a
knave very voluble;
Iago
Othello Act
II, Scene i Line 241
And just like that, back to Othello. It’s like a roller
coaster ride, isn’t it? Just getting whipped around from one place to
another.
Anyway, this time it’s Iago talking and I had some thoughts
on this guy. Iago never once seems to say anything particularly truthful and
yet constantly he’s being referred to as ‘honest Iago.’ It’s almost to the
point where it’s incredulous. Like, what was Will doing here, and why have
people bought into this play? Are we to assume the he had been something
different prior to the time of the play, something good that grew a good
reputation, and that just now he’s turned rotten (talking about Iago here, not Will).
That doesn’t seem plausible because he’s just too rotten and too good at being
rotten for that to make sense.
In today’s Totally Random line Mr. Rat-Fink Iago is talking
about Good Michael Cassio. He’s talking to Roderigo, who’s no angel (and
apparently no Einstein) either, and of course Iago is bad mouthing Good
Michael. He’s calling him a voluble knave, which is an insincere, simplistic
scoundrel or rascal. Pot, kettle, black!!!
I couldn't think of anything particularly clever, so I'm giving you a picture of Edwin Booth (yes, John Wilkes's brother) portraying Iago. It's from my A.L. Rowse Annotated Shakespeare book. Apparently Edwin was quite the Shakespearean actor.
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