PERSONS REPRESENTED. DUKE OF VENICE. BRABANTIO, a senator; father to Desdemona. Two other Senators. Appear, Act I. sc. 3. GRATIANO, brother to Brabantio. LODOVICO, kinsman to Brabantio. Appears, Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 2. OTHELLO, the Moor. Appears, Act I. sc. 2; sc. 3. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 2; sc. 3; sc. 4. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 2. CASSIO, lieutenant to Othello. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 3; sc. 4. Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3; sc. 4. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 2, Appears, Act III. sc. 4. Act IV. sc. 1. Act V. sc. 1. SCENE, FOR THE FIRST ACT, IN VENICE; DURING THE REST OF THE PLAY, AT A SEA-PORT IN CYPRUS. On the 6th of October, 1621, Thomas Walkley entered at Stationers' Hall, The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice.' In 1622 Walkley published the edition for which he had thus claimed the copyright. It is, as was usual with the separate plays, a small quarto. It is by no means certain to our minds that Walkley's edition was published before the folio. The usual date of that edition is 1623; but there is a copy in existence bearing the date of 1622. We have, however, no doubt that the copy of Othello' in the folio was printed from a manuscript copy, without reference to the quarto. The folio edition is regularly divided into acts and scenes; the quarto edition has not a single indication of any subdivision in the acts, and omits the division between Acts II. and III. The folio edition contains 163 lines which are not found in the quarto, and these some of the most striking in the play: the number of lines found in the quarto which are not in the folio do not amount to ten. The quarto, then, has not the merit of being the fuller copy. Believing the folio to be the more genuine copy, our text, for the most part, follows that authority. There is a quarto edition of 1630, which differs, in some readings, from both of the previous editions. |