English 245 with Dr. Gary Gutchess
Tompkins-Cortland Community College

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Lessons

1. Classical Britain

2. Beowulf 1

3. Beowulf 2

4. Middle Ages

5. Romance

6. Sir Gawain

7. Malory

8. Chaucer's Miller

9. Wife of Bath

10. Religious Protest

11. Biblical Drama

12. Play of Mankind

13. Early Modern Period

14. Thomas More

15. Philip Sidney

16. Print Culture

17. Walter Raleigh

18. Twelfth Night 1

19. Twelfth Night  2

20. Civil War

21. An Age of Irreverence

22. Aphra Behn

23. Reading Papers

24. Gulliver

25. Rape of the Lock

26. School for Scandal

27. New God

28. Revolution

Final Exam

  *****    19. Twelfth Night, part 2    *****

Cakes and ale!

NOTES AND COMMENTARY
Adapted and enlarged by Dr. G from David Damrosch, et al.,
Teaching British Literature (New York: Longman, 2003)

Twelfth Night is named for a holiday. On the calendar, twelfth night is the feast of the Epiphany, January 6, the twelfth day of Christmas, which commemorates the visit to the infant Jesus at Bethlehem of the Magi, or the three wise men. In medieval times, this holiday had sometimes become associated with the Feast of Fools, in which hierarchical authority was flouted and general feasting and merrymaking was licensed. Erasmus' Praise of Folly and More's Utopia took this form of foolish playing to the new realm of books in the early Renaissance.

Shakespeare's play expresses this world turned upside down spirit of the twelfth night celebration in Sir Toby’s challenge to the sanctimonious steward Malvolio, “Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, / there shall be no more cakes and ale?” (2.3.90). The puritanical servant, who expects everyone to go to bed early and work as hard as he does, is as foolish in love as the rest; a letter forged by Maria leads him to believe that his mistress Olivia is in love with him. He differs from the others, however, in failing to recognize his own foolishness. Lacking self-awareness that his judgment is clouded, he gets into serious trouble.  The others see their mistakes, laugh and forgive.

Today we might have called it Mardi Gras or carnival, a time that at once celebrates and derides what it makes fun of. The foolishness of erotic desire is both celebrated and mocked in the stories of Orsino, who self-indulgently pines for Olivia from a distance while she rejects him, and of Olivia, who is instantly infatuated with a youth (actually Viola in disguise) who rebuffs her. The common enemies of carnival are melancholy and sobriety. We are aware of sadness of all of the major figures: Viola, Orsino, Olivia, Feste, Toby, and Malvolio. In each case, however, we have a detached perspective on it. Viola's brother is not dead. Olivia's brother is dead but forgotten. The problem figure, Malvolio, is the one who cannot laugh at himself, and so he excludes himself from the joyous ending.

The songs of Feste that run throughout the play deserve special attention for their lyric brilliance and musicality. In addition to hearing the songs on video, you can listen to the companion CD to our textbook. It pairs Orsino’s melancholy opening speech with Purcell and Heveningham’s far more celebratory song “If music be the food of love, play on,” vividly illustrating the ways in which British musical tradition continued to play on, and even against, Shakespeare’s poetry.
 

 Left: Ship of Fools by Hieronymus Bosch (cir. 1490, Louvre Museum) captures the spirit of the medieval feast of fools.

Left: famed Shakespearean actress Judi Dench plays Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love. Part of Shakespeare's job, like Chaucer's, was to make the monarch laugh.

Left: Feste from contemporary artist John Link's Shakespeare paintings.

Terry Gray's Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet

Sites on Shakespeare and the Renaissance

Electronic Shakespeare: Sources for Researchers

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (MIT)

Encyclopedia Britannica Guide to Shakespeare

Early Modern Literary Studies (scholarship)

Teachers First (simple guides)

Shakespeare and Other Writers (source texts)

http://www.twelfthnightsite.co.uk/index.htm

Internet Shakespeare Editions: Twelfth Night

Students are not examined on these "other resources and amusements." However, if you know of an excellent website that would wonderfully  complement this lesson, please send it to Dr. G. If he adopts it in his list, extra course credit will be awarded.

ASSIGNMENTS FOR THIS LESSON

The lesson includes both a quiz and a journal writing assignment to be submitted on the interactive course site at  SUNY Learning Network.  See General instructions on Journaling for this course. For a sample journal, see Dr. G's 2007 Brit Lit 1 Journal.

Journal

Write for an hour (or more if you have time). Summarize the readings or make notes you will find useful on the final essay. Some other journaling ideas for today include:

How does the play help us to recognize folly? Is there a wisdom that comes from this recognition?

What is your favorite scene in the play? What is especially good about it?

Does She's the Man make effective use of Twelfth Night?

How does Twelfth Night compare to modern television situation comedy?

How does the second title for the play, “What You Will,” relate to the play’s action and characterization? Consider that “will” in early modern English meant decision, wish, and irrational desire (--and of course it was Shakespeare's own handle).

How does the exclusion of Malvolio from the otherwise happy ending influence the way we feel about the conclusion of the play? The name Malvolio contains the Latin roots mal-ill or evil, and volere, to will or to de-sire, a root also present in anagrammatic form in Olivia’s and Viola’s names. 

 Copyright 2008 by Gary Homer Gutchess.