Othello
Othello (The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice) is a
tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603. It is
based on the story Un Capitano Moro ("A Moorish Captain") by Cinthio,
a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565. The story revolves around its
two central characters: Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army and his
unfaithful ensign, Iago. Given its varied and enduring themes of racism, love,
jealousy, betrayal, revenge and repentance, Othello is still often performed in
professional and community theatre alike, and has been the source for numerous
operatic, film, and literary adaptations.
Othello possesses an unusually detailed performance record.
The first certainly known performance occurred on 1 November 1604, at Whitehall
Palace in London, being mentioned in a Revels account on "Hallamas Day,
being the first of Nouembar", 1604, when "the Kings Maiesties
plaiers" performed "A Play in the Banketinge house at Whit Hall Called
The Moor of Venis." The play is there attributed to "Shaxberd".
Subsequent performances took place on Monday, 30 April 1610 at the Globe
Theatre, and at Oxford in September 1610. On 22 November 1629, and on 6 May
1635, it played at the Blackfriars Theatre.
Othello was also one of the twenty plays performed by the King's Men during the winter of 1612, in celebration of the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V, Elector Palatine.
Othello was also one of the twenty plays performed by the King's Men during the winter of 1612, in celebration of the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V, Elector Palatine.
At the start of the Restoration era, on 11 October 1660,
Samuel Pepys saw the play at the Cockpit Theatre. Nicholas Burt played the
lead, with Charles Hart as Cassio; Walter Clun won fame for his Iago. Soon
after, on 8 December 1660, Thomas Killigrew's new King's Company acted the play
at their Vere Street theatre, with Margaret Hughes as Desdemona – probably the
first time a professional actress appeared on a public stage in England.
It may be one index of the play's power that Othello was one
of the very few Shakespearean plays that was never adapted and changed during
the Restoration and the eighteenth century.
As Shakespeare regained popularity among nineteenth-century
French Romantics, poet, playwright, and novelist Alfred de Vigny created a
French translation of Othello, titled Le More de Venise, which premiered at the
Comédie-Française on 24 October 1829.
Famous nineteenth-century Othellos included Ira Aldridge,
Edmund Kean, Edwin Forrest, and Tommaso Salvini, and outstanding Iagos were
Edwin Booth and Henry Irving.
The title "Moor" implies a religious
"other" of North African or Middle Eastern descent. Though the actual
racial definition of the term is murky, the implications are religious as well
as racial. Many critics have noted references to demonic possession throughout
the play, especially in relation to Othello's seizure, a phenomenon often
associated with possession in the popular consciousness of the day. Another
scholar suggests that the epileptic fit relates to the mind-body problem and
the existence of the soul.
There have been many differing views on the character of
Othello over the years. A.C. Bradley calls Othello the "most romantic of
all of Shakespeare's heroes" (by "hero" Bradley means
protagonist) and "the greatest poet of them all". On the other hand,
F.R. Leavis describes Othello as "egotistical". There are those who
also take a less critical approach to the character of Othello such as William
Hazlitt, who said: "the nature of the Moor is noble ... but his blood is
of the most inflammable kind".
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