Iago is the Spanish form of the name James, as in Santiago of Compostela.

The most famous use of the name is by Shakespeare in Othello, where Iago is an ensign or 'ancient' who feels he should have been promoted to Lieutenant by the eponymous general. Instead, one Michael Cassio, decried by Iago as a 'mere arithmetician' has got the job. Iago is a real fighting man, and resents the promotion of a man he sees as a pure theorist in the art of war. Iago has a wife named Emilia, whom he suspects of adultery. Iago's paranoia and versatile cunning are the driving forces of the story. Many have claimed Iago is a motiveless villain, but he is not so. His villainy is undisputed - he appears in some versions of the dramatis personae as 'a villain' - but he is strongly motivated by what he perceives as life's injustice to him.

AN ALPHABET OF HISTORY

Iago

by Wilbur D. Nesbit
Copyright, 1905

  Iago as a villain was a master of his craft,
      And yet he did not work at all as modern villains do;
  No one can rise and say that bold Iago hoarsely laughed
      When some one demonstrated that his stories were untrue.
  He did not swagger on the stage in evening clothes, and mutter,
      Nor bite his finger nails in baffled anger now and then;
  He never turned and left the stage with nothing else to utter
      Except: "Aha! Proud beauty! I shall not be foiled again!"

  Iago did not hover near the old deserted mill
      To hurl the daring hero in the waters of the race;
  He never frowned and ground his teeth and burned the hidden will
      Or kidnapped any children just to complicate the case.
  Iago was not like the villains that we have at present;
      He didn't even try to scowl or to look like the part.
  Iago as a villain was continually pleasant,
      And never gave the notion that he had a stony heart.

  Othello was his victim--and Iago's work was good,
      But still Iago doesn't seem to get the proper praise;
  Othello, as the hero--as all proper heroes should--
      Stood calmly in the spotlight and corralled the wreathing bays.
  Since then there is no villain of the art of good Iago--
      At least we haven't seen an actor who approached him yet;
  The villains we have noticed from Galveston to Chicago
      Have hissed through black mustaches and have smoked the cigaret.

iron noder