Special Collections: Othello

While observing the rare literary works of the Special Collections room, I was drawn to the large book entitled “The Plays of Shakespeare.” Inside the book was the play we are currently reading, Othello. After listening to the history of some of the literary works that were presented to us, I spent more time examining the historical book and noticed some interesting things. The pages of the book were made out of paper; from this, I knew the book contained a lot of age, but it was recent enough to be printed. These printed pages were extremely thick. Upon further review, I noticed that they were folded in half in such a way that the front of one page was connected to the back as one large piece of paper. Half of the pages were folded like this, and the other half were torn on the edges, creating an aged look. The book also contained illustrations. These illustrations were not colored, and they only appeared a handful of times. These illustrations were also printed like the text. The text itself was somewhat-older English. Words were spelled non-traditionally, like “kisse,” “speakes,” “beene,” and “Æmelia.” I believe I was drawn to the book because I am currently reading it, but upon further inspection I was hooked to the historical detail in the pages, print, and pictures. Although it wasn’t as old as other works in the room, it was still a fascinating piece of history to be able to touch.