicus (c.1594) 2. Interpretations Critical History Early Reception: <em>Thomas Rymer</em>, from A Short View of Tragedy (1693) <em>Samuel Johnson</em>, from The Plays of Shakespeare (1765) <em>Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from 'Notes on the Tragedies' (published 1836-9) from Table Talk (1835) Edward Dowden</em>, from Shakespeare: A Critical Study of His Mind and Art (1875) <em>A. C. Bradley</em>, from Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth (1904) Twentieth-Century Criticism: <em>G. Wilson Knight</em> The Othello Music <em>E. E. Stoll</em> 'Iago' (1940) <em>William Empson</em> Honest in Othello (1951) <em>F. R. Leavis</em>, from Diabolic Intellect and the Noble Hero (1952) <em>Marvin Rosenberg</em> from The Masks of Othello (1961) <em>G. K. Hunter, Othello and Colour Prejudice (1967) Terry Eagleton</em> Nothing (1986) <em>Karen Newman</em> 'And wash the Ethiop white': femininity and the monstrous in Othello (1987) <em>David McPherson</em> Othello and the Myth of Venice (1990) <em>Lisa Jardine</em> 'Why should he call her a whore?': Defamation and Desdemona's case (1990) <em>Andrew Hadfield</em> The 'gross clasps of a lascivious Moor': The Domestic and Exotic Contexts of Othello (1998) The Work in Performance: <em>Virginia Mason Vaughan</em> Othello on the English Stage 1604-1754 <em>Sir Richard Steele</em> The Tatler, no. 167 (2 May 1710) <em>William Hazlitt</em> 'Mr Macready's Othello' (13 October 1816) <em>Virginina Mason Vaughan</em> 'Paul Robeson's Othello' (1930, 1943) <em>Patricia Tatspaugh</em> 'Orson Welles Othello' (1952) <em>Stanley Wells</em> 'Trevor Nunn's Othello' (1989) 3. Key Passages Introduction Key Passages: Act 1, scene 1, lines 81-80, Act 1, scene 3, lines 1-294, Act 2, scene 3, lines 255-357, Act 3, scene 3, lines 90-281, Act 3, scene 3, lines 333-482, Act 4, scene 1, lines 60-142, Act 4, scene 2, lines 30-92, Act 5, scene 2, lines 257-369 Further Reading Editions and Text Collections of Essays Background Reading Critical Interpretations Stage History Index</p>