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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Othello is a domestic tragedy of the English Renaissance—Renaissance in its source as well as in the dramatist's conception, and therefore a reflection of Renaissance concepts of marriage, infidelity, and personal honor; and, from this background, the present paper proposes to interpret the character of Iago. Since Rymer's day, Iago has been cursorily dismissed as a villain of the deepest dye: so thought Johnson, Lord Kames, and Twining in the eighteenth century; so thought Coleridge, Mrs. Jamieson, Clarke, Campbell, Dowden, Swinburne, Hudson, and George Bernard Shaw in the nineteenth; so, Herford, Canning, Bradley, Stoll, and Miss Winstanley in the twentieth. In general agreement are Schlegel, Ulrici, Bodenstedt, von Friesen, Bulthaupt, Brandi, and Schücking in Germany; and Guizot, de Vigny, Hugo, and Taine in France. One difficulty, however, with such an attitude is that it proves too much; and many of its proponents, Swinburne, Hudson, Herford, and Schücking, for example, find that it takes Iago quite out of human reality. As Herford remarks, Shakespeare has deepened and given verisimilitude to most of the figures in Cinthio's novel; but, in Iago, he “deliberately set aside what was normal and plausible in his prototype.” Is Iago, then, the great exception to Shakespeare's supreme dramatic reality? The critics, moreover, who impute to the dramatist so extra-human a creation must either explain how an Elizabethan audience could have understood it, or else put Iago, as would Professor Stoll, into the class of mere dramatic conventions, pious frauds of stagecraft easily recognized and understood by the audience, but without counterpart in contemporary life. The present study escapes both horns of this dilemma by denying the initial premise and contending that the character of Iago and all his major acts are woven of the very warp and woof of Elizabethan conditions and ideals.
1 In Cinthio, Iago appears as “un alfiero di bellissima presenza, ma della più scelarata natura, che mai fosse huomo del mondo.” This “most handsome presence” of Cinthio's ensign does not seem to characterize Iago, who is rather the bluff soldier in contrast with the courtly and learned Cassio. Apparently Shakespeare divided the situations and actions (with some additions) of Cinthio's ensign between Iago and Roderigo; and Cassio got his personal charm.
2 Swinburne, Study of Shakespeare, New York, 1880.
3 Hudson, Shakespeare, Boston, 1888.
4 Othello, ed. Herford, Eversley ed., New York. 1904, 219.
5 Schücking, Character Problems in Shakespeare's Plays, London, 1922, 63.
6 The argument of Professor Stoll cannot be neglected by any serious student (M. P., x, 58 et seq.; Kittredge Anniv. Papers, Boston, 1913, 261 et seq.; Othello, U. of Minn. Stud., 1915); but scholars are loath to accept Shakespeare's characters as mere dramatic conventions (e.g., Legouis, Essays and Studies of the Eng. Assoc., xiii, Oxford, 1928, 74 et seq.); and Stoll's more recent work takes a less extreme stand (Shak. Studies, New York, 1927). The present writer contends that, although many of these characters were common in the plays of the time, they were also common in the life of the age. Stoll's case for Iago as one of the “Machiavelli type” seems especially unfortunate; for Iago does not fit with contemporary descriptions of it (e.g., Rowlands, Knave of Spades, London, [? 1613], 25; Churchyards Charilie, London, 1595, 9; John Stephens, Essays and Characters, London, 1615, No. xxiii. Cf. Forsythe, Shirley's Plays, New York, 1914, 96–97.) Forsythe, who classifies Iago in the type of “subtle courtly villains,” is hardly more satisfactory. In order to show that the types here discussed are not mere dramatic conventions, the present writer selects his chief quotations from non-dramatic literature of the day.
7 Essays by a Society of Gentlemen at Exeter, London, 1796, 395. Cf. Monthly Review, xxii N. S., 7.
8 Edinburgh Rev., xlv, 272.
9 Maginn, Shakespeare Papers, London, 1860, 257.
10 J. A. Heraud, Shakespeare, His Inner Life, London, 1865, 268.
11 D. J. Snider, System of Shakespeare's Dramas, St. Louis, 1877, ii, 112 et seq.
12 G. Brandes (William Shakespeare, New York, 1898, ii, 109) takes Iago as very natural and yet the personification of “malignant cleverness and baseness”; he is “honest,” yet never flatters! Re the last statement, see Othello, iv, ii, 205 et seq.
13 Othello, v, ii, 172 et seq.
14 Ibid., v, i, 52.
15 E.g. ibid., i, iii, 121; i, iii, 284; ii, i, 210.
16 Ibid., v, ii, 131 et seq.
17 His exclamation, “Virtue! a fig!”, as the context and Elizabethan usage show, is simply a declaration of the freedom of the will: “virtue” means essential character, i.e., strength of determination.
18 E.g. Stoll, M.P., x, 58 et seq.; Schücking, op. cit., 29 et seq., A. H. Tolman, Falstaff, New York, 1925, 132–133.
19 Desdemona's death does not seem to have entered his mind until Act iv; and even in later soliloquies, he does not mention it.
20 See studies by the present writer, Captain General Othello (Anglia, 1931) which treats of Iago's professional relations with Othello; and “This Poor Trash of Venice” (J. E. G. Ph., 1931), which treats of Iago's personal and financial relations with Roderigo.
21 Othello, i, iii, 378 et seq. To be sure, Iago is not certain “if't be true”; but, as later pages show, he was “for mere suspicion” obliged to “do as if for surety.”
22 Ibid., ii, i, 383 et seq.
23 Ibid., v, i, 122.
24 Cf. Emilia's loose talk (ibid., iv, iii), which on other occasions may have helped to spread the rumor against her. She herself evidently knew something of Iago's suspicion (iv, ii, 145); and her mentioning of it to him tends to reinforce the present writer's opinion that it had no ground in fact.
25 “Promotion of one's enemies” was one of the four things especially “greevous unto man” (Greene, Royal Exchange, Works, ed. Grosart, vii, 260 and 323); and Dekker would put Othello's apparent ingratitude as a patron upon a very low moral plane (Catchpols Masque, Works, ed. Grosart, iii, 297).
26 On the erring wife, see Greene op. cit., vii, 258, 290–291, 312 etc.; and C. L. Powell, English Domestic Relations, 1487–1653, New York, 1917, Chap. v. On the jealous husband, see B. Riche, Honesty of this Age (1614), Percy Soc., xi, 46; Rowlands, Diogenes Lanthorne, London, 1607, 13; John Ashton, Humor, Wit and Satire, London, 1883, 142 et seq., etc.
27 Jonson, Volpone, iii, vi.
28 Greene, Works, ed. cit., xii, 254 et seq. and 232 et seq.
29 Breton, The Good and the Badde (1616) Works, ed. Grosart, No. 43. See also Rowlands, Humors Looking Glasse, London, 1608, 23.
30 Othello, iv, ii, 52.
31 Ibid., iv, i, 180.
32 Ibid., iv, i, 58.
33 John Stephens, Essays, London, 1615, i, 2.
34 Segar, Honor, Military and Civil, London, 1602, 21,
35 Married Man's Misery, Roxburgh Collection, i, 46, 47.
36 See Ruth Kelso, English Gentleman of the Sixteenth Century, Urbana, Ill., 1929, Chap. iii.
37 T. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight, Works, ed. Grosart, London, 1885, iii, 297. Of course the reference is to the gesture of “horns.”
38 Rowlands, Diogenes Lanthorne, London, 1608, 9 and 13.
39 Roxburgh Collection, No. 256.
40 R. Brathwait, Boulster Lecture, London, 1640, 60.
41 The lower class might do so. See Rowlands, A Knave of Clubs, London, 1609, 32; and Humors Looking Glasse, London, 1608, 30, 31, 32.
42 Greene, ed. cit., xi, 12; x, 47–48; Rowlands, Knave of Clubs, 7–8 etc.
43 Dekker, Works, ed. Grosart, i, 254.
44 Brathwait, Essaies, London, 1620, 125.
45 Ibid., 127.
46 Booke of Honor and Armes, London, 1590, 88, attributed to Segar, but more probably by R. Jones. See Kelso, M. L. N. xxxix, 33.
47 Brathwait, Boulster Lecture, anecdotes passim.
48 Othello, iii, iii, 396 et seq.
49 Ibid., i, ii, 390. Cf. Painter, Palace of Pleasure and Ashton, Chap Books, London, 1882, 441.
50 See G. Cosulich, M. L. N., xxix, 194.
51 Revenge for Honor, dubiously attributed to Chapman, iii, i, etc.
52 Brathwait tells of a more lenient husband, but he took care to save his wife's, and thus his own, reputation, at least for the time being (Brathwait, Boulster Lecture, London, 1640, 51). Chiding or beating the wife could hardly bring greater success, especially with a woman like Emilia! (See Dekker, Batchelars Banquet, London, 1603, Chap. xv; and Othello, iv, iii, 87 et seq.)
53 See especially Nos. 41, 43, 45, 57, 58, 81, 100.
54 Rowlands, Humors Looking Glasse, London, 1608, 8.
55 Digges, Foure Paradoxes, 17.
56 Every Man in His Humor, ii, ii. “Fico” is of course the poisonous Spanish fig.
57 Othello, iii, iv, 4.
58 Dolce Bellum, st. 123. Overbury in his Characters describes a “Soldier” as a “true defender of the faith of women”; and Digges prescribed the death-penalty for any soldier who “shall forcibly abuse any woman” (Arithm. Milit. Treatise, London, 1579, 123).
59 Brathwait, Boulster Lecture, 88.
60 Every Man in His Humor, iv, ii. This early play of Jonson's, written when he was fresh from the Dutch Wars, should express actual conditions.
61 Greene, Never Too Late, Works, ed. Grosart, viii, 26.
62 Every Man in His Humor, ii, iii.
63 Dekker, The Devil's Answer, Works, ed. Grosart, ii, 116.
64 Coryat, Crudities, London, 1611, 264.
65 Volpone, ii, iii. Miss Winstanley (Othello, London, [1924], 150–151) somewhat naïvely states that “the killing of chaste wives through jealousy is known to no other nation, but is characteristic of Spain.”
66 Italy is described as “the Academie of man-slaughter,” Nashe, Works, ed. McKerrow, i, 186.
67 Greene, Ned Browne, Works, ed. Grosart, xi, 25.
68 Othello, i, i, 45. See also “This Poor Trash of Venice,” previously cited.
69 Othello, ii, i, 308.
70 Sutcliffe, Lawes of Armes, London, 1593, 318.
71 Brathwait, English Gentleman, London, 1633, 43.
72 Walsingham, Manuel, Chap. xvii.
73 Bryskett, Discourse, London, 1606, 66, 74, 79.
74 Powell, op. cit., Chap. iii. Sometimes the lower classes practiced a sort of extra-legal divorce (Rowlands, Whole Crew of Kind Gossips, London, 1609, 28.)
75 Kelso, op. cit., 103.
76 Revenge for Honor, iii, i.
77 Sutcliffe, op. cit., 339.
78 Segar, op. cit., 21
79 Kelso, op. cit., 103.
80 F. Bacon, Charge Touching Duels, London, 1604, 12–13.
81 Sir R. Baker, Chronicle, London, 1653, 608; and Worke for Cutlers (1615) in Hindley's Old Book Collector's Miscellany, ii, London, 1872.
82 Brathwait, English Gentleman, 26 et seq.
83 Sir W. Raleigh, Instructions to his Son, in Instructions for Youth, London, 1722, 22 et seq. See also de Cespedes y Meneçes, Gerardo, London, 1622.
84 Kelso, op. cit., 97 et seq.
85 Greene, Royal Exchange, Works, ed. Grosart, vii, 265.
86 See F. Nobili, De Honore, 1563, and similar works listed by Sieveking, Shakespeare's England, Oxford, 1917, ii, 406–407.
87 See Beaumont and Fletcher, Little French Lawyer.
88 Book of Honor and Arms, Book iii, Chap. vii.
89 Bryskett, Discourse, 215.
90 Digges, Arithm. Milit. Treatise, 137. Cf. Othello, v, ii, 296.
91 Book of Honor and Arms, Bk. iv, Chap. i: “A person honorable ought not by men of base quality be accused.”
92 See Segar, op. cit., 225 et seq. “Gentleman” was often loosely used. See Kelso, op. cit., Chap. iii.
93 Digges, Arithm. Milit. Treatise, 92.
94 Ibid., 88–89.
95 Othello, iii, i, 26.
96 Book of Honor and Arms, Bk. iii, Chaps. iv and v; and IV, Chap. iv; and Segar, op. cit. 118. An officer could, moreover, “defer Cōbat till the expiration of his time of office,” or could answer by proxy.
97 Segar, op. cit., 118.
98 Bacon, Essays, No. vi; and M. Cognet, Politique Discourses, tr. Hoby, London, 1580, 11.
99 See Instructions for Youth, London, 1722, 90 et seq.
100 Walsingham, Manuel, Chaps. xxviii, xxx, xxxi.
101 Castiglione, The Courtier, Bk. iii, 69.
102 Rocca, Imprese stratagemi, tr. Belieferest, Paris, 1591, 78 and 204. B. Riche, himself a soldier, would agree (Fruites of Long Experience, London, 1604, 34.)
103 Bk. ii, Chaps. i and ii.
104 Palace of Pleasure, No. 51.
105 This is not giving him any high compliment. Riche and other soldiers admit that the personnel of the army was on a very low plane. See “This Poor Trash of Venice,” already cited.
106 Cf. ibid. on Iago's financial “honesty.”
107 Cf. also Macbeth.
108 Beaumont and Fletcher, The False One.
109 Cf. G. C. Taylor, PMLA, xlv, 785.
110 Ulrici, Shakespeare's dramatische Kunst, Leipzig, 1847, 434.
111 Cf. W. W. Lawrence, Shakespeare's Problem Comedies, New York, 1931.
112 Othello is certainly a better commander than the average; and Iago seems to have been better than the average ensign. (See Captain General Othello and “This Poor Trash of Venice,” already cited.) Nevertheless, the characters are essentially realistic in conception.
113 Forsythe, op. cit., 87.
114 For a comparison of Iago with this type, see “This Poor Trash of Venice,” already cited.
