Othello: A Stratfordian Vs. An Oxfordian Perspective
Hyannis, MA, Newport, RI and Brunswick, ME
“It appears that poor William has nothing at all to justify his claims while Oxford has everything.”
Sigmund Freud
Introduction
The Tragedy of Othello, Moor of Venice, by William Shakespeare, ranks as, arguably, the playwright’s greatest dramatic work. In the United States, the story of a black man manipulated by a white man into self-destruction holds particular significance during the days of “Black Lives Matter.” While reading the play, watching a film adaptation, or attending a live performance, it is easy to ignore the author of the great work. Who was he? Viewing Othello through Stratfordian and Oxfordian lenses results in two drastically different experiences.
Shakespeare’s Source Material
Was the story of Othello an original idea? Was it just a figment of the author’s fertile imagination? The Essential Shakespeare Handbook stated the following,
The source for Othello, an Italian story by Giraldi Cinthio, begins: “There once lived in Venice a Moor, who was very valiant and of a handsome person.” Shakespeare may have read the tale in the original Italian, published in the 16th century-a collection entitled Hecatommithi (Dunton-Downer, Riding 343).
The Arden Shakespeare had the following to say on source material in its edition of Othello,
The principal source of Othello is the seventh novella in the third decade of Giraldi Cinthio’s Hecatommithi (1565). A French translation by G. Chappuys appeared in 1583, and the first extant English translation not until 1753 (Honigmann 368).
From the above stated sources, it is deduced that the author of the play was fluent in Italian. Michael Wood had the following to say,
There was no single model for Othello-Shakespeare took the basic story from Cinthio’s popular Hundred Stories, one of his staple source books ( Wood 250).
Stratfordians seem to avoid opening a can of worms by admitting that the author knew Italian at a high level.
Shakespeare’s Knowledge of Italian Topography
The Folger and Arden editions of Othello say nothing about the author’s knowledge of Italian topography. Of course they wouldn’t. Orthodox scholars believe that the author never left England.
In his groundbreaking book, The Shakespeare Guide to Italy: Retracing the Bard’s Unknown Travels, Richard Paul Roe said the following:
There is a secret Italy hidden in the plays of Shakespeare. It is an ingeniously described Italy that has neither been recognized, nor even suspected-not in four hundred years-save for a curious few. It is exact; it is detailed; and it is brilliant….In truth, as will be demonstrated, the precise and abundant allusions in those plays to places and things the length of that country attest to the playwright’s personal travels there (Roe 1).
The great tragedy of Othello shows particular topographical knowledge of Venice. In Act I, Scene I, Iago riles up Senator Brabantio by informing him of Desdemona’s marriage to the Moor. In lines 176–7, he tells Roderigo, knowing the Senator will soon know, where Othello is to be found,
Lead to the Sagittary the raisèd search,
And there will I be with him. So, farewell (Shakespeare).
Orthodox commentators, such as those in the Arden and Riverside Shakespeare, long have thought that the Sagittary was an inn. It was just another figment of the imagination of an author who knew nothing about Italy.
In Shakespeare’s Venice, Violet Jeffery stated,
Nor is this identification of the Sagittary with a street in Venice mere conjecture. Records show that the street [by that name] existed in the thirteenth century, [and] Marin Sanuto noted in his diary that a fire broke out there [calling it the Sagittary] during the night of 12 July 1518, causing great damage. The street was a busy thoroughfare in Shakespeare’s time…(Roe 166–7).
Oxford’s Poetry in Othello
The following poem was written by Edward de Vere:
If women could be fair and yet not fond,
Or that their love were firm, not fickle still,
I would not marvel that they make men bond
By service long to purchase their good will.
But when I see how frail those creatures are,
I muse that men forget themselves so far.To mark the choice they make and how they change,
How oft from Phoebus they do flee to Pan;
Unsettled still, like haggards wild they range,
These gentle birds that fly from man to man.
Who would not scorn and shake them from the fist,
And let them fly, fair fools, which way they list?Yet for disport we fawn and flatter both,
To pass the time when nothing else can please,
And train them to our lure with subtle oath,
Till weary of their wiles ourselves we ease.
And then we say when we their fancy try,
To play with fools, oh what a fool was I (Looney 108).
When was the poem written? The Shakespeare-Oxford Fellowship had the following to say on that matter,
The poem dates no later than 1588, when it was first published in William Byrd’s collection, Psalms, Sonnets, and Songs. It may well have been written years earlier, since it also appears in Harleian MS 7392(2) (British Library) and Rawlinson MS 85 (Bodleian Library, Oxford University), which were transcribed starting in the mid-1580s (Stritmatter).
It is interesting to compare Oxford’s poem to Othello III.3, Lines 301–304,
If I do prove her haggard,
Though that her jesses were my dear heartstrings,
I’d whistle her off and let her down the wind
To prey at fortune (Shakespeare).
When was Othello written? The Folger Shakespeare Library states as follows,
Othello was performed at court in 1604 and scholars believe Shakespeare wrote it that year or the year before. It was pubilshed as a quarto in 1622, and a somewhat fuller text was included in the 1623 First Folio (Folger).
Thomas Looney was the first person to recognize the similarity between the work,
In Othello it is used identically as in the poem by De Vere, meaning a woman who “flies from man to man.”…Even the sentiment and idea are exactly the same as in De Vere’s poem…(Looney 139).
De Vere wrote another poem titled The Loss of My Good Name:
Framed in the front of forlorn hope, past all recovery,
I stayless stand t’abide the shock of shame and infamy.
My life, through lingering long, is lodged in lair of loathsome ways,
My death delayed to keep from life the harm of hapless days.
My sprites, my heart, my wit and force in deep distress are drowned;
The only loss of my good name is of these griefs the ground.And since my mind, my wit, my head, my voice and tongue are weak
To utter, move, devise, conceive, sound forth, declare and speak
Such piercing plaints as answer might, or would, my woeful case,
Help crave I must, and crave I will, with tears upon my face
Of all that may in heaven or hell, in earth or air, be found
To wail with me this loss of mine, as of these griefs the ground.Help gods, help saints, help sprites and powers that in the heaven do dwell,
Help ye that are to wail, ay wont, ye howling hounds of hell,
Help man, help beasts, help birds and worms that on the earth doth toil,
Help fish, help fowl that flocks and feeds upon the salt sea soil,
Help echo that in air doth flee, shrill voices to resound To wail this loss of my good name, as of these griefs the ground (De Vere).
This poem also predated the assumed date of composition of Othello. According to the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship,
As discussed in Appendix A, №4 was very likely written c. 1563, when de Vere was only 13 (Stritmatter).
In Othello, Act III.3, Lines 184–190, Iago said the following,
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse steals trash. ’Tis something,
nothing;
’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to
thousands.
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed (Shakespeare).
The most logical conclusion, when comparing the poems to Othello, is that they are from the same pen.
In Search of Rumors of Infidelity in the Author’s Life Reflective of the Allegations Against Desdemona
There is no documented evidence to show that Shakespeare was jealous of his wife. When looking at Othello, as with everything in the canon, however, there are stark parallels with Oxford’s life:
From the documents preserved in the Hatfield manuscripts, however, certain facts specially relevant to our argument already stand out boldly and distinctly. The first is that he expresses a warm regard for his wife. The second is that a responsible servant of his, his receiver, had succeeded in insinuating into his mind suspicions of some kind respecting Lady Oxford…on his return he treated his wife in a way quite inexplicable to her, refusing to see her; whilst she, for her part, showed an earnest desire to appease him. The fifth is that report unfavourable to Lady Oxford’s reputation gained currency. And the sixth is that there seems to have been no shadow of justification for these reports (Looney 227–8).
Conclusion
The Stratfordian view is too fraught with difficulty for the present author to accept: a man of no recorded education made use of an Italian work, and he also showed knowledge of Italian topography. The great work of Othello was created in a vacuum.
When reading the work, or when watching a film adaptation, or a live performance, an Oxfordian view becomes much more acceptable. Edward De Vere was fluent in Italian; therefore, the recognized source material, Cinthio’s Hecatommithi, was accessible to him. Unlike the Stratford man, De Vere also lived in Italy for six months; that explains the author’s knowledge of Italian topography. The themes of Oxford’s juvenile poems on Women and Loss of Good Name also were repeated in Othello. Furthermore, the jealousy which Othello displayed towards Desdemona uncomfortably paralleled that which documentation shows De Vere displayed towards the Lady Oxford.
The more the present author studies the works in the canon, the stronger his Oxfordian beliefs become.
Works Cited
De Vere, Edward. De Vere Poems 4 and 19: Loss of My Good Name and If Women Could Be Fair and Yet Not Fond.Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship. https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/de-vere-poem-19/
Dunton-Downer, Leslie and Riding, Alan. Essential Shakespeare Handbook. Doring Kindersley Limited, 2013. Print.
Looney, J. Thomas. Shakespeare Identified. Forever Press, 2018. Print.
Roe, Richard Paul. The Shakespeare Guide to Italy: Retracing the Bard’s Unknown Travels. Harper Perennial, 2011.
Shakespeare, William and Honigmann, E.A.J. Othello. Arden Shakespeare, 2004. Print.
Shakespeare, William. Othello. The Folger Shakespeare Library. https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/othello/read/
Wood, Michael. Shakespeare. Basic Books, 2004. Print
