THIS MONTH’S EPISODE!
Hi everyone and Welcome back to In Plain Terms, for those of you who are new here, thanks for joining me, this is a fun podcast where I will be breaking down one of Shakespeare’s plays, in an easy and fun way. My name is Alice Bloomer. I’m not a professor, or an academic, I’m simply an actor who believes Shakespeare is for everyone, not just the educated elite. First I’ll break down the play, whilst briefly touching on some of the plays themes. Then I’ll share some of the top insults in the play. I will do all of this while making some terrible jokes and just having a good time. My hope is by taking the ‘academics’ out of Shakespeare’s works, you can enjoy it as people did in his day, as a fun and relatable story, not some unintelligible fancy drama you were forced to do in your GCSE’s.
This week I will be doing a fan favourite, Twelfth Night, in honour Shakespeare on the Sound’s current production. This is a comedy that has a LARGE number of tropes that show up again and again in Shakespeare’s comedies. Twins, mistaken identities, cross-dressing, and shipwrecks, these themes show up in at least 5 that I can think of off the top of my head, so if you are looking to write a romcom, these themes are a GREAT base for your story, if they are good enough for Shakespeare, they are good enough for you, and they aren’t used nearly enough in today’s romcoms
Anyway before I go on too much, let’s do get a snapshot of Events:
Beginning: Shipwrecked girl disguises herself as a boy and falls for local Duke who is in Love with local Countess
Middle: Local Countess’ kinsmen and servants play a massive prank on the Head Butler.
End: Everyone is mad at Viola til they find out she is a twin.
The play opens with Duke Orsino, he’s got that famous line ‘If Music be the Food of Love, Play on’, for all you Jane Austen fans out there, Lizzie Bennet makes fun of it in Pride and Prejudice at the first ball, where she meets Mr Darcy. The Duke is in love with Olivia, who, it seems doesn’t return his affections. This is proving to be quite frustrating for our lovesick Duke, as she is refusing any and all suitors, as she is in mourning for her brother, who just died. Shortly after her father. Rough.
Then we head to the coast where we meet Viola, who has arrived in Illyria (where our play is set) after her ship was destroyed en route to a mysterious location….maybe she was on the same boat as Elsa’s parents from Frozen. She was rescued by her captain, but her twin brother, it seems was not, and she is heartbroken. The friendly captain however, happens to be very knowledgeable about the area they have arrived in, as he grew up ‘not three hours travel from this very place’, it’s like the Los Angeles 20 minute rule, everything there is 20 minutes away…without traffic. Anyway, he tells her all about the Duke and Olivia. She wishes she could throw herself at the mercy of Olivia as a woman, but as she is refusing any callers (suitors or no), so she decides to dress as a man (with the help of her captain) and instead throw herself at the mercy of the Duke, as ‘his Eunuch’, (a eunuch is a boy whose had his two hem hem removed, so they have a higher voice, therefore making it easier for Viola to play a Eunuch than a man). She presents her/himself to him to entertainment, with her captain accompanying her as her ‘mute’ servant. It’s like Mulan dressing as a man to join the army, because she couldn’t as a woman. WOMEN TAKING POWER INTO THEIR OWN HANDS! YES!
Our next introduction is one of the ‘clowns’ in the play, Sir Toby Belch, Olivia’s cousin, and her maid, Maria. He, along with the characters we are about to meet, is like your Pascal and Maximus from Tangled but, drunk, and bawdy, and they talk…and sing. Maria is telling Sir Toby off for drinking too much and coming home late, and Apparently it’s pissing Olivia off. Shocker. He also committed sin numero uno in her eyes, and brought in a suitor, his mate Sir Andrew Aguecheek. (just for the record, ague, as we learned in Henry IV means ill, so Aguecheek means literally sick (cheek or buttcheek). Think about that for a sec….Shakespeare often had the sense of humor of a 10 year old boy, men never change. Of course who should walk in at that very moment but Mr Sick Cheek himself to join the conversation. Sir Toby tries to get him to begin to woo Maria, but he gets the wrong end of the stick and greets her thinking her name is ‘accost’, after Belch tries to tell him to ‘accost her’ (meaning address her). Andrew continues to attempt to back-peddle and regain his lost ground but fails. Maria quickly tires of their antics and departs, leaving the two men to entertain each other. They end up discussing Sir Andrews dancing skills, which it seems are better than his skills with women. He is excellent at dancing a Caper, a Carranto, and a cinquepace, three traditional Elizabethan dances. The scene ends with Sir Andrew demonstrating his Capering skills to Sir Toby’s delight, as he exclaimes ‘Ha! Higher! Ha! Ha! Excellent!’
We now return to our Shipwrecked twin Viola, aka Cesario, who has been in the employment of the Duke for three days now, and is already deep in Orsino’s circle of trust (no pun intended get your minds out of the gutter grown ups). He arrives on the scene to give her an important task. She is to go and court Olivia in his place, and tell her how much Orsino loves her. We’ve all done that, sent a friend over to the attractive human to have them confess your love for you. How many times does that happen on Friends, for example, I mean it’s absurd how often it happens in that show? She is apparently the best person for the task, as she is the youngest and most feminine of all of his men….little does he know just how feminine she is. When the task is set out, she turns to the audience to say how awful this task is, as she herself is in love with the Duke, the plot begins to unfold.
Next, we meet our third clown of the play, Olivia’s fool, and the only ACTUAL clown of the bunch, Feste, who also gets a good telling off from Maria. Again he has been off doing something, likely drinking and misbehaving when he was supposed to be entertaining Olivia. She tells him Olivia will have him hung or dismissed for his absence. He things death is a safe way out of a bad marriage, and dead men have nothing to fear, so that’s not really something he’s worried about. She, like with Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, tires quickly and leaves as soon as Olivia arrives with her train. She is, just as Maria suspected, pretty peeved at his absence and tries to send him away, saying she doesn’t like him anymore as he has grown unreliable and that he is a ‘dry’ fool ie barren. He, however will have none of it, and puns himself back into her good graces, by saying if he is dry, a drink will cure him of that and if he is dishonest, then he just simply has to become honest. If he can’t then he will be ‘mended’ by a ‘botcher’ who is a mender of old clothes. He believes ‘virtue that transgresses is but patched with sin; and sin that amends is but patched with virtue’ so basically he’s saying when virtue turns to sin, it’s just virtue mended with a bit of sin, and sin that ‘amends’ or improves is just sin mended with virtue. Interestingly a Patch is also a fool, so you could also say that when virtue turns to sin it’s just fooled into being sin, and sin fooled into being virtuous. He then turns the table on her and calls HER a fool. She denies it, and he says he can prove it. He explains that she is a fool for mourning her brothers death, as his soul is in heaven, and the only reason to mourn for someone lost is if they are in hell. This wins her over, and she turns to her servant Malvolio for his opinion. He is less swayed by Feste’s words, and for reasons we will discover later, tries to put him down, which Olivia doesn’t take well too, saying ‘O, you are sick of self love, Malvolio, and taste with a distempered appetite’ basically saying stop being rude about everyone you think is below you. BURRRN! Next, Maria returns with the news that Cesario (Viola in disguise) and his ‘crew’ are at her gates, apparently being entertained by Sir Toby. Appalled at this idea, Olivia sends Malvolio out to get rid of Sir Toby and the ‘suitor’. Sir Toby returns, very drunk, further winding up our already frustrated Olivia. Soon after Malvolio returns, saying he can’t seem to get rid of the ‘boy’, after using all the usual excuses, sick, asleep, and even saying simply that she won’t speak to him, but he(she) won’t budge.
The scene continues when Olivia finally caves and agrees to speak to Cesario/Viola. Olivia continues in vain to try and send Ces away, but s/he won’t budge, much to her frustration. Eventually Viola manages to convince Olivia to send all her servants away, so Cesario/Viola can deliver what she has come to say to her privately. Then, Viola convinces Olivia to take off the mourning veil she was wearing to hide her face from any and all visitors, and says she is so beautiful Olivia is ‘the cruellest she alive’ if she were to take her beauty to the grave and ‘leave the world no copy’ ie a child with her features. Viola, being a woman really knows how to play on another woman’s ego much better than a man can. The two women bandy wits, as the flirtation continues. Olivia asks Viola how much Orsino loves her, but she quickly moves her interest away from Orsino, and onto Viola trying to get info about her (or him as she believes). Eventually Olivia sends ‘Cesario’ away, to tell Orsino that she doesn’t love him, but he is welcome to return to ‘tell her what he says’. Viola, it seems has made the grave error of making Olivia fall in love with herself as Cesario, instead of Orsino, a concept we see in MANY a Romantic comedy. As Viola leaves, Olivia confesses her love for Cesario to the audience, and calls Malvolio in to send a ring after him/her, saying he left it behind, and she won’t have it. If he wants to know why, he has to come tomorrow for an answer. This will give Cesario no choice but to return the next day to question the situation.
We now meet Viola’s twin, Sebastian PLOT TWIST, he’s alive, and, like his sister, assumed he was the only survivor. He is talking with his rescuer, Antonio, as he prepares to journey to….wait for it, Duke Orsino…I smell trouble. GUYS MISTAKEN IDENTITY IS COMING, can you see it, off in the distance there. Twins, in the same town, but not knowing it…Anyways, Antonio wants to come with him as his servant, but Sebastian will have none of it, saying he will have to ‘kill him whom you have recovered’ if he does, and he leaves Antonio with kind words.
And just like that we are back to our disguised Viola, leaving Olivia’s court, as Malvolio catches up with her to follow his Lady’s instructions, and ‘return the ring’, much to violas confusion. Malvolio exaggerates the young messenger’s actions by saying he ‘peevishly threw’ the ring at her, and Olivia doesn’t want it, or Orsino’s attention. As Malvolio leaves, Viola expresses her confusion with one of the most overdone of Shakespeare’s speeches of all time (for girls that is). ‘I left no ring with her, what means this lady’ and as she talks herself through the events, realises much to her shock and horror, that Olivia has fallen in love with her disguise, and says that she can’t fix this disaster, only time can.
We now return to our two drunken idiots, who are being drunken and bawdy. Singing loudly, and it seems off key until Maria comes in to warn them to stop their ‘caterwauling’, or Olivia will send Malvolio to shut them up (if she hasn’t already). Feste then comes in to join in the fun, and they tell her to stop being such a kill-joy, and ignore her more until Malvolio comes to try and do the same. He goes on about having no respect for Olivia’s house, or the time of day, to which Sir Toby replies that they did pay attention to the timing in their music, so ‘Sneck Up’ which means buzz off. I think next time I want to tell someone to go away I will have to tell them to Sneck Up, it’s a far better term. The three men sing answering each other’s rhymes til it drives Malvolio so bonkers he leaves, to go ‘tell on them’ to Olivia. At this point the four of them (Maria gets in on the action now) devise a massive prank to play on Malvolio. Seeing as Maria’s handwriting is apparently very similar to Olivia’s they decide to write him a letter coming from Olivia with declamations of love for him. I mean this is like 7th Grade level mean prank on your classmate kinda stuff. As Maria leaves, we find out that she holds a candle for one Sir Toby Belch. We also find out that Sir Andrew is in love with Olivia. The scene ends with Sir Toby calling for Sir Andrew to call him a ‘cut’ which is an old work horse, if he doesn’t end up with Olivia. Risky business guaranteeing someone else’s hand without their knowledge, but who knows what will happen!!
Next we have our Love sick duke Orsino once again requesting music to ease the pangs of his love. Feste sings him a song, and he once again asks Viola/Cesario to go proclaim his love for Olivia. She tries to tell him that there is no point, but of course he cannot listen. She then changes her argument saying ‘what if there was another woman who was in love with you, and felt the same way about you that you do about Olivia’, he of course thinks no woman can love anyone as much as he loves Olivia. Misogynist much? She continues in the same vain by saying her Father had a daughter that felt the same about one guy. Subtle. Subtle as a blunt knife. He still doesn’t understand what she is hinting at, but he enquires if her ‘sister’ died from her love, to which she replies, ‘I am all the daughters of my fathers house, and all the brothers too, and yet I know not’ and then rapidly changes the subject by asking again if he wants her to go to Olivia. (Of course he wants her to go, and bring a Jewel with her)
This next scene is what made the play so famous, or Infamous. It’s the preparation for the yellow gartered stockings sequence. Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and another friend called Fabian are really excited, cause they have a plan to take Malvolio down a few notches, after he was so rude to them. Fabian says if he misses a ‘scruple’ (tiny ounce) of the entertainment to ‘boil him to death with melancholy’. They refer to the prank as Bear Baiting, a popular form of entertainment in Shakespeare’s day. This was their equivalent of Rugby, Football, or Love Island…or whatever your idea of entertainment is. Bear Baiting was the tormenting and/or attacking of Bears by other animals, mostly old English Bulldogs, Worse than Jeremy Kyle (UK equivalent of Jerry Springer) I’d say. Quite similar I think to Love Island…or Twitter. Maria comes in to get the ‘gentlemen’ to hide behind a bush so they can see Malvolio come out practicing what my mother would call his ‘airs and graces’ aka his manners, or ‘behaviors’ as they call it. Malvolio walks on pre empting the prank by imagining out loud what it would be like to be married to Olivia, and to be a count. He imagines telling Sir Toby what to do, and people bowing and scraping to him. Much to the annoyance of the secret onlookers. I mean we have all been there, i’m sure, at some point overhearing someone/or something we shouldn’t and being OUTRAGED by it, I mean isn’t that just being a teenager before the Internet was so big? Eventually Malvolio picks up the letter, we don’t know where from, and he immediately recognizes the handwriting to be Olivia’s. You could say the Bear is officially bated (they however never use the same metaphor more than once and say instead the Woodcock is near the gin, gin here meaning trap. When I found out that Gin meant trap, it made me seriously wonder about how my favourite drink got its name. Eek. Moving on…he reads the letter Maria penned in Olivia’s handwriting, and his excitement grows, as he ‘decodes’ Olivia’s supposed secret passions. The letter eventually gives him some specific instructions. He is to be rude to her kinsman, hostile to the servants, talk about politics, smile A TON, and THEN icing on the cake, wear cross gartered yellow stockings (no not those garters). So if you have seen the play you have the image in mind, for those of you who haven’t, imagine a pair of bright yellow stockings, with strips of silk criss-crossed in a diamond pattern from the foot to the thigh to keep the stockings in place. There was no such thing as elastic back then, so ribbon had to do the trick in ole Shakey’s days. From their hiding place Toby exclaims he could marry Maria for her excellent trickery (remember that, it may come up later). Sir Andrew agrees, though Maria is less likely to reciprocate Sir Andrew’s affection, owing to her particular soft spot for Sir Toby. In my humble opinion, I think all the men involved are little bit in love with Maria. She then reveals how much Olivia hates Yellow Cross Gartered stockings in her current state of mourning, along with smiling, and the rest are just common sense, don’t be rude to her Servants or her kinsman. They all head off in merriment swearing to follow her to the pits of Tartarus for her brilliant feats.
After this hilarity we return to the web of lies Viola/Cesario has woven for herself. She is on her way to visit Olivia on orders from Duke Orsino. She runs into Feste the clown, and they bandy wits briefly before he fetches Olivia for her. I’ll go into more detail on this particular conversation in the insult/pun section. Viola enters and dismisses the newly arrived Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, as well as the Clown, to have some ‘alone time’ with her beloved Cesario. Olivia prys Cesario/Viola for information, name/rank/serial number etc. As usual Cesario/Viola tries to sidestep Olivia’s advances. Olivia says she never wants to hear her speak about Orsino again, and only about ‘himself’. Alas, the more Viola/Cesario tries to pull away from Olivia, the more she loves her. She keeps dropping hints about who she is. Lines like ‘I am not what I am’ and ‘I have one heart, one bosom, and one truth, And that no woman has, nor never none Shall mistress be of it save I alone.’ She basically states that no other woman that herself shall be mistress of her heart. She isn’t being subtle, but Olivia is (likely) so blinded by her affection for Cesario she doesn’t listen to what is actually being said. Cesario/Viola bids farewell to Olivia , saying she will stop coming back with Orsino’s sob stories. Olivia then says that she should come back soon, as she MAY be persuaded to fall in love with Orsino if she keeps coming.
We now return our favourite party of Olivia’s reprobate kinsmen, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Fabian. Sir Andrew is sulking after seeing Olivia showing outward affection towards Cesario. (I have many opinions about this scene…which I will talk about another day) Fabian convinces Sir Andrew that Olivia was only doing this to make him jealous, and to wind him up. They convince Sir Andrew challenge Cesario to a duel for Olivia’s honour (Imagine something along the lines of the Pirates of the Carribean duel scene between Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom), convincing him there is nothing women like more than a man fighting for her honour. (You can’t see me but i’m rolling my eyes). Neither Fabian nor Sir Toby think either will actually fight, as neither have a particularly violent side, but the entertainment the challenge will create makes it worth the while. So off Sir Andrew goes to write his challenge and on walks Maria with an update on Malvolio who is currently strutting around in his yellow cross gartered stockings, much to the delight of all involved parties. Maria has been following him, watching him, and apparently his is following her letter to the letter so to speak, so off the three of them go to see this absurd sight.
Meanwhile we are returned to Viola’s twin brother Sebastion who is still accompanied by Antonio, the sea Captain who rescued him. Antonio doesn’t want to leave him alone in an unfamiliar city without any friends to help him out. A grateful Sebastian tries to convince him to be a tourist with him in the city. Antonio, however, having a rather patchy history with the place, decides not to join him as if he is spotted by the wrong people, he might be arrested. Antonio gives Sebastian his purse in case anything catches his eye, offering to set up their lodging. They make a plan to meet there later in the day, as they part ways.
We next catch up with the yellow stockinged man himself as Olivia calls him to her side to enjoy his usual melancholy self. He however is the very opposite of this, and walks on with a BIG smile, and his cross gartered stockings, ready to be fawned on by Olivia. She attempts to make him make sense of his ridiculous behavior, but he in response just spits out lines from the letter Maria wrote, confusing and angering her even more. She breaks away from the madness to meet Cesario, and tells Maria to have him seen to, to understand why he is behaving so strangely. Malvolio is undeterred by her anger, and continues in his ‘strange antics’. Olivia turns him over to Sir Toby, and the whole situation gets more absurd. Malvolio, thinking this is another ‘hint’ from Olivia, again follows her ‘letters’ instructions, and is rude and dismissive to Sir Toby. They decide to pretend he is possessed by the devil, and the best solution is to lock him in a dark room until they get bored of his absurd behavior. Then as per Shakespeare usual, everything begins to kick off at once.
Sir Andrew comes to show Fabian, Toby, and Maria or as I like to think of them, the Three Musketeerswha,what he has written to challenge Cesario. They commend him for his excellent challenge, and send him off to find Cesario, so they can plot a bit more. Sir Toby decides not to use the written challenge, as it isn’t frightening enough, decides to deliver the challenge himself in person.
The challenge from Andrew is laid to Viola, who is confused and scared out of her wits. Sir Toby and Fabian then act as go-betweens for Andrew and Viola/Cesario, riling each of them up and preparing them for battle, once again for their own entertainment. Toby and Fabien big up Andrew to Viola saying how skilled and violent he is, saying he ‘is a divell in private brall, souls and bodies hath he divorced three’ and he is SUUUPER pissed off with ‘Cesario’. We switch back to Toby, who is basically saying the same thing about Cesario to Sir Andrew, saying he may have been a ‘fencer to the Sophy’ who was the Shah of Persia at the time. Of course back then Fencing really meant just someone who was decent with a sword, not what we know of as Fencing today. Andrew then tries to back out, thinking this was a bad idea, but Toby pushes him on saying Cesario won’t be stopped now. Next Viola/Cesario runs into Antonio, the Sea Captain who had been taking care of Sebastian. He of course thinking she is Sebastian jumps into defend her, much to Viola’s confusion and delight. Of course he gets arrested as he predicted he would, and asks Viola for the money he lent Sebastian, and the confusion increases. Viola refuses saying she has no such purse, but gives him what little coin she has as thanks, and an angry Antonio gets dragged away. Viola however is delighted, after Antonio calls her Sebastian, she begins to hope and believe that he isn’t dead after all. The two remaining musketeers continue however to wind up Sir Andrew, calling Cesario a coward, and tell him to go after him and get him to fight (apparently though only with fists, it seems our duo are a bit more wary after the arrest)
The next scene sees Feste the Clown trying to convince a frustrated and confused Sebastian to come visit Olivia. Feste of course thinks this is all a big joke, and continues to poke fun at Sebastian, until of course who should show up but Toby and Fabian with Andrew in tow, ready to fight. Sebastian, who of course is much more able and willing to fight than his sister, immediately retaliates and throws a few punches right back at Andrew. And clocks him on the head with his sword, along with Sir Toby. The madness continues to escalate until Olivia comes in and puts an end to Toby’s shenanigans, and to bring ‘Cesario’ back with her. The still confused Sebastian is more than delighted to follow Olivia, thinking this must be all some fantastic dream. (No, mate that’s a totally different play).
After this madness we are treated to madness of another sort, as Feste and Maria continue their long prank on Malvolio and his Yellow Cross Gartered stockings. She convinces Feste to dress up as a curate (Priest) called Sir Topas, and pay Malvolio a visit. They further the prank, by continuing to call Malvolio mad. Toby however wants to end it quickly and quietly after his last run in with Olivia, who is getting quite tired of his pranks. Feste returns to Malvolio as himself after Maria and Toby leave, and offers a helping hand to the now distraught Malvolio. Malvolio requests, and is given a pad and paper to write a note to Olivia telling her he is not insane. Feste then leaves Malvolio to his misery, to join up with the other two Musketeers.
We now return to the happy Sebastian who Olivia has successfully won over. He wishes for Antonio’s council after being unable to find him, and Olivia rushes him to the altar for fear of a change of heart from him after so much to-ing and fro-ing from Cesario.
Trust ole Shakey to wrap EVERYTHING up in one last massive scene. Literally everything right now in the story is up in the air, but he’s gonna get EEEVERYONE on to tie up all the loose ends. That’s how he likes to end things. SO! FIRST Feste proves to be a kinda decent fella and doesn’t reveal Malvolio’s letter to Fabian, despite his pestering. Next Orsino comes on with Viola and the rest of his ‘gang’. Orsino asks Feste to go tell Olivia he wants to talk to her, and to bring her to him. Next Antonio is brought on by some officers, and Viola explains to Orsino how he rescued her. He remembers Antonio from his pirate days. Antonio is of course angry at Viola, thinking she is Sebastian and refused to return him his money so he could use it for bail. Viola is once again is confused and Orsino comes to her defence. Antonio claims (rightfully) that he rescued Sebastian from the shipwreck and that they had been together for the past three months. Orsino however says that he can’t have been because Viola/Cesario had been in his employ for the past three months.
Of course then to add to the madness, on walks Olivia who, having just married Sebastian, is having none of Orsino’s nonsense. She is all sas and no nonsense with him, as he continues to bleat his undying affection to her. Olivia then gets properly peeved as Viola/Cesario says that she is not in fact married to Olivia. Olivia then brings on a priest to prove that they had just been wed. Which of COURSE infuriates Orsino, thinking his confidante has betrayed him, thus upsetting Viola, who is of course in love with him.
As if this wasn’t enough on walks Sir Andrew wailing about the abuse he has just received at Sebastian (thinking of course it was Cesario). Both he and Sir Toby have had a massive crack to the head from Sebastian’s sword, after, of course assaulting him. Okay so just a quick recap before get any further. Currently, on stage we have Feste the Clown, Sir Andrew, Sir Toby and Fabian, we have Orsino and his court, including Viola, we have Antonio and the officers with him, and we have Olivia and her attendants. SO after much moaning, the frustrated Olivia sends the two Sir’s away, and insists Andrew ‘Get him [Toby] to bed, and let his hurt be looked to’, and they leave with the help of Feste and Fabian.
Everyone at this point is mad at poor Viola, and NONE of it is her fault. As per comedic usual, it’s all because of mistaken Identity. If you are unfamiliar with Shakespeare’s comedies, you now know the basic plot of half of his plays, love and mistaken identity with a dash of twins, or siblings. And you all thought Shakespeare was hard and complex. If you are familiar with his works, how many of his plays have this plot, can you list them off by heart? Anyway, back to the plot, as all this is about to reach breaking point, on walks Sebastian, MUCH to everyone’s confusion. We have a lovely reunion between brother and sister, where they double check the other is who they think, naming dates, and ages of important events, and everything begins to make sense. Sebastian is overjoyed to see Antonio, and he is MUCH relieved to finally make sense of everything. Everything begins to tie itself together. As Viola said earlier ‘time thou must untie this knot not I thou art to hard a knot for me t’untie’ and just as she hoped, time did untie the knot, and just IN time as I think any longer and it could have turned into a tragedy. So Sebastian is happy marrying Olivia, and Viola is very happy to change her men’s garments to her female ones and Orsino *suddenly* fancies her, now that he knows she’s a girl. I could be grasping at straws here, but there are a lot of hints same sex love in this play, but that’s a story for another day.
Next we have to unravel the Malvolio plot, and just in time on comes Feste with the letter from Malvolio to Olivia. Malvolio is conveniently the only one who knows where the Captain that rescued Viola is, and therefore where her ‘female’ clothes are, so they have to make sure they get him out of his dark prison and make sense of everything that he has done…or has happened to him, depending on your view. Malvolio’s letter states that he has Olivia’s letter that she sent to him with the instructions to wear cross gartered yellow stockings etc. So they send for Malvolio, and Olivia reads the letter, and immediately figures out that it was in fact Maria who wrote the letter. Fabian steps in to explain the prank, and the news that apparently Sir Toby has married Maria as a reward or thanks for her help in the prank (though I reckon he fancied her anyways). Feste and Fabian apologise for their part, and Malvolio leaves, swearing revenge on everyone. Orsino walks off arm in arm with Cesario and says she will stay as Cesario until she gets her women’s clothes, at which point they will be married. Everyone leaves but Feste who sings a song to close the show. As usual, so while there isn’t an actual wedding at the end of the play, a wedding is implied so we can solidly call this a Comedy.
Insults:
My lady’s a – Cataian; we are – politicians;
Go Sir, rub your chain with crumbs
Mariah says to Malvolio Go Shake your ears. -Go act like a donkey.
Ungracious Wretch, Fit for the mountains and the barbarous caves…Rudesby, be gone! Olivia IVi
Act III i
Feste. No, sir, I live by the church.
Viola. Art thou a churchman?
Feste. No such matter, sir: I do live by the church; for I do live at my house, and my house doth stand by the church.
This gets me in right in the giggles, for it such silliness, living by the church usually means someone who is a Priest, or similarly involved in the church, but he is saying he literally lives by the church. As I said, Shakespeare’s sense of humor is often that of a 10 year old boy.
