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Othello · William Shakespeare · c. 1603
IAGO
A passed-over soldier assembles a scheme out loud, testing each piece of it on the audience as he goes. He improvises his own evil and admires it forming.
The speech132 words · 4 beats
0:00 / 1:22
Thus do I ever make my fool my purse;
For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane,
If I would time expend with such a snipe
But for my sport and profit.
I hate the Moor:
And it is thought abroad that 'twixt my sheets
He has done my office: I know not if't be true;
But I for mere suspicion in that kind
Will do as if for surety.
Cassio's a proper man: let me see now;
To get his place and to plume up my will
In double knavery—How, how?—Let's see:—
After some time, to abuse Othello's ear
That he is too familiar with his wife.
I have't. It is engender'd. Hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light.turn
- Speaking to
- The audience, made complicit in a plan still taking shape.
- What just happened
- Left alone after using Roderigo for money, Iago turns his grudge against Othello into method. Nothing is decided yet; he thinks the whole design into being in front of us.
- Objective
- To construct a workable plot to destroy Othello and convince himself it will hold.
- The turn
- 'I have't. It is engender'd.' — the scattered malice suddenly locks into a plan he can execute.
- Watch out for
- The trap is oily, telegraphed villainy. Iago is genuinely reasoning and genuinely pleased; the danger is in how ordinary and rational he sounds. The discovery must feel found, not premeditated. Relish 'monstrous birth' without mustache-twirling.