Bloom’s Shakespeare Through the Ages Antony and Cleopatra As You Like It Hamlet Henry IV (Part I) Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth The Merchant of Venice A Midsummer Night’s Dream Othello Romeo and Juliet The Sonnets The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Twelfth Night Bloom’s Shakespeare Through the Ages OTHELLO Edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom Sterling Professor of the Humanities Yale University Volume Editor Neil Heims Bloom’s Shakespeare Through the Ages: Othello Copyright © 2008 by Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2008 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Othello / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom ; volume editor, Neil Heims. p. cm. — (Bloom’s Shakespeare through the ages) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7910-9575-1 (acid-free paper) 1. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Othello. 2. Othello (Fictitious character) I. Bloom, Harold. II. Heims, Neil. III. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616. Othello. PR2829.O77 2008 822.3’3—dc22 2007026815 Bloom’s Literary Criticism books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Bloom’s Literary Criticism on the World Wide Web at http://www.chelseahouse.com Series design by Erika K. 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CONTENTS q Series Introduction ................................................... ..............ix Introduction by Harold Bloom ..................................................xi Biography of William Shakespeare ............................................. 1 Summary of Othello .................................................. ............... 5 Key Passages in Othello ................................................... ........23 List of Characters in Othello .................................................. ...41 CRITICISM THROUGH THE AGES .................................... 43 t฀Othello in the Seventeenth Century ........................................45 1666—Samuel Pepys. From The Diary of Samuel Pepys. 46 1693—Thomas Rymer. From A Short View of Tragedy ................ 47 1694—Charles Gildon. “Some Reflections on Mr. Rymer’s Short View of Tragedy and an Attempt at a Vindication of Shakespeare,” from “Remarks on the Plays of Shakespear” .................................................. .... 75 t฀Othello in the Eighteenth Century .........................................83 1710—Sir Richard Steele. “On the Funeral of Betterton,” from The Tatler .................................................. ........... 85 1713—John Hughes. “On the Tragedy of Othello,” from The Guardian .................................................. ...... 86 1717—Lewis Theobald. From The Censor ............................... 89 1733—Voltaire. “The Orphan,” from Philosophical Letters ............ 90 1765—Samuel Johnson. Othello (notes), from The Plays of William Shakespear ........................................... 93 vi Contents 1775—elizabeth Griffith. From The Morality of Shakespeare’s Drama Illustrated ......................................... 94 t฀Othello in the Nineteenth Century .........................................97 1809—August Wilhelm Schlegel. “Criticisms on Shakspeare’s Tragedies,” from Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature .................................................. ............. 99 1811—Charles Lamb. “On the Tragedies of Shakespeare,” from The Reflector. 102 1817—William Hazlitt. “Othello,” from Characters of Shakespear’s Plays ................................................... ....... 102 1818—Samuel Taylor Coleridge. “Notes on Othello,” from Lectures and Notes on Shakspere and Other English Poets . 113 1836—John Quincy Adams. “The Character of Desdemona,” from The American Monthly Magazine . 117 1864—Victor Hugo. From William Shakespeare ........................ 126 1880—Algernon Charles Swinburne. From A Study of Shakespeare 127 1897—George Bernard Shaw. “Mainly About Shakespeare,” from London Saturday Review ........................... 134 t฀Othello in the Twentieth Century ......................................... 137 1904—A. C. Bradley. “Othello,” from Shakespearean Tragedy . 138 1927—T. S. Eliot. “The Hero Cheering Himself Up,” from “Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca” .............................. 156 1930—G. Wilson Knight. “The Othello Music,” from The Wheel of Fire ................................................... .... 157 1936—William Empson. “The Best Policy,” from Life and Letters To-Day. 179 1951—Harold C. Goddard. “Othello,” from The Meaning of Shakespeare .......................................... 186 1951—Kenneth Burke. “‘Othello’: An Essay to Illustrate a Method,” from The Hudson Review ..................... 224 1956—Robert B. Heilman. “Othello: The Unheroic Tragic Hero,” from Magic in the Web: Action and Language in Othello .................................................. ......... 252 Contents vii 1961—W. H. Auden. “The Joker in the Pack,” from Encounter .................................................. .............. 261 1983—A. D. Nuttall. “Othello,” from A New Mimesis: Shakespeare and the Representation of Reality ............................. 280 1992—Harold Bloom. “Introduction,” from Iago ...................... 292 t฀Othello in the Twenty-first Century ...................................... 297 2000—Frank Kermode. “Othello,” from Shakespeare’s Language ................................................ 297 Bibliography ................................................... .................... 313 Acknowledgments ................................................... ............ 315 Index .................................................. ............................... 317 SERIES INTRODUCTION q Shakespeare Through the Ages presents not the most current of Shakespeare criticism, but the best of Shakespeare criticism, from the seventeenth century to today. In the process, each volume also charts the flow over time of critical discussion of a particular play. Other useful and fascinating collections of his- torical Shakespearean criticism exist, but no collection that we know of contains such a range of commentary on each of Shakespeare’s greatest plays and at the same time emphasizes the greatest critics in our literary tradition: from John Dryden in the seventeenth century, to Samuel Johnson in the eighteenth cen- tury, to William Hazlitt and Samuel Coleridge in the nineteenth century, to A.C. Bradley and William Empson in the twentieth century, to the most per- ceptive critics of our own day. This canon of Shakespearean criticism empha- sizes aesthetic rather than political or social analysis. Some of the pieces included here are full-length essays; others are excerpts designed to present a key point. Much (but not all) of the earliest criticism consists only of brief mentions of specific plays. In addition to the classics of criticism, some pieces of mainly historical importance have been included, often to provide background for important reactions from future critics. These volumes are intended for students, particularly those just beginning their explorations of Shakespeare. We have therefore also included basic materials designed to provide a solid grounding in each play: a biography of Shakespeare, a synopsis of the play, a list of characters, and an explication of key passages. In addition, each selection of the criticism of a particular century begins with an introductory essay discussing the general nature of that century’s commentary and the particular issues and controversies addressed by critics presented in the volume. Shakespeare was “not of an age, but for all time,” but much Shakespeare criticism is decidedly for its own age, of lasting importance only to the scholar who wrote it. Students today read the criticism most readily available to them, which means essays printed in recent books and journals, especially those journals made available on the Internet. Older criticism is too often buried in out-of-print books on forgotten shelves of libraries or in defunct periodicals. Therefore, many ix.