Admirable is the preparation, so truly and peculiarly Shakespearian, in
the introduction of Roderigo, as the dupe on whom Iago shall first
exercise his art, and in so doing display his own character. Roderigo,
without any fixed principle, but not without the moral notions and
sympathies with honour, which his rank and connections had hung upon him,
is already well fitted and predisposed for the purpose; for very want of
character and strength of passion, like wind loudest in an empty house,
constitute his character. The first three lines happily state the nature
and foundation of the friendship between him and Iago,—the purse,—as also
the contrast of Roderigo’s intemperance of mind with Iago’s coolness,—the
coolness of a preconceiving experimenter. The mere language of
protestation,—
“If ever I did dream of such a matter, abhor me,”—
which, falling in with the associative link, determines Roderigo’s
continuation of complaint,—
“Thou told’st me, thou didst hold him in thy hate,”—
elicits at length a true feeling of Iago’s mind, the dread of contempt
habitual to those who encourage in themselves, and have their keenest
pleasure in, the expression of contempt for others. Observe Iago’s high
self-opinion, and the moral, that a wicked man will employ real feelings,
as well as assume those most alien from his own, as instruments of his
purposes:—
“And, by the faith of man,
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place.”