Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
An Impropriety In The Character Of Othello, Moor Of Venice.
AN IMPROPRIETY IN THE CHARACTER OF OTHELLO , MOOR OF VENICE .
TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE . SIR , AMONG many advantages redounding to the Public from a wellconducted Magazinethat ofits occasionally serving for a
con-, veyance of such points of information as do not require the size of a pamphlet , is not , perhaps , the least . In this view , and at the desire of many , I offer here the solution of the question , " How came it " that Shakespeare gave to Othello the hue of a downri ght Black" a-moor ? " ¦
Nothing , I presume , more obvious , nor more natural than the origin of this his discolouring that character : an origin , which it maybe worth remarking , not only because nothing can well be indifferent that tends to clear up any point relative to thatpistly admired author , but as it adds one more instance to thousands of notable consequences , and sometimes very great ones both in church and state , from
apparently so small a cause as the mistake of a single word . Shakespeare taking , it seems , the fable of this play from an English translation of one of Cynthio ' s novels , has followed too implicitly the translator . The word Mar , or Mora , bears in many of the Southern Countries , Spain , Portugal , Italy , & c . two very different significations ; that of a Mooror that of Chief . Thus Commandaitte
* MOR or MORO should be rendered Commandante in Chief ; Sirviente Mor , the Serjeant Major ; Mor being in fact an abbreviation of Major . Othello was ' the Commandant in Chief at Cyprus , and certainly no . Moor . Nor by any thing but a few passages in the play itself consequential to that error , is any such idea warranted . Of ah the states in Europe , the Venetians werefor obvious reasons , the last that could be
sus-, pected of employing in their armies a Bhick-a-moor as a General , or in any quality above that of a Drummer or Trumpeter . Not that I would here insinuate that such a character was so much out of the common order of nature as not to be endured on the stage . But , in such case , the main of this plot would naturally turn upon so extraordinary an eventas that of a Moor so raisedor so ' trusted .
, , There was a play written expressly on a plan of this kind , by'Andres de Claramqnte , a Spanish writer , and entitled , 'Ei Negro Valiente in Flandes , which p leased so much , that he was encouraged ' to give a second part .
That however this solution of mine is not absolutely new I have some reason to suspect , not only from its being extremely obvious , hut for that some actors , upon a time , hazarded an Othello in his . historically proper . colour , which was , however , for very good rear sons , not well received by the public ; as it was offering too great violence to the author ' s design , which they were . bpund . -to respect , even though they mig ht have hit upon the same explanation as 1 have here attempted .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
An Impropriety In The Character Of Othello, Moor Of Venice.
AN IMPROPRIETY IN THE CHARACTER OF OTHELLO , MOOR OF VENICE .
TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE . SIR , AMONG many advantages redounding to the Public from a wellconducted Magazinethat ofits occasionally serving for a
con-, veyance of such points of information as do not require the size of a pamphlet , is not , perhaps , the least . In this view , and at the desire of many , I offer here the solution of the question , " How came it " that Shakespeare gave to Othello the hue of a downri ght Black" a-moor ? " ¦
Nothing , I presume , more obvious , nor more natural than the origin of this his discolouring that character : an origin , which it maybe worth remarking , not only because nothing can well be indifferent that tends to clear up any point relative to thatpistly admired author , but as it adds one more instance to thousands of notable consequences , and sometimes very great ones both in church and state , from
apparently so small a cause as the mistake of a single word . Shakespeare taking , it seems , the fable of this play from an English translation of one of Cynthio ' s novels , has followed too implicitly the translator . The word Mar , or Mora , bears in many of the Southern Countries , Spain , Portugal , Italy , & c . two very different significations ; that of a Mooror that of Chief . Thus Commandaitte
* MOR or MORO should be rendered Commandante in Chief ; Sirviente Mor , the Serjeant Major ; Mor being in fact an abbreviation of Major . Othello was ' the Commandant in Chief at Cyprus , and certainly no . Moor . Nor by any thing but a few passages in the play itself consequential to that error , is any such idea warranted . Of ah the states in Europe , the Venetians werefor obvious reasons , the last that could be
sus-, pected of employing in their armies a Bhick-a-moor as a General , or in any quality above that of a Drummer or Trumpeter . Not that I would here insinuate that such a character was so much out of the common order of nature as not to be endured on the stage . But , in such case , the main of this plot would naturally turn upon so extraordinary an eventas that of a Moor so raisedor so ' trusted .
, , There was a play written expressly on a plan of this kind , by'Andres de Claramqnte , a Spanish writer , and entitled , 'Ei Negro Valiente in Flandes , which p leased so much , that he was encouraged ' to give a second part .
That however this solution of mine is not absolutely new I have some reason to suspect , not only from its being extremely obvious , hut for that some actors , upon a time , hazarded an Othello in his . historically proper . colour , which was , however , for very good rear sons , not well received by the public ; as it was offering too great violence to the author ' s design , which they were . bpund . -to respect , even though they mig ht have hit upon the same explanation as 1 have here attempted .