William Shakespeare's Othello (1601-2) has delighted and disturbed theatre audiences for the past four centuries, and remains one of the most frequently performed and widely studied of his plays. This volume is a broad-ranging guide to Othello, providing an introduction to:*the contexts of the play, through a concise, accessible overview, a chronology and reprinted documents from the period*the range of critical responses to the play, through a brief critical history and reprinted critical texts, accompanied by explanatory headnotes*the play in performance, through a selection of clearly introduced readings on this topic, along with illustrations.The sourcebook then examines key passages of the play in detail. Each passage is reprinted in full, along with a headnote and annotations offering crucial guidance to Shakespeare's language and the critical issues which surround the text. Throughout the volume, cross-references link together the contextual materials, critical responses and the play's text.If you are beginning to study Othello, this sourcebook is the one guide you cannot afford to be without.