Unique features include an extensive overview of Shakespeare's life, world, and theater by the general editor of Signet Classic Shakespeare series, plus a special introduction to the play by the editor Sylvan Barnet, Tufts University. This book contains information on the source from which Shakespeare derived "Othello"--selections from Giraldi Cinthio's "Hecatommithi". Special introduction by Alvin Kernan, Princeton University.

Shakespeare: An Overview Biographical Sketch A Note on the Anti-Stratfordians, Especially Baconians and Oxfordians The Shakespeare Canon Shakespeare's English Shakespeare's Theater A Note on the Use of Boy Actors in Female Roles Shakespeare's Dramatic Language: Costumes, Gestures and Silences; Prose and Poetry The Play Test as a Collaboration Editing Texts Shakespeare on the Stage

Textual Note The Source of Othello Selection from Hecatommithi / Giraldi Cinthio Commentaries Othello / Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Jacobean Shakespeare: Some Observations on the Construction of the Tragedies / Maynard Mack "I wooed thee with my sword": Shakespeare's Tragic Paradigms / Madelon Gohlke Sprengnether Othello in Vienna, 1991 / Marvin Carlson Othello on Stage and Screen / Sylvan Barnet Suggested References.