Note 109 — LECTURE VI

I am here merely recording a general impression. There is no specific evidence, unless we take Cassio's language in his drink (ii. ii. 105 f.) to imply that Iago was not a 'man of quality' like himself. I do not know if it has been observed that Iago uses more nautical phrases and metaphors than is at all usual with Shakespeare's characters. This might naturally be explained by his roving military life, but it is curious that almost all the examples occur in the earlier scenes (see e.g. i. i. 30, 153, 157; i. ii. 17, 50; i. iii. 343; ii. iii. 65), so that the use of these phrases and metaphors may not be characteristic of Iago but symptomatic of a particular state of Shakespeare's mind.