Lists of Parts are supplied in the First Folio for only six plays, one of which is Othello, so the list at the beginning of the play is reproduced from the First Folio with minor editorial adjustments. Capitals indicate that part of the name which is used for speech headings in the script (thus OTHELLO, the Moor).
Locations are provided by the Folio for only two plays. Eighteenth-century editors, working in an age of elaborately realistic stage sets, were the first to provide detailed locations. Given that Shakespeare wrote for a bare stage and often an imprecise sense of place, we have relegated locations to the explanatory notes at the foot of the page, where they are given at the beginning of each scene where the imaginary location is different from the one before. We have emphasized broad geographical settings (Venice and Cyprus) rather than specifics of the kind that suggest anachronistically realistic staging. We have therefore avoided such niceties as “another room in the palace.”
Act and Scene Divisions were provided in the Folio in a much more thoroughgoing way than in the Quartos. Sometimes, however, they were erroneous or omitted; corrections and additions supplied by editorial tradition are indicated by square brackets. Five-act division is based on a classical model, and act breaks provided the opportunity to replace the candles in the indoor Blackfriars playhouse which the King’s Men used after 1608, but Shakespeare did not necessarily think in terms of a five-part structure of dramatic composition. The Folio convention is that a scene ends when the stage is empty. Nowadays, partly under the influence of film, we tend to consider a scene to be a dramatic unit that ends with either a change of imaginary location or a significant passage of time within the narrative. Shakespeare’s fluidity of composition accords well with this convention, so in addition to act and scene numbers we provide a running scene count in the right margin at the beginning of each new scene, in the typeface used for editorial directions. Where there is a scene break caused by a momentary bare stage, but the location does not change and extra time does not pass, we use the convention running scene continues. There is inevitably a degree of editorial judgment in making such calls, but the system is very valuable in suggesting the pace of the plays.
Speakers’ Names are often inconsistent in Folio. We have regularized speech headings, but retained an element of deliberate inconsistency in entry directions, in order to give the flavor of Folio.
Verse is indicated by lines that do not run to the right margin and by capitalization of each line. The Folio printers sometimes set verse as prose, and vice versa (either out of misunderstanding or for reasons of space). We have silently corrected in such cases, although in some instances there is ambiguity, in which case we have leaned toward the preservation of Folio layout. Folio sometimes uses contraction (“turnd” rather than “turned”) to indicate whether or not the final “-ed” of a past participle is sounded, an area where there is variation for the sake of the five-beat iambic pentameter rhythm. We use the convention of a grave accent to indicate sounding (thus “turnèd” would be two syllables), but would urge actors not to overstress. In cases where one speaker ends with a verse half line and the next begins with the other half of the pentameter, editors since the late eighteenth century have indented the second line. We have abandoned this convention, since the Folio does not use it, nor did actors’ cues in the Shakespearean theater. An exception is made when the second speaker actively interrupts or completes the first speaker’s sentence.
Spelling is modernized, but older forms are occasionally maintained where necessary for rhythm or aural effect.
Punctuation in Shakespeare’s time was as much rhetorical as grammatical. “Colon” was originally a term for a unit of thought in an argument. The semicolon was a new unit of punctuation (some of the Quartos lack them altogether). We have modernized punctuation throughout, but have given more weight to Folio punctuation than many editors, since, though not Shakespearean, it reflects the usage of his period. In particular, we have used the colon far more than many editors: it is exceptionally useful as a way of indicating how many Shakespearean speeches unfold clause by clause in a developing argument that gives the illusion of enacting the process of thinking in the moment. We have also kept in mind the origin of punctuation in classical times as a way of assisting the actor and orator: the comma suggests the briefest of pauses for breath, the colon a middling one, and a full stop or period a longer pause. Semi-colons, by contrast, belong to an era of punctuation that was only just coming in during Shakespeare’s time and that is coming to an end now: we have accordingly used them only where they occur in our copy texts (and not always then). Dashes are sometimes used for parenthetical interjections where the Folio has brackets. They are also used for interruptions and changes in train of thought. Where a change of addressee occurs within a speech, we have used a dash preceded by a period (or occasionally another form of punctuation). Often the identity of the respective addressees is obvious from the context. When it is not, this has been indicated in a marginal stage direction.
Entrances and Exits are fairly thorough in Folio, which has accordingly been followed as faithfully as possible. Where characters are omitted or corrections are necessary, this is indicated by square brackets (e.g. “[and Attendants]”). Exit is sometimes silently normalized to Exeunt and Manet anglicized to “remains.” We trust Folio positioning of entrances and exits to a greater degree than most editors.
Editorial Stage Directions such as stage business, asides, indications of addressee and of characters’ position on the gallery stage are only used sparingly in Folio. Other editions mingle directions of this kind with original Folio and Quarto directions, sometimes marking them by means of square brackets. We have sought to distinguish what could be described as directorial interventions of this kind from Folio-style directions (either original or supplied) by placing them in the right margin in a different typeface. There is a degree of subjectivity about which directions are of which kind, but the procedure is intended as a reminder to the reader and the actor that Shakespearean stage directions are often dependent upon editorial inference alone and are not set in stone. We also depart from editorial tradition in sometimes admitting uncertainty and thus printing permissive stage directions, such as an Aside? (often a line may be equally effective as an aside or a direct address—it is for each production or reading to make its own decision) or a may exit or a piece of business placed between arrows to indicate that it may occur at various different moments within a scene.
Line Numbers in the left margin are editorial, for reference and to key the explanatory and textual notes.
Explanatory Notes at the foot of each page explain allusions and gloss obsolete and difficult words, confusing phraseology, occasional major textual cruces, and so on. Particular attention is given to non-standard usage, bawdy innuendo, and technical terms (e.g. legal and military language). Where more than one sense is given, commas indicate shades of related meaning, slashes alternative or double meanings.
Textual Notes at the end of the play indicate major departures from the Folio. They take the following form: the reading of our text is given in bold and its source given after an equals sign, with “Q” indicating that it derives from the First Quarto of 1622, “Q2” from the Second Quarto of 1630, “F” from the First Folio of 1623, “F2” a reading that derives from the Second Folio of 1632, “F3” from the Third Folio of 1663–64, “F4” from the Fourth Folio of 1685, and “Ed” that it derives from the subsequent editorial tradition. The rejected Folio (“F”) reading is then given. A selection of Quarto variants and plausible unadopted editorial readings is also included. Thus, for example: at “5.2.390, Judean = F. Q, F2 = Indian.” This indicates that at Act 5 Scene 2 Line 390 we have retained the Folio reading “Judean” and that “Indian” is an interestingly different reading in the Quarto and Second Folio.
KEY FACTS
MAJOR PARTS: (with percentage of lines/number of speeches/scenes on stage) Iago (31%/272/12), Othello (25%/274/12), Desdemona (11%/165/9), Cassio
(8%/110/9), Emilia (7%/103/8), Brabantio (4%/30/3), Rodorigo (3%/59/7), Lodovico (2%/33/4), Duke of Venice (2%/25/1), Montano (2%/24/3).
LINGUISTIC MEDIUM: 80% verse, 20% prose.
DATE: 1604. Performed at court, November 1604; apparently uses Knolles’ Historie of the Turkes, published late 1603; probably post-dates the period when theaters were closed due to the plague from May 1603 to April 1604. The Turkish wars in the eastern Mediterranean were of interest to King James, who had written a poem about the 1571 naval battle of Lepanto, which was reprinted in 1603, the year of his accession to the English throne. Some scholars, however, argue for a slightly earlier date.
SOURCES: Based on a novella in Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio’s Gli Hecatommithi (1565), perhaps read in a 1584 French translation by Gabriel Chappuys. Context probably provided by Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes (1603), Sir Lewis Lewkenor’s translation of Gasparo Contarini’s The Commonwealth and Government of Venice (1599), and John Pory’s translation of Leo Africanus’ Geographical Historie of Africa (1600).
TEXT: There are two early texts, markedly different from each other: a Quarto published in 1622 and the First Folio of 1623. The Folio contains over 150 lines that are not in the Quarto. The Quarto has fuller stage directions, a handful of lines that are absent from the Folio, and a large number of oaths that were watered down or omitted in the Folio, as a result of the prohibition on stage swearing. In all, there are about a thousand verbal variants. The two texts seem to derive from different theatrical manuscripts, the Folio possibly having being set from a transcript by Ralph Crane, scribe to the King’s Men. Scholars are divided as to whether the Folio-only passages, which include Othello’s “Pontic sea” speech and Desdemona’s willow song, are theatrically purposeful additions or theatrically pragmatic cuts. We respect the integrity of the Folio text, but in correcting its manifest errors—which are many, largely due to the presence of “Compositor E,” the apprentice who was the poorest of the Folio’s typesetters—we have been greatly helped by the existence of the Quarto.
THE TRAGEDY OF
OTHELLO,
THE MOOR OF VENICE
LIST OF PARTS
OTHELLO, the Moor (a general in the military service of Venice)BRABANTIO (a senator) father to DesdemonaCASSIO, an honourable lieutenantIAGO, a villain (Othello’s flagbearer)RODORIGO, a gulled gentlemanDUKE of VeniceSENATORSMONTANO, Governor of CyprusLODOVICO, noble Venetian (kinsmen of Brabantio)GRATIANO, noble Venetian (kinsmen of Brabantio)SAILORSCLOWN (servant to Othello)DESDEMONA (daughter of Brabantio) wife to OthelloEMILIA, wife to IagoBIANCA, a courtesan(Officers, Messenger, Herald, Musicians and Attendants)
Act 1 Scene 1 running scene 1
Location: Venice (street)
Enter Rodorigo and IagoRODORIGO Never tell me!1 I take it much unkindly
That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse
As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this3.IAGO But you’ll not hear me: if ever I did dream
Of such a matter, abhor me.RODORIGO Thou told’st me
Thou didst hold him7 in thy hate.IAGO Despise me
If I do not. Three great ones9 of the city,
In personal suit10 to make me his lieutenant,
Off-capped11 to him, and by the faith of man,
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place:
But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
Evades them with a bombast circumstance14
Horribly stuffed with epithets of war15,
Nonsuits my mediators16. For ‘Certes’, says he,
‘I have already chose my officer.’
And what was he?
Forsooth19, a great arithmetician,
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine20 —
A fellow almost damned in a fair wife21 —
That never set a squadron22 in the field
Nor the division of a battle knows23
More than a spinster24, unless the bookish theoric,
Wherein the toga’d consuls25 can propose
As masterly as he. Mere prattle26 without practice
Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had th’election27;
And I — of whom his28 eyes had seen the proof
At Rhodes29, at Cyprus and on others’ grounds,
Christened30 and heathen — must be beleed and calmed
By debitor and creditor31: this counter-caster,
He — in good time32 — must his lieutenant be,
And I — bless the mark33! — his Moorship’s ancient.RODORIGO By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman.IAGO Why, there’s no remedy: ’tis the curse of service35;
Preferment36 goes by letter and affection,
And not by old gradation37, where each second
Stood heir to th’first. Now, sir, be judge yourself
Whether I in any just term39 am affined
To love the Moor.RODORIGO I would not follow41 him then.IAGO O, sir, content you:
I follow him to serve my turn43 upon him.
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly45 followed. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking46 knave
That — doting on his own obsequious bondage —
Wears out his time48, much like his master’s ass,
For nought but provender49, and when he’s old, cashiered:
Whip me50 such honest knaves. Others there are
Who, trimmed51 in forms and visages of duty,
Keep yet their hearts attending on52 themselves,
And throwing but shows of service on their lords,
Do well thrive by them,
And when they have lined their coats55
Do themselves homage56: these fellows have some soul,
And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,
It is as sure as you are Rodorigo,
Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago59:
In following him, I follow but myself.
Heaven is my judge, not I for61 love and duty,
But seeming so, for my peculiar62 end,
For when my outward action doth demonstrate63
The native64 act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern65, ’tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws67 to peck at: I am not what I am.RODORIGO What a full68 fortune does the thick-lips owe
If he can carry’t69 thus!IAGO Call up her father:
Rouse him, make after71 him, poison his delight,
Proclaim72 him in the streets, incense her kinsmen,
And though73 he in a fertile climate dwell,
Plague him with flies: though that74 his joy be joy,
Yet throw such chances75 of vexation on’t
As it may76 lose some colour.RODORIGO Here is her father’s house, I’ll call aloud.IAGO Do, with like timorous accent78 and dire yell
As when, by night and negligence, the fire
Is spied in populous cities.RODORIGO What, ho, Brabantio! Signior Brabantio, ho!IAGO Awake! What, ho! Brabantio, thieves, thieves!
Othello Page 3