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Shakespeare & Beyond

“As luscious as locusts”: Othello and locust-eaters in the early modern world

locusts
locusts
locusts

Hiob Ludolf, Iobi Lvdolfi Dissertatio de locvstis anno praeterito immensa copia in Germania visis, 1694 (Wellcome Images, Public Domain) Folger 250379 (folio)

In Act 1, Scene 3 of Othello, the manipulative Iago urges Roderigo, a wealthy Venetian recently disappointed in love, to join him in a plot to humiliate Othello. Reveling in the destruction he plans to inflict upon Othello’s romance with Desdemona, Iago declares that “The food that to him now is as luscious as locusts shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida.”

It will strike many readers as unusual that Iago describes locusts – large, winged insects of the order Orthoptera – as “luscious.” To the twenty-first-century American or Western European, locusts might conjure up images of crop failures, biblical plagues, and swarms large enough to darken the sky, but their flavor probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.

Comments

While the background information provided by the writer is interesting, and while the writer does touch upon the reason why the insect is mentioned in Othello, the correct interpretation is not identified. Once again, there is a subtext having to do with the religious controversies of the day.

Andrea Campana — March 19, 2020