El reflejo de Giraldi Cinthio en la Inglaterra de Shakespeare

Abstract – Without any kind of doubt Shakespeare found in Giraldi Cinthio’s Ecatommiti useful scripts, which his genius has explored powerfully in his Othello and Measure for Measure. For this last work, Shakespeare could also have used Giraldi’s tragedy Epitia. The question is if Shakespeare knew enough Italian to read these texts in the original or if he was helped by the literate community of Italian refugees in London. Through a close study of the Novelle as well as the tragedy Epitia, the nexus between Giraldi and Shakespeare comes in full light. We will mainly focus our attention on Shakespeare’s deep insight into the psychology of the characters –mostly hinted in Giraldi’s works– and his gorgeous use of language