You from the Polack wars, and you from England,
Are here arriv'd; give order, that these bodies
High on a stage be placed to the view;

And let me fpeak, to the yet unknowing world,
How these things came about: So shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts;
Of accidental judgments, casual flaughters;
Of deaths put on by cunning, and forc'd cause;
And, in this upshot, purposfes mistook

Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can I
Truly deliver.

Fort. Let us haste to hear it,
And call the noblert to the audience.
For me, with forrow I embrace my fortune;
I have fome rights of memory in this kingdom,
Which now to claim, my vantage doth invite me.

Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak,
And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more:
But let this fame be presently perform'd,

Even while men's minds are wild; left more mischance, On plots and errors happen.

Fort. Let four captains

Bear Hamlet, like a foldier, to the stage;

For he was likely, had he been put on,
To have prov'd most royally: and, for his passage,
The foldier's mufick, and the rites of war,

Speak loudly for him.

Take up the bodies: -Such a fight as this
Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.

Go, bid the foldiers shoot.

[A dead march.

[Exeunt, bearing off the dead bodies; after which, a

peal of ordnance is shot off.

THE END.

OTHELLO,

THE MOOR OF VENICE;

A

TRAGEDY,

BY

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

ACCURATELY PRINTED

FROM THE TEXT OF

Mr. STEEVENS'S LAST EDITION.

Drnamented with Plates.

London:

PUBLISHED BY E. HARDING, NO. 98, PALL-MALL; J. WRIGHT, PICCADILLY; G. SAEL, STRAND; AND VERNOR AND HOOD, POULTRY.

OBSERVATIONS.

THE story is taken from Cynthio's Novels.

POPE.

I have not hitherto met with any translation of this novel (the seventh in the third decad) of fo early a date as the age of Shakspeare; but undoubtedly many of those little pamphlets have perished between his time and ours.

It is highly probable that our author met with the name of Othello in some tale that has escaped our researches; as I likewife 'find it in God's Revenge against Adultery, standing in one of his Arguments as follows: "She marries Othello, an old German foldier." This History (the eighth) is professed to be an Italian one. Here allo occurs the name of lago.

It may indeed be urged that these names were adopted from the tragedy before us: but I trust that every reader who is converfant with the peculiar style and method in which the work of honest John Reynolds is composed, will acquit him of the flightest familiarity with the scenes of Shakspeare.

This play was first entered at Stationers' Hall, Oct. 6, 1621, by Thomas Walkely. STEEVENS.

I have feen a French tranflation of Cynthio, by Gabriel Chappuys, Par. 1584. This is not a faithful one; and I suspect, through this medium the work came into English. FARMER.

This tragedy I have afcribed (but on no very fure ground) to the year 1611. MALONE.

The time of this play may be afcertained from the following circumstances: Selymus the Second formed his design against Cyprus in 1569, and took it in 1571. This was the only attempt the Turks ever made upon that island after it came into the hands

of

of the Venetians, (which was in the year 1473,) wherefore the time must fall in with some part of that interval. We learn from the play that there was a junction of the Turkish fleet at Rhodes, in order for the invafion of Cyprus, that it first came failing towards Cyprus, then went to Rhodes, there met another squadron, and then refumed its way to Cyprus. These are real historical facts which happened when Mustapha, Selymus's general, attacked Cyprus in May, 1570, which therefore is the true period of this performance. See Knolles's History of the Turks, p. 838, 846, 867. REED.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

Duke of Venice.

BRABANTIO, a Senator.

Two other Senators.

GRATIANO, brother to Brabantio.

LODOVICO, kinsman to Brabantio.

OTHELLO, the Moor:

CASSIO, his Lieutenant;

IAGO, bis Ancient.

RODERIGO, a Venetian Gentleman.

MONTANO, Othello's predeceffor in the government of Cy

prus.

Clown, fervant to Othello.
Herald.

DESDEMONA, daughter to Brabantio, and wife to Othello.

EMILIA, wife to Iago.

BIANCA, a courtezan, mistress to Caffio.

Officers, Gentlemen, Messengers, Musicians, Sailors, Attend

ants, &c.

SCENE, for the first Act, in Venice; during the rest of the play, at a fea-port in Cyprus.