《奥赛罗》是写一个正直善良的人被一个无比奸诈的恶棍所骗、误杀了自己忠实纯洁的妻子的悲剧。故事发生在威尼斯和塞浦路斯岛这两个地方。剧中的主人公是供职于威尼斯政府、统领威尼斯武装部队的摩尔族(非洲西北部的一个种族)贵裔奥赛罗。他需要选一副将辅佐自己，选了凯西奥担任此职，却没选奥赛罗自己的旗官伊阿古。伊阿古怀恨在心，为了报复，便与自己的朋友威尼斯绅士罗德利哥一同于半夜赶往威尼斯元老勃拉班修处告密，说勃拉班修的女儿苔丝狄蒙娜业已于午夜私奔去奥赛罗那里，要和他结婚。伊阿古用最粗野污秽的语言描述了这件事，他说“您的女儿将给一匹巴巴利马来骑，您将有一些马子马孙向您嘶鸣，将攀一些马亲马眷。”勃拉班修听了此消息，大为震怒，命令仆人全部起床，到全城去搜寻自己女儿和奥赛罗……

List of illustrations

General editors' preface

Preface

Introduction

 The greatest tragedy?

 Date, text and principal source

 Shakespeare and the Barbarians

 Preliminary reading

 Venice in the sixteenth century

 Cyprus

 Cinthio

 Character criticism

 Othello

 Otherness

 Iago

 Desdemona

 Emilia

 Relationships

 Sex and love

 Feminism

 Morality and 'the moral'

 Stereotypes

 Plot

 Genre

 Language

 Stage imagery

 The play in the theatre

 Again: the greatest tragedy?

THE TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF VENICE

Longer notes

Appendices

 1 Date

 2 The textualproblem

 3 Cinthio and minor sources

 4 Edward Pudsey's extracts from Othello

 5 Musical settings for songs in Othello (Musical adviser: Helen Wilcox)

Abbreviations and references

 Abbreviations used in notes

 Shakespeare's works and works partly by Shakespeare

 Editions of Shakespeare collated

 Other works

Index