The name of this hero has long been a household name. The greatest actors of the world to this day are fighting for the honor of playing on the stage of this particular character, although they have to soak in black paint. We are talking about the most famous jealous of all time - the Venetian Moor Othello. Let's find out which of the writers bestowed such great fame on this character.
Who wrote Othello?
Like Romeo and Juliet, the jealous black commander was immortalized by the great British playwright William Shakespeare.
It was he who wrote the play The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice in 1604, which in the Russian translation appears as "Othello - the Venetian Moor" or simply "Othello". It is noteworthy that a more faithful translation of Shakespeare's name would be "The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor from Venice."
By the way, today many British literary scholars put forward the version that this work could be written in 1601, 1602 or 1603.
Which of them is right, we will not know soon, if at all. But one thing is certain: in 1604, the play Othello was first staged at the Globus Theater.
The first artist who had a chance to smear black paint was Richard Burbage, who at different times was Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo. What can I say, Richard was lucky with his friend William! All artists need to learn a lesson from this: in addition to the talent of the lyceum and good looks, you must have a trump card in the form of a friend / brother / neighbor (underline as necessary), who is interested in writing plays.
As for Shakespeare’s Othello tragedy itself, it appealed to the audience’s taste and for hundreds of years settled in the repertoire of not only British theater corpses, but also far beyond the aisles of foggy Albion.
Eighteen years after the successful premiere, the play was published as a separate publication. Now everyone could sob over the tragic fate of her heroes at home, as well as numerous schoolchildren who voluntarily-forcibly forced to get acquainted with this, no doubt, a brilliant work.
What is the play about
So, we know who wrote Othello, let's look at the content. As in most tragedies of William Shakespeare, in the center of the plot is a story of beautiful love with a not-so-successful ending.
The protagonist, by whose name the work is named, is the excellent commander Othello, who is in the service of the state. Despite the origin, he managed to achieve good career heights and became a general. His main achievement was to win the heart of Senator Brabancio’s beautiful daughter Desdemona, who married the warrior against her father’s will.
However, the success of the Moor causes envy among others. In particular, the lieutenant Iago (whom Othello prevented from taking the coveted post) and the nearby ex-Desdemona admirer Rodrigo.
Through cunning manipulations, the conspirators convince the hot-tempered Moor that his wife is cheating on him with one of his subordinates - the handsome Cassio. Jealous, Othello kills his wife. He later finds out that the unfortunate woman was slandered, and, unable to bear the torment of conscience, kills herself.
As for the conspirators, although Iago kills Rodrigo, putting the blame for this on Cassio, but the truth becomes known to all and the villain bears a deserved punishment.
By the way, one of the most tricky questions about the content of this play is the method of killing Desdemona. Even connoisseurs of "What? Where? When?" Pierced it. in 1985
It is believed that the jealous strangled the beautiful wife. That's just actually killed the unfortunate was a dagger. When Othello strangled Desdemona, he heard a knock on the door and was afraid that he would not have time to execute his sentence. Therefore, with the words: "I am a fanatic, but still merciful // And I won’t let you suffer for a long time ..." - stabbed his beloved. What can I say - a "wonderful" role model!
Who was the prototype of the Shakespearean Moor?
Having found out who wrote Othello, as well as a summary of this sad story, it will be interesting to get information about a real historical person who became the prototype of the Shakespearean Moor.
It is believed that this was the commander of the Venetian troops Mariuzio Othello, who fought with the Turks over Cyprus in 1505-1508. Along with him lived the wife of Mariuzio, who later died under very suspicious circumstances.
Unfortunately, the legends did not save information about how. But, apparently, the public believed that Othello clearly had a hand in this, and maybe two ...
By the way, if you are lucky enough to go on vacation to Cyprus, the locals will gladly show the castle in Famagusta, where according to legend, the events described by Shakespeare took place.
Was Othello a Negro?
With the light hand of William, his hero was considered the Moor (Arab), and even later, the jealous began to be completely depicted as a black man.
That's just historians claim that the classic was a little mistaken with the race, because the real Mariuzio Othello was an Italian with a completely light skin color.
Literary scholars believe that the name of Mariucio was confused by the writer. The fact is that instead of it, an abbreviated version of Mauro was often used, which in translation from Italian also means "Moor". And since the knowledge of the classic in Italian was very superficial, and Google.Translator has not yet been invented - Shakespeare decided that the phrase Mauro Othello means "Moor of Othello", and not his first and last name.
This version is also supported by the fact that the Moors in Venice were treated as people of the second, or even third grade, and would never have entrusted them with the defense of the country. Moreover, the Moors were then called not just Arabs, but specifically Muslims. So it would be unlikely that a non-believer would be made a general, especially when you consider that in those years they fought with the Turks, who, by a strange coincidence, also revered Allah as their Lord.
It turns out that with one elegant stroke of the pen, William Shakespeare doomed the actors of the whole world to forever be smeared with black paint for the sake of honor to play the jealous commander-moor. But perhaps this was not only the fault of the British classic, because he was not the first to write about Othello and Desdemona.
"Moorish Captain" Giraldi Cintio
For the first time the history of the jealous was described by the Italian author of the Renaissance of Giambattista Giraldi Cintio in 1565 in the collection of short stories Ecatommiti. This book in its style and structure inherited the traditions of the "Decameron" Boccaccio. It contained a story called Un Capitano Moro ("Moorish Captain"), in which the story of the brief marriage of Othello and Desdemona was told.
It is worth noting that over the years of Shakespeare’s life this work has not been translated into English, so some literary scholars believe that the writer could not read the original, but his French translation, made by Gabriel Chapuis in 1584. So in addition to the British classic there are two more possible culprits " denigrations "of all performers of the role of Othello.