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Portrait of Twelfth Night

Shakespeare · Comedies

Twelfth Night

c. 1601–02

Comedy — from Barnabe Riche's 'Apolonius and Silla', after the Italian Gl'ingannati

Shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria and believing her twin brother drowned, Viola disguises herself as the page Cesario and enters the service of Duke Orsino, who sends her to woo the mourning Countess Olivia on his behalf. Olivia falls for the messenger, Viola falls for the Duke, and the arrival of the surviving twin untangles everything. Beneath the romance runs a crueller sub-plot in which a puritanical steward is gulled into yellow stockings and a dark room.

How to spot them

  • ▸Illyria, after a shipwreck that separates twins
  • ▸A woman disguises herself as a page and is sent to woo a countess for the man she loves
  • ▸A forged letter persuades a steward to smile, wear yellow stockings and go cross-gartered
  • ▸A clown who sings, and an alternative title, 'What You Will'
  • ▸The gulled steward is shut in a dark room and visited by a fake curate, Sir Topas

Scenes, characters & lines

'If music be the food of love, play on'

The opening line, spoken by Duke Orsino

'Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em'

Read out of the forged letter by Malvolio in the box-tree scene

'Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?'

Sir Toby Belch to the steward who has interrupted the midnight revels

'Come away, come away, death'

Feste's melancholy song, sung to Orsino

'And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges'

Feste to Malvolio in the last scene, recalling an earlier insult

A cowardly knight is tricked into a duel with a disguised woman

Sir Andrew Aguecheek is set on Cesario by Sir Toby, and neither wants to fight

'For the rain it raineth every day'

The clown's song that closes the play

Key ideas

  • The title names the last night of Christmas revels, a feast of misrule when servants and masters changed places — the licence the plot depends on
  • The comedy turns dark at the end: Malvolio leaves vowing revenge, and Antonio's devotion to Sebastian is left unresolved

Quick-fire facts

  • •John Manningham, a law student, recorded seeing it at Middle Temple Hall on 2 February 1602 — the earliest known performance
  • •Not printed until the First Folio of 1623
  • •The full title is Twelfth Night, or What You Will
  • •Viola's twin is Sebastian; the sea captain who saves him, Antonio, is arrested for an old offence against Orsino
  • •Olivia's household comprises Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Maria, Fabian and the fool Feste
  • •The letter that undoes Malvolio is written by Maria in a hand resembling Olivia's; he reads the riddle 'M, O, A, I' as pointing to himself
  • •Shakespeare's own son Hamnet had a twin sister, Judith, a fact critics often connect to the play's twins
  • •Charles Lamb and later critics made Malvolio a figure of pathos rather than pure farce
  • •The 2006 film She's the Man transplants the plot to an American high school

Drill it — 9 cards

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Sources