Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-07-25
The Real Iago.
EY RICHARD GRANT WHITE

III GRASI WHITE.
1aso was a young man, only twenty-eight
years old,-the youngest of all the men who
Inquire in the tragedy. excepting, possibly, Rod
ergo. He says of himself that he has looked
upon the world for four times seven wears
Brave, and good soldier. he was also of that
order of ability which lifts a man speedily above
his fellows. His manners and his guise were OF
dashing military sort; and his manner had a
corresponding bluntness, tempered at times
by tact to warm-hearted eafusiyeness.
by the very tact which prompted the
oluntness. For that, although not exactly as
sumed, was consciously adopted. Nevertheless
he had little malice in his composition: and un-
less for some good reason he would rather serve
than injure those around him. He made himself
liked by all, and Was regarded not only as a
man q great ability i'm his profession and of
sagaolty in affairs. but as a warm-hearted:
Whole-Souied" man and the very prince of good
fellows. Being all this, and being genial and
sympathetic, he was eminently popular He
was, moreover, heartlesS. selfish coIl-bloofpd
unprincIpied and utterly INSCRIPTIONS
scoundrcl.
1t was because he was this manner of man
that he was able 10 work that woful ruin i'm
which the love OF Othello and Dcsdemona ends.
a RUN which in its extremity however he did
not plan. and did not at first desire In fact. me
had no Inclination to do harm to any one: he
WOULD not have gone out OF his way to tread
upon worm, if it had kept out of has way. and
been no barrier TO his success in life
1t is needless to say that no such Iago has been
seen upon the stage for the last two hundred
years; there is no memory or record of him. The
elder Booths lago was admirable perform
ance, almost wonderful i'm its force and keepipp
L saw it in my boyhOod just as this great actor
was staggering OF the stage and nothing equal
to it have l ever seen except Rachel's per-
f0fmances. But it was the simple strong rep
resentatiOn OF hardened, crafty villain a mon
ster of hate and of cruelty. The climax of the
Whole performance was i'm the Parthan look
which lago, as he was borne off wounded and
in bonds, gave Othello.-a Gorgon stare i'm
which hate seemed both petritied and petrify-
ing. 1t was friglltful. Edwin Booths concep-
ton OF the character, although not SO clear and
strong, is finer, more delicate, and more corr
pick His lag0 is not externally mere hard
ened villain, but super-subtle Venetian. who
works out his iiendish plans with deNterous
ilghtness OF touch and smooth sinuosity of move
ment that suggest the tranSnigration of a ser
pent into human form And in his visage and
above all in his eve. burn the venom of his soul
which makes his face at times look snake-Iike
as We say,-erroneously. however: for the eyes
OF snake do not burn and flash: on the con-
trary, they have their hiGeous look because
OF duli and stony malignancy of express
sion. But even Edwin Booths lago, although
much finer and more nearly consistent with it.
self and with the facts of the tragedy than any
other that is known 10 the annals of the stage is
not the IagO that Shakespeare drew, and whose
lineaments, moral and physical have just been
set before the Reader. The chief cause of the
general failure to present this character truly is
| the disposition and habit Of the sage-a dspo-
stion and habit not unknown to real
life-tO divide men into classes and
to regard them individually as the en-
bodiment of some one passion, or motive. or
type OF character. 1ago as crafty hypocrite
and therefore the stage has sought to set before
us his hypocrisy and his craft in such manner
that they in combination are Iago. The best
lago of the modern stage is hypocrisy and craft
embodied. and he is nothing else. Now the
truth is that the embodiment Of such simple.
combination of moral baseness and mental SUBJ
tlety was not in Shakespeare's mind and is a
quite impossible agent and element of the con-
fusion and disaster of the tragedy.-August At
Lluiic