This first Quarto contains many oaths and expletives, which in all the later editions are altered or omitted. This shows that the MS. from which it was printed had not been recently used as an acting copy. Many passages are omitted in Q1, by accident or design, and some which we find only in the later editions look like afterthoughts of the author.
The title-page of the second Quarto is letter for letter the same as the first, except that it has the following imprint:
LONDON,| Printed by A. M. for Richard Hawkins, and are to be sold at | his shoppe in Chancery-Lane, neere Sergeants-Inne. | 1630. |
Of this Quarto, which we term Q2, Mr Collier says: 'It was unquestionably printed from a manuscript different from that used for the Quarto of 1622, or for the Folio of 1623.' But after a minute comparison of the two it appears to us clear that the Quarto of 1630 must have been printed from a copy of the Quarto of 1622, which had received additions and corrections in manuscript. The resemblances between the two are too close to allow of any other supposition. These additions and corrections, though agreeing for the most part with the first Folio, which had appeared in the interval, were derived from an independent source.
The third Quarto, which we refer to as Q3, was printed from the second, and is called 'The Fourth Edition.' It has the following imprint:
LONDON, | Printed for William Leak at the Crown in Fleet- | street, between the two Temple Gates, 1655 |
Jennens, in his edition of Othello, published in 1773, was not aware of the existence of the Quarto of 1630, and quotes as the readings of the second Quarto those of the edition of 1655.
An edition in Quarto, without date, is quoted by Capell on the authority of Pope; but on reference to Pope's list it appears that, though he has omitted the date, he refers to the Quarto of 1622, which contains the publisher's preface.
The kindness of Sir S. Morton Peto has enabled us to consult a copy of the first Quarto in the library at Chipstead, which, in cases where its readings differ from those of the copies in the Capell and Devonshire collections, we have distinguished as Q1 (Chip.) A Players' Quarto of 1695, for the use of which, as well as for other acts of kindness, we have to thank Sir Charles Bunbury, is quoted as Q (1695).