Shakespeare quote from different character

Orlando Sentinel sports writer Mike Bianchi made an erroneous reference to Shakespeare's play “Othello” in his Dec. 14 column about Cam Newton winning the Heisman Trophy.

He refers to “Shakespeare's more noble Othello” as the speaker of the lines, “Take note, take note, O world/ To be direct and honest is not safe.”

Those lines are not spoken by the “more noble Othello,” but by his nemesis, the hypocritical villain Iago. They occur in Act III, scene 3, when Iago is deliberately torturing Othello with lies about Othello's wife, Desdemona.

Bianchi is right when earlier in the article he writes that Macbeth is “one of Shakespeare's most corrupt and arrogant figures,” but he is wrong when he quotes Iago to show injured honesty.

Charles Schiller

Elkader