Giambattista Geraldi Cinthio, Hecatommithi, 1580 - Othello reference, Vol.2, p.159 detail.

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Date:1580

Description:A Shakespeare source: The story of Othello.

Novella 7 in the third part of Hecatommithi is the story of an ensign who seeks revenge when his lust for 'Disdimona' is rejected. It was this tale that Shakespeare followed closely for the Iago story in his tragedy of Othello.

The introduction on this page translates: A Moorish captain takes as his wife a Venetian citizen. One of his ensigns accuses her of adultery to her husband. He asks the ensign to kill the man whom he believes to be the adulterer. The captain kills his wife and is accused by the ensign. The moor does not confess but showing clear evidence is killed, and the wicked ensign, believing harm to others, miserably obtains his own death.

Full title: Giambattista Geraldi Cinthio,(1504-1573) Hecatommithi, ouer cento novelle di M. Giovan-batttista Giraldi Cinthio [in two parts]. In Venetia, appresso Fabio & Agostin Zopini, 1580. [Colophon to part 1 1579].


Timeline

The timeline shows resources around this location over a number of years.

1570s
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Shakespeare may have owned this book. Shakespeare purchased New Place, the largest ...

1590s
William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, 1594, leaf F4v.
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Shakespeare’s first published works. The long poem, Venus and Adonis, was ...

1610s
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1612 - Antony and Cleopatra, p. 922, detail.
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1612 - Antony and Cleopatra, p. 922, detail.

Shakespeare followed this description of Cleopatra. Shakespeare became very ...

1630s
William Shakespeare,  Love's Labour's Lost, 1631 -  the play ends with a song of winter
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Poetry in Shakespeare's plays: ‘When icicles hang by the wall’. The ...

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Donor ref:SR 22 [1,204] (32/10563)

Source: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust - Library

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