Editing Othello (section)

===Shakespeare's sources===
Shakespeare's primary source for the plot was the story of a Moorish Captain (third decade, story seven) in ''Gli Hecatommithi'' by [[Giovanni Battista Giraldi|Cinthio]] (Giovanni Battista Giraldi), a collection of one hundred [[novella]]s about love, grouped into ten "decades" by theme.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=13;376-377}} The third decade deals with marital infidelity.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=13}} Of Cinthio's characters, only Disdemona (the equivalent of Shakespeare's Desdemona – her name means "ill-omened" in Italian) is named – the others are simply called the Moor (the equivalent of Othello), the Ensign (Iago), the Corporal (Cassio) and similar descriptions.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=13-14}}{{sfn|Honigmann|1997|pp=12-13}} In its story the Ensign falls in love with the Moor's wife Disdemona, but her indifference turns his love to hate and in revenge he persuades the Moor that Disdemona has been unfaithful. The Moor and the Ensign murder Disdemona with socks filled with sand, and bring down the ceiling of her bedchamber to make it appear an accident. The story continues until the Ensign is tortured to death for unrelated reasons and the Moor is killed by Disdemona's family.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=13-14}}{{efn|The complete novella appears, in different translations, in {{harvnb|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=377-396}} and in {{harvnb|Neill|2008|pp=434-444}}}}

Shakespeare's direct sources for the story do not include any threat of warfare: it seems to have been Shakespeare's innovation to set the story at the time of a threatened Turkish invasion of Cyprus—apparently fixing it in [[Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573)|the events of 1570]]. Those historical events would however have been well known to Shakespeare's original audience, who would therefore have been aware that—contrary to the action of the play—the Turks took Cyprus, and still held it.{{sfn|Muir|McAlindon|2015|pp=lvii-lviii}}{{sfn|Bate|Rasmussen|2009|p=7}}

Scholars have identified many other influences on ''Othello''. Works which are not themselves sources but whose impact on Shakespeare can be identified in the play{{sfn|Neill|2008|pp=16-17}} include [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'',<ref>Enterline, Lynn "Eloquent Barbarians: ''Othello'' and the Critical Potential of Passionate Character" in Orlin, Lena Cowen (ed.) "Othello - The State of Play" The Arden Shakespeare, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014, pp.149-175 at p.158.</ref> [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses]]'',<ref>Enterline, 2014, p.163.</ref> both ''[[The Merchant's Tale]]'' and ''[[The Miller's Tale]]'' from [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]]'s ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]'',{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=11}} [[Geoffrey Fenton]]'s ''Certaine Tragicall Discourses'',{{sfn|Muir|1996|p=11}}{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=20}} [[Thomas Kyd|Kyd]]'s ''[[The Spanish Tragedy]]'',{{sfn|Muir|McAlindon|2015|p=xxiv}} [[George Peele]]'s ''[[The Battle of Alcazar]]'',{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=18}}{{sfn|Bate|Rasmussen|2009|p=3}} the anonymous ''[[Arden of Faversham]]'',{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=397}}<ref>Lockwood, Tom (ed.), White, Martin (ed.) "Arden of Faversham", New Mermaids edition, Methuen Drama, 2007, p.vii.</ref><!-- this supporting ref sources only the anonymity of the play, not its influence on Othello --> [[Christopher Marlowe|Marlowe]]'s ''[[Doctor Faustus (play)|Doctor Faustus]]'',{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=17}} and [[Thomas Heywood|Heywood]]'s ''[[A Woman Killed with Kindness]]''.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=355}} Influences also include Shakespeare's own earlier plays ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'', in which a similar plot was used in a comedy,{{sfn|Muir|1996|p=8}} ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' with its high-born, Moorish, Prince of Morocco,{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=20-21}} and ''[[Titus Andronicus]]'', in which a Moor, Aaron, was a prominent villain, and as such was a forerunner of both Othello and Iago.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=18}}{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=8;20;397}}<ref>*{{cite book|editor-last= Bate|editor-first= Jonathan|date= 2018|title= Titus Andronicus |edition=revised|series=[[The Arden Shakespeare]], third series|publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]]|isbn= 978-1-35003-091-6|p=58}}</ref>

[[File:MoorishAmbassador to Elizabeth I.jpg|thumb|Portrait of [[Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud|Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud ben Mohammed Anoun]], [[Moors|Moorish]] ambassador to [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]] in 1600, sometimes suggested as the inspiration for Othello{{sfn|Bate|Rasmussen|2009|p=3}}]]

One such influence is not a literary work at all. In 1600, London was visited for "half a year" by the Moorish ambassador of the King of Barbary, whose entourage caused a stir in the city. [[Lord Chamberlain's Men|Shakespeare's company]] is known to have played at court during the time of the visit, and so would have encountered the foreign visitors at first hand.{{sfn|Honigmann|1997|p=2}}

Among Shakespeare's non-fiction, or partly-fictionalised, sources were [[Gasparo Contarini]]'s ''Commonwealth and Government of Venice''<ref>Siemon, James "Making Ambition Virtue" in Orlin, Lena Cowen (ed.) "Othello - The State of Play" The Arden Shakespeare, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014, pp.177-202 at p.178 and p.198n.</ref>{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=17-18}} and [[Leo Africanus]]'s ''A Geographical Historie of Africa''.{{sfn|Honigmann|1997|p=4}}{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=19}}{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=15}} Himself a Moor from Barbary, Leo said of his own people "they are so credulous they will beleeue matters impossible, which are told them" and "no nation in the world is so subject vnto iealousie; for they will rather [lose] their liues than put vp any disgrace in the behalfe of their women"<!-- sic, for spellings of beleeue, vnto, iealousie, liues and vp. -->—both traits seen in Shakespeare's Othello.<ref>{{harvnb|Honigmann|1997|p=4}}, citing [[John Pory]]'s 1600 translation of [[Leo Africanus]]'s ''A Geographical Historie of Africa''</ref> And from Leo's own life story Shakespeare took a well-born, educated African finding a place at the height of a white European power.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=15}} From [[Philemon Holland]]'s translation of [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]]'s ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' Shakespeare took the references to the Pontic Sea,<ref>''Othello'' 3.3.456.</ref> to Arabian trees with their medicinable gum,<ref>''Othello'' 5.2.348-349.</ref> and to the "Anthropophagi and men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders",<ref>''Othello'' 1.3.145-146.</ref>{{sfn|Neill|2008|pp=19-20}} elements which also featured in the fantastic ''[[Mandeville's Travels|The Travels of Sir John Mandeville]]''.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=20}}{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=17}}