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https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/127460| Title: | Shakespeare's debt to Berni |
| Authors: | Prior, Roger |
| Keywords: | Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Love's labour's lost Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Othello Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation European literature -- Renaissance, 1450-1600 Berni, Francesco, 1497 or 1498-1535 -- Criticism and interpretation |
| Issue Date: | 2002 |
| Publisher: | University of Malta. Institute of Anglo-Italian Studies |
| Citation: | Prior, R. (2002). Shakespeare's debt to Berni. Journal of Anglo-Italian Studies, 7, 1-18. |
| Abstract: | The extent of Shakespeare's knowledge of Italian has long been a disputed question, but there is now compelling evidence that he read Ariosto in the original. Recent research shows that he used a passage of eight stanzas from the latter's romantic epic Orlando Furioso as a source for both Love's Labour's Lost (V.ii.638-659) and Othello (III.iv.62-75). Ariosto was not his only Italian source for Othello. He almost certainly read the source-story for that play, Cinthio's tale of the Moor in the Hecatommithi, in the original language. In this article I shall show that he had at hand a third Italian work as he wrote Othello - Francesco Berni's Orlando Innamorato - and that he also made use of it when writing Love's Labour's, just as he did with Ariosto. |
| URI: | https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/127460 |
| ISSN: | 15602168 |
| Appears in Collections: | Journal of Anglo-Italian Studies, vol. 07 |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shakespeares_debt_to_Berni_2002.pdf | 5.67 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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