New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-03-22
MR.. EDWIN FORREST As OTHELLO.

Tbe traveller In Italy, wnen wandering IN tuo els-
rre hour Of some soft southern day around the
shelves Of the Hsrpers and the Appletons of Pava,
Ferrhrs and Tmin, will be startled by the wonderful
collection OF Italian novels written in the Sixteenth
Century. In 400, a man was born on the run'c'ad
banks Of the Rhine Forty-two years after another
man was born on the soft shore of the Adnatic.
Fortytxo years later again, in 1894, another man
was born In the rough mining void of Saxony. Bat
what do these three men with the stores Of Pava and
Ferrsra, and Italiss poesyl The drst John Gutten'
burg, of Mayence, taught the world to print. The
1ext, Christopher Columbus, Of Genoa, cross exam
iued the waves and winds, and brought out the evil
depce Of new world. The last, Martin Luther, of
Eislobep. breasted and struck down Rome. The one
stirred the brain, the other the Imagination,
the last the soul. Humanity, which to that hour
lay torpid and dead, was then reused and moved In
every limb. The novelist, the dramatist aud poet
tbose organs through which souni the beating OF the
worlds heart-on every side gave expression to ITS
heavipas. New impulses given to the human in'nd
lent new features to the contemplation OF the poet aud
the literature Of no country gives more ample proof OF
this than that of Italy. But. as is the case with 81
countries which have had to mourn the loss OF thor
national independence, the poets OF Italy had no pres
ent from which TO gather Inspiration like the Enghsa
poets Of the Eiz sbetban age They were epmpsled,
conservative 10 wander Tor food into the rich ons
of the past where Rome sat as the queen OF the ear
and Venice as the mistress Of the The romantic
struggles of Venice with the Turk the beautiful
.orrows of Cyprus; the wild tales of adventure In
Tunis, Tansier aud Morocco; the pro-slavery
expeditions of the Contarinis and Zulisnis
of Venice to steal their fellow men, unabated by the
humanitarian rebuke of Pope Zacharie and the noble
.lo nj III MT IN o
tpeuish this hdeous bondage; the strange coming
ling of dreamy Eastern races, VIII oh her trade with
Egypt. Bsrbary, Abyssinia and the Black Sea,
brought to the qusys Of Venice-al combined to fur
nish rich material to the gorgeous imagination and
romantic fancy Of the Italian novess OF the Sixteenth
Century. Prominent among these, and considered by
many one of the best Italian trsgicsl authors
cialy as regarded his novels which are written with
much of the style Of Boccacio-stands Grald better
known by the name of Cintio of whose novels there
are no less than one hundred in the Feraran Library
possibly preserved there in honor Of his being cti.
gen. for though he ectuIed much at Turin and passed
manv years of his life in Pava Professor, he was
born in Ferrara. His works must have been amiiiaf
TO Shakspere for he had the keen sagacy to select
out of the whole series Of hundred that one which,
in IFS wonderful deineaon of the unbrided nature OF
the Arab Moor, when brought in contact with the
quick, subtle, electric Italian, has not yet found us
parallel and can never be excelled
But when Girald Cintos tale of the Moor OF Venice
thus fascinated the Imagination of Shakspere, his
melancholy sevity to the prejudice of the hour, and
his ali absorbing apprehension OF making his plays
unpaa'eable his royal mistress and the aistocrauc
habituss of the Globe Thester," made bin At once
feel the Improperly of making hero out OF a com
mon Moor, and Desdemona out OF middle class
Venetian girl. lie. Beecher and the other noble
foes of Slavery, If they ever counted Shatspere
among tie number OF their friends, weep over
the fall of this illusion. He was thorough
sycophant OF despo,sm And II he were TO
rise from his quiet resting-plsco at STstford-
on-Avon, and tske q journev TO Virginia,
Georgia or Missouri, their Masors, Toonbses and
Atchisens would be bound to give him public re-
ception to express their sense of the value OF nis
Reputation Of the arrogant Italians idea OF making
sensible white Venetian girl fall in love with run
nway Niger. For as Othello relates to Desiemcna,
he paved the way for future Douglasses by leaving
bs plantation in the Bsrbary States without gfvns
notice 10 is owner. Shskspere, in order TO con-
cilia.e Court prejudice, and at the same ans WORK
poetic capital out OF Cintos powerful tsie OF the
Moores love, gave en- additional proof oil his mex
haustblo ingenuity in making the poor Moor 'prns
nom black line Of Kings, ard Desdemona 'ne
daughter of pa.ricisn But ali this was the fault OF
the age, and not the man. Had his giant
genias broke loose from its allegiance to the age
and had he been full of the divine spirit OF reform q
offom he would have been, not Shakspsre, he would
have been Christ But whether sprung from = stock
Of kings, or from that stock from which kings them
selves have sprung the people Oth.lo is not less the
noblest creation which can bring before men Q
minds the image Of the tue Nubian. whose blood is
fred With the same barains hss. which esats ia no