46 Fun Facts About Othello

Besides being passed over, what rumour does Iago say fuels his hatred of Othello?

Othello slept with his wife: Iago admits he doesn't know whether the rumour is true, yet vows to act on mere suspicion as if it were certain.

What does Othello demand that Iago produce against Desdemona, on pain of his wrath?

Ocular proof: Othello wants to see the betrayal with his own eyes, but Iago says catching the lovers in the act is impossible and offers circumstantial evidence instead.

What military rank does Iago hold under Othello?

Iago is Othello's ensign, called his 'ancient' in the text: the standard-bearer ranked below the lieutenant, the post he believes he deserved.

Whom does Othello promote to lieutenant, provoking Iago's resentment?

Cassio: Iago sneers that the Florentine is a mere 'arithmetician' who never set a squadron in the field, and plots to get his place.

Who is Desdemona's father?

Brabantio, a senator, is the bride's father; he accuses Othello before the Duke of winning her by witchcraft and disowns her when she defends the marriage.

Which wealthy, dissolute gentleman pays Iago to help him win Desdemona?

Roderigo, a rich gentleman who hoped Iago could buy him the lady's favour, is finally stabbed by Iago in the dark to silence him.

Which enemy fleet is threatening Cyprus when Othello is dispatched there?

The Turks: the senate sees through the Ottoman fleet's feint toward Rhodes and sends Othello to command the island's defence.

How does Othello say he won Desdemona's love, rather than by witchcraft?

By telling stories of his life: her father, who now cries witchcraft, had often invited Othello home to tell them, and she fell for the storyteller.

What happens to the enemy fleet before Othello lands on Cyprus?

A storm destroys it: a 'desperate tempest' wrecks the enemy ships at sea, so the war Othello was sent to fight is over before he lands.

Who finds the dropped handkerchief and hands it to Iago?

Emilia, Iago's wife, hands it over without knowing his plan, and her revelation of the truth about it exposes him in the final scene.

What fruit is embroidered on the handkerchief?

Strawberries: Iago describes it as 'spotted with strawberries', and Othello, who denied using magic to win his wife, later insists there is magic in its web.

In Othello, who is Bianca?

Bianca is a courtesan involved with Cassio; Iago gets him laughing about her while Othello, eavesdropping, believes the talk is about his wife.

How does Othello kill Desdemona?

He smothers her: yet when help arrives, the dying Desdemona answers 'Nobody; I myself' to shield him with her last words.

What rank does Othello hold when the play opens?

General: the senate needs him so urgently that he must sail to take command in Cyprus on the very night his secret marriage comes out.

What does Iago vow once he is exposed?

To never speak again: asked why he ensnared Othello, Iago answers 'Demand me nothing', so the several motives he gave earlier are never confirmed.

How does Othello die?

He commits suicide: after learning the truth Othello stabs himself with a hidden weapon and dies kissing his wife's body, 'to die upon a kiss'.

Who apprehends both Iago and Othello for the murders at the end of the play?

Lodovico, the envoy from the senate, strips Othello of his command, orders Iago held for torture, and closes the play promising to report 'this heavy act' to the state.

Whose 1565 collection of novellas was Shakespeare's main source for Othello?

Cinthio: in his tale the Moor is later killed by his wife's relatives.

In the Italian tale behind Othello, how is the Moor's wife killed?

Beaten with sand-filled socks: the killers then bring down the cracked bedroom ceiling on her so the death looks like an accident.

Which acting company played Othello at court in 1604?

The King's Men: Shakespeare's company, formerly the Lord Chamberlain's Men, took that name when James I came to the throne in 1603.

Othello reached print a year before which Shakespeare collection?

First Folio: two of Shakespeare's fellow actors gathered it after his death.

What song does Desdemona sing in a passage missing from Othello's first edition?

Willow Song: the first edition lets Desdemona mention her mother's maid's old song of willow, but only a later printing has her actually sing it.

What does Iago call jealousy when he warns Othello to beware of it?

The green-eyed monster: Iago warns that jealousy 'doth mock the meat it feeds on', while deliberately planting that very feeling in Othello.

Which word appears over 40 times in Othello, most often in describing Iago?

Honest: everyone keeps calling him 'honest Iago', the play's central irony, since he is the one deceiving them all.

Which critic coined the phrase "motive-hunting of motive-less Malignity" to describe Iago?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge: his note answers Iago's soliloquy, where he tries out one reason after another for a hatred that none of them explains.

Which critic suggested in 1693 that Othello should have been called "The Tragedy of the Handkerchief"?

Thomas Rymer, in A Short View of Tragedy (1693), mocked the play's reliance on the handkerchief and drew the moral that wives should 'look well to their Linnen'.

Which visitor to London in 1600 may have helped inspire Othello?

The ambassador of the King of Barbary: his embassy officially came to talk trade, but its real aim was a military alliance with England against Spain.

Which star of Shakespeare's company was the first actor to play Othello?

Richard Burbage: after his death in 1619, a funeral elegy mourned 'the grieved Moor' among the great parts that died with him.

Who gave the first known professional performance of Othello by a Black actor, in 1820s New York?

James Hewlett starred at New York's African Grove Theatre; his young castmate Ira Aldridge, unable to build an acting career in America, left for England and made Othello his most famous role.

Which actor's 1943 Othello set a Broadway record for a Shakespeare production?

Paul Robeson: his run neared 300 performances, but in 1950 the US revoked his passport, stalling his career until it was restored eight years later.

Which Russian director staged a 1930 Othello by letter while recovering from illness in France?

Konstantin Stanislavski: the plan he mailed helped shape his acting system, and rehearsing Othello became a main thread of his book on creating a role.

Which actor's 1965 filmed Othello earned Oscar nominations for all four of its leads?

Laurence Olivier: he played the Moor in blackface, a performance later critics have increasingly judged racially offensive.

Which director shot his Othello film in stops and starts, halting whenever the money ran out?

Orson Welles: when his costumes failed to arrive, he staged a murder scene in a bathhouse, where the actors needed only towels.

Who played Iago in Oliver Parker's 1995 film of Othello?

Kenneth Branagh: critics praised his Iago, while the Swiss star Irene Jacob, as Desdemona, struggled with the English.

What did Parker's 1995 Othello do first among major-studio films?

Cast an African American actor in the title role: with Laurence Fishburne as the Moor, the film played up the story's sexual and racial tensions.

Which composer's opera Otello, with a libretto by Arrigo Boito, premiered in Milan in 1887?

Giuseppe Verdi: after Aida in 1871 he wrote no new opera for 16 years, until his publisher Giulio Ricordi coaxed him into setting Boito's libretto.

Which composer's 1816 opera Otello called for three leading tenors?

Rossini: its libretto did not follow Shakespeare's play, and an alternative happy ending was later written for it.

In the teen film O, what is the name of the character based on Othello?

Odin: made around the time of the 1999 Columbine massacre, the high-school drama was then held back for about two years, until 2001.

Vishal Bhardwaj's Omkara relocates Othello to the gang politics of which Indian state?

Uttar Pradesh: the film turns Othello's racial difference into caste, making its hero an enforcer born to a low-caste mother.

Which 1956 Western, compared to Othello, has a scheming ranch hand make a rancher believe his wife is cheating?

Jubal: Rod Steiger plays the schemer, though critic Jonathan Rosenbaum judged the film's Othello parallels to be fairly loose.

Which Shakespeare comedy has a villain who, like Iago, tricks a lover into believing his bride-to-be is unfaithful?

Much Ado About Nothing: Don John's plotters stage a scene at Hero's window, so the deceived Claudio denounces her at their wedding.

In Othello's 'short' time scheme, how long after reaching Cyprus is Desdemona murdered?

About a day and a half: that leaves no time for the affair Iago alleges, yet other lines imply more than a week has passed, a clash critics call 'double time'.

Which white actor played Othello in a 1997 Washington 'photo-negative' production, with Black actors in most other roles?

Patrick Stewart: none of Shakespeare's lines about race were changed, so the other characters still called his white Othello black.

Which actor initiated the 'Bronze Age of Othello' by rejecting blackface for lighter makeup?

Edmund Kean: by theatre legend he collapsed onstage while playing Othello at Covent Garden in 1833, and he died about two months later.

Which Italian actor always played Othello in Italian, even alongside English-speaking casts?

Tommaso Salvini: at Gibraltar he studied a Moor he admired, then copied the man's gestures, movements and carriage for his Othello.

Which stand-up comedian played Othello in Northern Broadsides' 2009 production at the West Yorkshire Playhouse?

Lenny Henry: decades earlier, as a teenager, he had toured as a comedian with a stage version of The Black and White Minstrel Show.