Reputation

4. Reputation

The basic meaning of the root verb—putare—in the word ‘reputation’ is ‘to prune’, as in pruning vines. It can also mean ‘to purify’ and is related to the Latin words putus and purus, both meaning ‘pure’. Reputare would thus be ‘to prune again’ or ‘to repurify’. The secondary meaning of putare, however, is ‘to consider, reflect or think’. It can also mean ‘to reckon, value or estimate’. In this case, reputare would mean ‘to think again’ or ‘to calculate’.

The connection between pruning and thought (or reflection) is an intriguing one. When one prunes a tree, for instance, one examines which branches are to be kept and which rejected. When one thinks, one is excising obfuscating matter from the growth and flow of feeling and then examining and sorting what remains in order to give expression to that towards which the feelings originally pointed. Both processes, pruning and thought, seek to cut back the excesses of natural growth so that the tree and the mind can better blossom and bring forth their fruit.

The word ‘reputation’, which usually refers to what is repeated or reckoned in general about a person’s qualities, involves the opinion of the many. That opinion is often based on falsehood, mishap or the deliberate spread of misinformation. This exchange between Cassio and Iago in Act 2 Scene 3 of Othello is instructive:

CASSIO: ‘Reputation, reputation, I ha’ lost my reputation! I ha’ lost the immortal part, sir, of myself, and what remains is bestial; my reputation, Iago, my reputation!’

IAGO: ‘As I am an honest man, I thought you had receiv’d some bodily wound, there is more offence in that than in reputation: reputation is an idle and most false imposition, oft got without merit, and lost without deserving…’

Here there are two distinct concepts of reputation. The one expressed by Iago is reputation in the eyes of man, which is labile, unreliable and subject to Fortune. It is a dead tree whose branches are already destined for the fire. That expressed by Cassio, on the other hand, is reputation in the eyes of God and depends on the self-regulation of the soul: that is, its ability to prune itself in order that it might reflect the light of divine grace. This latter reputation comes close to conscience and ignores the fickle praise and condemnation of mankind. It is the living tree of self-awareness, whose soil is the depth of true reflection.