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Cambridge Lecture - Othello Notes
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Othello – Cambridge University Lecture Thinking about Othello and the significance of Venice and Italy to Othello
Thinking about genre and some of the ways in which this play connects to questions
raised in other texts. Thinking about some of the ways that Shakespeare keeps
coming back to clusters of ideas, problems and concerns whilst exploring them from
different points of view.
In ‘Florio his First Fruites’, published in 1578, (Quotation 1). Florio describes Venice as, ‘a
fayre citie, riche, sumptuous’; before going on to observe that it is, ‘adorned with fayre
women, populated of many people, abundant, and plentiful of al good things’.
Shakespeare’s interest in Venice extends beyond Othello, with the earlier ‘The Merchant of
Venice’ being set in the same city. Moreover, roughly one third of Shakespeare’s play are set
in Italy or have strong Italian connections pointing to a recurrent or ongoing fascination with
geography, history, language and culture of that region. It is important to remember that
Venice is a region, rather than a country, in Shakespeare’s time. In fact, Shakespeare’s
fascination with Italy is evident that he must have had some first-hand experience with
Venice, perhaps visiting in his so-called, ‘lost years’ in 1585 and 1592. It has been suggested
that Shakespeare’s knowledge of Italy might even raise the question as to whether
Shakespeare was really Shakespeare at all.
The significance of Othello’s Venetian context, might at first glance, seem an odd point to
emphasise. Unlike ‘The Merchant of Venice’, the action in ‘Othello’ shifts from Venice to
Cyprus at the end of the first act and the audience is never returned to Florio’s ‘fayre citie’.
(One or two years before Othello). In writing about ‘Hamlet’, Eric Griffiths notes the play’s
unusual relationship to a particular genre of early modern drama – revenge tragedy. Having
acknowledged the strange mixture of languages present in the names chosen throughout
‘Hamlet’, this explains in (Quotation 2).
[2] I draw attention to this fricassee of French, Italian, Latin,
Greek, German, Polish, Danish, and Anglo-Saxon because it
contrasts so sharply with the usual practice of naming in revenge
tragedies, both before and after Hamlet. Standard revenge-plays
are usually set abroad, most often in notably Catholic countries on
the European mainland, for preference Spain or Italy but
sometimes France. All these countries are treated as much the
same, and indeed are regarded as composing a single allegorical
zone which we could call, by analogy with ‘Disneyland’, ‘Popeland’,
for the standard revenge play has as a staple ingredient a prurient
bigotry about Roman Catholicism, an attitude absent from Hamlet.
In the Spanish Tragedy, for instance, Kyd seems so little concerned
with anything specifically Spanish that when he includes snatches
of foreign languages for local colour (another stock-in-trade of
revenge plays which does not figure in Hamlet), his Spaniards
sometimes speak English and sometimes Italian, for no discernible
reason. (Eric Griffiths, If Not Critical, p.100)
, If ‘Hamlet’ is a revenge tragedy, then in Griffith’s view, it is an odd example evincing a kind
of disdain for that world. He goes on to suggest that ethnic homogeneity and ethical
transparency (all or almost all, bastards), are two faces of the thin and violent world of
revenge plays. A world of that related to that of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet the Dane’ principally
by contrast by the disdain Shakespeare’s dramaturgy expresses for it. ‘Hamlet’ was written
in proximity to Othello. The former is dated to around 1600 and was registered for
publication in 1602, while the latter is recorded as being performed in 1604 and so
composition of the play is dated slightly earlier.
Ways in which Hamlet and Othello mutually elucidate one another. However, it seems odd
to suggest that Othello is a revenge tragedy. Not with-standing the fact that the play is a
tragedy, the full title of the play, ‘The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice’ and it is
concerned from the very beginning with revenge. At the start of the play, Iago articulates his
grievance as being to do with the fact that Michael Cassio has been promoted ahead of him.
He argues in (Quotation 3).
[3] Three great ones of the city
In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
Off-capped to him, and by the faith of man
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place. (Othello,
1.1.8-11)
However, with Griffiths’ work in mind, there are several preliminary comments that might
be made regarding the setting of Othello, which might in turn suggests the extent to which
Shakespeare’s later play also seeks to distance itself from, and perhaps interrogate, revenge
tragedy. First, if ethnic homogeneity is understood to be one of the faces of revenge
tragedy, then Othello, like Hamlet, gives us nothing of the kind. From the very beginning of
the play, indeed from the very title, the multi-cultural diversity of Venice is both emphasised
and problematised. Enlisting his gripes at Cassio’s promotion, Iago notes two specific causes
for complaint. First, Cassio lacks practical experience in the field and second, he is a
‘Florentine’. (Quotation 4).
[4] But he, as loving his own pride, and purposes,
Evades them, with a bombast circumstance,
Horribly stuffed with epithets of war,
And in conclusion
Nonsuits my mediators. For ‘Certes’, says he,
‘I have already chose my officer.’
And what was he?
Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
A fellow almost damned in a fair wife)
That never set a squadron in the field
Nor the division of a battle knows
More than a spinster. (Othello,
1.1.11-22)
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