Suppose I could convince you that William Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night for a performance before Queen Elizabeth I on Twelfth Night, 6 January 1601/02? Suppose I demonstrated that Shakespeare laced his play with anagrams because the Queen loved word-games, and anagrams were all the rage at Court? What if I persuaded you that Thomas Nashe
This chapter examines two aspects of Twelfth Night which support my suggestion that Shakespeare wrote the play for performance before the Queen. One is his repeated intrusion of anagrams; the word-game was popular at Court, and the Queen herself known to play at it. The second is the previously unrecognized subject of Feste’s ‘gracious fooling
This book will come as a revelation to Shakespeare scholars everywhere. It reveals the identity of the playwright and Shakespeare’s colleague behind the mask of Jaques in As You Like It. It pinpoints the true first night of Twelfth Night and reveals why the play’s performance at the Inns of Court was a momentous occasion for shakespeare. It also the identities Quinapalus, the Vapians, Pigrogromitus and Feste, as well as the ‘Dark Lady’ of the Sonnets and the inspiration for Jessica in The Merchant of Venice. And it solves Shakespeare’s greatest riddle: the meaning of M.O.A.I. in Twelfth Night. In sum, this book reveals William Shakespeare as a far more personal writer than we have ever imagined.
In his lectures on Twelfth Night Emrys Jones insisted that ‘the whole play drives toward the moment of the twins’ reunion’. Indeed, reunion – better yet, resurrection – is (to use Molly Mahood’s choice words) the principal ‘governing idea’ of the play. I will show that there is a link between reunion-resurrection, Candlemas, and William
: INT. WILL’S ROOM. DAY. A blank page. A hand is writing: TWELFTH NIGHT. We see WILL sitting at his table. WILL (VO) My story starts at sea ... a perilous voyage to an unknown land ... a shipwreck EXT. UNDERWATER. DAY. Two figures plunge into the water. WILL (VO) the wild waters roar and heave ... the brave
In Twelfth Night 2.5, the billet-doux which gulls Malvolio proclaims, I may command where I adore, but silence like a Lucresse knife: With bloodlesse stroke my heart doth gore, M.O.A.I. doth sway my life. (100
I’ve suggested that in As You Like It Shakespeare etched into Touchstone an effigy of Thomas Nashe. I will show that in Twelfth Night Shakespeare produced another, more highly developed portrait of Nashe as Feste – and thrust him back into conflict with his real-life nemesis Gabriel Harvey, whom Shakespeare cast as Malvolio – ‘He who
anniversary of his twins’ baptism on Candlemas underlie the text of Twelfth Night , then his motive for ending on a note of melancholia becomes clear and appropriate for the first time. Throughout this book I have taken one precept as a given: every fiction writer’s works – whether stories, novels, poems, or plays – grow out of, are stirred by, and then are saturated with that writer
action of seeing is inherently luxurious and sinful and allows death to enter man’s spiritual core. The vulnerability of the eyes, and the potential for love, or evil, to enter therein is further demonstrated in Twelfth Night where Shakespeare develops a plot to untangle what appears initially to be another chain of unreturned affections. This time, rather than the magical effects of the juice of ‘love-in-idleness’ applied to the eyes, Olivia exemplifies the common belief that sight of one’s beloved renders one helpless to resist. Comparing falling in love to
and a partnership brand that turned them into actor-managers of renown, celebrity and considerable wealth. The 1900 season of Benson’s company at London’s Lyceum Theatre propelled both their careers to unexpected heights. Lily played Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Olivia in Twelfth Night to very favourable reception,9 leading to an invitation from Herbert Beerbohm Tree to play Viola in Twelfth Night in 1901. Viola, disguised as Cesario, helped to define Brayton as an actress. Her performance both conformed to and defied the gender expectations of the time