Othello

Front Cover
Simon and Schuster, 2011 M08 23 - 368 pages
In Othello, Shakespeare creates powerful drama from a marriage between the exotic Moor Othello and the Venetian lady Desdemona that begins with elopement and mutual devotion and ends with jealous rage and death. Shakespeare builds many differences into his hero and heroine, including race, age, and cultural background. Yet most readers and audiences believe the couple's strong love would overcome these differences were it not for Iago, who sets out to destroy Othello. Iago's false insinuations about Desdemona's infidelity draw Othello into his schemes, and Desdemona is subjected to Othello's horrifying verbal and physical assaults.

The authoritative edition of Othello from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, is now available as an ebook.

Features include:

· The exact text of the printed book for easy cross-reference
· Hundreds of hypertext links for instant navigation
· Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
· Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
· Scene-by-scene plot summaries
· A key to famous lines and phrases
· An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language
· Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books
· An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the pla

From inside the book

Contents

Editors Preface
ix
Shakespeares Othello
xiii
Reading Shakespeares Language
xiv
Shakespeares Life
xxiv
Shakespeares Theater
xxxii
The Publication of Shakespeares Plays
xli
An Introduction to this Text
xlv
Text of the Play with Commentary
1
ACT 3 Scene 2
115
ACT 3 Scene 3
117
ACT 3 Scene 4
151
ACT 4 Scene 1
171
ACT 4 Scene 2
193
ACT 4 Scene 3
211
ACT 5 Scene 1
223
ACT 5 Scene 2
235

ACT 1 Scene 1
7
ACT 1 Scene 2
21
ACT 1 Scene 3
29
ACT 2 Scene 1
59
ACT 2 Scene 2
81
ACT 3 Scene 1
111
Textual Notes
267
A Modern Perspective
287
Further Reading
299
Key to Famous Lines and Phrases
313
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2011)

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

Barbara A. Mowat is Director of Research emerita at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Consulting Editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, and author of The Dramaturgy of Shakespeare’s Romances and of essays on Shakespeare’s plays and their editing.

Paul Werstine is Professor of English at the Graduate School and at King’s University College at Western University. He is a general editor of the New Variorum Shakespeare and author of Early Modern Playhouse Manuscripts and the Editing of Shakespeare and of many papers and articles on the printing and editing of Shakespeare’s plays.

Bibliographic information