Roderigo is a fictional character in
ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's
OthelloOthello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
(c.1601-1604). He is a dissolute
VenetianVenice is a city in northern Italy, the capital of the region Veneto, a population of 271,367 . Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area . The city historically was an independent nation...
lusting after
OthelloOthello is a character in Shakespeare's Othello . The character's origin is traced to the tale, "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi by Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio. There, he is simply referred to as the Moor....
's wife
DesdemonaDesdemona is a character in Shakespeare's Othello .Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a man several years her senior and not of her race. When her husband is deployed to Cyprus in the service of the...
. Roderigo has opened his purse to
IagoIago is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Othello . The character's source is traced to Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio's tale "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi . There, the character is simply "the ensign". Iago is a soldier and Othello's ancient...
in the mistaken belief that Iago is using his money to pave the way to Desdemona's bed. When the assassination of
Michael CassioMichael Cassio is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's Othello. The source of the character is the 1565 tale "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio; Cassio is unnamed in Cinthio but referred to as "the squadron leader." In the play, Cassio is a young and handsome lieutenant under Othello's...
runs amiss, Iago kills Roderigo.
Shakespeare's source for
Othello was the tale "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, and, while Shakespeare closely followed his source in composing
Othello, Roderigo has no counterpart in Cinthio.
| Roderigo |
| |
| Creator |
William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
|
| Play |
OthelloOthello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
|
| Date |
c.1601-1604 |
| Source |
Shakespeare's invention |
| Role in play |
Desdemona's degenerate admirer • Iago's dupe and murder victim |
| Quote |
Tush, never tell me! |
| Film interpreters |
Ferdinand von Alten (1922)
Robert CooteRobert Coote was an English actor. He played aristocrats or British military types in many films, and created the role of Colonel Hugh Pickering in the long-running original Broadway production of My Fair Lady.Coote was educated at Hurstpierpoint College in Sussex...
, (1952)
Robert LangRobert Lang was a versatile English actor who was spotted by Laurence Olivier and earned critical praise in an impressive variety of roles...
(1965)
Michael MaloneyMichael Maloney is an English actor.Born in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, Maloney's first television appearance was as Peter Barkworth's teenage son in the 1979 drama series, Telford's Change....
(1995) |
Roderigo is a fictional character in
ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's
OthelloOthello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
(c.1601-1604). He is a dissolute
VenetianVenice is a city in northern Italy, the capital of the region Veneto, a population of 271,367 . Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area . The city historically was an independent nation...
lusting after
OthelloOthello is a character in Shakespeare's Othello . The character's origin is traced to the tale, "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi by Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio. There, he is simply referred to as the Moor....
's wife
DesdemonaDesdemona is a character in Shakespeare's Othello .Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a man several years her senior and not of her race. When her husband is deployed to Cyprus in the service of the...
. Roderigo has opened his purse to
IagoIago is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Othello . The character's source is traced to Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio's tale "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi . There, the character is simply "the ensign". Iago is a soldier and Othello's ancient...
in the mistaken belief that Iago is using his money to pave the way to Desdemona's bed. When the assassination of
Michael CassioMichael Cassio is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's Othello. The source of the character is the 1565 tale "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio; Cassio is unnamed in Cinthio but referred to as "the squadron leader." In the play, Cassio is a young and handsome lieutenant under Othello's...
runs amiss, Iago kills Roderigo.
Shakespeare's source for
Othello was the tale "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, and, while Shakespeare closely followed his source in composing
Othello, Roderigo has no counterpart in Cinthio. The character is completely Shakespeare's invention.
Source
Othello has its source in the 1565 tale, "Un Capitano Moro" from
Gli Hecatommithi by Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio. While no
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
translation of Cinthio was available in print during Shakespeare's lifetime, it is possible the dramatist knew the
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
original, Gabriel Chappuy's 1584
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
translation, or an English translation in manuscript. Cinthio's tale may have been based on an actual incident occurring in Venice about 1508.
Role in Othello
Roderigo makes his first appearance in Act One, Scene One when, as Iago's confederate, he rouses
BrabantioBrabantio is a character in William Shakespeare's Othello . He is a Venetian senator and the father of Desdemona. He has entertained Othello is his home countless times before the play opens, thus giving Othello and Desdemona opportunity to fall in love...
with the news that Desdemona has eloped with Othello. In the following scene, he accompanies Brabantio to the Sagittary where the newlyweds are found. He is present in Act One Scene Three when the couple defend their union before the Duke. In Act Two Scene One, Roderigo disembarks in
CyprusCyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country situated in the eastern Mediterranean, south of Turkey and west of Syria and Lebanon....
, and, two scenes later, provokes the brawl that results in Cassio's disgrace. Roderigo next appears in Act Four Scene Two where Iago lures him into a plot to murder Cassio. In Act Five Scene One, Roderigo fails to kill Cassio, and is himself wounded in the attempt. Iago discovers Roderigo and renders the
coup de grâceThe expression coup de grâce means a death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature. The phrase can refer to killing civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies and with or without the consent of the sufferer...
.
Performances
Based on the fact that
Othello was composed in near proximity chronologically to the composition of
Twelfth Night, modern interpreters of Roderigo sometimes play the role as a dimwitted fop in the manner of Andrew Aguecheek or
Rosencrantz and GuildensternRosencrantz and Guildenstern are fictional characters, a pair of courtiers appearing in William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. They are also major characters in Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and W. S...
, with the rationale being all four roles would have been played by an actor in Shakespeare's company specializing in foppish characters.
Robert CooteRobert Coote was an English actor. He played aristocrats or British military types in many films, and created the role of Colonel Hugh Pickering in the long-running original Broadway production of My Fair Lady.Coote was educated at Hurstpierpoint College in Sussex...
played Roderigo in
Orson WellesGeorge Orson Welles was an American film director, writer, actor and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television, and radio. Welles was also an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety spectacles in the war years...
'
1952 filmOthello is a 1952 drama film based on the Shakespearean play, made by Mercury Productions Inc. and Les Films Marceau and distributed by United Artists . It was directed and produced by Orson Welles, who also played the title role . The screenplay was adapted by Welles and an uncredited Jean Sacha...
. The production was filmed over a three-year period and was hampered by its
ItalianThe Italian people are an ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common Italian culture, descent, and speaking the Italian language as a mother tongue...
backer declaring
bankruptcyBankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay its creditors. Creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against a debtor in an effort to recoup a portion of what they are owed or initiate a restructuring...
early on in the shoot. As a result, a lack of costumes forced Roderigo's murder to be staged in a Turkish bath with the performers garbed in large, ragged towels.
Other film interpreters of the role include Ferdinand von Alten in the 1922 silent version starring
Emil JanningsEmil Jannings was a Swiss-born German actor. He was not only the first actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, but the first person to be presented an Oscar.-Early life:...
,
Robert LangRobert Lang was a versatile English actor who was spotted by Laurence Olivier and earned critical praise in an impressive variety of roles...
in the
1965 versionOthello is a 1965 film based on the Shakespeare play Othello; starring Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Frank Finlay, and Joyce Redman. It was simply a filmed version of a performance by the actors for the National Theatre, staged by John Dexter, from 1964-66...
starring
Laurence OlivierLaurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century, along with his contemporaries John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft, Alec Guinness and Ralph Richardson...
, and
Michael MaloneyMichael Maloney is an English actor.Born in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, Maloney's first television appearance was as Peter Barkworth's teenage son in the 1979 drama series, Telford's Change....
in the
film versionOthello is a 1995 film based on William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name. It was directed by Oliver Parker and stars Laurence Fishburne as Othello, Irène Jacob as Desdemona, and Kenneth Branagh as Iago...
with
Laurence FishburneLaurence John Fishburne III is an American actor of screen and stage, as well as a playwright, director, and producer. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Morpheus in the Matrix science fiction film trilogy, Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s character's father Furious Styles in Boyz N The Hood, "Cowboy...
.
Additional reading
- MacLiammóir, Micheál. Put Money in Thy Purse: the Diary of the Film of Othello. Methuen & Co., Ltd., London (1952); Virgin Books (1994), ISBN 0863697291. MacLiammóir's 1952 memoir about the filming of Orson Welles' Othello.
External links