Fourteenth Scene.
Iago (alone.) And now where is he who can say I play the part of a scoundrel? Since the advice I give him is good, honest, of the most likely success, indeed the very way to win the Moor back. For it is very easy to induce kind-hearted Desdemona to favor any lawful request; she is of a nature as abundantly benevolent as the all-encompassing elements. And then, for her, nothing is easier than to win the Moor, even were it to renounce his baptismal covenant, so completely is his soul entangled in her love; she can do what she will with him, make him, destroy him again, as her stubbornness pleases, playing the god with his weakness. Am I then a scoundrel, to advise Cassio a path that leads him so precisely to his own good? By the idol of hell! When devils wish to commit their blackest sins, they first deceive us in heavenly forms—that’s what I’ll do, too. For while this honest fool throws himself at Desdemona’s feet to restore his happiness, and uses all her power over the Moor to Cassio’s advantage, I will instill in his ears the poisonous suspicion that she only wishes to keep him with her as atonement for her lust; and the more zealously she strives to do him good, the more she will lose her credit in the eyes of the Moor. So I will turn her virtue into pitch, and make of her very goodness a net, in which they shall all be caught. Where do you come from, Rodrigo?
