“Men should be what they seem; Or those that be not, would they might seem none!” -- William Shakespeare Though thematically timeless and unforgettable in style and execution, the plays of William Shakespeare aren’t entirely to his credit. But while it’s true that he drew inspiration from previously existing tales and texts, and often modeled his plays after Roman tragedies, there's no denying the fact that he put a decidedly secular stamp on whatever source/structure he appropriated. Nowhere is his creative licensing more true to worldly form than in his 1603 tragedy, Othello: The Moor of Venice . Tapping the Medieval morality play a la Everyman and Mankind , Shakespeare drops notions of envy, jealousy, and mercy into a 17th Century Italian Navy . Unlike the Medieval tradition, however, Shakespeare offers no moral resolution for his characters . What he does do is put a chilling new spin on dramatic conventions...