The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.2297 Wednesday, 29 December 1999.
From: Clifford Stetner <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 23 Dec 1999 12:38:08 -0500
Subject: 10.2268 Re: Iago's Name
Comment: Re: SHK 10.2268 Re: Iago's Name
Martin Meuler's suggestion that:
<snip> The three suitors of Portia, Morocco, Bassanio, and Arragon,
return
>as the suitors of Desdemona: Othello, Cassio, and Roderigo: the
>distribution of
>'r', 's' and 'o' marks the pattern of exotic hero, hometown boy, and fool.
confirms my suspicion that the two ss's in the name Bassanio are a
reference to the Earl of Essex, the quintessential Elizabethan hometown
boy; my further suspicion that the B...o at the name's extremes are a
reference to Giordano Bruno and that he is a representative of
Anglicanism in a contest against Islam and Catholicism (the play is not
really about Jews at all) will, however, require other support.
Clifford