"All Qualitie, Pride, Pompe and Circumstance of Glorious War": Character Revelations in Military and Strategic References in Othello

Abstract

“There once lived in Venice a Moor, who was very valiant and of a handsome person.” So beings one of the Giovanni Battista Giraldi’s The Hundred Tales. This was the tale that William Shakespeare turned into The Tragedy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. Giraldi, better known as Cynthius, paints this character first as being valiant, and that gallant nature is integral to the romance and tragedy.