What in the blazin' is a Twelfth Night?

by Christian Riboldi, dramaturg Welcome back to the 4th Wall. Today we're going to cover the basic overview of the plot for Twelfth Night. Unlike Romeo and Juliet, the plot for Twelfth Night might not be as widely known to most of you. I know I had to brush up my Shakespeare in order to remember. First let's cover our basic characters. Orsino: He's a...you guessed it, duke, who is in love with Olivia. Olivia: A wealthy maid who is the fairest of them all. Viola: Twin to Sebastian and main heroine of the story. When dressed as a boy she goes by the name Cesario. Sebastian: Twin to Viola. Get's lost at he very beginning of the story. Malvolio: Servant to Viola and in charge of the other servants. A little on the snooty side. Sir Toby: Olivia's Uncle. He's a little loud and good friends with Feste and Maria. Feste: The town fool. In this town he is a man of many talents. Maria: Olivia's hand maiden, though she quite spunky. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="416"] Joseph Timms as Sebastian (left) and Samuel Barnett as Viola (right) in the Globe Theater.[/caption] There you have it. In this cutting of our show those are all of the characters. The show starts out with Sebastian and Viola getting separated by a storm. The now desperate Viola decides that to make it on her own she will need to find work, which she can't to as a woman, so she dresses as a man and calls herself Cesario. Cesario get's hired by Orsino and is told to run an errand to tell the fair Olivia that Orsino is still in love with her. Viola does this but begins to realize that she likes Orsino, and wishes that he liked her back. While at Olivia's, Viola/Cesario is so good at wooing that Olivia begins to fall for Cesario. Meanwhile Malvolio is telling off all of the servants and Sir Toby for being rowdy, so Sir Toby, Feste, and Maria decide to play a trick on Malvolio. Maria writes a letter pretending she is Olivia declaring her love for Malvolio. The letter convinces Malvolio that Olivia is really in love with him. Sebastian has now finally found his way back after the storm. When he enters the town Olivia throws herself at him, thinking that he is Cesario and tells him that they need to get married right now. Sebastian is surprised but goes along with it because it's not everyday that he has women begging to marry him. In the end Malvolio makes a fool of himself, Sebastian and Viola reunite, and Viola and Orsino get married. Finally after all of this you may be wondering to yourself, what in the world does this have to do with a Twelfth Night? A lot of people wonder the same thing. I think it would be best to let one of our character explain what it seems to be referring to. This is a snippet from an explanation Malvolio offers at the beginning or our version of the show. "Actually it’s called twelfth night as a reference to the twelfth night after Christmas day, called the Eve of the Feast of Epiphany, which is a carnvialesque celebration where roles were reversed, based on the ancient Roman festival of Staurnalia. Scholars argue about whether or not Shakespeare wrote it to celebrate the actual holiday, or if the title just refers to the topsy-turvy world suggested by this beloved festival – an interpretation that is supported by the subtitle, “What Your Will.” There you have it folks. Now that you know what Twelfth Night is about you can recognize the story when you see it. Next time we're going to be talking about some different adaptations of that this play has gone through. Until next time.

overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=

data-content-type="article"

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="376"] Margaret Roper[/caption] Margaret More Roper: Scholar and Daughter by Adam White, dramaturg Thomas More was a family man; he was married twice and had four children with his first wife, Jane Colt. After being married for six years, Jane Colt More died, leaving More with four children: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cecily and John. However, More quickly remarried to the widow Dame Alice Middleton, marrying her within a month of his wife’s death. While many of his friends resisted the rapid nature of the arrangement, More went through with it. Thomas and Alice More would raise the four children Thomas More had with Jane, as well as Alice’s daughter from her previous marriage and a foster daughter. Certainly, More valued his family and the welfare of his children. More also valued the power of education. He insisted that his daughters be educated through rigorous schooling, and this was unusual in 16th-century England, as society at large believed women unfit for scholarly pursuits. Despite cultural and institutional norms, Margaret More, the eldest of the More children (and More’s favorite, some would argue), would grow to become one of the most educated people in all of England, a woman of great scholarly knowledge. Margaret More Roper was tutored at home and became well-known for her studies, particularly for her adeptness in Greek and Latin. Her skill in writing and speaking Latin would impress the clergy of England. This specialty is reflected in a scene in Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons where Margaret and King Henry VIII engage in a bit of Latin language sparring. She would also become the first woman who was not of royal birth to publish a translated book. In October 1524, Roper published an English translation of a book called ‘Precatio dominica’ written by Thomas More’s good friend Erasmus. This book was based on the Lord’s Prayer. Instead of translating the book directly from Latin to English, Roper would use her extensive knowledge of both languages to construct the themes and the meanings Erasmus had written in to the treatise with her own words. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="291"] Erasmus, Dutch humanist and good friend to Thomas More[/caption] It was Margaret who would visit the imprisoned Thomas More the most often. They were very close, writing letters to one another regularly the duration of their relationship. It was in a letter to Margaret that Thomas More confided, “I do nobody harm, I say none harm, I thinke none harm, but wish everybody good. And if this be not enough to keep a man alive, in good faith I long not to live.” We have good reason to believe that Margaret More Roper very well understood what would be her father’s fate. After Thomas More’s execution, Margaret More Roper and her husband William Roper would continue to carry on his legacy in their own ways. William Roper would write the first biography of Thomas More, a glowing and gracious document that would influence our understanding of More’s personality for hundreds of years to come. Margaret More Roper actually kept her father’s head after his beheading, pickling it to preserve it from decay. While many of us may find that historical tidbit a tad macabre, I would like to believe that Margaret More Roper had deep admiration for her father; perhaps it was out of this feeling she kept his head. Please stay tuned to the 4th Wall Dramaturgy Blog to catch clips of my interview with Mallory Gee, the actress who will portray Margaret More Roper in BYU’s A Man for All Seasons. Bibliography: Abernathy, Susan. "Margaret Roper, Daughter of Sir Thomas More." Early Modern England. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014. Duerden, Richard. "A Man for All Seasons." Telephone interview. 31 Jan. 2014. "Margaret Roper." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Sept. 2013. Web. 02 Oct. 2013. "Sir Thomas More Quotes and Quotations." Sir Thomas More Quotes and Quotations. Luminarium. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.

What in the blazin' is a Twelfth Night?

Related Articles

test

Margaret More Roper: Scholar and Daughter

gfhfgfhgfjh