3658TLN 3658: Indian,

Q1 and Q2 read Indian, while F1 offers Iudean. One reading or the other is almost certainly an error given that the spelling of the two words is virtually identical, but this notorious crux is unlikely ever to be resolved definitively since the arguments for each are plausible and thus final decisions inevitably turn on more subjective interpretive matters. The textual evidence is fairly straightforward, if ultimately inconclusive: 1) the letter i was often substituted for the letter j in this period before spelling became regularized, thus either word might have started with an uppercase I; 2) similarly, the letters i and e were often used interchangeably in the period, thus either word may have ended -ian or -ean ; 3) also, the letters n and u are often impossible to distinguish in the handwriting of the period, thus the second letters of the words offer no guidance; 4) and finally, even if a compositor may have recognized in the manuscript from which he was working a clear n or u as the second letter, either letter could have been accidentally turned during the typesetting process, resulting in an inadvertent transformation of the word. While both Indian = native of India; aboriginal from the Americas, and Judean = inhabitant of Judaea were in use at the time, the former appears in print more often, and OED does not record the first appearance of the latter until 1652. For a detailed discussion of thus crux, see Richard Levin, "The Indian/Iudean Crux in Othello."