The Duel, 'Twelfth Night,' Act III, Scene IV
ShakespeareDrama

Twelfth Night

William Shakespearec. 1601
Influence20th pct
Popularity59th pct

Read this if you…

  • want the classic "girl dresses up as man" and hilarity ensues as people fall in love with different people
  • want the original context of "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some of greatness thrust upon them". It's VERY different in context

Skip this if you…

  • aren't willing to go slow, read notes, look up analyses of famous passages (only way to "get" shakespeare)
  • foolishly think shakespeare is overrated
  • don't like his comedies compared to his tragedies

Why It Matters

This is Shakespeare's most perfect comedy, a play about disguise, desire, and the lovely confusion of not knowing what you actually want. Viola is one of his most likable heroines, and the play holds real romantic feeling next to some of his sharpest comic writing. It's the one people most often call his funniest.

The Groblé Take

The fool was awesome. Malvolio was a great goodie two shoes loser. The 2 drunk knights were a good time. Some achieve greatness like is hilarious this is the context, because the guy doesn’t achieve greatness, they are messing with him

Connections

The lineage through Twelfth Night

Built Onwhat came beforeWhat It Shapedwhat it set in motionTwelfth NightMetamorphosesEmma

  • Metamorphoses by Ovid. Twelfth Night built on it. - The unrequited-love triangle isn't just clever stagecraft — it's Ovid's Echo-and-Narcissus (*Metamorphoses* Book 3) restructured for the comic stage - Viola maps onto Echo, doomed to speak in another's words; Orsino, Olivia, and Malvolio onto Narcissus, each in love with a reflection - Read the myth first and the whole play sharpens — "drowned Viola" is Narcissus at the pool, and you'll catch the echo in the play's most famous lines
  • Emma by Jane Austen. Twelfth Night shaped it. - Austen was the "prose Shakespeare," steeply read in the plays — and scholars read Malvolio's downfall straight into *Emma* - Malvolio misreads Maria's planted letter into a fantasy of being loved; Emma misreads Mr. Elton's charade exactly the same way, building a romance out of her own vanity
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Gallery

Depicted in Art

Yellow-stockinged Malvolio strikes a courtly pose before a bemused Olivia in her garden, with Maria and Sir Toby snickering in the background.

Daniel Maclise, 1840

Duke Orsino reclines as the disguised Viola/Cesario listens while Feste sings 'Come away, come away, death.'

Walter Howell Deverell, 1850

Sir Andrew and the disguised Viola, both terrified, are pushed toward each other with drawn swords by a grinning Sir Toby and Fabian.

William Powell Frith, 1843

Olivia recoils from a leering, yellow-stockinged Malvolio mid-bow while Maria looks on from the doorway.

Johann Heinrich Ramberg, 1789

Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Feste lean together over wine and song while Maria gestures them to keep quiet.

Thomas Stothard

Olivia kneels and presses her case to the disguised Viola in a sunlit garden setting.

William Hamilton, 1796

Olivia and the disguised Viola in conversation in a garden, with Maria attending nearby.

Francis Wheatley, 1771

Candle in hand, the pyjama-clad Malvolio bursts in on Sir Toby's drunken late-night party, demanding silence.

George Henry Hall, 1855

A cowering Sir Andrew and a terrified Viola/Cesario are shoved toward each other with rapiers while Sir Toby and Fabian goad them on.

Henry Bunbury, 1792

The disguised Viola stands before a seated, attentive Olivia, pleading Orsino's suit.

Frederick Richard Pickersgill

Editions

Recommended Editions

#1Top Pick$6.99$6.51

Folger Shakespeare Library

2004

Folger's the readable one. Text on one page, notes on the facing page, written in plain English instead of textbook-speak. Catches every word and reference you'd otherwise google, without breaking the scene to do it.

Buy on Bookshop
#2

SparkNotes (No Fear Shakespeare)

2003

$7.99$7.45Buy
#3

Arden Shakespeare

2008

$14.89Buy

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Deep Dive

What It's About

Spoiler warning

This summary gives away plot details.

Notable Quotes

“If music be the food of love, play on.”

— Orsino, Twelfth Night

“If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.”

— Orsino, opening line, Act I, scene 1

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