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© Copyright 1997, Jim Loy
The following speech (aria, actually) is my translation from Verdi's Otello (in which the villain is named Jago), which is an opera based upon Shakespeare's Othello. Iago does not make this speech in Shakespeare's play. But, it gives some insight into Iago's motives.
Cruel is the God who in his own image has created me, and who in wrath I worship. From some vile germ of nature, some insignificant atom was I born. Vile is my substance, for I am human. I feel the primal slime-flow of my species.
Yea! This is my creed. This is what I firmly believe, as ever did woman who prays before the altar. Every sin that I do, whether I think it or do it, it is fate that drives me to it. You, you honest man, are but a bad actor, and your life is but a part, a lie. Every word you say, every tear-drop, every kiss, every prayer, are as false as you are.
Man is fortune's fool. Even from his first breath, the essence of his life is directed toward feeding the worm of death. Yea, after all this folly, all must die. And then? And then? And then there is nothing. And heaven is an ancient lie.
It is for the above reasons, that Iago is driven to destroy Othello, the most honest of men, a man who Iago despises.