Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night was certainly performed at Candlemas, February 2, which was then the culmination of the long winter feast, at Middle Temple Hall, London by Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It may have been performed earlier as well, before the Court at Whitehall Palace on Twelfth Night (January 5) of 1601.^[2]

The play was not printed until its inclusion in the First Folio in 1623.

• Orsino, Duke (or Count) of Illyria

Orsino is a powerful nobleman who governs here (either all of Illyria or at least the country round)(1.2). As the play opens, he has been pining for the Lady Olivia.

• Sebastian, twin brother to Viola

When Sebastian arrives in Illyria he is constantly mistaken for his sister Viola, who has been going about disguised as a man.

• Antonio, captain, a friend to Sebastian

Antonio rescued Sebastian from the shipwreck. He is much taken with Sebastian, and accompanies him into Illyria, although he is a wanted man there.

• Viola

A young woman of aristocratic birth, and the play's protagonist. Washed up on the shore of Illyria when her ship is wrecked in a storm, Viola decides to make her own way in the world. She disguises herself as a eunuch, calling herself “Cesario,” and becomes a page to Duke Orsino. She ends up falling in love with Orsino—even as Olivia, the woman Orsino is courting, falls in love with Cesario. Thus, Viola finds that her clever disguise has entrapped her: she cannot tell Orsino that she loves him, and she cannot tell Olivia why she, as Cesario, cannot love her. Viola's poignant plight is the central conflict in the play.

• Olivia

A wealthy, beautiful, and noble Illyrian lady. Olivia is courted by Orsino and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, but to each of them she insists that she is in mourning for her recently deceased brother and will not marry for seven years. Olivia and Orsino are similar characters in that each seems to enjoy wallowing in his or her own misery. Viola's arrival in the masculine guise of Cesario enables Olivia to break free of her self-indulgent melancholy.

• Malvolio

The straitlaced steward—or head servant—in the household of Lady Olivia. Malvolio is very efficient but also very self-righteous, and he has a poor opinion of drinking, singing, and fun. His priggishness and haughty attitude earn him the enmity of Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Maria, who play a cruel trick on him, making him believe that Olivia is in love with him. In his fantasies about marrying his mistress, Malvolio reveals a powerful ambition to rise above his social class.

• Feste

Feste is a jester in Olivia's household. The Fool moves between Olivia's and Orsino's homes, earning his living by making pointed jokes, singing old songs, being generally witty, and cadging coins from those that have them.

• Sir Toby Belch

Olivia's uncle. Olivia lets Sir Toby live with her but does not approve of his rowdy behavior, practical jokes, heavy drinking, late-night carousing, or friends (specifically the idiotic Sir Andrew). But Sir Toby has an ally—and eventually a mate—in Olivia's sharp-witted serving-woman, Maria. Together, they bring about the triumph of fun and disorder, which Sir Toby embodies, and the humiliation of the controlling, self-righteous Malvolio.

• Maria

Olivia's clever, daring young serving-woman. Maria is remarkably similar to her antagonist, Malvolio, who harbors aspirations of rising in the world through marriage. However, Maria succeeds where Malvolio fails—perhaps because she is more in tune than Malvolio with the anarchic, topsy-turvy spirit that animates the play.

• Sir Andrew Aguecheek

A 'friend' of Sir Toby's who is unknowingly manipulated by the latter throughout the play. Sir Andrew attempts to court Olivia, but he doesn't stand a chance. He thinks that he is witty, brave, young, and good at languages and dancing, but he is actually a complete idiot.

• Valentine and Curio, two gentlemen who work for Duke Orsino
• Fabian

A servant in Olivia's household. He assists Maria and Sir Toby in their plot to humiliate Malvolio.

• Captain

The sea captain who rescues Viola after the shipwreck. He helps Viola become a page to Duke Orsino and keeps her identity a secret.

Template:Spoiler The setting of Twelfth Night is especially important to the play's romantic atmosphere. "Illyria" refers to a place on the east coast of the Adriatic Sea (what is nowadays Albania), but in Shakespeare's time the name may not have suggested a real country. Illyria may have been as fantastical a place as Camelot. Like so many of Shakespeare's comedies, this one centres on mistaken identity. The leading character, Viola, is shipwrecked in the shores of Illyria during the opening scenes. She loses contact with her twin brother, Sebastian, whom she believes dead. Masquerading as a young page under the name Cesario, she enters the service of Duke Orsino. Orsino is in love with the bereaved Lady Olivia, and unsuccessfully uses Viola (dressed as a man) as an intermediary.

Olivia, believing Viola to be male, falls in love with her. Viola, in turn, falls in love with the Duke, who believes that Viola is male. When Sebastian arrives on the scene, confusion ensues. Mistaking Sebastian for Viola, Olivia asks him to marry her. The play ends in a declaration of marriage between the Duke and Viola, Toby and Maria, and Olivia and Sebastian, though the marriage is never actually seen.

Much of the play is taken up with the comic subplot, in which several characters conspire to make Olivia's pompous head steward Malvolio believe that the lady Olivia wishes to marry him. It involves Olivia's uncle, Sir Toby Belch; her would-be suitor, a silly squire named Sir Andrew Ague-Cheek; her servants Maria and Fabian; and her father's favorite fool, Feste. Sir Toby and Sir Andrew disturb the peace of their lady's house by keeping late hours and perpetually singing catches at the very top of their voices.

The company convinces Malvolio that Olivia is secretly in love with him, and writes a letter in Olivia's hand, asking Malvolio to wear yellow stockings cross-gartered, be rude to the rest of the servants, and to smile under all circumstances. Olivia, saddened by Viola's attitude to her, asks for her chief steward, and is shocked by a Malvolio who has seemingly lost his mind. She leaves him to the contrivances of the group above.

In fact, many characters in Twelfth Night assume disguises, such as Viola, Malvolio and Feste. Shakespeare uses it to raise questions about human identity and whether such classifications as gender and class status are fixed entities or can be altered with a simple shift of clothes. Although this is one of Shakespeare's most popular and funniest comedies, it has a dark side, as the behaviour of Sir Toby and Feste towards Malvolio becomes increasingly cruel towards the end. Malvolio is locked in a dungeon for alleged madness and forced to swear his submission to the heretical doctrines of Pythagoras. Malvolio departs in a bad humour, vowing revenge "on the whole pack of you." Orsino dispatches several servants to attempt to placate him.

The earliest known performance took place at Middle Temple Hall, one of the Inns of Court, on Candlemas night, February 2, 1602. The only record of the performance is an entry in the diary of the law student John Manningham, who wrote

At our feast we had a play called "Twelve Night, or What You Will," much like "The Comedy of Errors" or "Menaechmi" in Plautus, but most like and near to that in Italian called "Inganni." A good practice in it to make the steward believe his lady-widow was in love with him, by counterfeiting a letter as from his lady, in general term tellng him what she liked best in him and prescribing his gesture in smiling, his apparel, etc. and then, when he came to practice, making him believe they took him for mad."^[3]

Clearly, Manningham enjoyed the Malvolio story most of all, and noted the play's similarity with Shakespeare's earlier play, as well as its relationship with one of its sources, the Inganni plays.

When the play was first performed, all female parts were played by men or boys, but it has been the practice for some centuries now to cast women or girls in the female parts in all plays. The company of Shakespeare's Globe, London, has produced many notable, highly popular all-male performances, and a highlight of their 2002 season was Twelfth Night, with the Globe's artistic director Mark Rylance playing the part of Olivia. This season was preceded, in February, by a performance of the play by the same company at Middle Temple Hall, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the play's premiere, at the same venue.

See also Shakespeare on screen (Twelfth Night)

There have been a number of notable film adaptions of the play.

In 1910, Vitagraph Studios released the silent short adaptation Twelfth Night starring actors Florence Turner, Julia Swayne Gordon and Marin Sais.

On May 14 1937, the BBC Television Service in London broadcast a thirty-minute excerpt of the play, the first known instance of a work of Shakespeare being performed on television. Produced for the new medium by George More O'Ferrall, the production is also notable for having featured a young actress who would later go on to win an Academy Award – Greer Garson. As the performance was transmitted live from the BBC's studios at Alexandra Palace and the technology to record television programmes did not at the time exist, no visual record survives other than still photographs.^[1]

The entire play was produced for television in 1939, directed by Michel Saint-Denis and starring another future oscar-winner, Peggy Ashcroft. The part of Sir Toby Belch was taken by a young George Devine.

The 1996 film adapted and directed by Trevor Nunn, is set in the 19th century, stars Imogen Stubbs as Viola, Helena Bonham Carter as Olivia, and features Mel Smith as Sir Toby, Richard E. Grant as Sir Andrew and Ben Kingsley as Feste.

A 2003 telemovie adapted and directed by Tim Supple is set in the present day. It features David Troughton as Sir Toby, and is notable for its multi-ethnic cast including Parminder Nagra as Viola. Its portrayal of Viola and Sebastian's arrival in Illyria is reminiscent of news footage of asylum seekers.

The 2006 film She's the Man modernises the story as a contemporary teenage comedy (as 10 Things I Hate about You does to The Taming of the Shrew and O does to Othello). It is set in a prep school named Illyria and incorporates the names of the play's major characters (for example, "Duke Orsino" becomes simply "Duke" and his last name is Orsino.) The pizza place in it is named "Cesario's" and there are many references in the movie to minor characters in Twelfth Night, such as Sir Toby, Feste, Valentine, and Malvolio.

The climax of the film Shakespeare in Love dramatises a fictional inspiration for Twelfth Night.

The film V for Vendetta contains significant references to the play, including the fact that the female lead, Evey (Natalie Portman), played the role of Viola.

• Twelfth Night, Elizabeth Story Donno, ed. Cambridge 1985,2003. (New Cambridge Shakespeare)
• Twelfth Night, M. M. Mahood, ed. Penguin 1968, 1995. (New Penguin Shakespeare)
• Pennington, Michael, Twelfth Night: a user's guide. New York, 2000.

1. ^ Vahimagi, Tise. British Television: An Illustrated Guide. Oxford. Oxford University Press / British Film Institute. 1994. ISBN 0-19-818336-4. (Page 8).

• Searchable Twelfth Night Etext Unattributed edited version: bare bones, but with a long summary that is essentially a scene-dump.
• Twelfe Night A cumbersome dump of the Folio version, uncommented.
• Twelfth Night Another dump of the Folio, in a better format. It is not necessarily accurate, though Project Gutenberg does try to enlist proofreaders.