TRAGEDY OF

OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF VENICE.

EDITED, WITH NOTES,

BY

WILLIAM J. ROLFE, A.M.,

FORMERLY HEAD MASTER OF THE HIGH SCHOOL, CAMBRIDGE, Mass.

ENGLISH CLASSICS.

EDITED BY WM. J. ROLFE, A.M.

Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, 56 cents per volume; Paper, 40 cents per volume.

Any of the above works will be sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, on receipt of the price.

Copyright, 1879, by HARPER & BROTHERS.

12-16-20

PREFACE.

THE text of this edition of Othello is the result of a careful collation of the quarto of 1622 and the folio of 1623 with the other leading editions, early and modern. For the readings of editions which I have not been able to examine I have depended on the collation in the "Cambridge" edition.

In the Notes, as a rule, the authorities to which I have been indebted are specified. The quotations credited to " Clarke" are from "Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare," edited by Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke.

The illustrations of scenery in Cyprus are from Mr. Arundale's sketches, engraved for Knight's "Pictorial Shakspere." The view of Venice on page 9 is from one of Turner's paintings; and the border on page 36 is copied from the central balcony of the canal front of the Ducal Palace.

VENICE, March 31, 1879.