"Invention comes from my pate..."

[primeministeremma]

What does Iago mean by "invention comes from my pate as birdlime does from frieze"? Also what is the significance of this? I've seen a couple of interpretations on the internet and neither of them made much sense to me.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[dedalus]

Birdlime was used to catch birds (I read an adhesive applied to bushes) and frieze was course woolen "stuff"- my Folger notes say.

Iago's next line is, "It plucks out brains and all."

This is Iago- somewhat in jest- with Desdemona. Desdemona is anxiously waiting for Othello and she tries to relax a bit, arguably flirting a bit, while "seeming otherwise". He is speaking rather crass of Emilia when Desdemona says he will not "write" her "praise". When she jokingly asks what he would write he first expresses he cannot, that the "lime" cannot come from the "frieze" but then his "muse labors and thus she is delivered" (back to his sexual undertones) and he speaks his "praise" for Desdemona.

[Bandit <3]

My "Shakespeare Made Easy" has it pretty much as

'it's as difficult to get my creative juices flowing as it is to get birdlime (sticky substance used to trap birds) out of wool"

Peace : )