The Shakespeare Book

203

Loves

A sad place
There is something of the fairy
tale in Twelfth Night. The play
begins with a girl shipwrecked and
alone in a strange country, Illyria,
after a terrible storm. (We only find
much later that her name is Viola.)
It is a country sunk, absurdly, in
gloom. The Duke of Illyria wallows
in the melancholy of his love for
the beautiful Olivia, a fashionable
affliction in Elizabethan England.
He morbidly pleads for such an
excess of music that it will spoil
his taste for it: “If music be the
food of love, play on, / Give me
excess of it that, surfeiting, /
The appetite may sicken and so
die. / That strain again! it had a
dying fall” (1.1.1–4).
Meanwhile, the Countess Olivia,
the object of his affections, is
even more gloomy. She is deep in
mourning for her brother, and has
pledged to remain veiled for seven
years. She has given her household
to the charge of her cheerless
steward Malvolio, who sees it as

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN

his task to ensure that nobody

has any fun. Both Orsino and

Olivia have locked themselves

away in their dark places of

melancholy—just as, ironically,

Malvolio will be locked in a dark

cell when the prank played on

him goes all too well.

This melancholy is in some

ways a madness that has engulfed

Illyria. Olivia and Orsino are both

foolish in the theatrical excess of

their sadness, as Feste shows:

“Feste: Good madonna, why

mournest thou?

Olivia: Good fool, for my

brother’s death.

Feste: I think his soul is in hell,

madonna.

Olivia: I know his soul is in

heaven, fool.

Feste: The more fool, madonna, to

mourn for your brother’s soul being

in heaven” (1.5.62–67).

The bringer of joy

Viola’s role is to break this spell of

melancholy and bring joy and true

love back into this world, just like

the revel spirit of Twelfth Night.

At the time, many puritans frowned

upon the festivities of Christmas

(they succeeded in banning it in

1647) and railed against the riotous

excess of the theater, so there may

have been a political message here.

Viola, of course, has her own

bereavement to contend with.

When she comes ashore in Illyria,

she is convinced that her brother

has drowned and that she is ❯❯

Many a good hanging

prevents a bad marriage

Feste

Act 1, Scene 5

Tw i n s

Male

Lovers and suitors

Female

Countess Duke Orsino

Olivia

Loves

Viola (Cesario)

Female dressed as male

Loves

Sebastian

Servants to

Maria Valentine Curio

Malvolio

Sir Andrew

Aguecheek

Suitors of

Feste

The Fool Fabian

Servants to

Sir Tony Belch

Maid to

Friends

Uncle to

Marries