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
... [Show full abstract] 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.