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Part II Roht, or, What You Will

Twelfth night is the twelfth day after Christmas-January 6 This is the traditional anniversary of the day on which the infant Jesus was viewed by the Magi and therefore the first manifestation of Jesus to the Gentiles The day is also called Epiphany, fro "manifestation"

There is no biblical justification for this particular date or for any fixed number of days after the birth of Jesus for the appearance of the Magi Nevertheless, it did afford the people in medieval ti Christmas (hence the popular carol, "The Twelve Days of Christmas")

Twelfth Night was in some ways the climax of the festive period In connection with this, a lawyers' guild seems to have co play for Twelfth Night 1601 He did so and the play was called Twelfth Night after the occasion and not because of anything in the play itself

It was the third of Shakespeare's joyous co of the century, and he apparently viewed thened for a and As You Like It Even this third play, usually called Twelfth Night, has a subtitle which perhaps - What You Will

This was the last warm comedy Shakespeare was to write for many years The shadows closed in and for a decade he wrote soedies (scarcely comedies) Why this should have been so, we can only speculate One tee I-120), which took place just after Twelfth Night was coht for Shakespeare

the food of love

The setting of the play is Illyria

In actual geography, Illyria is the coastal district ofcall Yugoslavia and makes up the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, just across from Italy It never h in the fourth century it contributed a series of great Roman emperors: Claudius II, Aurelian, Diocletian, and Constantine I

In the seventh century invading Slavs occupied Illyria and in the fourteenth century it fell into the grip of the Ottoman Turks In Shakespeare's time what had once been Illyria and then became Serbia was still part of the Ottoman Empire Parts of its coast, however, were controlled by Venice, and were Italian in culture

Still, we need not be overconcerned with actual geography Shakespeare's Illyria, like his seacoast of Bohemia in The Winter's Tale and his Forest of Arden in As You Like It, really exists nowhere but in the play

It is the Duke of Illyria who speaks first He is, apparently, lovesick, and says:

// music be the food of love, play on,

Give ,

The appetite may sicken, and so die

- Act I, scene i, lines 1-3

The Duke's name is Orsino, which is derived from the Latin word for "bear" and is therefore most inappropriate for the overcultivated, over-refined Duke of this play However, at the tiland was expecting an Italian visitor, Don Virginio Orsino, Duke of Bracciano (a toentythe nauest

fell and cruel hounds

The Duke is apparently hopelessly in love with Olivia, a rich noblewoman of Illyria, and cannot be diverted froested that he hunt the hart (that is, stag) he breaks into a self-pitying play upon the word, saying that when he saw Olivia:

That instant was I turned into a hart,

And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,

E'er since pursue me

- Act I, scene i, lines 22-24

This is a reference to the tale of Actaeon (see page I-406), as turned into a stag by the angry Diana and was then killed by his own hounds

like Anon

Meanwhile, on the Illyrian seacoast, Viola, a young lady, appears With her are a ship's captain and his sailors They have just survived a wreck in which the girl's twin brother has apparently been lost

Viola is heartsick over her brother's death, but the Captain says he saw her brother tie himself

To a strong mast that lived upon the sea;

Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back,

I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves

So long as I could see

- Act I, scene ii, lines 14-17

Arion is a character out of Greek legend He was a master musician at the court of Periander, tyrant of Corinth, about 600 bc He traveled to Sicily to coifts

On the ship back to Corinth, the sailors decided to kill Arion and appropriate those gifts He asked per done so, jumped into the sea and the ship sailed on

The music had, however, attracted a school of dolphins, and on the back of one of these, Arion was brought to Corinth faster than the ship could be rowed At Corinth, Arion told his story and when the ship arrived, Periander had the sailors executed

Be you his eunuch

Viola is heartened by the news, but there is still the problem of what she is to do next As an unattended ain Shakespeare uses the device of a girl dressed in a man's clothes As a man, she decides to seek employment in Duke Orsino's service The Captain approves and says:

Be you his eunuch, and your mute I'll be;

- Act I, scene ii, line 62

This is a stab at realisive herself aith her hairless cheeks, her shrill voice, and herways All these would fit a eunuch

Eunuchs were common in the East, and even in the West were valued in Italy for their high singing voices The use of eunuchs in the papal choir was continued well into the nineteenth century Nevertheless, Viola as a eunuch would not be fitted for the romantic role she is to have in the play, and the device of eunuch and mute is dropped at once and there is no mention of either at any later point in the play

born under Taurus

The next scene is in the house of Olivia, the unresponsive object of Orsino's affection

In the house we es off her and off anyone else he can find "Toby" is a diminutive of "Tobias" and "Belch" is descriptive of his tippling habits With hi the scene aluecheek (The nah with ague or chills, but actually out of fear) He is there because Sir Toby is encouraging hi himself to the money the poor fellow has

Toby makes merciless fun of Sir Andreho never penetrates any mockery at his own expense Thus, when Andrew boasts of his dancing ability, Toby encourages hi:

What shall we do else?

Were we not born under Taurus?

- Act I, scene iii, lines 134-35

This is a reference to the zodiac, so iy There are twelve signs (constellations or star configurations) in the zodiac, which girdles the sky, and the sun spends one month in each of them

Apparently Sir Toby and Sir Andreere both born in the month (April 20 to May 21) when the sun was in Taurus the Bull and were therefore born "under Taurus" Each sign is supposed to have a vast nuovern a particular part of the body When Andrew suggests that Taurus presides over sides and heart, Toby says:

No, sir; it is legs and thighs

Let me see thee caper

- Act I, scene iii, lines 137-38

Naturally, if Taurus presides over legs and thighs, those born under Taurus reat dancers

what says Quinapalus

Also at Olivia's house is a Clown named Feste, which is very much like the Italian word for "holiday" and may be an oblique reference to the fact that the play ritten to celebrate a holiday

He has been absent without leave, and he is warned by Maria that he ed The Clown must therefore win over Olivia and heto himself:

For what says Quinapalus?

"Better a witty fool than a foolish wit"

- Act I, scene v, lines 34-35

It is useless to try to find Quinapalus in a reference book; the name is invented The Clown apparently has had an education and it is his particular coon (This would appeal particularly to the lawyers who had commissioned the play)

such a barren rascal

The Clown does indeed aiveness, but one member of her staff remains untouched He is Malvolio (his nae I-477, in Romeo and Juliet), who is Olivia's capable steward and hard-working business er

Malvolio is huered The Cloit does not amuse him; it merely offends He says:

I marvel your ladyship

takes delight in such a barren rascal

- Act I, scene v, lines 82-83

Malvolio is Shakespeare's notion of a Puritan, and, indeed, he is referred to as one later in the play

The Protestant Reforn of Henry VIII (see page II-783), settled down at last into a typical English compromise under Elizabeth I There remained those men of Protestant persuasion, however, ere dissatisfied with the colish church be purified of those remnants of Catholicism which it possessed

These derew h she reive in to theained control of Parliament

The Puritans were self-consciously virtuous reed with theainst serious forms of immorality, vice, and criainst trivial for their efforts on inconsequentials, they antagonizedto join the assault on important issues Furtherhted when a Puritan was caught in sin, and it became easy to equate Puritanism with cant and hypocrisy

Indeed, Olivia's retort to Malvolio's complaint about the Clown is a reflection of the common attitude toward the Puritan She says:

O, you are sick of self-love, Malvolio,

and taste with a dis tempered appetite

- Act I, scene v, lines 90-91

Shakespeare, as a professional draainst Puritans, since they denounced the theater as a haunt of sin and vice and an encouragement to idleness It was their intention to close down the theaters if they could, and a professional dramatist and actor like Shakespeare could scarcely be expected to show Puritanis but hostility in consequence

Sebastian of Messaline

Meanwhile Viola has taken employment with Orsino under the name of Cesario and promptly falls in love with the Duke As for Orsino, he takes a liking to the "young e to Olivia

Viola/Cesario carries the e to Olivia but in such a way as toless than impressive Olivia is, however, favorably iins to show an affection which Viola/Cesario naturally finds horrifying

While that happens, Viola's twin brother, Sebastian, turns out to have survived the wreck after all He has clung to the mast till picked up by another ship, whose captain, Antonio, takes a strong liking to the young man Antonio's attitude is, in fact, even more marked than that of the other Antonio (in The Merchant of Venice) toward Bassanio, and is more clearly homosexual

Once both are on the Illyrian coast, Sebastian abandons a pseudony (e are not told) and identifies hi:

You must know of me then, Antonio,

o

My father was that Sebastian of Messaline

whom I know you have heard of

- Act II, scene i, lines 16-19

It is useless to search for Messaline There is no such place Either Shakespeare negligently made up a name or else, more likely, it is a printer's error that has been preserved ever since (because actually it makes no difference)

If it is a misprint there are two possibilities for what the place may have been It may have been Messene, a Greek city in the southwestern Peloponnesus, about 360 miles southeast of the Illyrian coast; or Messina in Sicily, an almost equal distance southwest of it, and the scene of the action in Much Ado About Nothing (see page I-545)

Sebastian takes his leave of Antonio, for he is bound for Orsino's court, where (unknown to hierous for Antonio, who has gained the Duke's en that he follows him anyway

the four elements

The scene shifts to Olivia's house again, where late at night Sir Toby and his friends are having a rousing tiu:

Does not our lives

consist of the four elements?

- Act II, scene iii, lines 9-10

The ancient Greek philosophers sought to find out the basic substance ("element") out of which the earth was constructed Different philosophers had different candidates for the post, and Eested, about 450 BC, that there was ether, were named: earth, water, air, and fire, and out of these all the earth was constructed A century later Aristotle adopted this view and fixed it in huht for two thousand years

The view did not begin to go out of fashion till half a century after Shakespeare's death, and we still today speak of the "raging of the ele lashed to fury by a storm over the ocean

Malvolio co, and Sir Toby answers hi, but not really wicked, people hteous He says to Malvolio:

Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous,

there shall be no cakes and ale?

- Act II, scene iii, lines 114-15

It is after he leaves that Maria says of him:

Marry, sir, sometimes he is a kind of Puritan

- Act II, scene iii, line 140

Penthesilea

Maria describes the most prominent component of Malvolio's character to be a ests that they work up a plan to take advantage of that She will i and drop notes in places where he can find the Olivia is in love with him He will then, Maria is sure, promptly make a most enormous ass of himself

Toby is absolutely delighted, and when she leaves, he calls after her:

Good night, Penthesilea

- Act II, scene iii, line 177

Penthesilea in the Greek legends was an Aer sister of Hippolyta, whoe I-18) It was Penthesilea who killed Hippolyta in the Aainst Theseus, and afterward she joined the Trojans in their war against the Greeks and was killed in turn by Achilles

Clearly, an Ae and muscular woht with credit against Achilles himself But Maria, it is clear in several places in the play, is a particularly sives Toby's remark its humor

green and yellow melancholy

Duke Orsino, who intends to continue to use Viola/Cesario as hisit is her sister she is speaking of, and saying:

She never told her love,

But let concealment, like a worm i'th'bud,

Feed on her daht,

And, with a green and yellow melancholy,

She sat like Patience on a monument,

Srief

- Act II, scene iv, lines 111-16

There is a glancing reference here to the doctrine of the four humors, first advanced by the school of Greek physicians who followed the famous Hippocrates of Cos (of the fifth century bc)

They believed that there were four fluids, or "huuis in Latin), bile (chole in Greek), and black bile (melanchole in Greek)

Bile is the secretion of the liver and there is only one variety, a greenish-yellow fluid On standing, it grows much darker and becomes almost black; hence the distinction between bile and black bile

The Greek physicians elaborated the theory that the predominance of one fluid over the other resulted in a particular type of tee II-424) There were people ere phleguine, choleric, or melancholic

The expression "green and yellow melancholy" refers to the fact that bile was supposedly predo of ordinary bile, rather than black bile

a bearbaiting

At Olivia's house, the plot to catch Malvolio progresses A new character enters, Fabian He is another of Olivia's servants and he too has a grudge against Malvolio He says:

You know he brought me out o'favor

withhere

- Act II, scene v, lines 6-7

In bearbaiting, a bear is tied to a stake, and sos are then set on it and the "sport" consists in watching thea few dogs on the way It was very popular in the time of Elizabeth I, and in 1575 thirteen bears were baited with the Queen an interested spectator This "aland till 1835

Apparently Fabian had organized a bearbaiting, and Malvolio had complained of it to Olivia, whose soft heart had been touched and who had been angry with Fabian in consequence

This is a reflection of the fact that the Puritans, to their great credit, strove to have bearbaitingthose who said, cynically, that Puritans were against bearbaiting not because it gave pain to the bear but because it gave pleasure to the spectators)

Jezebel

Malvolio now enters the trap The letter has been planted in the garden, and the plotters hide in a tree watching Malvolio The steward is so lost in self-conceit that he dreains to assureat lord Sir Toby is al Toby, cries out:

Fie on him, Jezebel

- Act II, scene v, line 41

Jezebel was the idolatrous Queen of Israel, wife of wicked King Ahab She is a byword for pride When her son (the successor of Ahab) was killed by the revolutionary general Jehu, she h facing death, she dressed herself like a queen and taunted Jehu with a past revolution that had failed Or, as the Bible puts it (2 Kings 9:30-31), "And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it, and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at aAnd as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?"

Of course, Sir Andrew's use of the name is inappropriate from the standpoint of sex; for a man, however proud, can scarcely be a Jezebel; and his sih in the audience

the impressure her Lucrece

Malvolio eventually spies the letter, picks it up, and exa on the outside seems Olivia's and the seal which closes the fold has Olivia's imprint Malvolio describes it as:

the impressure her Lucrece,

hich she uses to seed

- Act II, scene v, lines 94-95

A person of quality would use a particular sta) to i a letter, as further indication of ownership and guard against forgery Olivia uses a representation of the Roe I-205) Shakespeare had written The Rape of Lucrece some six or seven years before Of course, Maria had made use of her mistress' seal

from the Sophy

Malvolio interprets the letter exactly as pleases his self-love It advises hi Maria knows Olivia loathes He is told to shtier and surlier than ever, to talk politics, cultivate eccentricity, wear yellow stockings, and be cross-gartered He swears to do it all, and when he leaves, Fabian, in the tree, half dead with suppressed laughter, says:

I will not give my part of this sport

for a pension of thousands to be paid from the Sophy

- Act II, scene v, lines 181-82