Page:The Moor of Venice.djvu/14



work from which the plot and story of Shakspere's 'Othello' are taken, belongs to that class of Italian novels which arose out of the popularity of Boccaccio's Decamerone, and was fostered by the taste prevalent in Italy during the fifteenth and sixtcenth centuries. Although occasionally we meet with a tale of merit or interest, and a certain charm in style and language, these but partially atone for a coarse licentiousness, a reflection of the times, which, notwithstanding that it received the seal and license of the Inquisitor, who proclaims them consonos sanctæ Ecclesiæ et ab Apostolica Fide non abhorrere, offend the moral sense of a purer age.

This story of the Moor of Venice may be taken as a favourable specimen of the better class: it is contained in a collection of a hundred tales, entitled, 'Gli Hecatommithi,' by Giovan Battista Giraldi Cinthio,—a work which has been rescued from oblivion simply by the accident of its having furnished the muse of Shakspere with the plot and