[108] See iii. iii. 201, v. i. 89 f. The statements are his own, but he has no particular reason for lying. One reason of his disgust at Cassio's appointment was that Cassio was a Florentine (i. i. 20). When Cassio says (iii. i. 42) 'I never knew a Florentine more kind and honest,' of course he means, not that Iago is a Florentine, but that he could not be kinder and honester if he were one.
[109] 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.
[111] But it by no means follows that we are to believe his statement that there was a report abroad about an intrigue between his wife and Othello (i. iii. 393), or his statement (which may be divined from iv. ii. 145) that someone had spoken to him on the subject.
[112] See, for instance, Aaron in Titus Andronicus, ii. iii.; Richard in 3 Henry VI., iii. ii. and v. vi., and in Richard III., i. i. (twice), i. ii.; Edmund in King Lear, i. ii. (twice), iii. iii. and v., v. i.
[114] On the meaning which this phrase had for its author, Coleridge, see [note on p. 228].
[115] Coleridge's view is not materially different, though less complete. When he speaks of 'the motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity,' he does not mean by the last two words that 'disinterested love of evil' or 'love of evil for evil's sake' of which I spoke just now, and which other critics attribute to Iago. He means really that Iago's malignity does not spring from the causes to which Iago himself refers it, nor from any 'motive' in the sense of an idea present to consciousness. But unfortunately his phrase suggests the theory which has been criticised above. On the question whether there is such a thing as this supposed pure malignity, the reader may refer to a discussion between Professor Bain and F.H. Bradley in Mind, vol. viii.
[116] I.e. terrifying.