THE TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO Preface. The Early Editions. The First Edition of Othello was a Quarto, published in 1622, with the following title-page: "THE | Tragedy of Othello, | The Moore of Venice. | As it hath beene diuerse times acted at the | Globe, and at the Black-Friers, by | his Maiesties Seruants. | Written by William Shakespeare. | (Vignette) | LONDON, | Printed by N. O. for Thomas Walkley, and are to be sold at his | shop, at the Eagle and Child, in Brittans Bursse. | 1622." * In 1623 appeared the First Folio, containing Othello among the "Tragedies" (pp. 310-339); the text, however, was not derived from the same source as the First Quarto; an independent MS. must have been obtained. In addition to many improved readings, the play as printed in the Folio contained over one hundred and fifty verses omitted in the earlier edition, while, on the other hand, ten or fifteen lines in the Quarto were not represented in the Folio version. Thomas Walkley had not resigned his interest in the play; it is clear from the Stationers' Register that it remained his property until March 1st, 1627 (i.c. 1628) when he assigned "ORTHELLO the More of Venice" unto Richard Hawkins, who issued the Second Quarto in 1630. A Third Quarto appeared in 1655; and later Quartos in 1681, 1687, 1695. The text of modern editions of the play is based on that of the First Folio, though it is not denied that we have in the First Quarto a genuine play-house copy; a notable difference, pointing to the Quarto text as the older, is its retention of oaths and asseverations, which are omitted or toned down in the Folio version. * Prefixed to this First Quarto were the following lines :"The Stationer to the Reader. "To set forth a booke without an Epistle, were like to the old English prouerbe, A blew coat without a badge, & the Author being dead, I thought good to take that piece of worke vpon mee: To commend it, I will not, for that which is good, I hope every man will commend, without intreaty: and I am the bolder, because the author's name is sufficient to vent his worke. Thus leaving every one to the liberty of iudgement: I haue ventered to print this play, and leave it to the generall censure. Yours, Thomas Walkley." Preface TRAGEDY OF OTH Date of Composition. This last point has an importa on the date of the play, for it proves that Othello was written Act of Parliament was issued in 1606 against the abuse of th God in plays. External and internal evidence seem in favour the birth-year of the tragedy, and this date has been generall since the publication of the Variorum Shakespeare of 1821 Malone's views in favour of that year were set forth (Malon nine years before the work appeared). After putting forwa theories, he added:-" We know it was acted in 1604, and I h fore placed it in that year." For twenty years scholars soug to discover upon what evidence he knew this important fact, ur about the year 1840 Peter Cunningham announced his dis certain Accounts of the Revels at Court, containing the following i "By the King's 'Hallamas Day, being the first of Nov, A play at the bankettinge House att Whitehall, called the Moor of Venis [1604].'" * We now know that this manuscript was a forgery, but stran there is every reason to believe that though the book' itself is the information which it yields is genuine, and that Malone such entry in his possession when he wrote his emphatic state Grant White's account of the whole story, quoted in Furness edition; cp. pp. 351-357). The older school of critics, and Malone himself at first, ass play to circa 1611 on the strength of the lines, III. iv. 46, 47: The hearts of old gave hands; But our new heraldry is hands not hearts,' which seemed to be a reference to the arms of the order of instituted by King James in 1611; Malone, however, in his lat of the play aptly quoted a passage from the Essays of Sir W wallis, the younger, published in 1601, which may have sugg thought to Shakespeare :- "They (our forefathers) had wont to hands and their hearts together, but we think it a finer grace to look a hand looking one way, and our heart another." The Original Othello. From the elegy on the death o Burbage in the year 1618, it appears that the leading charact play was assigned to this most famous actor : "But let me not forget one chiefest part Wherein, beyond the rest, he mov'd the heart, The grieved Moor, made jealous by a slave, Who sent his wife to fill a timeless grave, * v. Shakespeare Society Publications, 1842. |