William Shakespeare: Othello

Digital text from Folger Shakespeare Library; The Folger Library Shakespeare Editions, on which the Folger Digital Texts depend, make this editorial process as nearly transparent as is possible, in contrast to older texts, like the Moby™, which hide editorial interventions.

Because the Folger Digital Texts are edited in accord with twenty-first century knowledge about Shakespeare’s texts, the Folger here provides them to readers, scholars, teachers, actors, directors, and students, free of charge, confident of their quality as texts of the plays and pleased to be able to make this contribution to the study and enjoyment of Shakespeare.

Plot summary and introduction to Shakespeare's Othello, links to images of Folios, and a selection of digitized 18th-, 19th-, and early 20th-century images related to Othello.

"The audio clip available here is a 1959 Royal Shakespeare Company performance with African-American actor Paul Robeson (1898-1976) playing Othello. Robeson was the first black actor since 1860 to perform the role in a major production. As the son of an escaped slave, he knew racism and prejudice, and his outspoken left-wing politics saw him victimized by the US's anti-Communist authorities and media of the 1950s."

journal article from Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Rice University

JSTOR article

JSTOR article

First in Emma Smith's Approaching Shakespeare lecture series; looking at the central question of race and its significance in the play.

Is Othello a comedy gone wrong?

Discover the surprising connections between Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice and Commedia dell’Arte, the satiric, improvised form of theater originating in 16th century Italy. Richard Whalen reveals how the seven main characters of Othello bear more than a coincidental resemblance to stock figures of Commedia dell’Arte. The links between Othello and Commedia dell’Arte offer insights into such perplexities as Iago’s extreme capacity for evil and Othello’s curious gullibility.