The text of this Norton Critical Edition is that of the First Folio, printed in 1623. Additions and emendations adopted from the First Quarto (1622) appear in the Textual Notes that follow the play. Othello is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations.

"Sources and Contexts" reprints the sixteenth-century story by Giraldi Cinthio that Shakespeare used for the plot of Othello and for many of its details. Edward Pechter's essay provides context for readers through its discussion of the play's central topics—Moors, Turks, Venetians, marriage and domesticity, fathers and daughters, and female sexuality.

Seventeen wide-ranging interpretive essays are reprinted. Contributors include Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt, T. S. Eliot, Kenneth Burke, Lynda E. Boose, Mark Rose, and Patricia Parker.

This Norton Critical Edition of Othello Shakespeare's tragedy of good and evil. sex and vio lence, religious and ethnic conflict--is based on the First Folio text, printed in 1623. Additions and emendations adopted from the First Quarto t622 appear in the Textual Notes following the play. The text is accompanied by detailed explanatory notes and by an introduction addressing the issues that complicate the textual situation for Shakespeare in general and this play in particular.

"Sources and Contexts" reprints in its entirety Giraldi Cinthio's sixteenth-century story, which Shakespeare used for the plot of Othello and for many of its details. An essav introduces historical material to help readers understand the play's central topics--Moors, Turks, Venetians. and black Africans: Islam and Christianity; marriage and domesticity; patriarchal authority and female sexuality.

"Criticism" includes a generous selection of interpretive responses to Othello. from its origins to the present, by Thomas Rymer, Charles Gildon. Samuel Johnson. Charles Lamb. William Hazlitt. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, A. C. Bradley, T. S. Eliot. Kenneth Burke. G. K. Hunter. Lynda E. Boose. Mark Rose. James R Siemon. Michael Neill. Patricia Parker. Michael D. Bristol. and Edward Pechter. An introductory essay traces continuities and discontinuities in this extensive critical tradition.

The book ends with a Selected Bibliography, divided into compact sections that range from historical and critical topics to stage and movie productions, videos/DVDs, and other recent spinoff versions of the play.

List of Illustrations

Preface

A Note on the Text

The Text of Othello

 The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice

 Textual Commentary

 Textual Notes

Sources and Contexts

 Othello in Its Own Time

 Giraldi Cinthio·[The Moor of Venice]

Criticism

 Othello in Critical History

 Thomas Rymer·["A Bloody Farce"]

 Charles Gildon·[Comments on Rymer's Othello]

 Samuel Johnson·[Shakespeare, the Rules, and Othello]

 Charles Lamb·[Othello's Color: Theatrical versus Literary Representation]

 William Hazlitt·[Iago, Heroic Tragedy, and Othello]

 Samuel Taylor Coleridge·[Comments on Othello]

 A. C. Bradley·["The Most Painfully Exciting and the Most Terrible" of Shakespeare's Tragedies]

 T. S. Eliot·["The Last Great Speech of Othello"]

 Kenneth Burke·Othello: An Essay to Illustrate a Method

 G. K. Hunter·Othello and Colour Prejudice

 Lynda E. Boose·Othello's Handkerchief: "The Recognizance and Pledge of Love"

 Mark Rose·Othello's Occupation: Shakespeare and the Romance of Chivalry

 James R. Siemon·"Nay, That's Not Next": Othello, [5.2] in Performance, 1760-1900

 Michael Neill·Unproper Beds: Race, Adultery, and the Hideous in Othello

 Patricia Parker·Othello and Hamlet: Dilation, Spying and the "Secret Place" of Woman

 Michael D. Bristol·Charivari and the Comedy of Abjection in Othello

 Edward Pechter·"Too Much Violence": Murdering Wives in Othello

Selected Bibliography