The two occurrences of the word 'lieutenantry' are spoken by practical soldiers who use the word contemptuously of men who have only a bookish or theoretical knowledge of war. And both times the word collocates with the name 'Cassio' or 'Cassius.' Iago in his envious asides on Cassio's innocent flirtation with Desdemona says:
He takes her by the palm; ay, well said, whisper. With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. Ay, smile upon her, do; I will gyve thee in thine own courtship. You say true, ‘tis so indeed. If such tricks strip you out of your lieutenantry, it had been better you had not kissed your three fingers so oft, which now again you are most apt to play the sir in. (Oth. 2.1.167-174)
"Lieutenantry" here is quite literally a placeholder for Iago's earlier characterization of Cassio:
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine
(A fellow almost damn’d in a fair wife)
That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows
More than a spinster—unless the bookish theoric,
Wherein the [toged] consuls can propose
As masterly as he. Mere prattle, without practice,
Is all his soldiership. (Oth.1.1.20-27)In the other passage, Mark Antony comments with contempt on Octavius' lack of duty in the field:
Yes, my lord, yes; he at Phillipi kept
His sword e’en like a dancer, while I strook
The lean and wrinkled Cassius, and ‘twas I
That the mad Brutus ended. He alone
Dealt on lieutenantry, and no practice had
In the brave squares of war; (Ant. 3.11.35-40)(Matthew Sullivan)
27 July 1999
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