Editing Othello (section)

===Early editions===

[[File:Othello title page.jpg|thumb|right|Title page of the first [[quarto]] (1622)]]
''Othello'' was not published in Shakespeare's lifetime.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=405}} The first published version of the play was a [[quarto]] in 1622 (usually abbreviated to "Q"), which was followed a year later by the play's appearance in the ''[[First Folio]]'' (usually abbreviated to "F").{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=405}}

There are significant differences between the two early editions, the most prominent of which are:
*F contains about 160 lines which are not in Q, sometimes in passages which are quite extended and well-known, such as Othello's "Pontic Sea" speech<ref>''Othello'' 3.3.456-463.</ref> and Desdemona's "Willow Song".<ref>''Othello'' 4.3.29-52 and 4.3.54-56.</ref>{{sfn|Neill|2008|pp=405;411}}
*Q has fuller and more elaborate stage directions than F.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=405}}
*Q has 63 oaths or profanities which do not appear in F, suggesting the possibility that F was based on a manuscript which had been edited to conform with the 1606 [[Act to Restrain Abuses of Players|Act of Abuses]].{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=405}}{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=358}}
*There are over a thousand variations in wording, lineation, spelling and punctuation.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=405}}

There is no scholarly consensus to account for the differences between Q and F:<ref>Mowat and Werstine, 2017, p.xlix.</ref>
*[[E. K. Chambers]] in 1930 argued that Q derived from a scribal manuscript, and F from the author's [[Autograph (manuscript)|holograph]].{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=411}}
*[[Alice Walker (scholar)|Alice Walker]] in 1952 argued that F was printed from a corrected copy of Q.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=411}}
*[[W. W. Greg]] in 1955 argued that Q's copy must have been a difficult-to-read transcript of Shakespeare's "[[foul papers]]" (i.e. first drafts).{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=412}}
*[[M. R. Ridley]] in 1958, rejecting Walker's argument and accepting Greg's, argued that Q had greater authority and rejected F's changes as "memorial contamination" from a theatre [[prompt book]] or as "sophistications" by the editors of F.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=413}}
*[[Nevill Coghill]] in 1964 argued that the changes in F were improvements made by the author, who might have taken advantage of the need to revise the play in consequence of the [[Act to Restrain Abuses of Players|Act of Abuses]] to make other changes.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=413}}
*[[Gary Taylor (scholar)|Gary Taylor]] in 1983 agreed with Coghill that F incorporated the author's own improvements to Q, but argued that another scribal hand had also made intervening changes to F.{{sfn|Neill|2008|pp=414-415}}
*[[E. A. J. Honigmann]] in 1996 partly revived Walker's theory, by arguing that the scribe responsible for preparing the manuscript for F had consulted Q whenever the copy was illegible.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=414}} He also argues that sequences in F but not in Q, such as the ''Willow Song'', may have been cuts from the original made for the manuscript of Q, rather than later additions made for the manuscript of F.{{sfn|Neill|2008|pp=416-417}}

As ''[[The Oxford Shakespeare]]'' editor Michael Neill summarises things: "The textual mystery of ''Othello'' is unlikely ever to be resolved to general satisfaction."{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=430}}