Othello Clown Quotes

Why masters, have your instruments been in Naples, that they speak i’ th’ nose thus?

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 1. The humorous exchange between the Clown and musicians in this scene is for the purpose of providing some light-hearted relief, while Iago plots to sow seeds of deceit and discord. The Clown comments on the musicians’ instruments sounding so nasal and wonders have they been to Naples. As well as making a sexual pun on the word instruments, the Clown is referring to the reputation Naples had as a hotbed of venereal disease and syphilis, which attack the mucous membranes in the nose and cause nasal damage.

CLOWN: Are these, I pray you, wind instruments?
MUSICIAN: Ay, marry, are they, sir.
CLOWN: O, thereby hangs a tail.
MUSICIAN: Whereby hangs a tale, sir?

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 1. The Clown provides comic relief in what is otherwise a very serious and tragic drama. During his banter with the musicians the Clown is talking about the wind instruments and makes a fart joke. Punning on tale (meaning story) and tail (meaning anus), he suggests that their music stinks and the instruments they play sound like they are producing flatulence.

Marry, sir, by many a wind instrument that I know. But, masters, here’s money for you; and the General so likes your music that he desires you, for love’s sake, to make no more noise with it.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 1. As the Clown pays the musicians, he insults them. He sarcastically tells them that Othello likes their music so much that he desires them to stop. He also puns on wind instrument to make a joke about flatulence. The humorous dialogue between the Clown and musicians provides well deserved comic relief for the audience as the plot of deceit and manipulations by Machiavellian villain Iago thickens.

DESDEMONA: Do you know, sirrah, where Lieutenant Cassio lies?
CLOWN: I dare not say he lies anywhere….He’s a soldier, and for me to say a soldier lies, ’tis stabbing.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 4. This humorous exchange between Desdemona and the Clown centers around a pun on the word lie – meaning to speak falsely or physically lie. Responding to Desdemona, who asks where Cassio lies, the Clown says that he dares not say he lies, as to accuse a soldier of lying would be like stabbing him. Here he is hinting at the dishonesty of Iago.
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