Plutarch's Life of Cato Utican as a Major Source of Othello

Abstract

HE primary source of Othello of course is Giraldi Cinthio's Italian story of the unnamed Moor who plots the murder of his wife Disdemona on the island of Cyprus. From this story Shakespeare took not only the heroine's name, the Moor's blackness, the Ensign's villainy, the settings of Venice and Cyprus, but also many details of the plot of jealousy involving the Ensign (Jago), the Moor (Othello), and the Captain (Cassio), including the purloined handkerchief and the observed conversation between the Captain and the Ensign by which the Moor is duped into thinking the Captain openly brags of his affair with Disdemona. After Cinthio's contributions to the plot are acknowledged, however, we find in Shakespeare's play some variations upon Cinthio, not to speak of some extraneous matter, which may be explained only by examination of a major secondary source of Othello that has been overlooked. This source is Sir Thomas North's I579 translation of Plutarch's Life of Cato Utican. The details in Othello upon which North's translation of Plutarch may shed some light are (i) the source of Jago 's professional jealousy as a soldier toward Cassio which is not present in Cinthio, (2) discrepancies in Cassio's character between Act I and the following acts, and (3) certain hitherto unaccountable Roman elements in the play. (i) We recall that Othello opens with Jago's complaint that he has been passed over by the Moor in favor of Cassio for second-in-command. He says to Roderigo that Othello has told him