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.