_Ham._ Nay, come, again.
[_They play, and Hamlet wounds Laertes. The Queen falls._
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 264: So Rowe. The direction in Q1 is negligible, the text
being different. Q2 etc. have nothing, Ff. simply 'In scuffling they
change rapiers.']
[Footnote 265: Capell. The Quartos and Folios have no directions.]
NOTE I.
THE DURATION OF THE ACTION IN _OTHELLO_.
The quite unusual difficulties regarding this subject have led to much
discussion, a synopsis of which may be found in Furness's Variorum
edition, pp. 358-72. Without detailing the facts I will briefly set out
the main difficulty, which is that, according to one set of indications
(which I will call A), Desdemona was murdered within a day or two of her
arrival in Cyprus, while, according to another set (which I will call
B), some time elapsed between her arrival and the catastrophe. Let us
take A first, and run through the play.
(A) Act I. opens on the night of Othello's marriage. On that night he is
despatched to Cyprus, leaving Desdemona to follow him.
In Act II. Sc. i., there arrive at Cyprus, first, in one ship, Cassio;
then, in another, Desdemona, Iago, and Emilia; then, in another, Othello
(Othello, Cassio, and Desdemona being in three different ships, it does
not matter, for our purpose, how long the voyage lasted).
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