Detail of Romeo and Juliet Quarto Title Page (1597)

This woodcut shows a miniature version of the Birth of Venus at Cyprus (seen more grandly in Botticelli's version in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence). It shows that Elizabethans thought of Venus as the epitome of the driving force in amatory relationships such as that of Romeo and Juliet. It is just as relevant for Othello's voyage to this birth territory of Venus: the island of Cyprus, where he becomes her victim (compare Racine's Phèdre).