talian original and someone to translate it; certain lines in Othello show links to the Italian original that do not appear in the French version (Bullough 194). He might not have read the Hecatommithi at all. There was at the time a very strong interest in things Italian, Romeo and Juliet and other of his plays are set there, so it is not impossible to suppose that Shakespeare might have come across a retelling of the Cinthio story from more than one source. Enjoying good relations with the royal court at the time - Othello was performed on Hallowmas 1604 (November 1) for the new King James I (Bullough 193) - Shakespeare would also have his storyteller's ears attuned to diplomats' tales of the exotic and gossipy sort. His players were performing for a very specific audience and, as when Titus Andronicus' bloodletting revenge tale was crafted for the public theater-goer's pleasure, Othello aimed its appeal at a more sophisticated audience (Brockett 183 & 189).
At the time there were, in fact, several English stories with Italian themes that bear passing resemblance to certain aspects of Othello - some of which were actually translations of Italian originals. Most prominent among these was the fourth of Geofrey Fenton's 1567 Certaine Tragicall Discourses, translated from a French 1561 collection of Histoires Tragiques ("Tragic Stories") - many of which were themselves adaptations from Italian stories by Bandello (Bullough 202). Then again, critics have noted c
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