Edwin Booth as Iago, 1870. three years earlier, in 1878. Courtesy

Edwin Booth and Henry Irving staged Othello at the Lyceum in 1881, alternating the roles of Iago and Othello. When Irving started off as Iago he was praised for much subtle business. William Winter cites the example of Irving's behaviour at the attempted murder of Cassio: coming in to find Cassio only wounded Iago first kills Rodrigo but then raises his sword to kill Cassio too, only to be interrupted. Winter wrily notes that this business was invented by Booth not Irving, and Booth had described it in his prompt book of Othello published three years earlier, in 1878. Courtesy of the Yorck Project, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License