Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-07-24
The Real IaSo.
EY RICHARD GRANT WHITE.


| lago was a young man, only twenty-eight
years old.-the youngest of all the men who
figure in the tragedy. excepting, possibly, Rod
| ergo. He says of himself that he has looked
upon the world for four times seven years.
Brave, and good soldier he was also of that
order of ability which lifts man speedily above
his fellows. His manners and his g,,ise were of
daslling military sort; and his manner had a
corresponding bluntness, tempered at times
by tact to warm-hearted eifusiycness.
| by the very tact which PROMPTED tine
bluntness. 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 OF great ability in his profession and of
sagacity in affairs. but as a manufactured;
'Whoie-souied" man. and the very prince of good
fellows. Being all this and being genial and
sympathetic, he was eminently popular He
was. moreover, heartlcSs. selfish, cold-blooded
unprncipied and utterly INSCRIPTIONS
scoundrel.
1t was because he was this manner of man
tlat lie was able to work that woful ruin i'm
which the love OF Othello and Desde,nona ends
ruin which in its extremity however he did
not plan. and did not at first desire In fact, he
mad no Inclination TO do harm to any one: he
"outu Hdhe gone OUT Oh MS way 10 tread
upon worm, if it had kept out of ms way. and
been no barrier to his success ia life
Lit 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 Iago was an admirable uerform
ance, almost wonderful in it's force and keeping.
L saw it in my boyhood just as this great actor
was staggering off the stage; and nothing equal
to 1t have l ever seen except Rachels ier-
iormances. But it was the simple strong rep
reSentatlon OF a hardened. crafty villain a mon
ster OF hate and Of cruelty. The climax Of the
whole performance was i'm the Parthian look
which Iago, as he was borne off wounded and
in bonds, gave Othello,-a GOrgOn stare, in
which hate seemed both petriied and petrify-
ing. 1t was frightful. Edwin Booths cODcei,-
ton of the character although not so clear and
strong, is finer, more delicate. and more COM
pick. His lagO is not externally mere hard
ened Villain but super-subtle Venetian. who
works out his fendisl plans with dexterous
iiShtneSS OF touch and smooth Sinuosity of move
ment that suggest the transmgration of a SER
pent into human form. And i'm his yisage and
above all in his eye. burn the venom Of his soul.
which makes his face at times look snake-like
as we ay.-eironeously. however: for the eyes
OF snake do not burn and flash: on the con-
trary, they have their hideous look because
OF a dull and stony magnancy of express
sion. But even Edwin Booths Iago. although
much finer and more nearly consistent with it.
self and with the facts of the tragedy than anv
0thef tilat is known to the annals of the stage is
not the lagO 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 stage-a dispo-
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. Iago IS crafty hypocrite
and therefore the stage has sought to set before
his hVnOcrlSy and his craft in Snch a ma
that they i'm combination are IagO. The best
Iago of the modern stage is hypocrisy and craft
embodied. and he is nothing else. Now the
| truth is that the embodiment Of such a simple
combination OF moral baseness and mental sub
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
Ld,lic