# Did ordinary Elizabethans understand Shakespeare's plays? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 2, 2011, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ordinary-elizabethans-understand-shakespeares-plays/601671 "2011-11-02T19:33:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ordinary-elizabethans-understand-shakespeares-plays/601671/122 "2011-11-07T19:01:00Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’ve always interpreted Iago as deciding _first_ that he’s going to be Othello’s antagonist, and _then_ looking for some excuse to justify it. Which is pretty close to “evil for evil’s sake”. It would be. I’m not really convinced that’s the case, though- it seems like they have a fairly long history together before the play begins, although obviously we don’t hear much about it. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ordinary-elizabethans-understand-shakespeares-plays/601671/123 "2011-11-07T19:32:10Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > It doesn’t matter. All the audience needs to know – and what is here explained – is that **Thibault** knows that thumb-biting is an insult you don’t take lying down. Well, it’s actually Abraham and Balthasar, not Thibault, but yes, I see your point. As far as the play is concerned, Sampson tells the audience via telling his companion that it is a dirty gesture the other will take as an insult. But it still doesn’t explain it to _me_. Oh well, google tells me that “biting the thumb” is actually flicking the thumb from under the top teeth. Of course, the only explanations given are “a dirty gesture similar to flipping the bird and saying nanny nanny boo boo”. Um, okay. I think Shakespeare’s use wasn’t that it was the only gesture sufficient, but that the setting was Verona, Italy, so it made sense to use an Italian gesture. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ordinary-elizabethans-understand-shakespeares-plays/601671/124 "2011-11-07T22:01:41Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’ve always interpreted Iago as deciding _first_ that he’s going to be Othello’s antagonist, and _then_ looking for some excuse to justify it. Which is pretty close to “evil for evil’s sake”. Me too. It reinforces this when Othello (or Cassio?) asks him, at the end, “Why did you do it?!” and Iago answers only, “You know that you know” and refuses to say one word more until he dies. IOW, “It’s a Pure Evil thing, you wouldn’t understand.” While Aaron, facing death at the end of _Titus Andronicus,_ actually **gloats** over the purity of his evil. “If one good deed in all my life I did / I do repent it from my very soul!” Bu,t he’s not a serious character like Iago, no more than _TA_ is a serious play – more like a parody of the over-the-top bloody-revenge genre. IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ordinary-elizabethans-understand-shakespeares-plays/601671/125 "2011-11-07T22:07:52Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’ve always interpreted Iago as deciding _first_ that he’s going to be Othello’s antagonist, and _then_ looking for some excuse to justify it. Which is pretty close to “evil for evil’s sake”. Don’t remember the play that well, but in my experience, few people are evil for evil’s sake. If they were, why would they bother looking for an excuse? However, nearly everyone is capable of hating someone else for some petty insult or reason that they won’t admit to, and then looking for a better excuse to justify the hatred. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ordinary-elizabethans-understand-shakespeares-plays/601671/126 "2011-11-07T22:08:29Z")
He doesn’t say they wouldn’t understand, just that he’s not going to satisfy them with an answer. His last line is “Demand me nothing: what you know, you know: From this time forth I never will speak word.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ordinary-elizabethans-understand-shakespeares-plays/601671.md?page=6)