Page:The Moor of Venice.djvu/15

4 incidents of his 'Othello.' The author was a nobleman of Ferrara, and a professor of philosophy in that city: it is somewhat amusing to read the terms in which he speaks of the composition of his work, in connection with his "grave studies of philosophy,"—"by the light of which, the fount and origin of laudable habits, and of all honest discipline, and likewise of every virtue, I have sought to perfect my work, which is wholly directed, with much variety of examples, to censure vicious actions and to praise honest ones,—to make men fly from vice and embrace virtue." What could the reader expect after this proem, (which is found totidem verbis in all the books of this school,) but a work of untarnished purity and morality?—all I can say is, he would be disappointed.

Whether ShakspereShakespeare [sic] met with this story in the original Italian, in the French translation by Gabriel Chappuys (published at Paris in 1584), or, which is perhaps most probable, in one of the numerous class of story-books, furnished from the romance writers, which were widely circulated and read in the south of Europe, is an undecided question; but that Cinthio's tale forms the groundwork of 'Othello,' is a fact unquestioned by any critic. This circumstance gives it a peculiar interest, which we shall proceed briefly to consider.

The comparison which some critics have drawn