Editing Othello (section)

===Date===

[[File:Title Page of Othello from the First Folio, printed in 1623.jpg|thumb|right|The first page of ''Othello'' from the [[First Folio]], printed in 1623]]

The ''[[Terminus post quem|terminus ad quem]]'' for ''Othello'' (that is, the latest year in which the play could have been written) is 1604, since a performance of the play in that year is mentioned in the accounts book of [[Edmund Tylney|Sir Edmund Tilney]],<!-- sic, regarding the spelling in the source --> then [[Master of the Revels]].{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=339}}{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=349}}

A ''[[Terminus post quem|terminus a quo]]'' (i.e. the earliest year in which it could have been written) is given by the fact that one of its sources, [[Philemon Holland|Holland]]'s translation of [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]]'s ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'', was published in 1601.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=339}}

Within this range, scholars have tended to date the play 1603–1604, within the reign of [[James VI and I|James I]], since the play appears to have elements designed to appeal to the new king, who had written a poem about the defeat of the Turkish navy at [[Battle of Lepanto|Lepanto]], and to the new queen, [[Anne of Denmark]], in whose circle there was an interest in the blackface exoticism also reflected in [[Ben Jonson]]'s ''[[The Masque of Blackness]]'', in which the queen and her [[Lady-in-waiting|ladies]] appeared as "daughters of Niger".{{sfn|Neill|2008|pp=399-400}} That dating is supported by similarities to ''[[Measure for Measure]]'', another of Shakespeare's plays often dated around 1604, and which, like ''Othello'', draws its plot from [[Giovanni Battista Giraldi|Cinthio]]'s ''Gli Hecatommithi''.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=400}} This date is also supported by the possibility that Shakespeare may have consulted [[Richard Knolles]]' 1603 ''The Generall Historie of the Turkes''.<!-- sic -->{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=400}}

However, evidence of an earlier date, 1601–1602, is provided by the so-called [[bad quarto]] of Shakespeare's play ''[[Hamlet]]'', published in 1603. The theory is that the bad quarto is a memorial reconstruction of ''Hamlet'', made by some of its actors: so where there are unintentional echoes of ''Othello'' in the bad quarto (for example "to my vnfolding / Lend thy listning eare"<!-- sic: original spelling per Thompson & Honigmann; Thompson and Taylor modernise it. --><ref>''Hamlet Q1'', scene 5 lines 7-8 in Thompson, Ann and Taylor, Neil (eds.) and Shakespeare, William "Hamlet: The Texts of 1603 and 1623", The Arden Shakespeare Third Series, 2006 at p.73.</ref> in the bad quarto and "To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear"<ref>''Othello'' 1.3.245</ref> in ''Othello''—and a number of others) it suggests that the actors must have been performing ''Othello'', at the latest, in the season preceding the bad quarto's publication.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=349-350}}