Twelfth Night, or What You Will Art and Culture Quotes

Twelfth Night is full of literary references, including allusions to Shakespeare's own dramatic works. For example, the play's shipwreck plot involving the separation of twins echoes the plot of Shakespeare's earlier play, The Comedy of Errors, in which the identical Antipholus brothers are separated at sea and eventually reunited. This idea, however, was borrowed from other writers like Plautus. Does this mean you can't understand or enjoy Twelfth Night if you haven't read all this other stuff? No way – you can totally master the play without being a Plautus expert. It's just good to keep in mind that Shakespeare is working within, borrowing from, and constantly revising a pretty rich literary tradition.

Viola's disguise draws our attention to the circumstances of Shakespeare's transvestite stage. "Viola's" role was played by a boy actor, cross-dressed as a young woman, who disguises herself as a boy, "Cesario." We can never know how each member of Shakespeare's audience responded to this, but we can certainly think about how we interpret this transvestite comedy, which challenges us to rethink our ideas about what it means to be "feminine" or "masculine."

When Viola learns that Olivia is in love with "Cesario," she blames her "disguise," as though the act of cross-dressing is solely to blame for Olivia's attraction to her. It's a bit peculiar that Shakespeare (whose livelihood as a theatrical professional depends on the conventions of a transvestite stage) would put such words in the mouth of his heroine. It's especially peculiar given that harsh critics of the theater claimed that cross-dressing was a wicked and dangerous activity because it made it impossible to distinguish between men and women. Does Viola's speech mean the play is apologetic for portraying cross-dressed performances? Well, even though Viola might feel bad about the problems her disguise causes Olivia, we're leaning toward "no," especially given the fact that play goes out of its way to leave Viola on stage in her man-clothes at the end of the play.

History Snack: Under "Historical Documents," we've provided you with a link to Philip Stubbes's anti-theater rant in The Anatomy of Abuses (1583), but, just for fun, we thought we'd give you a little sneak preview of what 16th century Puritans thought about cross-dressing. Note Stubbes's use of the term "monster," which Viola echoes in her speech (above): "Our apparel was given as a sign distinctive, to discern betwixt sex and sex, and therefore one to wear the apparel of another sex, is […] to adulterate the verity of his own kind […] these women [who cross-dress] may not improperly be called Hermaphroditi, that is Monsters of both kinds, half women, half men." Where does Stubbes get this idea? From Deuteronomy 22:5. Here's the passage from the 1560 Geneva Bible: "The woman shal not weare that which perteineth unto the man, nether shal a man put on womans raiment: for all that do so, are abominacion unto the Lord thy God."

When Toby and Aguecheek say Feste's voice is "contagious," they mean it as a compliment because Feste's voice and his song are "catchy." ("Catch" also means "song.") We notice that Sir Andrew and Sir Toby Belch repeat some form of the word "contagious" three times in their response to Feste's performance of a song. What's up with that? To answer, we think it's time for a little history snack. There's a bit of an inside joke at work here.

In 16th century England, the bubonic plague was a bit of a problem, it being so contagious and deadly and all. Critics of the theater and other forms of public entertainment where large groups of people gathered in tight quarters worried about the spread of disease. Elizabethans thought the plague was contracted by breathing in strong odors. (We can imagine what a crowded playhouse smelled like – it being inhabited by those with questionable hygiene routines and no access to deodorant.) The plague was such a problem in Elizabethan England that theaters were often closed down during periods when the plague's death count got too high. Feste, a professional performer, is aligned with and somewhat representative of theatrical entertainment in the play. So, it's pretty funny that he's associated with the plague in this passage. The big joke, of course, is that if Feste was sick with the plague, then his "breath" and singing really would be contagious.

Here, Fabian and Toby discuss the elaborate and cruel prank they play on Malvolio. Toby compares the prank to a bear-baiting contest that promises to injure Malvolio, or make him "black and blue." (Bear-baiting is a cruel Elizabethan blood-sport that involves chaining a bear to an object before setting a pack of dogs upon it. It was a very popular form of "entertainment" that was held in the same districts as Shakespeare's plays. Both were associated with crude, lower-class patrons and critics of the theater often lumped the two activities together under one shameful umbrella.)

OK. So what? Well, Toby's right to compare the prank on Malvolio to a bear-baiting contest. Malvolio escapes without serious physical injury, but the joke, as Olivia points out in Act 5, is incredibly cruel – so much so that it casts a bit of a dark shadow over the "happy ending" of the play. On the other hand, there's also a sense of justice at work here since the judgmental Malvolio criticizes all forms of entertainment – bear-baiting, theatrical performances, revels, etc. The fact that the prank turns Malvolio into an unknowing participant in spectacle and foolery that is not unlike the theater (remember, Malvolio is tricked into wearing a costume and playing the "role" of suitor to Olivia) and is part of what makes the joke so fitting and delicious.

Here, Viola gives Feste (and Professional Fools everywhere) props for his artistic virtuosity. Despite being called "fool," Feste is a highly skilled performer, comedian, and musician with an incredible command of language and a shrewd mind. In fact, most critics say that Feste is the only "wise" person in the entire play, especially since he has a knack for sizing up the other characters and exposing the folly of their actions.

We love this passage for several reasons. First, Fabian acknowledges that the Malvolio prank (and just about every other plot devise in the play) is not realistic – it is an "improbable fiction." He also draws our attention to the fact that the prank actually is being "played upon a stage" for Shakespeare's audience. We can take Fabian's comments as a sly reminder that, despite the "improbable" or unrealistic events in Twelfth Night (the dramatic ship wreck, the survival and reunification of the twins, etc.), part of enjoying any play is the process of suspending disbelief and giving in to the workings of the theater. Also, you might want to compare Toby's use of the term "infection" here to the joke about plague being spread in theaters in 2.3.8 (discussed above).

Maria's comment that Feste needn't have bothered wearing a physical disguise when pretending to be a priest (Sir Topas) is pretty accurate. Malvolio has been locked in a very dark room and can't see anything. The prank depends more on Feste's ability to alter his voice (think Robin Williams in Aladdin) than anything else. So, why does Feste bother donning a physical costume if it doesn't matter if he looks like a priest? There are lots of possible answers but here's our best guess. Feste's "Sir Topas" costume isn't so much for Malvolio as it is for the visual pleasure of Shakespeare's audience. Everybody likes silly disguises, right? The truth is that lots of people really enjoy watching the playful mockery of authority figures and Shakespeare gives us exactly what we want.

As a professional Fool, Feste's duties lie in his talents as licensed entertainer (comedian, musician, master of language and repartee, etc.). Here, he also seems to be a bit of a con man, as he is pretty skilled at getting people to loosen their purse-strings – kind of like some playwrights we know who were also very skilled at getting audiences to pay for entertainment.

In the play's final moment, Feste closes the production with one last song, a reminder of the way music sets the tone for much of Twelfth Night, a play that also begins with music. This passage also raises interesting questions regarding the audience's relationship to the performers. Throughout the play, Feste is quite flippant and often seems not to care one way or the other if he "please[s]" anyone. On the one hand, his success and livelihood depends on his audiences' positive responses. Audiences, as Feste often points out, are often foolish and don't know what's good for them. So, what do we make of Feste's final lines? Are they sincere? Flippant? Something else? Some combination of both? What do you think?