This practical advice Iago often repeats, well knowing how to get it from him, and proceeds, in words well calculated to win over the poor love-sick Roderigo :

"It cannot be that Desdemona should long continue her love to the Moor-put money in thy purse-nor he his to her; it was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration-put but money in thy purse. These Moors are changeable in their wills-fill thy purse with money . . . . she must change for youth. . . . she will find the error of her choice; she must have change, therefore put money in thy purse. If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money thou canst: if sanctimony and a frail vow betwixt an erring barbarian and a super-subtle Venetian be not too hard for my wits . . . thou shalt enjoy her; therefore make money. A pox of drowning thyself! it is clean out of the way: seek thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy, than to be drowned and go without her."

This view of his case evidently startles Roderigo, who, catching from it as it were a faint ray of hope, almost imploringly asks:

"Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on the issue?"

This question Iago is well prepared for, and, eager to get more and more money from his luckless dupe, artfully replies, though with some hints as to his private feelings :

"Thou art sure of me-go, make money-I have told thee often, and I re-tell thee again and again, I hate the Moor: my cause is hearted; thine hath no less reason; let us be conjunctive in our revenge against him. . . . Traverse! go, provide thy money. We will have more of this to-morrow.

Roderigo eagerly asks:

Adieu."

"Where shall we meet in the morning?"

Iago replies:

"At my lodging."

Roderigo rejoins :

"I'll be with thee betimes."

Iago replies:

"Go to; farewell."

Then, apparently uneasy lest he should commit suicide, as he had mentioned, Iago calls him back, saying half in scorn, half in earnest :

"No more of drowning, do you hear?"

To these words the poor dupe makes precisely the answer his tempter desired :

"I am changed. I'll go sell all my land."

This resolution Iago evidently approves, replying:

"Go to; farewell; put but money enough in thy purse."

Roderigo departs, and then Iago, alone, reveals his dangerous mind and purposes in safe soliloquy. It seems often Shakespeare's practice to make his villains thus explain themselves and to rarely trust any con-fidant, beyond a very limited point. Iago, especially, unlike King John, Richard III., or Edmund in “King Lear," has neither friend, adherent, nor lover to aid his secret designs. It is true, indeed, that Richard

declared no one loved him, and that he was "himself alone"; yet these notions proceeded from the depressing fancies of his guilty mind, rather than from real fact, as thousands of brave English subjects were faithful to him at the last and perished in his cause. King John had also faithful adherents, Hubert de Burgh and Falconbridge-far better subjects than he deserved to have; while Edmund had completely won the affections of the royal sisters, the two Princesses Goneril and Regan. But Iago is absolutely and completely alone in his secret plots. Neither his wife, Emilia, his chief, Othello, nor his two dupes, Cassio and Roderigo, has the least idea of his real character or evil plans, which he now ventures to disclose as Roderigo leaves him alone. He begins by exulting over his superior cunning in duping the trustful, unsuspicious Roderigo, and scornfully recalling similar instances of his successful deceit. It may seem strange that a habitual knave, as he admits himself to be, should so completely impose upon so many persons. At the beginning of this play, lago is liked, esteemed, and trusted by all his acquaintances, and he contemptuously exclaims, referring to Roderigo as he departs :

"Thus do I ever make my fool my purse;

For I mine own gained knowledge should profane,
If I would time expend with such a snipe,
But for my sport and profit."

In the poet's time snipe, it is said, were not

uncommon in the neighbourhood of London. Many sportsmen well know how often this bird, when missed, alights again, thus tempting shooters to "expend time" in its pursuit. This fact may explain Iago's comparison, and also prove how true Shakespeare is to natural history, though he seldom alludes to it. Iago proceeds, revealing more and more of his secret mind, which none of his numerous acquaintances seem to understand in the least degree:

"I hate the Moor,"

and mentions an evidently wicked scandal that Othello is a lover of Emilia, his wife, adding words and intentions hardly consistent with his shrewd, observant nature:

"I know not if 't be true;

But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will do as if for surety."

It seems scarcely worthy of a man so crafty, so
worldly and self-controlled, to "do for surety" without
full proof in such an important case.
A young,
impetuous lover might act so, indeed, but the Iago of
reality would likely be more deliberate, before devot-
ing all his energies and risking his life to injure a
patron and benefactor without absolute certainty of
the wrong alleged. A man so worldly-wise as lago,
admitting previously that he had never known a man
"who could love himself," would surely in his life's
progress have learned to rather distrust, or at least
carefully examine, a case of "mere suspicion," instead

of absolutely relying upon it for belief and conduct. Yet, having once this idea firmly in his mind, he proceeds, with the calm malignity of his relentless nature, to avail himself of Othello's confidence, saying: "He holds me well;

The better shall my purpose work on him."

This purpose is to rouse Othello's jealousy of Desdemona, as the next sentence reveals:

"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."

He asks himself this question, and then, as if Mephistopheles whispered in his ear, thoughtfully proceeds to compose and unfold the whole plot of this terrible tragedy.

"After a time to abuse Othello's ear

That he is too familiar with his wife.

He hath a person and a smooth dispose

To be suspected, fram'd to make women false."

Here he recalls with confidence Othello's noble character, while as resolved as ever to effect his destruction :

"The Moor is of a free and open nature,

That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,
And will as tenderly be led by the nose

As asses are."

Thus calmly calculating on the personal attractions of Cassio and the trustful simplicity of Othello, Iago naturally thinks that both in mind and body these two