Citation Key:
AS: Arden Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Edited by Keir Elam
OED: Oxford English Dictionary
Cam: The New Cambridge Shakespeare, Edited by Elizabeth Story Donno
Page 2
Line 2: Surfeiting: “To indulge in something to satiety or excess; esp. to eat or drink to excess; to feast gluttonously or over-abundantly (on, upon etc.); to gorge” (OED)
Line 4: Staring …fall: “refers to a musical cadence [...], while continuing the pun on die– i.e. the strain (=melody and sexual effort) ends with a demineundo” (AS 162).
Line 7: Stealing … odor: i.e. the wind takes the perfume from the flowers and distributes it (AS 162).
Line 11: receiveth as the sea: “can swallow unlimited quantities” (AS 163).
Line 14-15: So … Fantastical: “an allusion to plato’s doctrine of the divine creative frenzy” (AS 163).
Line 20: The element … heat: “air – as one of the four elements (AS 165); The heat of seven summers (Cam 58).
Line 22: Cloistress: “cloistered or enclosed nun” (AS 164).
Line 22- 23: walk … round: “ i.e. walk around her room weeping” (AS 164).
Line 24: Eye-offending brine: “salt water [tears] hurting her eyes” (AS 164)
Line 24: to season: “embalm” (AS 164). You might also consider it like a brine, to preserve meat.
Line 29: golden shaft: “Cupids armory includes a gold-tipped arrow that provokes love” (AS 165).
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Line 3: Elysium: “in Greek mythology, the state or abode of the blessed after death: hence, in this context, heaven. (AS 166).
Line 4-6: Perchance: “Viola first uses the adverb in the sense of ‘perhaps’, wiling her brother alive against the odds. The captain’s benevolent quibble plays on teh etymological meaning of the word, i.e. by chance or fortune, which Viola then optimistically echoes” (AS 166).
Line 10: driving boat: “driven by the wind [...] small open boat (presumably of the kind often pulled by large ships to use as tenders” (AS 166).
Line 11: provident: “prudent, resourceful; literally making provision for the future” (AS 166).
Line 13: hold acquaintance: “ride, surf” (AS 167).
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Line 34: Eunuch: “A castrated person of the male sex; also, such a person employed as a harem attendant, or in Asian courts and under the Roman emperors, charged with important affairs of state” (OED).
Line 36: Speak … music: “Viola’s choice of verb has two possible, and complementary, implications: that she will use music as a mode of persuasive discourse, or that she will use speech as a charmingly musical means of expression (the second comes closer to describing later events)” (AS 170).
Line 37: Allow me very worth his service: “allow me to be worthy of” his service (AS 170).
Line 38: hap: “chance to happen” (AS 170).
Line 38: commit: “entrust” (AS 170).
Line 40: Mute: “[silent] guard. The captain develops Viola's idea at [line 34], since eunuchs traditionally had mutes as subordinates in eastern courts (AS 170).
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Line 1: What a plague: “an idiomatic imprecation, frequent in Shakespeare, but in this context of multiple (male) deaths it may take on a particular force. Sir Toby makes the play’s most resolute stand against death in favour of the pleasure principle” (AS 170).
Line 2: Care’s … life: “Sir Toby’s concern for Olivia’s state of mind is ‘not altogether unselfish’: he is afraid that it will restrict his own revels (AS 171).
Line 4: cousin: “there are seventeen references to Olivia as Sir Toby’s ‘niece’, six references to either of them as ‘cousin’; this latter term was widely used to denote an imprecise degree of kinship (Cam62).
Line 6: except … excepted: “Let her object before being objected to (by me). Sir Toby is quibbling on the legal expression exceptis excipiendis (excepting those things that are not to be expected) as if defending himself in court” (AS 171).
Line 8: modest … order: “bounds of moderate behavior” (AS 171).
Line 9: confine: “dress up; slim down. Sir Toby puns on Maria’s sense of ‘restrict your behaviour” (AS 171).
Line 11-12: Hang themselves: “a variation on the proverbial express: ‘he may go hand himself in his own garters’” (AS 171).
Line 13: quaffing: “drinking deep” (AS 171)
Line 18: ducats: “a ducat was a gold coin (originally a silver Italian coin) worth approximately nine shillings. Sir Toby thus estimates Sir Andrew’s fortune at 27,000 shillings or 1,350 pounds per annum” (AS 171).
Line 19: he’ll … ducats: “i.e. he’ll lose all his money within a year” (AS 172).
Line 20: prodigal: “spendthrift [...] for Sir Toby this is Sir Andrew’s chief merit” (AS 172).
Line 21: Fie: “shame on you” (AS 172).
Line 21: Speaks … languages: “an ironic claim belied by Andrew’s ignorance of French at line [79] (AS 172).
Line 27: substractors: “a (drunken?) deformation of ‘detractors’” (AS 172).
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Line 37: shrew: “Presumably Sir Andrew intends this as a complement, meaning ‘shrew-mouse’, a term of endearment; the colloquial sense of the word, however, was a bad-tempered woman or scold” (AS 173).
Line 39: accost: “engage with, assail” (AS 174).
Line 41: Chambermaid: “not in the sense of a woman who cleans bedrooms, but in the socially more elevated sense of Lady’s maid” (AS 174).
Line 43: Mary: “in the dialogue it [Maria, Italian form] alternates with the English equivalent ‘Mary’” (AS 158).
Line 45: accost: “Sir Toby’s definition of accost can be interpreted discursively as ‘amorously address’ or physically as “have sex with.” Sir Andrew responds to the second sense” (AS 174).
Line 47: undertake her: “take in hand, in two senses: deal with and have sexual realtions with; the second meaning is taken up in the puns on hand” (AS 174).
Line 48: This company: wouldn’t have sex with Olivia in the company of Sir Toby, or perhaps more advantageous for this production, the audience.
Line 50: And … so: “i.e. if you let her go without having accosted her” (AS 174).
Line 51: Never draw sword: “i.e. cease to be a sword-carrying gentleman. Sir Andrew’s parroting of the phrase leads him unwittingly to suggest a desire to be impotent (or emasculated)” (AS 174).
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Line 58: Buttery Bar: “a Buttery is a room where liquor and provisions are stored [...] Maria is still toying with sexual innuendo, presumably inviting Sir Andrew to touch her breasts (where milk or butter is stored)” (AS 175).
Line 60-63: dry: “Sir Andrew takes Maria’s metaphorical dry [that is she has no milk or Drink for Sir Andrew] as a literal reference to his hand, thus revealing his ignorance of what a metaphor really is” (AS 175).
Line 66: At my fingers’ ends: “always ready” (AS 176).
Line 67: Now I .. barren: “i.e. I am empty of jests now that I have let go of the butt of them; barren also because of Sir Andrew’s ineffective hand ( a further institution of impotence) (AS 176).
Line 68: canary: “a light sweet wine from the Canary Islands” (AS 176).
Line 69: put down: “i.e. defeated in repartee” (AS 176).
Line 71: put me down: “knock me out (as when drunk)” (AS 176).
Line 73-74: Eater of beef … wit: “according to popular ‘medical’ lore, beef was supposed to dull the brain” (AS 176).
Line 78: pourquoi? Do, or not do?: “suggests a sexual allusion and confirms Sir Andrew’s ignorance of foreign languages [...] he suspects pourquoi is a verb equivalent to accost” (AS 176-77).
Page 8
Line 90: the Count: Referring to Duke Orsino, in the play Orsino is referred to as both a count or duke, perhaps in homage to Duke Virginio Orsini who also happened to be Count of Anguillara. This is the same Duke that may have been in attendance at a possible first performance of Twelfth Night when he visited England and was entertained by the queen on January 6, 1601. (AS 158, 178).
Line 91: She’ll not match above her degree: “confirms the indeterminacy of Orisino’s rank: if he is a count he is not above the Countess Olivia” (AS 178). If he is also a Duke, then he is above Countess Olivia Socially.
Line 93: tut: “expression of impatience” (AS 178)
Line 95: Masques and revels: “The masque, in which dancing played a prominent role, arrived in England from continental Europe during the sixteenth century, and became a court entertainment for Elizabeth I under the control of the Master of the Revels. Perhaps Sir Andrew fancies himself at court” (AS 178).
Line 97: Kickshawses: “dainty trifles (from French quelque chose; original a fancy dish [...] In this context of dance discourse, there is probably a pun on ‘kicks’, and [might] suggest a sexual inneundo as in Fletcher’s The Elder Brother, where Brisac tells the made lilly: ‘And th’hast another Kickshaw, I must taste it” (AS 178).
Line 99: I will not compare with an old man: “I am not to be compared” and “a failed attempt at a compliment: Sir Andrew presumably intends ‘old hand’ or expert, with reference to Sir Toby, but ends up committing a faux pas regarding the latter’s age.” (AS 178)
Line 100: Excellence in a galliard: do you excel in a galliard, “a quick and lively court dance in triple time consisting of five steps, with a caper or leap before the fifth” (AS 178).
Line 101: Cut a caper: “dance or leap in a fantastic (literally goat-like) way” (AS 179).
Line 102: Back-trick: “presumably a backward caper in a galliard; perhaps an unconscious reference to sexual intercourse, from behind” (AS 179).
Line 107: coranto: “courtly ‘running’ dance in 2/4 time, characterized by a running or gliding step, as distinguished from leaping” (AS 179).
Line 107: walk should be a jig: The notion that if Sir Toby possess such dancing skill, he would dance a jig in order to walk anywhere.
Line 108: Sink-a-pace: “cinquepace (french, literally, ‘five steps’): another term for the gailliard. Sir Toby’s “make water” suggests a pun on ‘sink’, i.e. cesspool or sewer.” (AS 179).
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Line 2: Cesario: First reference to a name for Viola’s character, and the one in which she is referred throughout most of the play. “Her adopted name, equally Italian, may derive from ‘Cesare’, the assumed name of the cross-dressed heroine in Curzio Gonzaga’s comedy Gli inganni.” (AS 181).
Line 3: Three Days: “Temporal references in the comedy are neither precise nor consistent: contrast “three months” (pg 66, line 64) [stated by Antonio]. Here the emphasis is on the rapidity with which Cesario has entered into Orsino’s favour.” (AS 181).
Line 5: humour: “disposition or temperament” (AS 181).
Line 6: continuance: “permanence” (AS 181).
Line 9: unclasp’d: “alludes to the often elaborate clasps that fastened the covers of valuable books, especially bibles; the first of a number of references to Orsino’s body and mind as a book” (AS 181).
Line 13: Fixéd foot shall grow: That you will grow roots where you stand until you get to speak to Olivia. (AS 182).
Line 15: abandon’d: “totally given up” (AS 182).
Line 26 Diana’s lip: “Diana, already alluded to by Orsino with reference to Olivia, was the Roman moon-goddess, patroness of hunting, fertility and virginity (her lip having never been kissed by man). Cesario’s face becomes the epitome of feminine beauty” (AS 183).
Line 27: rubious: “ruby-colored” (As183).
Line 27-29: Small pipe … woman’s part: Cesario has a high voice (perhaps some play on this being a boy actor), organ meaning voice or female genitals, that is shrill, and resembles that of a woman’s (AS 183).
Page 10
Line 34: barful strife: “i.e. an internal struggle full of bars or impediments (because against her natural inclination” (AS 183).
Page 11
Line 2-3: Not open … excuse: “I will keep my mouth firmly closed” so as not even a bristle “(literally, hog hair)” could enter, much less any excuse for your absence. (AS 184).
Line 4-5: well hanged … no colors: “i.e. a hanged man need fear no foes; fear no colours is proverbial, the ‘colours’ being originally those of a regimental flag. In the context of hanging, there is probably a pun on colours/collars. A sexual quibble may also be present, “well hanged” = ‘well hung’: a well-endowed man need fear nbody or, possibly, need not fear blushing from embarrassment” (AS 184).
Line 11: Many a good hangings… marriage: “good hanging als retains here its slang sense of virility, i.e. a generous sexual endowment improves married life” (AS 185).
Line 12: And for turning away, let summer bear it out: “as for dismissal” let summer make it bearable” (AS 185).
Line 13-14: If Sir Toby … in Illyria: Alluding to the eventual marriage or Sir Toby and maria as well as “compressing” Maria’s two attractions into one statement: her wit and beauty (AS 185).
Line 21: Quinaplaus: an invented Latin authority, probably inspired– given the context of rhetorical and logical discussion– by Quintilian(us), author of the Institutio Oratoria, a book much studied in Elizabethan schools and universities” (AS 186).
Line 27: madonna: “my lady; used by Shakespeare only for Feste in TN. Feste’s use of an Italian form of address may help to define Olivia’s Mediterranean background. The modern meaning ‘Virgin Mary’ entered into the language later” (AS 186).
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Line 31: Botcher: “mender of clothes” (AS 187).
Line 34: syllogism: “an argument comprising three propositions. Feste’s syllogism parodies logical reasoning in a self-mocking attempt to raise the tone of his defense” (AS 187).
Line 39: Misprision: “misunderstanding” (AS 187).
Line 42: Dexteriously: “dextrously, cleverly (an early modern variant)” (AS 188).
Line 44: catechise: “interrogate systenmatically as in a catechism [...] Feste proceeds to conduct a mock-religious interrogation of Olivia, perhaps to provoke the upright Malvolio” (AS 188).
Line 46: Bide: “wait for; endure” (AS 188).
Line 56: mend: “improve (his fooling)” (AS 188).
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Line 69: zanies: Commedia Del’arte servant characters “assistant to the clown, and in its English form came to mean secondary figure or poor imitator” (AS 189).
Line 75-76: Mercury … fools: “May Mercury (the god of deception) teach you to lie, since you speak well of fools, i.e. truthfully” (AS 190).
Line 92: Pia mater: “brain” (AS 191).
Page 14
Line 6: pickle-herring: “i.e. pickled herring, the immediate cause, together with the accompanying wine, for Belch’s belching” (AS 192).
Line 6: sot: “fool or drunkard” (AS 192).
Line 10: Lechery: “Habitual indulgence of lust; lewdness of living” (OED). Hear toby replace the sin of lethargy (perhaps by mishearing) into another, lechery (AS 192).
Page 15
Line 32: Sheriff’s post: “two painted posts – on which proclamations were affixed–were set up at the Sherrif’s or mayor’s door; thus they (literally) stand for the epitome of firmness” (AS 193).
Line 41: peascod: “synonmy of squash” Maybe a pun on codpiece (AS 194).
Line 42: Codling: “unripe apple” (AS 194).
Line 9: con it: Memorize it.
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Line 15: comedian: “professional actor” (AS 196).
Line 17: fangs of malice: “an oath, driving from the biblical association of evil with the serpent” (AS 196).
Lin 17: I am not that I play: “i.e. I am not equated solely with the part of Orsino’s emissary; I am not what I seem: the first of several hints by Viola that she is assuming a disguise” (AS 196).
Line 29: not that time of moon: “I’m not in the mood; I’m not mad myself. Changes in the moon were thought to influence the human mind, hence its association with madness (i.e. lunacy)” (AS 197).
Line 32: swabber: “deckhand; a gibe at Maria’s rank” (AS 197).
Line 33: some mollification for your giant: “to appease” (Mollification, OED). “In the romance tradition giants acted as guards for ladies, but there is probably also an ironical reference here to the diminutive size of the boy actor playing Maria” (AS 197).
Line 40: maidenhead: as secret as virginity.
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Line 56: If god did all: “if it is all natural, i.e. unaided by cosmetics” (AS 199).
Line 58: ‘tis beauty truly blent: “naturally blended. Nature and not art has mixed the colours of Olivia’s complexion harmoniously” (AS 199).
Line 61: no copy: no child (AS 200).
Line 71: nonpareil: “queen (literally, unequaled representative)” (AS 201).
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Line 72: fertile: “abundant” (AS 201).
Line 83: willow cabin: temporary shelter (AS 201).
Line 85: contemned: “despised” (AS 202).
Line 88: babbling gossip: “echo, alluding both materially to the sound of the shouted name being repeated by the hills and mythpoetically to Echo, the mountain nymph who, in Ovid, fades away for love of Narcissus and becomes mere voice” (AS 202).
Line 99: fee’d post: “hired messenger” (AS 203).
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Line 108: Five-fold blazon: “coat of arms (here fivefold, i.e. having five decorative elements)” (AS 203).
Line 15: peevish: “Perverse, refractory; headstrong, obstinate; capricious, skittish; (also) coy” (OED).
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Line 4: malignancy: “evil influence: an astrological term” (AS 205).
Line 10: Roderigo: “Sebastian’s reference to his earlier disguise remains unexplained” (AS 205).
Line 10: Messaline: “perhaps Massilia, the latin name for Marseille; Mahood notes that in the Menaechmi (a play about twins, and the main source of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors) Plautus mentions the inhabitants of Marseille and Illyria together. [...] The name also humorously recalls Messalina, notoriously licentious and corrupt wife of the Roman emperor Claudius” (AS 205-06).
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Line 19: her eyes had lost her tongue: “her ogling me had made her lose the power of speech” (AS 209).
Line 27: pregnant enemy: “the devil, or, as Johnson puts it, ‘the dexterous fiend, or enemy of mankind’; pregnant here means ‘ready’, ‘receptive’ (AS 210).
Line 28: proper false: “handsome but deceitful (men): oxymoron. In Viola’s case male beauty is literally false” (AS 210).
Line 29: Women’s waxen heart: “to imprint their [men’s] appearance on women’s receptive hearts” (AS 210).
Line 32: Fadge: “turn out” (AS 210).
Line 38: Thriftless: “ unprofitable” (AS 211).
Page 22
Line 9: four elements: “fire, air, water and earth. In ancient medieval science the four elements were believed to exist in every substance and to combine within the human body to form the four humours: choler, blood, phlegm, and melancholy. Sir Toby may be implicitly asserting here his own sanguine humour against Sir Andrew;s tendency towards melancholy” (AS 212).
Line 15: ‘we three’: “alludes to a painting or inn sign representing two asses or loggerheads; the caption ‘we three’ implicated the spectator– here presumably Feste himself– as the third ass of loggerhead” (AS 212).
Line 16: catch: “round, i.e. a humours part-song in which one voice ‘catches’ or follows on immediately from another” (AS 212).
Line 17: Breast: “singing voice” (AS 212).
Line 21 -22: Pigrogromitus … Quebus: “Sir Andrew’s recollection of the Clown’s apparently nonsensical fooling may be drunkenly distorted. The general theme seems to concern the heavenly bodies, with possible religious overtones. Furness sees Pigrogromitus as a deformation of Teatragrammation (the ineffable four-letter name for God). Alternatively, it might be the name of an imaginary constellation, formed form Pirgo and gomito (Italianfor ‘lazy’ and ‘elbow’), with probably play also on plain English, ‘pig’. The Vapians may recall ‘Vesper’, the evening star (or plural vespers, i.e. evensong), perhaps contaminated by vapours (exhalation damaging to health). The equinotical is presumably the celestial equator [...] with quebus being a coruption of Platos ‘Cubus’. Alternatively it may be a deformation of ‘quibble’ (or of its latin origin, quibus), i.e. the very kind of verbal play Sir Andrew is quoting” (AS 213).
Line 24: Impeticos: “pocket (verb): nonce-word compounded from the verb ‘impocket’ and the noun ‘petticoat’” (AS 213).
Line 24: gratillity: “a deformation of gratuity” (AS 213).
Line 24: whipstock: “whip handle, possibly implying that the mean and puritanical Malvolio is not easily manipulated into giving money” (AS 214).
Line 26: Myrmidons: “in Homer’s Iliad, the followers of Achilles at the siege of Troy [...]. The term also had the slang sense of ‘unscrupulously faithful’ followers or hirelings, the likely meaning here, presumably alluding to Feste himself as faithful servant of the Lady Olivia. [...] Feste may also be punning on ‘Mermaid Inn’, the famous London Tavern where Shakespeare supposedly drank with Ben Jonson.” (AS 214).
Line 26: Bottle-ale houses: “low-class taverns” (AS 214).
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Line 51: Contagious breath: “cathcing voice. Less poetically, the phrase also implies [bad breath]” (AS 216).
Line 52: Welkin: “Sky” (AS 216).
Line 54: Dog at: “good at” (AS 216).
Page 24
Line 70: caterwauling: “shrill howling or wailing noise made by cats before mating or fighting” (AS 217).
Line 73: Cataian: “literally, a person from Cathay, the ancient Mongolian name for China, but which Shakespeare’s contemporaries believed to be a separate georgrpahical entity. Sir Toby appears to use the word in a derogatory sense” for “liar” or “theif” or “scoundrel” (AS 217).
Line 74: Peg-a-Ramsey: “there are two ballads to tunes of this title. The first, [...] narrates the story ofa jealous wife who ends up earring–intriguingly with reference to this play– ‘the yellow hose’ (i.e. the trousers) [...] The Second [...] is a bawdy tale of a lusty lass who, in order to make her water-mill work in times of drought, ‘up she pull’d her petticoats and piss’d into the Dam’. In this case, Malvolio is implicitly compared to another ‘loose woman’” (AS 217-18).
Line 75: consanguineous: “related by blood (to olivia)” (AS 218).
Line 76: Tilly-Vally: “nonsense (equivalent to ‘fiddlesticks’) (AS 218).
Page 25
Line 6: Sneck up: “Go hang” (AS 219).
Page 26
Line 27: cakes and ale: “the food and drink traditionally associated with church festivities such as saint’s days and holy days (like Twelfth Night), and as such particularly unpalatable to ceremony-hating ‘Puritans’ like Malvolio” (AS 220).
Line 28: Saint Anne: “the mother of the Virgin Mary: a common oath, perhaps intended here–because it is of Catholic origin– as a provocation to the ‘Puritan” Malvolio” (AS 221).
Line 28: ginger: “used to spice ale and cultivated for its supposed aphrodisiac powers” (AS 221).
Line 30-31: Rub your chain with crumbs: “go and clean your chain of office: another reminder of Malvolio’s lowly status” (AS 221).
Line 36: Go shake your ears: “i.e. like an ass” (AS 221).
Line 40: Gull him into a nayword: “trick him into making his name a byword for stupidity” (AS 222).
Line 45: Puritan: “a somewhat ambiguous term of abuse: ‘Puritans’, as their opponents dubbed them, were reformist Protestants who wished to complete the Reformation with further ‘purification’ of the church, but the word came to be applied more generally to self-righteous moralists” (AS 222).
Line 52: time-pleaser: “time-server or opportunist” (AS 223).
Line 52: affectioned: “affected”
Line 57: epistles: “letters, the fact that both Maria and Sir Toby refer to letters in the plural suggests that more than one may have been originally intended” (AS 223).
Line 60: personated: “acted [...], a theatrical term” (AS 224).
Page 27
Line 72: Sport Royal: “a sport worthy of Kings, with reference to hunting” (AS 224).
Line 72: Physic: “medicine” (AS 224).
Line 77: Penthesilea: “Queen of the Amazons [...] an admiring reference to Maria’s combative spirit” (AS 225).
Line 87: Call me cut: “short tailed or gelded horse” (AS 225).
Page 28
Line 24-25: for women … fall that very hour: “women’s rose-like beauty and its flower-like brevity are poetic commonplaces” (AS 228).
Page 29
Line 33: in sad cypress: “in a coffin of black cypress wood” (AS 230).
Line 34: Fie Away: “be gone (from me). An early modern English idiom, in antithesis to ‘come away’” (AS 230).
Line 53: Melancholy god: Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture, identified in astrology with the planet ruling over the melancholy humour, and in alchemy with lead. Feste is making fun of Orsino’s habitual ‘dark’ pose and his current bad mood” (AS 231).
Line 54: Changeable taffeta: “shot silk. In Lyly’s Eupheus it is associated with mood changes under the influence of love” (AS 231).
Line 55: Opal: “Feste allows himself the fool’s license of strongly satirizing the duke’s inconstancy, while appearing to pay the complement of comparing him first with valuable cloth and then with a prized gem” (AS 231).
Page 30
Line 14: retention: “the capacity to retain (love): a medical term, referring literally to the body’s ability to retain liquid, especially urine [...]. Early modern scientific discourse often classified women as incontinent ‘leaky vessels’. The incontinence of which women were accused was above all sexual, however” (AS 233).
Line 15: appetite: “bodily craving” (AS 233).
Line 28: damask cheek: “Pink, like the damask rose” (AS 235).
Line 29: green and yellow: “pale and sickly, in contrast to pink damask” (AS 235).
Page 31
Line 40: can … denay: “can neither yield nor tolerate refusal; denay is an alternative spelling for ‘deny’, and is kept here for the sake of the rhyme with say” (AS 236).
Page 32
Line 3: metal of India: “i.e. gold from India, legendary land of abundance, with a probable pun on mettle (spirit)” (AS 237).
Line 5: behaviour: “elegant deportment” (AS 237).
Line 8-9: Trout that must be caught with tickling: “catching trout by stroking their gills in shallow water is proverbially easy” (AS 238).
Line 10: Fortune: “chance, i.e. it is mere chance that Olivia is an heiress and Malvolio an underling, and this state of affairs may change” (AS 238).
Line 15: overweening: “Excessively or unreasonably high expectation or opinion of oneself; excessive self-esteem; arrogance, presumption. Also: an instance of conceited or self-important behaviour” (OED).
Line 17: Turkey-cock: “proverbial symbol of male self-importance” (AS 238).
Line 36-7: The Lady of the Starchy … wardrobe: “this episode of marriage between a noble-woman and a servant, keeper of her clothes, may be invented, or it may be a theatrical in-joke. Sisson learned of one William Starchey, shareholder in the Children’s company at Blackfriars theatre in 1606, and one David Yeomans, the wardrobe master or ‘tireman’ of the company. A more probably candidate as yeoman is Edward Kirkham, one of Starchey’s patterns in the Blackfriars company, who was granted a royal patent as ‘yeoman or keeper’ of ‘our Great Wardrobe’ in 1586” (AS 239).
Page 33
Line 43: stone-bow: “”crossbow used for shooting stones” (AS 240).
Line 44: branched: “ornamented with embroidered branches” (AS 240).
Line 45: Day-bed:” couch for resting in the daytime” (AS 240).
Line 47: Fire and Brimstone: “Hell! An oath of biblical origin” (AS 240).
Line 50: Bolts and shackles: “fetters (for Malvolio in Prison) an imprecation [spoken curse]” (AS 240).
Line 54: wind up my watch: “a luxury item” in the period (AS 240).
Line 67: scab: “scoundrel: a common insult in early modern English” (AS 241).
Page 34
Line 68: break the sinews: “disable, ruin: the risk of giving the game away” (AS 241).
Line 72-3: contempt of question: “beyond all doubt” (AS 242).
Line 78: liver and all: “passionately. The liver is the seat of passion” (AS 243).
Line 83-84: the numbers altered: the metre [in the poetry] has been changed” (AS 243).
Line 86: Brock: “Badger, proverbially malodorous, with the further colloquial sense of ‘rogue’” (AS 243).
Line 88: Lucrece knife: “the ‘harmful knife’ with which Lucretia killed herself” (AS 243).
Line 91: Fustian: “bombastic, inflated” (AS 243).
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Line 103-04: the cur is excellent at faults: “the hound is good at finding lost trails” (AS 244).
Line 108: ‘O’ shall end: “Johnson is surely right in taking O to be the hangmen’s noose” (AS 245).
Line 111: crush this a little: “force” this a little (AS 245).
Line 113: revolve: “reflect” (AS 245).
Line 119: tang: “ring out like a bell” (AS 246).
Line 120: trick of singularity: “take on the affected mannerism of eccentricity.” Trick means “peculiar habit.” Singularity means “conspiculously unusual behaviour” (AS 246).
Line 122: yellow stockings: “these many have been [...] ‘a garish fashion associated with bachelors’ in 1602, but its more probable that they were hopelessly out of fashion: hence the jest” (AS 247).
Line 122: cross-gartered: “i.e. wearing what Junius in 1585 defines as ‘Fasciae crurales … hose garers going lacrosse, or overthward, both above and beneath the knee” (AS 247).
Line 127: The Fortunate Unhappy: “she who is blessed by wealth but unfulfilled in love” (AS 247).
Line 131: point-device: “in every detail the man described in the letter” (AS 248).
Page 36
Line 147: Sophy: “The shah of Persia: a probable allusion to the claim by Sir Anthony Shirley and his brothers to have received rich gifts, including 16,000 pistolets (cf. ‘a pension of thousands’), during an embassy to Shah Abbas the Great in 1599” (AS 249).
Line 150: gull-catcher: “trapper of fools, the expression imitates the mor familiar ‘coy-catcher’” (AS 249).
Line 161: gates of Tartar: “hell. In classical mythology Tartarus is the deepest part of the underworld” (AS 250).
Page 37
Line 4: churchman: “clergyman. Viola’s question is ironically superfluous, since Feste is presumably wearing jester’s motley” (AS 251).
Line 14: dally: “means idiomatically to indulge in sexual games” (AS 251).
Line 14-15: “those who toy daintily with words render them meanings equivocal” (AS 251).
Line 15: wanton: “unchaste” (AS 251).
Line 23-24: I do not care for you … invisible: “The something that Feste cares for is money; but he also implies Cesario is nothing, that he is a cypher, a zero: a possible allusion to his ambiguous gender as well as his social status” (AS 252).
Line 28: corrupter of words: “as a sophisticated court fool, Feste’s main professional role is precisely that of ‘dallier’ with language rather than exponent of simpler forms of jesting” (AS 252).
Page 38
Line 30: Foolery … everywhere: “Feste is alluding to his own coming and going between both houses, but is also implying that we are all fools, a thought he expands upon” (AS 253).
Line 36-7: send thee a beard: “Feste seems to come close to seeing through Viola’s disguise; he may be taunting Cesario for his lack of virility, as well as for his (and the boy actor’s) youth” (AS 253).
Line 38-9: I am almost sick for one … chin: “(1) with emphasis on ‘my’: Viola would like to possess Orsino’s beard (and thus him), rather than one of her own; (2) with emphasis on chin: Partridge, suggests an allusion to the beard of pubic hair” (AS 253).
Line 40: Would not a pair of these have bred, sir?: “i,e, why not a second coin, which together with the first, might produce yet another, their ‘child’?” (AS 253).
Line 45: welkin: “sky” (AS 254)
Line 45: ‘element’: “sky or air” (AS 254).
Line 51: Dieu Vous garde, monsieur: “god save you, sir.”
Line 52: Et vous aussi: votre serviteur: “and you, your servant.” Your servant is taken here as a peasantry.
Page 39
Line 60: pregnant and vouchsafed: pregnant meaning “receptive.” vouchsafed meaning “kindly granted, well disposed” (AS 257).
Line 10: whet: “predispose” (AS 258).
Line 14: Music from the spheres: “a Platonic concept widely current in Shakespeare’s day” (AS 258). “In their rotations, the crystalline spheres containing the planets and the fixed stars were held to create a ravishing harmony inaudible to mortal ears” (Cam 111).
Page 40
Line 28-29: How much the better / To fall before the lion than the wolf: “It is generally accepted that Olivia ‘refers to herself rather than Viola’, and that she is proud at least to have fall for the lion Cesario, but she may equally well be referring to his heartlessly patronizing attitude, despite his lowly status: he has, after all, just implied that she is an enemy to be pitied. Cesario thereby becomes vicious wolf rather than noble lion. Olivia, in any case, is casting herself in the role of defenseless lamb, alluding to the proverb ‘the lamb is more in dread of the wolf than of the lion’” (AS 260).
Line 32: when wit and youth is come to harvest: “when intelligence and youfulness ripen” (AS 260).
Line 33: reap: “obtain, enjoy sexually” (AS 260).
Line 34: westward ho: “a london expression, namely the Thames watermen’s call to passengers from the City going west, for example to the court at Westminster. [...] Less flatteringly, the phrase also alluded to imprisonment in Tyburn” (AS 260).
Line 47-48: A murd’rous guilt … seem hid: “doubly proverbial: ‘murder will out’, ‘Love cannot be hid’” (AS 262).
Line 48: Love’s night is noon: “a further proverbial variation on ‘love cannot be hid’” (AS 262). Probably referring to Olivia’s love here, but maybe also alluding to Viola’s love of Orsino.
Page 42
Line 1: jot: “The least letter or written part of any writing; hence, generally, the very least or a very little part, point, or amount; a whit” (OED).
Line 2: dear venom: “oxymoron, alluding sarcastically to Sir Andrew’s supposedly fierce resolution to leave” (AS 263).
Line 12: ‘Slight: “by god’s light, one of Sir Andrew’s preferred oaths” (AS 263).
Line 17: fire-new from the mind: “brand-new, like a freshly minted coin” (AS 264).
Line 20-1: sailed into the north … Dutchmen’s beard: “into the cold region of Olivia’s disfavour: an allusion to the 1596-97 expedition to the East Indies via the North-east passage” (AS 264).
Line 24: policy: “shrewd diplomacy” (AS 264).
Line 28: love-broker: “go-between in love affairs, pander” (AS 265).
Page 43
Line 33: martial hand: “in an aggressive military style; or, in scrawling solider-like handwriting. Sir Toby is setting up Sir Andrew as the traditional cowardly braggart solider of comedy” (AS 265).
Line 33: curst and brief: curst means “bad-tempered.” brief means “curt” (AS 265).
Line 35: lies: “accusations of lying. The ‘giving of the lie’ was the main cause of duels” (AS 266).
Line 42: Blood in his liver: “the liver was thought to be the organ that generated blood and was thsu the seat of courage; Sir Andrew is bloodless or ‘lily-livered’” (AS 267).
Line 45: presage: “promise (literally, omen” (AS 267).
Line 46: the spleen: “a fit of laughter. In early modern popular medicine the spleen was synonymous with sudden passion in general, and was thought to govern uncontrollable laughter as well as anger and melancholy” (AS 267).
Line 47: gull: “dupe” (AS 267).
Line 51: murderer: “Maria’s rather sinister simile recalls the violent blood sports metaphors against Malvolio in [act 2]” (AS 268).
Page 44
Line 8: being skilless: “since you are unfamiliar with” (AS 269).
Line 15: relics of this town: “antiquities. Sebastian wants to go sightseeing” (AS 270).
Line 23: service: “Military (naval) operation. The exact nature of Antonio’s service against Orsino’s fleet are not specified, although it was serious enough to put his life at risk and involved the seizing of property, so much so that Orsino accuses him of piracy” (AS 271).
Line 24: scarce be answer’d: “be difficult to defend himself (in court); or, be difficult to make amends for” (AS 271).
Line 25: belike: “presumably” (AS 271).
Line 28: for traffic’s sake: “in the interests of trade: i.e. the other members of Antonio’s city returned the seized goods in order to restore commerce with Illyria” (AS 271).
Line 29: stood out: “Went against the general trend, isolating myself; stood firm. The reason for Antonio’s refusal to restore Orsino’s property, thereby exposing himself to danger, is again not specified” (AS 271).
Line 30: Lapséd: “apprehended” (AS 272).
Page 45
Line 33: south suburbs: “an ironic reference to London, and in particular to the Liberties, an area outside the jurisdiction of the City of London, notorious as an area of brothels” (AS 272).
Line 33: the Elephant: “a continuation of the suburbs joke: there was indeed an Elephan Inn on Bankside, which was in practice ‘an inn-cum-brothel’” (AS 272).
Line 34: bespeak our diet: “order our meal” (AS 272).
Line 35: Beguile: “To divert attention in some pleasant way from (anything painful, or irksome); to elude the disagreeable sensation of, and so to cause to pass insensibly or pleasantly; to charm away, wile away” (OED).
Line 38: haply: “perhaps” (AS 272).
Line 39-40 Your store, I think, is not for idle markets: “the money you possess is not enough to spend on luxuries” (AS 272).
Page 46
Line 3: bought … borrowed: “a variation on the proverb that Taverner translates from Erasmus as’I had [rather] bye then begge’ [...] Olivia is determined not to debase herself by pleading with Cesario, but is willing to buy his love with a gift” (AS 273).
Line 27: Roman hand: “Italic handwriting, as opposed to the English ‘secretary’ hand. Olivia uses the modish calligraphy imported from Italy, as evidently does Maria” (AS 275).
Page 47
Line 52: midsummer madness: “Extreme Foolishness” (OED). “proverbial: the only occurrence of the expression in Shakespeare, although arguably the whole of Midsummer Night’s Dream dramatizes it (AS 277).
Page 48
Line 67: Limed: “caught; birdlime is sticky resin used to trap small birds, or metaphorically, the beloved’s heart” (AS 278).
Line 69: fellow: “Malvolio interprets this optimistically as ‘equal’ or ‘peer’” (AS 278).
Line 71: No dram of a scruple: “not the slightest impediment or doubt; dram and scruple are both small aopthecaries’ weights (respectively ⅛ and 1/24 of an ounce) so that ‘scruple of a scruple’ is the smallest amount imaginable. Metaphorically, scruple also signifies uncertainty” (AS 278-79).
Line 7: hollow: “with a hollow and echoing voice (adverb). OED Adv. 1 (first occurrence) suggests ‘insincerely’” (AS 279).
Page 49
Line 16: La you: “Look you” (AS 280).
Line 18: Carry his water to th’ wise woman: Water meaning, “Urine (for diagnosis of disease),” Wise woman meaning “ a benevolent ‘witch’ or herbalist, expert in charms and remedies against disease and bewitchment” (AS 280).
Line 25: bawcock … chuck: “childish terms of endearment, patronizing the ‘mad’ Malvolio. A bawcock is literally a ‘fine cock’ or good fellow. [...] chuck, ‘chicken’, was often used with children” (AS 281).
Line 29: Minx: “hussy, impudent girl” (AS 281).
Line 40: we’ll have him in a dark room and bound: “the customary treatment at the time for madness” (AS 282).
Line 45: finder of madmen: “i.e. member of a jury appointed to decide whether the accused is insane” (AS 282).
Page 50
Line 4: I warrant him: “Truly. A discourse marker: literally, I stand guarantor for it” (AS 283).
Line 6: scurvy: “worthless” (AS 283).
Line 10: Blow of the law: “protects you from the risk of legal action” (AS 283).
Line 13: Liest in thy thoat: “you are a complete liar” (AS 283).
Page 51
Line 40: clodpole: “blockhead: literally, having a head (poll) made of a clod of earth” (AS 285).
Line 44: impetuosity: “ The quality or character of being impetuous; sudden or violent energy of movement, action, etc.; vehemence” (OED).
Page 52
Line 65: that defense thou has, betake thee to’t: “make use of whatever defence you possess; betake thee to was commonly followed by ‘thy heels’, so that Sir Toby may be implying the Cesario’s only hope of survival is to run away” (AS 288).
Line 67: interceptor: “stalker, persecutor” (AS 288).
Line 67-8: Bloody as the hunter: a reference to the ritual of smearing the successful huntsman with the blood of his prey” (AS 288).
Line 73-4: betake you to your guard: “take up a defensive position; a fencing expression” (AS 288).
Line 79: incensement: “anger” (AS 289).
Page 53
Line 102: sir priest: “Sir, the English equivalent of Latin Dominus, was the title given to a graduate in theology, and hence to a clergymen. The antithesis here with Sir Andrew’s ‘carpet’ knighthood (sir knight) is ironical, since in reality neither title promises great martial prowess” (AS 290-91).
Line 103: mettle: “temperament” (AS 291).
Line 105: Sophy: “Shah of Persia” (AS 292).
Line 112: Capilet: “‘Capul’ or “caple” was a middle english and dialect word for ‘horse’, so that the name of Sir Andrew’s grey steed may mean simply ‘little horse’; also presumably a pretentious reference to the noble Italian name Capulet, Juliet’s surname in RJ (AS 292).
Line 114: prediction of souls: “loss of life” (AS 292).
Line 121-22: A little thing would make me tell them how much I lack of a man: “It would take little to make me reveal how much I am not a man, i.e. how fearful I am , with a probable innuendo on what Viola lacks in order to be a man: a thing, Elizabethan slang for penis” (AS 293).
Page 54
Line 8: undertaker: “one who takes up a challenge; one who takes on someone else’s business, especially a contractor or tax collector” (AS 294).
Line 13: jot: “The least letter or written part of any writing; hence, generally, the very least or a very little part, point, or amount; a whit” (OED).
Line 13: favour: “Face” (AS 295).
Line 20: amazed: “ lost in wonder” (AS 295).
Page 55
Line 28: deserts: “gestures deserving recompense” (AS 296).
Line 52: ‘Slid: “by God’s eyelid (oath)” (AS 299).
Page 56
Line 53: cuff: “beat” (AS 299).
Line 54: And I do not: “if I do not cuff him” (AS 299).
Page 57
Line 15: Foolish Greek: “Buffoon” (AS 300).
Page 58
Line 26: Action of Battery: “lawsuit claiming an unlawful attack by beating or wounding. [...] As Sir Andrew notes, it is in fact he who committed the offense against Sebastian: ‘another joke for the law students’” (AS 302).
Line 31: well fleshed: “hardened, inured to bloodshed” (AS 303).
Line 35: malapert: “impudent” (AS 303).
Line 39: Mountains and the barbarous caves: “i.e. territory remote from civilization” and barbarous meaning “uncultured” (AS 303).
Line 41: Rudesby: “insolent fellow” (AS 304).
Line 43: How runs the stream: “what is going on?” (AS 304).
Page 59
Line 2: Sir Topas: “In literary and theatrical history, this is the name not of a priest but of a knight: first, the protagonist in Chaucer’s burlesque romance The Tale of Sir Thopas in The Canterbury Tales, and then a braggart knight, Sir Tophas, in Lyly, Endimion; both characters act out what is in some ways a false role, like Feste” (AS 159).
Line 2: curate: “parish priest” (AS 306).
Line 3: I would … dissembled in such a gown: “The hypocrisy and corruption of the clergy are traditional targets of satire” (AS 306).
Line 6: Bono dies: “Good-day. This may be bad Latin, or bad spanish. In any case, Sir Topas begins with a display of false learning in keeping with Feste’s satirical comment on dissembling priests” (AS 307).
Line 15: Hyperbolical: “excessive, mendacious” (AS 308).
Line 20 hideous dark: “Malvolio perceives the dark room as a Dante-like hell, while Sir Topas claims that the darkness is caused by Malvolio’s possession” (AS 308).
Line 23: It hath bay-windows transparent as ebony: “Feste’s self-contradictory description plays on the theme ‘as clear as mud’ and the fact that the two actors perceive different spaces: Feste sees the playhouse, Malvolio a darkened ‘inner stage’, under-stage or box” (AS 309).
Page 60
Line 32: Pythagoras: “the Greek philosopher Pythagaros was renowned for his doctrine of metempsychosis [...] which propounded the migration of the soul from one body to another, and especially its reincarnation after death into a new human or animal form” (AS 310).
Line 44: I am for all waters: “I can turn my hand to anything” (AS 311).
Line 52: Hey Robin: “Feste signals his presence to Malvolio by singing an old dialogue song which perhaps allows him to alternate two voices as he will later [in the play]. Feste probably chooses this song as a further means of provoking Malvolio, whose lady likewise loves another, namely Cesario” (AS 312).
Page 61
Line 53: Perdie: “by god (from French par Dieu)” (AS 312).
Line 63: Five wits: “In the poem Pastime Stephen Hawes lists the five wits as common wit, imagination, fantasy, estimation, and memory. Five Wits is a personified character in the morality play Everyman” (AS 313).
Line 68: propertied me: “used me like an object” (AS 313).
Line 74: bibble babble: “empty talk” (AS 314).
Page 62
Line 85: well-a-day: “alas” (AS 314).
Line 99: in a trice: “immediately; synonymous with anon” (AS 315).
Line 99: Vice: “the comic representation of evil in the medieval morality play” (AS 315).
Line 101: dagger of lath: “the wooden weapon worn by the Vice in the morality plays and interludes” (AS 316).
Line 104: pare thy nails: “the devil was supposed to keep his nails long and uncut, so that paring them was an affront” (AS 316).
Page 63
Line 19- 24: If you mean well … full assurance of your faith: Olivia is proposing a marriage contract, that is, both swearing to be married in front of a priest, before an actual marriage ceremony can take place.
Page 64
Line 3: Trappings: “ornaments (literally, the ceremonial harness of a horse)” (AS 321).
Page 65
Line 25: primo, secundo, tertio: first, second, third (Latin). This probably alludes to an elaborate form of mathematical chess, supposedly invented by Pythagoras and known as the philosophers’ game or table. Odd numbers were opposed to even numbers on a double chessboard, and the object was to capture opposing numbers through arithmetical operations such as addition” (AS 323).
Line 38: Phoenix: “Ship of Orsino’s navy” (AS 325).
Line 38: Candy: “Crete (From Candia, a town on the island)” (AS 325).
Line 44: salt-water thief: “pirate” (AS 325).
Page 66
Line 50: a witchcraft: “a spell” (AS 326).
Line 53: wrack: “ [wreck] ruined person; Sebastian was both literally and morally shipwrecked” (AS 326).
Line 65: no int’rim … vacancy: “synonyms for interval” (AS 327).
Line 73: promise with me: “Olivia is evidently referring to an appointment made with Sebastian after their exchange of marriage vows” (AS 328).
Line 79: fat and fulsome: fat meaning “gross” and fulsome meaning “cloying, nauseating” (AS 329).
Page 67
Line 91: that screws me from my true place in your favour: “i.e. Cedario has violently usurped Orsino’s rightful position in Olivia’s heart: a political metaphor to justify the duke’s threatened abuse of power” (AS 330).
Line 92: Marble breasted: “a conventional trope of Elizabethan love poetry” (AS 330).
Line 99: Raven’s heart within a dove: “ambigious. It may mean simply ‘the cruel heart with Olivia’s beautiful form’, or it may involve a more complex conceit: a cruel heart (Olivia) by means of a gentle one (Cesario’s)” (AS 331).
Line 100: Jocund, apt: “cheerfully, readily” (AS 331).
Line 111: sirrah: “A term of address used to men or boys, expressing contempt, reprimand, or assumption of authority on the part of the speaker; sometimes employed less seriously in addressing children” (OED).
Page 68
Line 119-23: “an allusion to the ceremony known as handfasting, whereby couples clasped hands and exchanged vows before witnesses; this, like the contract, was popularly regarded as a non-canonical form of marriage” (AS 333).
Line 124: dissembling cub: “this may allude to the fox cub, and so to the proverb ‘as wily as a fox’, or perhaps to the bear cub, which was supposed to be formless, and so able to assume a false appearance” (AS 334).
Line 133: coxcomb: “head; the term services (appropriately) from the cap of a professional fool, shaped like a cock’s comb” (AS 335).
Page 69
Line 11: apple cleft: “this recall’s Plato’s Symposium, and in particular Aristophanes’ discourse on love, according to which each human being is the male or female half of an original androgynous whole” (AS 339).
Line 15: deity in my nature: “divine quality of being, everywhere [...] Sebastian suspects a supernatural phenomenon or witchcraft” (AS 339).
Page 70
Line 39 maiden weeds: “clothes fit for a virgin: (AS 342).
Line 51: Orbed continent .. day from night: “i.e. the sun” (AS 343).
Line 55-56: He upon some action … Malvolio’s suit: “a curious piece of news, probably introduced to explain the captain’s long absence: he has been imprisoned following a lawsuit brought by Malvolio” (AS 344).
Page 71
Line 61-62: Belzebub at the stave’s end: “Keeps the devil at a distance. The metaphor from the sport of quarterstaff fighting, is proverbial. Feste, as if still playing the part of Sir Topas, is again suggesting that Malvolio is, or is about to be, possessed” (AS 345).
Line 69: Vox: “(an appropriate) voice or delivery” (AS 346).
Line 86: one day shall crown th’ alliance on’t: “this relationship [Viola and Orsino] will be sealed on the same (wedding) day [as Olivia and Sebastian]” (AS 347).
Line 87: at my proper cost: “ at my own expense” (AS 347).
Page 72
Line 103: clear lights of favour: “evident signs; this is probably a nautical metaphor, alluding to lighthouse signals” (AS 348).
Line 106: lighter people: “lesser” people (AS 348).
Line 110: geck: “dupe, synonym of gull” (AS 348).
Page 73
Line 138: Golden Time: “ (1) auspicious and (2) precious” (Cam 161).
Line 138: convents: “calls” (Cam 161).
Line 145: Feste’s song: “this refrain seems to evoke the adversities of life in general: hence ‘hey, ho,’ expressing weariness or disappointment” (AS 352).
Line 147: A foolish thing was but a toy: “a childish prank was considered merely trivial; with a possible pun on thing as phallus” (AS 352).
Page 74
Line 155: swaggering: “braggin, blustering’ (AS 353).
Line 157: But when I came unto my beds: “i.e. when I grew old” (AS 353). Or, meaning “being drunk on various occasions” (Cam 162).
Line 159: tosspots: “One accustomed to toss off his pot of drink; a heavy drinker; a toper, drunkard” (OED).
AS: Arden Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Edited by Keir Elam
OED: Oxford English Dictionary
Cam: The New Cambridge Shakespeare, Edited by Elizabeth Story Donno
Page 2
Line 2: Surfeiting: “To indulge in something to satiety or excess; esp. to eat or drink to excess; to feast gluttonously or over-abundantly (on, upon etc.); to gorge” (OED)
Line 4: Staring …fall: “refers to a musical cadence [...], while continuing the pun on die– i.e. the strain (=melody and sexual effort) ends with a demineundo” (AS 162).
Line 7: Stealing … odor: i.e. the wind takes the perfume from the flowers and distributes it (AS 162).
Line 11: receiveth as the sea: “can swallow unlimited quantities” (AS 163).
Line 14-15: So … Fantastical: “an allusion to plato’s doctrine of the divine creative frenzy” (AS 163).
Line 20: The element … heat: “air – as one of the four elements (AS 165); The heat of seven summers (Cam 58).
Line 22: Cloistress: “cloistered or enclosed nun” (AS 164).
Line 22- 23: walk … round: “ i.e. walk around her room weeping” (AS 164).
Line 24: Eye-offending brine: “salt water [tears] hurting her eyes” (AS 164)
Line 24: to season: “embalm” (AS 164). You might also consider it like a brine, to preserve meat.
Line 29: golden shaft: “Cupids armory includes a gold-tipped arrow that provokes love” (AS 165).
Page 3
Line 3: Elysium: “in Greek mythology, the state or abode of the blessed after death: hence, in this context, heaven. (AS 166).
Line 4-6: Perchance: “Viola first uses the adverb in the sense of ‘perhaps’, wiling her brother alive against the odds. The captain’s benevolent quibble plays on teh etymological meaning of the word, i.e. by chance or fortune, which Viola then optimistically echoes” (AS 166).
Line 10: driving boat: “driven by the wind [...] small open boat (presumably of the kind often pulled by large ships to use as tenders” (AS 166).
Line 11: provident: “prudent, resourceful; literally making provision for the future” (AS 166).
Line 13: hold acquaintance: “ride, surf” (AS 167).
Page 4
Line 34: Eunuch: “A castrated person of the male sex; also, such a person employed as a harem attendant, or in Asian courts and under the Roman emperors, charged with important affairs of state” (OED).
Line 36: Speak … music: “Viola’s choice of verb has two possible, and complementary, implications: that she will use music as a mode of persuasive discourse, or that she will use speech as a charmingly musical means of expression (the second comes closer to describing later events)” (AS 170).
Line 37: Allow me very worth his service: “allow me to be worthy of” his service (AS 170).
Line 38: hap: “chance to happen” (AS 170).
Line 38: commit: “entrust” (AS 170).
Line 40: Mute: “[silent] guard. The captain develops Viola's idea at [line 34], since eunuchs traditionally had mutes as subordinates in eastern courts (AS 170).
Page 5
Line 1: What a plague: “an idiomatic imprecation, frequent in Shakespeare, but in this context of multiple (male) deaths it may take on a particular force. Sir Toby makes the play’s most resolute stand against death in favour of the pleasure principle” (AS 170).
Line 2: Care’s … life: “Sir Toby’s concern for Olivia’s state of mind is ‘not altogether unselfish’: he is afraid that it will restrict his own revels (AS 171).
Line 4: cousin: “there are seventeen references to Olivia as Sir Toby’s ‘niece’, six references to either of them as ‘cousin’; this latter term was widely used to denote an imprecise degree of kinship (Cam62).
Line 6: except … excepted: “Let her object before being objected to (by me). Sir Toby is quibbling on the legal expression exceptis excipiendis (excepting those things that are not to be expected) as if defending himself in court” (AS 171).
Line 8: modest … order: “bounds of moderate behavior” (AS 171).
Line 9: confine: “dress up; slim down. Sir Toby puns on Maria’s sense of ‘restrict your behaviour” (AS 171).
Line 11-12: Hang themselves: “a variation on the proverbial express: ‘he may go hand himself in his own garters’” (AS 171).
Line 13: quaffing: “drinking deep” (AS 171)
Line 18: ducats: “a ducat was a gold coin (originally a silver Italian coin) worth approximately nine shillings. Sir Toby thus estimates Sir Andrew’s fortune at 27,000 shillings or 1,350 pounds per annum” (AS 171).
Line 19: he’ll … ducats: “i.e. he’ll lose all his money within a year” (AS 172).
Line 20: prodigal: “spendthrift [...] for Sir Toby this is Sir Andrew’s chief merit” (AS 172).
Line 21: Fie: “shame on you” (AS 172).
Line 21: Speaks … languages: “an ironic claim belied by Andrew’s ignorance of French at line [79] (AS 172).
Line 27: substractors: “a (drunken?) deformation of ‘detractors’” (AS 172).
Page 6
Line 37: shrew: “Presumably Sir Andrew intends this as a complement, meaning ‘shrew-mouse’, a term of endearment; the colloquial sense of the word, however, was a bad-tempered woman or scold” (AS 173).
Line 39: accost: “engage with, assail” (AS 174).
Line 41: Chambermaid: “not in the sense of a woman who cleans bedrooms, but in the socially more elevated sense of Lady’s maid” (AS 174).
Line 43: Mary: “in the dialogue it [Maria, Italian form] alternates with the English equivalent ‘Mary’” (AS 158).
Line 45: accost: “Sir Toby’s definition of accost can be interpreted discursively as ‘amorously address’ or physically as “have sex with.” Sir Andrew responds to the second sense” (AS 174).
Line 47: undertake her: “take in hand, in two senses: deal with and have sexual realtions with; the second meaning is taken up in the puns on hand” (AS 174).
Line 48: This company: wouldn’t have sex with Olivia in the company of Sir Toby, or perhaps more advantageous for this production, the audience.
Line 50: And … so: “i.e. if you let her go without having accosted her” (AS 174).
Line 51: Never draw sword: “i.e. cease to be a sword-carrying gentleman. Sir Andrew’s parroting of the phrase leads him unwittingly to suggest a desire to be impotent (or emasculated)” (AS 174).
Page 7
Line 58: Buttery Bar: “a Buttery is a room where liquor and provisions are stored [...] Maria is still toying with sexual innuendo, presumably inviting Sir Andrew to touch her breasts (where milk or butter is stored)” (AS 175).
Line 60-63: dry: “Sir Andrew takes Maria’s metaphorical dry [that is she has no milk or Drink for Sir Andrew] as a literal reference to his hand, thus revealing his ignorance of what a metaphor really is” (AS 175).
Line 66: At my fingers’ ends: “always ready” (AS 176).
Line 67: Now I .. barren: “i.e. I am empty of jests now that I have let go of the butt of them; barren also because of Sir Andrew’s ineffective hand ( a further institution of impotence) (AS 176).
Line 68: canary: “a light sweet wine from the Canary Islands” (AS 176).
Line 69: put down: “i.e. defeated in repartee” (AS 176).
Line 71: put me down: “knock me out (as when drunk)” (AS 176).
Line 73-74: Eater of beef … wit: “according to popular ‘medical’ lore, beef was supposed to dull the brain” (AS 176).
Line 78: pourquoi? Do, or not do?: “suggests a sexual allusion and confirms Sir Andrew’s ignorance of foreign languages [...] he suspects pourquoi is a verb equivalent to accost” (AS 176-77).
Page 8
Line 90: the Count: Referring to Duke Orsino, in the play Orsino is referred to as both a count or duke, perhaps in homage to Duke Virginio Orsini who also happened to be Count of Anguillara. This is the same Duke that may have been in attendance at a possible first performance of Twelfth Night when he visited England and was entertained by the queen on January 6, 1601. (AS 158, 178).
Line 91: She’ll not match above her degree: “confirms the indeterminacy of Orisino’s rank: if he is a count he is not above the Countess Olivia” (AS 178). If he is also a Duke, then he is above Countess Olivia Socially.
Line 93: tut: “expression of impatience” (AS 178)
Line 95: Masques and revels: “The masque, in which dancing played a prominent role, arrived in England from continental Europe during the sixteenth century, and became a court entertainment for Elizabeth I under the control of the Master of the Revels. Perhaps Sir Andrew fancies himself at court” (AS 178).
Line 97: Kickshawses: “dainty trifles (from French quelque chose; original a fancy dish [...] In this context of dance discourse, there is probably a pun on ‘kicks’, and [might] suggest a sexual inneundo as in Fletcher’s The Elder Brother, where Brisac tells the made lilly: ‘And th’hast another Kickshaw, I must taste it” (AS 178).
Line 99: I will not compare with an old man: “I am not to be compared” and “a failed attempt at a compliment: Sir Andrew presumably intends ‘old hand’ or expert, with reference to Sir Toby, but ends up committing a faux pas regarding the latter’s age.” (AS 178)
Line 100: Excellence in a galliard: do you excel in a galliard, “a quick and lively court dance in triple time consisting of five steps, with a caper or leap before the fifth” (AS 178).
Line 101: Cut a caper: “dance or leap in a fantastic (literally goat-like) way” (AS 179).
Line 102: Back-trick: “presumably a backward caper in a galliard; perhaps an unconscious reference to sexual intercourse, from behind” (AS 179).
Line 107: coranto: “courtly ‘running’ dance in 2/4 time, characterized by a running or gliding step, as distinguished from leaping” (AS 179).
Line 107: walk should be a jig: The notion that if Sir Toby possess such dancing skill, he would dance a jig in order to walk anywhere.
Line 108: Sink-a-pace: “cinquepace (french, literally, ‘five steps’): another term for the gailliard. Sir Toby’s “make water” suggests a pun on ‘sink’, i.e. cesspool or sewer.” (AS 179).
Page 9
Line 2: Cesario: First reference to a name for Viola’s character, and the one in which she is referred throughout most of the play. “Her adopted name, equally Italian, may derive from ‘Cesare’, the assumed name of the cross-dressed heroine in Curzio Gonzaga’s comedy Gli inganni.” (AS 181).
Line 3: Three Days: “Temporal references in the comedy are neither precise nor consistent: contrast “three months” (pg 66, line 64) [stated by Antonio]. Here the emphasis is on the rapidity with which Cesario has entered into Orsino’s favour.” (AS 181).
Line 5: humour: “disposition or temperament” (AS 181).
Line 6: continuance: “permanence” (AS 181).
Line 9: unclasp’d: “alludes to the often elaborate clasps that fastened the covers of valuable books, especially bibles; the first of a number of references to Orsino’s body and mind as a book” (AS 181).
Line 13: Fixéd foot shall grow: That you will grow roots where you stand until you get to speak to Olivia. (AS 182).
Line 15: abandon’d: “totally given up” (AS 182).
Line 26 Diana’s lip: “Diana, already alluded to by Orsino with reference to Olivia, was the Roman moon-goddess, patroness of hunting, fertility and virginity (her lip having never been kissed by man). Cesario’s face becomes the epitome of feminine beauty” (AS 183).
Line 27: rubious: “ruby-colored” (As183).
Line 27-29: Small pipe … woman’s part: Cesario has a high voice (perhaps some play on this being a boy actor), organ meaning voice or female genitals, that is shrill, and resembles that of a woman’s (AS 183).
Page 10
Line 34: barful strife: “i.e. an internal struggle full of bars or impediments (because against her natural inclination” (AS 183).
Page 11
Line 2-3: Not open … excuse: “I will keep my mouth firmly closed” so as not even a bristle “(literally, hog hair)” could enter, much less any excuse for your absence. (AS 184).
Line 4-5: well hanged … no colors: “i.e. a hanged man need fear no foes; fear no colours is proverbial, the ‘colours’ being originally those of a regimental flag. In the context of hanging, there is probably a pun on colours/collars. A sexual quibble may also be present, “well hanged” = ‘well hung’: a well-endowed man need fear nbody or, possibly, need not fear blushing from embarrassment” (AS 184).
Line 11: Many a good hangings… marriage: “good hanging als retains here its slang sense of virility, i.e. a generous sexual endowment improves married life” (AS 185).
Line 12: And for turning away, let summer bear it out: “as for dismissal” let summer make it bearable” (AS 185).
Line 13-14: If Sir Toby … in Illyria: Alluding to the eventual marriage or Sir Toby and maria as well as “compressing” Maria’s two attractions into one statement: her wit and beauty (AS 185).
Line 21: Quinaplaus: an invented Latin authority, probably inspired– given the context of rhetorical and logical discussion– by Quintilian(us), author of the Institutio Oratoria, a book much studied in Elizabethan schools and universities” (AS 186).
Line 27: madonna: “my lady; used by Shakespeare only for Feste in TN. Feste’s use of an Italian form of address may help to define Olivia’s Mediterranean background. The modern meaning ‘Virgin Mary’ entered into the language later” (AS 186).
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Line 31: Botcher: “mender of clothes” (AS 187).
Line 34: syllogism: “an argument comprising three propositions. Feste’s syllogism parodies logical reasoning in a self-mocking attempt to raise the tone of his defense” (AS 187).
Line 39: Misprision: “misunderstanding” (AS 187).
Line 42: Dexteriously: “dextrously, cleverly (an early modern variant)” (AS 188).
Line 44: catechise: “interrogate systenmatically as in a catechism [...] Feste proceeds to conduct a mock-religious interrogation of Olivia, perhaps to provoke the upright Malvolio” (AS 188).
Line 46: Bide: “wait for; endure” (AS 188).
Line 56: mend: “improve (his fooling)” (AS 188).
Page 13
Line 69: zanies: Commedia Del’arte servant characters “assistant to the clown, and in its English form came to mean secondary figure or poor imitator” (AS 189).
Line 75-76: Mercury … fools: “May Mercury (the god of deception) teach you to lie, since you speak well of fools, i.e. truthfully” (AS 190).
Line 92: Pia mater: “brain” (AS 191).
Page 14
Line 6: pickle-herring: “i.e. pickled herring, the immediate cause, together with the accompanying wine, for Belch’s belching” (AS 192).
Line 6: sot: “fool or drunkard” (AS 192).
Line 10: Lechery: “Habitual indulgence of lust; lewdness of living” (OED). Hear toby replace the sin of lethargy (perhaps by mishearing) into another, lechery (AS 192).
Page 15
Line 32: Sheriff’s post: “two painted posts – on which proclamations were affixed–were set up at the Sherrif’s or mayor’s door; thus they (literally) stand for the epitome of firmness” (AS 193).
Line 41: peascod: “synonmy of squash” Maybe a pun on codpiece (AS 194).
Line 42: Codling: “unripe apple” (AS 194).
Line 9: con it: Memorize it.
Page 16
Line 15: comedian: “professional actor” (AS 196).
Line 17: fangs of malice: “an oath, driving from the biblical association of evil with the serpent” (AS 196).
Lin 17: I am not that I play: “i.e. I am not equated solely with the part of Orsino’s emissary; I am not what I seem: the first of several hints by Viola that she is assuming a disguise” (AS 196).
Line 29: not that time of moon: “I’m not in the mood; I’m not mad myself. Changes in the moon were thought to influence the human mind, hence its association with madness (i.e. lunacy)” (AS 197).
Line 32: swabber: “deckhand; a gibe at Maria’s rank” (AS 197).
Line 33: some mollification for your giant: “to appease” (Mollification, OED). “In the romance tradition giants acted as guards for ladies, but there is probably also an ironical reference here to the diminutive size of the boy actor playing Maria” (AS 197).
Line 40: maidenhead: as secret as virginity.
Page 17
Line 56: If god did all: “if it is all natural, i.e. unaided by cosmetics” (AS 199).
Line 58: ‘tis beauty truly blent: “naturally blended. Nature and not art has mixed the colours of Olivia’s complexion harmoniously” (AS 199).
Line 61: no copy: no child (AS 200).
Line 71: nonpareil: “queen (literally, unequaled representative)” (AS 201).
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Line 72: fertile: “abundant” (AS 201).
Line 83: willow cabin: temporary shelter (AS 201).
Line 85: contemned: “despised” (AS 202).
Line 88: babbling gossip: “echo, alluding both materially to the sound of the shouted name being repeated by the hills and mythpoetically to Echo, the mountain nymph who, in Ovid, fades away for love of Narcissus and becomes mere voice” (AS 202).
Line 99: fee’d post: “hired messenger” (AS 203).
Page 19
Line 108: Five-fold blazon: “coat of arms (here fivefold, i.e. having five decorative elements)” (AS 203).
Line 15: peevish: “Perverse, refractory; headstrong, obstinate; capricious, skittish; (also) coy” (OED).
Page 20
Line 4: malignancy: “evil influence: an astrological term” (AS 205).
Line 10: Roderigo: “Sebastian’s reference to his earlier disguise remains unexplained” (AS 205).
Line 10: Messaline: “perhaps Massilia, the latin name for Marseille; Mahood notes that in the Menaechmi (a play about twins, and the main source of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors) Plautus mentions the inhabitants of Marseille and Illyria together. [...] The name also humorously recalls Messalina, notoriously licentious and corrupt wife of the Roman emperor Claudius” (AS 205-06).
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Line 19: her eyes had lost her tongue: “her ogling me had made her lose the power of speech” (AS 209).
Line 27: pregnant enemy: “the devil, or, as Johnson puts it, ‘the dexterous fiend, or enemy of mankind’; pregnant here means ‘ready’, ‘receptive’ (AS 210).
Line 28: proper false: “handsome but deceitful (men): oxymoron. In Viola’s case male beauty is literally false” (AS 210).
Line 29: Women’s waxen heart: “to imprint their [men’s] appearance on women’s receptive hearts” (AS 210).
Line 32: Fadge: “turn out” (AS 210).
Line 38: Thriftless: “ unprofitable” (AS 211).
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Line 9: four elements: “fire, air, water and earth. In ancient medieval science the four elements were believed to exist in every substance and to combine within the human body to form the four humours: choler, blood, phlegm, and melancholy. Sir Toby may be implicitly asserting here his own sanguine humour against Sir Andrew;s tendency towards melancholy” (AS 212).
Line 15: ‘we three’: “alludes to a painting or inn sign representing two asses or loggerheads; the caption ‘we three’ implicated the spectator– here presumably Feste himself– as the third ass of loggerhead” (AS 212).
Line 16: catch: “round, i.e. a humours part-song in which one voice ‘catches’ or follows on immediately from another” (AS 212).
Line 17: Breast: “singing voice” (AS 212).
Line 21 -22: Pigrogromitus … Quebus: “Sir Andrew’s recollection of the Clown’s apparently nonsensical fooling may be drunkenly distorted. The general theme seems to concern the heavenly bodies, with possible religious overtones. Furness sees Pigrogromitus as a deformation of Teatragrammation (the ineffable four-letter name for God). Alternatively, it might be the name of an imaginary constellation, formed form Pirgo and gomito (Italianfor ‘lazy’ and ‘elbow’), with probably play also on plain English, ‘pig’. The Vapians may recall ‘Vesper’, the evening star (or plural vespers, i.e. evensong), perhaps contaminated by vapours (exhalation damaging to health). The equinotical is presumably the celestial equator [...] with quebus being a coruption of Platos ‘Cubus’. Alternatively it may be a deformation of ‘quibble’ (or of its latin origin, quibus), i.e. the very kind of verbal play Sir Andrew is quoting” (AS 213).
Line 24: Impeticos: “pocket (verb): nonce-word compounded from the verb ‘impocket’ and the noun ‘petticoat’” (AS 213).
Line 24: gratillity: “a deformation of gratuity” (AS 213).
Line 24: whipstock: “whip handle, possibly implying that the mean and puritanical Malvolio is not easily manipulated into giving money” (AS 214).
Line 26: Myrmidons: “in Homer’s Iliad, the followers of Achilles at the siege of Troy [...]. The term also had the slang sense of ‘unscrupulously faithful’ followers or hirelings, the likely meaning here, presumably alluding to Feste himself as faithful servant of the Lady Olivia. [...] Feste may also be punning on ‘Mermaid Inn’, the famous London Tavern where Shakespeare supposedly drank with Ben Jonson.” (AS 214).
Line 26: Bottle-ale houses: “low-class taverns” (AS 214).
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Line 51: Contagious breath: “cathcing voice. Less poetically, the phrase also implies [bad breath]” (AS 216).
Line 52: Welkin: “Sky” (AS 216).
Line 54: Dog at: “good at” (AS 216).
Page 24
Line 70: caterwauling: “shrill howling or wailing noise made by cats before mating or fighting” (AS 217).
Line 73: Cataian: “literally, a person from Cathay, the ancient Mongolian name for China, but which Shakespeare’s contemporaries believed to be a separate georgrpahical entity. Sir Toby appears to use the word in a derogatory sense” for “liar” or “theif” or “scoundrel” (AS 217).
Line 74: Peg-a-Ramsey: “there are two ballads to tunes of this title. The first, [...] narrates the story ofa jealous wife who ends up earring–intriguingly with reference to this play– ‘the yellow hose’ (i.e. the trousers) [...] The Second [...] is a bawdy tale of a lusty lass who, in order to make her water-mill work in times of drought, ‘up she pull’d her petticoats and piss’d into the Dam’. In this case, Malvolio is implicitly compared to another ‘loose woman’” (AS 217-18).
Line 75: consanguineous: “related by blood (to olivia)” (AS 218).
Line 76: Tilly-Vally: “nonsense (equivalent to ‘fiddlesticks’) (AS 218).
Page 25
Line 6: Sneck up: “Go hang” (AS 219).
Page 26
Line 27: cakes and ale: “the food and drink traditionally associated with church festivities such as saint’s days and holy days (like Twelfth Night), and as such particularly unpalatable to ceremony-hating ‘Puritans’ like Malvolio” (AS 220).
Line 28: Saint Anne: “the mother of the Virgin Mary: a common oath, perhaps intended here–because it is of Catholic origin– as a provocation to the ‘Puritan” Malvolio” (AS 221).
Line 28: ginger: “used to spice ale and cultivated for its supposed aphrodisiac powers” (AS 221).
Line 30-31: Rub your chain with crumbs: “go and clean your chain of office: another reminder of Malvolio’s lowly status” (AS 221).
Line 36: Go shake your ears: “i.e. like an ass” (AS 221).
Line 40: Gull him into a nayword: “trick him into making his name a byword for stupidity” (AS 222).
Line 45: Puritan: “a somewhat ambiguous term of abuse: ‘Puritans’, as their opponents dubbed them, were reformist Protestants who wished to complete the Reformation with further ‘purification’ of the church, but the word came to be applied more generally to self-righteous moralists” (AS 222).
Line 52: time-pleaser: “time-server or opportunist” (AS 223).
Line 52: affectioned: “affected”
Line 57: epistles: “letters, the fact that both Maria and Sir Toby refer to letters in the plural suggests that more than one may have been originally intended” (AS 223).
Line 60: personated: “acted [...], a theatrical term” (AS 224).
Page 27
Line 72: Sport Royal: “a sport worthy of Kings, with reference to hunting” (AS 224).
Line 72: Physic: “medicine” (AS 224).
Line 77: Penthesilea: “Queen of the Amazons [...] an admiring reference to Maria’s combative spirit” (AS 225).
Line 87: Call me cut: “short tailed or gelded horse” (AS 225).
Page 28
Line 24-25: for women … fall that very hour: “women’s rose-like beauty and its flower-like brevity are poetic commonplaces” (AS 228).
Page 29
Line 33: in sad cypress: “in a coffin of black cypress wood” (AS 230).
Line 34: Fie Away: “be gone (from me). An early modern English idiom, in antithesis to ‘come away’” (AS 230).
Line 53: Melancholy god: Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture, identified in astrology with the planet ruling over the melancholy humour, and in alchemy with lead. Feste is making fun of Orsino’s habitual ‘dark’ pose and his current bad mood” (AS 231).
Line 54: Changeable taffeta: “shot silk. In Lyly’s Eupheus it is associated with mood changes under the influence of love” (AS 231).
Line 55: Opal: “Feste allows himself the fool’s license of strongly satirizing the duke’s inconstancy, while appearing to pay the complement of comparing him first with valuable cloth and then with a prized gem” (AS 231).
Page 30
Line 14: retention: “the capacity to retain (love): a medical term, referring literally to the body’s ability to retain liquid, especially urine [...]. Early modern scientific discourse often classified women as incontinent ‘leaky vessels’. The incontinence of which women were accused was above all sexual, however” (AS 233).
Line 15: appetite: “bodily craving” (AS 233).
Line 28: damask cheek: “Pink, like the damask rose” (AS 235).
Line 29: green and yellow: “pale and sickly, in contrast to pink damask” (AS 235).
Page 31
Line 40: can … denay: “can neither yield nor tolerate refusal; denay is an alternative spelling for ‘deny’, and is kept here for the sake of the rhyme with say” (AS 236).
Page 32
Line 3: metal of India: “i.e. gold from India, legendary land of abundance, with a probable pun on mettle (spirit)” (AS 237).
Line 5: behaviour: “elegant deportment” (AS 237).
Line 8-9: Trout that must be caught with tickling: “catching trout by stroking their gills in shallow water is proverbially easy” (AS 238).
Line 10: Fortune: “chance, i.e. it is mere chance that Olivia is an heiress and Malvolio an underling, and this state of affairs may change” (AS 238).
Line 15: overweening: “Excessively or unreasonably high expectation or opinion of oneself; excessive self-esteem; arrogance, presumption. Also: an instance of conceited or self-important behaviour” (OED).
Line 17: Turkey-cock: “proverbial symbol of male self-importance” (AS 238).
Line 36-7: The Lady of the Starchy … wardrobe: “this episode of marriage between a noble-woman and a servant, keeper of her clothes, may be invented, or it may be a theatrical in-joke. Sisson learned of one William Starchey, shareholder in the Children’s company at Blackfriars theatre in 1606, and one David Yeomans, the wardrobe master or ‘tireman’ of the company. A more probably candidate as yeoman is Edward Kirkham, one of Starchey’s patterns in the Blackfriars company, who was granted a royal patent as ‘yeoman or keeper’ of ‘our Great Wardrobe’ in 1586” (AS 239).
Page 33
Line 43: stone-bow: “”crossbow used for shooting stones” (AS 240).
Line 44: branched: “ornamented with embroidered branches” (AS 240).
Line 45: Day-bed:” couch for resting in the daytime” (AS 240).
Line 47: Fire and Brimstone: “Hell! An oath of biblical origin” (AS 240).
Line 50: Bolts and shackles: “fetters (for Malvolio in Prison) an imprecation [spoken curse]” (AS 240).
Line 54: wind up my watch: “a luxury item” in the period (AS 240).
Line 67: scab: “scoundrel: a common insult in early modern English” (AS 241).
Page 34
Line 68: break the sinews: “disable, ruin: the risk of giving the game away” (AS 241).
Line 72-3: contempt of question: “beyond all doubt” (AS 242).
Line 78: liver and all: “passionately. The liver is the seat of passion” (AS 243).
Line 83-84: the numbers altered: the metre [in the poetry] has been changed” (AS 243).
Line 86: Brock: “Badger, proverbially malodorous, with the further colloquial sense of ‘rogue’” (AS 243).
Line 88: Lucrece knife: “the ‘harmful knife’ with which Lucretia killed herself” (AS 243).
Line 91: Fustian: “bombastic, inflated” (AS 243).
Page 35
Line 103-04: the cur is excellent at faults: “the hound is good at finding lost trails” (AS 244).
Line 108: ‘O’ shall end: “Johnson is surely right in taking O to be the hangmen’s noose” (AS 245).
Line 111: crush this a little: “force” this a little (AS 245).
Line 113: revolve: “reflect” (AS 245).
Line 119: tang: “ring out like a bell” (AS 246).
Line 120: trick of singularity: “take on the affected mannerism of eccentricity.” Trick means “peculiar habit.” Singularity means “conspiculously unusual behaviour” (AS 246).
Line 122: yellow stockings: “these many have been [...] ‘a garish fashion associated with bachelors’ in 1602, but its more probable that they were hopelessly out of fashion: hence the jest” (AS 247).
Line 122: cross-gartered: “i.e. wearing what Junius in 1585 defines as ‘Fasciae crurales … hose garers going lacrosse, or overthward, both above and beneath the knee” (AS 247).
Line 127: The Fortunate Unhappy: “she who is blessed by wealth but unfulfilled in love” (AS 247).
Line 131: point-device: “in every detail the man described in the letter” (AS 248).
Page 36
Line 147: Sophy: “The shah of Persia: a probable allusion to the claim by Sir Anthony Shirley and his brothers to have received rich gifts, including 16,000 pistolets (cf. ‘a pension of thousands’), during an embassy to Shah Abbas the Great in 1599” (AS 249).
Line 150: gull-catcher: “trapper of fools, the expression imitates the mor familiar ‘coy-catcher’” (AS 249).
Line 161: gates of Tartar: “hell. In classical mythology Tartarus is the deepest part of the underworld” (AS 250).
Page 37
Line 4: churchman: “clergyman. Viola’s question is ironically superfluous, since Feste is presumably wearing jester’s motley” (AS 251).
Line 14: dally: “means idiomatically to indulge in sexual games” (AS 251).
Line 14-15: “those who toy daintily with words render them meanings equivocal” (AS 251).
Line 15: wanton: “unchaste” (AS 251).
Line 23-24: I do not care for you … invisible: “The something that Feste cares for is money; but he also implies Cesario is nothing, that he is a cypher, a zero: a possible allusion to his ambiguous gender as well as his social status” (AS 252).
Line 28: corrupter of words: “as a sophisticated court fool, Feste’s main professional role is precisely that of ‘dallier’ with language rather than exponent of simpler forms of jesting” (AS 252).
Page 38
Line 30: Foolery … everywhere: “Feste is alluding to his own coming and going between both houses, but is also implying that we are all fools, a thought he expands upon” (AS 253).
Line 36-7: send thee a beard: “Feste seems to come close to seeing through Viola’s disguise; he may be taunting Cesario for his lack of virility, as well as for his (and the boy actor’s) youth” (AS 253).
Line 38-9: I am almost sick for one … chin: “(1) with emphasis on ‘my’: Viola would like to possess Orsino’s beard (and thus him), rather than one of her own; (2) with emphasis on chin: Partridge, suggests an allusion to the beard of pubic hair” (AS 253).
Line 40: Would not a pair of these have bred, sir?: “i,e, why not a second coin, which together with the first, might produce yet another, their ‘child’?” (AS 253).
Line 45: welkin: “sky” (AS 254)
Line 45: ‘element’: “sky or air” (AS 254).
Line 51: Dieu Vous garde, monsieur: “god save you, sir.”
Line 52: Et vous aussi: votre serviteur: “and you, your servant.” Your servant is taken here as a peasantry.
Page 39
Line 60: pregnant and vouchsafed: pregnant meaning “receptive.” vouchsafed meaning “kindly granted, well disposed” (AS 257).
Line 10: whet: “predispose” (AS 258).
Line 14: Music from the spheres: “a Platonic concept widely current in Shakespeare’s day” (AS 258). “In their rotations, the crystalline spheres containing the planets and the fixed stars were held to create a ravishing harmony inaudible to mortal ears” (Cam 111).
Page 40
Line 28-29: How much the better / To fall before the lion than the wolf: “It is generally accepted that Olivia ‘refers to herself rather than Viola’, and that she is proud at least to have fall for the lion Cesario, but she may equally well be referring to his heartlessly patronizing attitude, despite his lowly status: he has, after all, just implied that she is an enemy to be pitied. Cesario thereby becomes vicious wolf rather than noble lion. Olivia, in any case, is casting herself in the role of defenseless lamb, alluding to the proverb ‘the lamb is more in dread of the wolf than of the lion’” (AS 260).
Line 32: when wit and youth is come to harvest: “when intelligence and youfulness ripen” (AS 260).
Line 33: reap: “obtain, enjoy sexually” (AS 260).
Line 34: westward ho: “a london expression, namely the Thames watermen’s call to passengers from the City going west, for example to the court at Westminster. [...] Less flatteringly, the phrase also alluded to imprisonment in Tyburn” (AS 260).
Line 47-48: A murd’rous guilt … seem hid: “doubly proverbial: ‘murder will out’, ‘Love cannot be hid’” (AS 262).
Line 48: Love’s night is noon: “a further proverbial variation on ‘love cannot be hid’” (AS 262). Probably referring to Olivia’s love here, but maybe also alluding to Viola’s love of Orsino.
Page 42
Line 1: jot: “The least letter or written part of any writing; hence, generally, the very least or a very little part, point, or amount; a whit” (OED).
Line 2: dear venom: “oxymoron, alluding sarcastically to Sir Andrew’s supposedly fierce resolution to leave” (AS 263).
Line 12: ‘Slight: “by god’s light, one of Sir Andrew’s preferred oaths” (AS 263).
Line 17: fire-new from the mind: “brand-new, like a freshly minted coin” (AS 264).
Line 20-1: sailed into the north … Dutchmen’s beard: “into the cold region of Olivia’s disfavour: an allusion to the 1596-97 expedition to the East Indies via the North-east passage” (AS 264).
Line 24: policy: “shrewd diplomacy” (AS 264).
Line 28: love-broker: “go-between in love affairs, pander” (AS 265).
Page 43
Line 33: martial hand: “in an aggressive military style; or, in scrawling solider-like handwriting. Sir Toby is setting up Sir Andrew as the traditional cowardly braggart solider of comedy” (AS 265).
Line 33: curst and brief: curst means “bad-tempered.” brief means “curt” (AS 265).
Line 35: lies: “accusations of lying. The ‘giving of the lie’ was the main cause of duels” (AS 266).
Line 42: Blood in his liver: “the liver was thought to be the organ that generated blood and was thsu the seat of courage; Sir Andrew is bloodless or ‘lily-livered’” (AS 267).
Line 45: presage: “promise (literally, omen” (AS 267).
Line 46: the spleen: “a fit of laughter. In early modern popular medicine the spleen was synonymous with sudden passion in general, and was thought to govern uncontrollable laughter as well as anger and melancholy” (AS 267).
Line 47: gull: “dupe” (AS 267).
Line 51: murderer: “Maria’s rather sinister simile recalls the violent blood sports metaphors against Malvolio in [act 2]” (AS 268).
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Line 8: being skilless: “since you are unfamiliar with” (AS 269).
Line 15: relics of this town: “antiquities. Sebastian wants to go sightseeing” (AS 270).
Line 23: service: “Military (naval) operation. The exact nature of Antonio’s service against Orsino’s fleet are not specified, although it was serious enough to put his life at risk and involved the seizing of property, so much so that Orsino accuses him of piracy” (AS 271).
Line 24: scarce be answer’d: “be difficult to defend himself (in court); or, be difficult to make amends for” (AS 271).
Line 25: belike: “presumably” (AS 271).
Line 28: for traffic’s sake: “in the interests of trade: i.e. the other members of Antonio’s city returned the seized goods in order to restore commerce with Illyria” (AS 271).
Line 29: stood out: “Went against the general trend, isolating myself; stood firm. The reason for Antonio’s refusal to restore Orsino’s property, thereby exposing himself to danger, is again not specified” (AS 271).
Line 30: Lapséd: “apprehended” (AS 272).
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Line 33: south suburbs: “an ironic reference to London, and in particular to the Liberties, an area outside the jurisdiction of the City of London, notorious as an area of brothels” (AS 272).
Line 33: the Elephant: “a continuation of the suburbs joke: there was indeed an Elephan Inn on Bankside, which was in practice ‘an inn-cum-brothel’” (AS 272).
Line 34: bespeak our diet: “order our meal” (AS 272).
Line 35: Beguile: “To divert attention in some pleasant way from (anything painful, or irksome); to elude the disagreeable sensation of, and so to cause to pass insensibly or pleasantly; to charm away, wile away” (OED).
Line 38: haply: “perhaps” (AS 272).
Line 39-40 Your store, I think, is not for idle markets: “the money you possess is not enough to spend on luxuries” (AS 272).
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Line 3: bought … borrowed: “a variation on the proverb that Taverner translates from Erasmus as’I had [rather] bye then begge’ [...] Olivia is determined not to debase herself by pleading with Cesario, but is willing to buy his love with a gift” (AS 273).
Line 27: Roman hand: “Italic handwriting, as opposed to the English ‘secretary’ hand. Olivia uses the modish calligraphy imported from Italy, as evidently does Maria” (AS 275).
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Line 52: midsummer madness: “Extreme Foolishness” (OED). “proverbial: the only occurrence of the expression in Shakespeare, although arguably the whole of Midsummer Night’s Dream dramatizes it (AS 277).
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Line 67: Limed: “caught; birdlime is sticky resin used to trap small birds, or metaphorically, the beloved’s heart” (AS 278).
Line 69: fellow: “Malvolio interprets this optimistically as ‘equal’ or ‘peer’” (AS 278).
Line 71: No dram of a scruple: “not the slightest impediment or doubt; dram and scruple are both small aopthecaries’ weights (respectively ⅛ and 1/24 of an ounce) so that ‘scruple of a scruple’ is the smallest amount imaginable. Metaphorically, scruple also signifies uncertainty” (AS 278-79).
Line 7: hollow: “with a hollow and echoing voice (adverb). OED Adv. 1 (first occurrence) suggests ‘insincerely’” (AS 279).
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Line 16: La you: “Look you” (AS 280).
Line 18: Carry his water to th’ wise woman: Water meaning, “Urine (for diagnosis of disease),” Wise woman meaning “ a benevolent ‘witch’ or herbalist, expert in charms and remedies against disease and bewitchment” (AS 280).
Line 25: bawcock … chuck: “childish terms of endearment, patronizing the ‘mad’ Malvolio. A bawcock is literally a ‘fine cock’ or good fellow. [...] chuck, ‘chicken’, was often used with children” (AS 281).
Line 29: Minx: “hussy, impudent girl” (AS 281).
Line 40: we’ll have him in a dark room and bound: “the customary treatment at the time for madness” (AS 282).
Line 45: finder of madmen: “i.e. member of a jury appointed to decide whether the accused is insane” (AS 282).
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Line 4: I warrant him: “Truly. A discourse marker: literally, I stand guarantor for it” (AS 283).
Line 6: scurvy: “worthless” (AS 283).
Line 10: Blow of the law: “protects you from the risk of legal action” (AS 283).
Line 13: Liest in thy thoat: “you are a complete liar” (AS 283).
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Line 40: clodpole: “blockhead: literally, having a head (poll) made of a clod of earth” (AS 285).
Line 44: impetuosity: “ The quality or character of being impetuous; sudden or violent energy of movement, action, etc.; vehemence” (OED).
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Line 65: that defense thou has, betake thee to’t: “make use of whatever defence you possess; betake thee to was commonly followed by ‘thy heels’, so that Sir Toby may be implying the Cesario’s only hope of survival is to run away” (AS 288).
Line 67: interceptor: “stalker, persecutor” (AS 288).
Line 67-8: Bloody as the hunter: a reference to the ritual of smearing the successful huntsman with the blood of his prey” (AS 288).
Line 73-4: betake you to your guard: “take up a defensive position; a fencing expression” (AS 288).
Line 79: incensement: “anger” (AS 289).
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Line 102: sir priest: “Sir, the English equivalent of Latin Dominus, was the title given to a graduate in theology, and hence to a clergymen. The antithesis here with Sir Andrew’s ‘carpet’ knighthood (sir knight) is ironical, since in reality neither title promises great martial prowess” (AS 290-91).
Line 103: mettle: “temperament” (AS 291).
Line 105: Sophy: “Shah of Persia” (AS 292).
Line 112: Capilet: “‘Capul’ or “caple” was a middle english and dialect word for ‘horse’, so that the name of Sir Andrew’s grey steed may mean simply ‘little horse’; also presumably a pretentious reference to the noble Italian name Capulet, Juliet’s surname in RJ (AS 292).
Line 114: prediction of souls: “loss of life” (AS 292).
Line 121-22: A little thing would make me tell them how much I lack of a man: “It would take little to make me reveal how much I am not a man, i.e. how fearful I am , with a probable innuendo on what Viola lacks in order to be a man: a thing, Elizabethan slang for penis” (AS 293).
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Line 8: undertaker: “one who takes up a challenge; one who takes on someone else’s business, especially a contractor or tax collector” (AS 294).
Line 13: jot: “The least letter or written part of any writing; hence, generally, the very least or a very little part, point, or amount; a whit” (OED).
Line 13: favour: “Face” (AS 295).
Line 20: amazed: “ lost in wonder” (AS 295).
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Line 28: deserts: “gestures deserving recompense” (AS 296).
Line 52: ‘Slid: “by God’s eyelid (oath)” (AS 299).
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Line 53: cuff: “beat” (AS 299).
Line 54: And I do not: “if I do not cuff him” (AS 299).
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Line 15: Foolish Greek: “Buffoon” (AS 300).
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Line 26: Action of Battery: “lawsuit claiming an unlawful attack by beating or wounding. [...] As Sir Andrew notes, it is in fact he who committed the offense against Sebastian: ‘another joke for the law students’” (AS 302).
Line 31: well fleshed: “hardened, inured to bloodshed” (AS 303).
Line 35: malapert: “impudent” (AS 303).
Line 39: Mountains and the barbarous caves: “i.e. territory remote from civilization” and barbarous meaning “uncultured” (AS 303).
Line 41: Rudesby: “insolent fellow” (AS 304).
Line 43: How runs the stream: “what is going on?” (AS 304).
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Line 2: Sir Topas: “In literary and theatrical history, this is the name not of a priest but of a knight: first, the protagonist in Chaucer’s burlesque romance The Tale of Sir Thopas in The Canterbury Tales, and then a braggart knight, Sir Tophas, in Lyly, Endimion; both characters act out what is in some ways a false role, like Feste” (AS 159).
Line 2: curate: “parish priest” (AS 306).
Line 3: I would … dissembled in such a gown: “The hypocrisy and corruption of the clergy are traditional targets of satire” (AS 306).
Line 6: Bono dies: “Good-day. This may be bad Latin, or bad spanish. In any case, Sir Topas begins with a display of false learning in keeping with Feste’s satirical comment on dissembling priests” (AS 307).
Line 15: Hyperbolical: “excessive, mendacious” (AS 308).
Line 20 hideous dark: “Malvolio perceives the dark room as a Dante-like hell, while Sir Topas claims that the darkness is caused by Malvolio’s possession” (AS 308).
Line 23: It hath bay-windows transparent as ebony: “Feste’s self-contradictory description plays on the theme ‘as clear as mud’ and the fact that the two actors perceive different spaces: Feste sees the playhouse, Malvolio a darkened ‘inner stage’, under-stage or box” (AS 309).
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Line 32: Pythagoras: “the Greek philosopher Pythagaros was renowned for his doctrine of metempsychosis [...] which propounded the migration of the soul from one body to another, and especially its reincarnation after death into a new human or animal form” (AS 310).
Line 44: I am for all waters: “I can turn my hand to anything” (AS 311).
Line 52: Hey Robin: “Feste signals his presence to Malvolio by singing an old dialogue song which perhaps allows him to alternate two voices as he will later [in the play]. Feste probably chooses this song as a further means of provoking Malvolio, whose lady likewise loves another, namely Cesario” (AS 312).
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Line 53: Perdie: “by god (from French par Dieu)” (AS 312).
Line 63: Five wits: “In the poem Pastime Stephen Hawes lists the five wits as common wit, imagination, fantasy, estimation, and memory. Five Wits is a personified character in the morality play Everyman” (AS 313).
Line 68: propertied me: “used me like an object” (AS 313).
Line 74: bibble babble: “empty talk” (AS 314).
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Line 85: well-a-day: “alas” (AS 314).
Line 99: in a trice: “immediately; synonymous with anon” (AS 315).
Line 99: Vice: “the comic representation of evil in the medieval morality play” (AS 315).
Line 101: dagger of lath: “the wooden weapon worn by the Vice in the morality plays and interludes” (AS 316).
Line 104: pare thy nails: “the devil was supposed to keep his nails long and uncut, so that paring them was an affront” (AS 316).
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Line 19- 24: If you mean well … full assurance of your faith: Olivia is proposing a marriage contract, that is, both swearing to be married in front of a priest, before an actual marriage ceremony can take place.
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Line 3: Trappings: “ornaments (literally, the ceremonial harness of a horse)” (AS 321).
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Line 25: primo, secundo, tertio: first, second, third (Latin). This probably alludes to an elaborate form of mathematical chess, supposedly invented by Pythagoras and known as the philosophers’ game or table. Odd numbers were opposed to even numbers on a double chessboard, and the object was to capture opposing numbers through arithmetical operations such as addition” (AS 323).
Line 38: Phoenix: “Ship of Orsino’s navy” (AS 325).
Line 38: Candy: “Crete (From Candia, a town on the island)” (AS 325).
Line 44: salt-water thief: “pirate” (AS 325).
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Line 50: a witchcraft: “a spell” (AS 326).
Line 53: wrack: “ [wreck] ruined person; Sebastian was both literally and morally shipwrecked” (AS 326).
Line 65: no int’rim … vacancy: “synonyms for interval” (AS 327).
Line 73: promise with me: “Olivia is evidently referring to an appointment made with Sebastian after their exchange of marriage vows” (AS 328).
Line 79: fat and fulsome: fat meaning “gross” and fulsome meaning “cloying, nauseating” (AS 329).
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Line 91: that screws me from my true place in your favour: “i.e. Cedario has violently usurped Orsino’s rightful position in Olivia’s heart: a political metaphor to justify the duke’s threatened abuse of power” (AS 330).
Line 92: Marble breasted: “a conventional trope of Elizabethan love poetry” (AS 330).
Line 99: Raven’s heart within a dove: “ambigious. It may mean simply ‘the cruel heart with Olivia’s beautiful form’, or it may involve a more complex conceit: a cruel heart (Olivia) by means of a gentle one (Cesario’s)” (AS 331).
Line 100: Jocund, apt: “cheerfully, readily” (AS 331).
Line 111: sirrah: “A term of address used to men or boys, expressing contempt, reprimand, or assumption of authority on the part of the speaker; sometimes employed less seriously in addressing children” (OED).
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Line 119-23: “an allusion to the ceremony known as handfasting, whereby couples clasped hands and exchanged vows before witnesses; this, like the contract, was popularly regarded as a non-canonical form of marriage” (AS 333).
Line 124: dissembling cub: “this may allude to the fox cub, and so to the proverb ‘as wily as a fox’, or perhaps to the bear cub, which was supposed to be formless, and so able to assume a false appearance” (AS 334).
Line 133: coxcomb: “head; the term services (appropriately) from the cap of a professional fool, shaped like a cock’s comb” (AS 335).
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Line 11: apple cleft: “this recall’s Plato’s Symposium, and in particular Aristophanes’ discourse on love, according to which each human being is the male or female half of an original androgynous whole” (AS 339).
Line 15: deity in my nature: “divine quality of being, everywhere [...] Sebastian suspects a supernatural phenomenon or witchcraft” (AS 339).
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Line 39 maiden weeds: “clothes fit for a virgin: (AS 342).
Line 51: Orbed continent .. day from night: “i.e. the sun” (AS 343).
Line 55-56: He upon some action … Malvolio’s suit: “a curious piece of news, probably introduced to explain the captain’s long absence: he has been imprisoned following a lawsuit brought by Malvolio” (AS 344).
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Line 61-62: Belzebub at the stave’s end: “Keeps the devil at a distance. The metaphor from the sport of quarterstaff fighting, is proverbial. Feste, as if still playing the part of Sir Topas, is again suggesting that Malvolio is, or is about to be, possessed” (AS 345).
Line 69: Vox: “(an appropriate) voice or delivery” (AS 346).
Line 86: one day shall crown th’ alliance on’t: “this relationship [Viola and Orsino] will be sealed on the same (wedding) day [as Olivia and Sebastian]” (AS 347).
Line 87: at my proper cost: “ at my own expense” (AS 347).
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Line 103: clear lights of favour: “evident signs; this is probably a nautical metaphor, alluding to lighthouse signals” (AS 348).
Line 106: lighter people: “lesser” people (AS 348).
Line 110: geck: “dupe, synonym of gull” (AS 348).
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Line 138: Golden Time: “ (1) auspicious and (2) precious” (Cam 161).
Line 138: convents: “calls” (Cam 161).
Line 145: Feste’s song: “this refrain seems to evoke the adversities of life in general: hence ‘hey, ho,’ expressing weariness or disappointment” (AS 352).
Line 147: A foolish thing was but a toy: “a childish prank was considered merely trivial; with a possible pun on thing as phallus” (AS 352).
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Line 155: swaggering: “braggin, blustering’ (AS 353).
Line 157: But when I came unto my beds: “i.e. when I grew old” (AS 353). Or, meaning “being drunk on various occasions” (Cam 162).
Line 159: tosspots: “One accustomed to toss off his pot of drink; a heavy drinker; a toper, drunkard” (OED).
Sources:
Shakespeare William and Elizabeth Story Donno. Twelfth Night or What You Will Updated ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Shakespeare, William and Keir Elam. Twelfth Night or What You Will. London: Arden Shakespeare, 2008.
Oxford English Dictionary, Database through Southern Utah University, 2023
Shakespeare William and Elizabeth Story Donno. Twelfth Night or What You Will Updated ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Shakespeare, William and Keir Elam. Twelfth Night or What You Will. London: Arden Shakespeare, 2008.
Oxford English Dictionary, Database through Southern Utah University, 2023
