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Article SHAKSPERE'S OTHELLO. Page 1 of 7 →
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Shakspere's Othello.
SHAKSPERE'S OTHELLO .
THE work from which the plot and story of Shakspere ' s " Othello " are taken , belongs to that class of Italian novels which arose out of the popularity of Boccaccio ' s Decamerone , and was fostered by the taste prevalent in Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries . Although occasionally we meet with a tale of merit or interest , and a certain charm in
style and language , these but partially atone for a coarse licentiousness , a reflection of the times , which , notwithstanding that it received the seal ancl license of the Inquisitor , who proclaims them consonos sanctce Ecclesice et ab Apostolica Fide non abkorrere , offend the moral sense of a ptu'er age . This story of the Moor of Venice may be taken as a
favourable specimen of the better class : it is contained in a collection of a hundred tales , entitled , " Gli Hecatommithe , " by Giovan Battista Giraldi Cinthio , —a work which has been rescued from oblivion simply by the accident of its having furnished the muse of Shakspere with the plot and incidents of his " Othello . " The author was a nobleman of Ferrara ,
and a professor of philosophy in that city : it is somewhat amusing to read the terms in which he speaks of the composition of his work in connection with his " grave studies of philosophy , "— " by the light of which , the fount ancl origin of laudable habits , and of all honest discipline , and likewise of every virtue , I have sought to perfect my work , which is
wholly directed , with much variety of examples , to censure vicious actions and to praise honest ones , —to make men fly from vice and embrace virtue . " What could the reader expect after this proem , which , by the way , is found totidem verbis in all the books of this school , but a work of untarnished purity and morality ?—all we can say is , he would be disappointed .
Whether Shakspere met with this story in the original Italian , in the French translation by Gabriel Chappuys ( published in Paris , 1584 ) , or , which is perhaps the most probable , in one of the numerous class of story-books , furnished from the romance writers , which were widely circulated and read in the south of Europe , is an undecided question ; but that Cinthio ' s tale forms the groundwork of " Othello , " is a fact
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Shakspere's Othello.
SHAKSPERE'S OTHELLO .
THE work from which the plot and story of Shakspere ' s " Othello " are taken , belongs to that class of Italian novels which arose out of the popularity of Boccaccio ' s Decamerone , and was fostered by the taste prevalent in Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries . Although occasionally we meet with a tale of merit or interest , and a certain charm in
style and language , these but partially atone for a coarse licentiousness , a reflection of the times , which , notwithstanding that it received the seal ancl license of the Inquisitor , who proclaims them consonos sanctce Ecclesice et ab Apostolica Fide non abkorrere , offend the moral sense of a ptu'er age . This story of the Moor of Venice may be taken as a
favourable specimen of the better class : it is contained in a collection of a hundred tales , entitled , " Gli Hecatommithe , " by Giovan Battista Giraldi Cinthio , —a work which has been rescued from oblivion simply by the accident of its having furnished the muse of Shakspere with the plot and incidents of his " Othello . " The author was a nobleman of Ferrara ,
and a professor of philosophy in that city : it is somewhat amusing to read the terms in which he speaks of the composition of his work in connection with his " grave studies of philosophy , "— " by the light of which , the fount ancl origin of laudable habits , and of all honest discipline , and likewise of every virtue , I have sought to perfect my work , which is
wholly directed , with much variety of examples , to censure vicious actions and to praise honest ones , —to make men fly from vice and embrace virtue . " What could the reader expect after this proem , which , by the way , is found totidem verbis in all the books of this school , but a work of untarnished purity and morality ?—all we can say is , he would be disappointed .
Whether Shakspere met with this story in the original Italian , in the French translation by Gabriel Chappuys ( published in Paris , 1584 ) , or , which is perhaps the most probable , in one of the numerous class of story-books , furnished from the romance writers , which were widely circulated and read in the south of Europe , is an undecided question ; but that Cinthio ' s tale forms the groundwork of " Othello , " is a fact