Why Editing Othello May Have Changed the Context

An editor who is given the task to edit any play written by William Shakespeare has a sizeable task to fulfill. The main objective in editing is to both make the play more understandable with altered language and also to give one's own perspective on how the editor wants to project the play on stage. I chose page 142 of Act 5, Scene 2 in Freeman's Othello because this page has become the springboard of the climactic turning point in the play. My personal decisions to alter certain lines and words on page 142 are made to give a new light and a fresh point of view on how I feel that particular scene is to be perceived. Because these plays have been altered a numerous amount of times over the centuries, it is important for one to be able to edit and project their perspectives for themselves.

Line breaks indicate that a versed line of ten syllables is divided in order to set some sort of mood. In this version of Othello, editor Neil Freeman makes an interesting point that has put to light some changes that I have made to the text. Freeman notes that, "If lines are slightly shorter than ten syllables, then either the information therein contained or the surrounding action is creating a momentary (almost need to breath[e]) hesitation, sometimes suggesting a struggle to maintain self control" (Freeman, xxxv). In the first two lines of this page that are spoken by Othello, I decided to keep the first line as a short line and combine the second and third lines to create the second line in my edition. In other words, instead of keeping "Then Murther's out of tune,/And sweet Revenge growes harsh" (5.2, 165-166), I altered these two lines to form as one line in my edition. The reason I chose to do this is to accentuate the short...

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...ay be wrong, it is still my decision as the editor to settle on the idea of accenting the capitalized letters. In other words, I capitalized certain repetitive letters from words that are found in the dialogue. For example, "Killed" and "Murdered" are words that are capitalized in my revised edition of the text, just like the word "Devil," to put emphasis on how loud and underscored the words come out. For example, I read line 188 out loud. Emilia says, "Thou do'st bely her, and thou art a Devil!" (5.2, 188). With the combination of the exclamation point that I have added, the accent on the word "Devil" when spoken out loud because of the capitalized "D" gives the reader and the audience, from my perspective, an emphasis on the word that remains with them until the end of the play. The louder something is spoken, the easier and more memorable the word remains.