as shakespeare an comedy

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George Washington University

Twelfth Night and Shakespearian ComedyAuthor(s): Milton CraneSource: Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Winter, 1955), pp. 1-8Published by: Folger Shakespeare Library in association with George Washington UniversityStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2866046

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TwelfthNightand Shakespearian omedyMILTON CRANE

HEN Dr. Johnson stated, in his Preface to his edition ofShakespeare's lays,that thesejlays were not "in the rigorousand critical sense either tragediesor comedies,but composi-tions of a distinct kind," freely and casually mingling bothforms, he confirmed the opinion of many lesser critics whohad either praised or blamed Shakespeare for being lessscrupulous n this regard than Sophoclesor Aristophanes.Dr. Johnson,however,not only applauded this refusalto patrol the frontiers of tragedy and comedy;he went on to affirmthat Shakespeare's aturalgenius was for comedy:

He . . . indulgedhis naturaldisposition, nd his disposition, s Rhymerhas remarked, ed him to comedy.In tragedyhe often writes, with greatappearancef toil and study,what is writtenat lastwith little felicity;butin his comickscenes,he seemsto producewithoutlabour,what no labourcan improve.In tragedyhe is alwaysstrugglingafter some occasion o becomick;but in comedyhe seemsto repose,or to luxuriate, s in a mode ofthinkingcongenial o his nature. n his tragick cenes here s alwayssome-thing wanting,but his comedyoften surpasses xpectation r desire.Hiscomedy pleases by the thoughts and language, and his tragedy for thegreater part by incident and action. His tragedy seems to be skill, hiscomedy o be instinct.1

This judgment was tempered, however, by some severe strictureson Shake-speare's apses:In his comicksceneshe is seldomvery successful,when he engageshischaractersn reciprocationsf smartness nd contests f sarcasm;heirjestsare commonlygross,and theirpleasantryicentious;neitherhis gentlemennor his ladieshave much delicacy,nor are sufficiently istinguishedromhis clownsby any appearancef refinedmanners.Whetherhe representedthe real conversationf his time is not easyto determine.... There must,.however,have beenalways ome modesof gayetypreferableo others,and a.writeroughtto chusethe best(p. 22).

For all his reservationsabout Shakespeare's aulty taste in comic mannerand matter,Dr. Johnson's opinion of the comedies,as set forth in his Prefaceand supportedby his Notes to the plays,is far morefavorable hanthat of manylater critics. The tendency of nineteenth- and twentieth-centurycriticismhasbeen to exalt the tragediesas the supremeachievementof Shakespeare's rt,andto considerthe comedies as relativelyminor and dated works. The problemofHamlet is as satisfactorily imelessas that of Oedipus;but some critics, regard-ing comedy as irrevocablywedded to the moment, insist on waiting for Profes-1 Johnsonn Shakespeare,d. WalterRaleigh London,929), pp. i8-i9.


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2 SHAKESPEAREQUARTERLYsor Sissonto identify the Lady of the Stracheybeforethey will consentto renderaestheticjudgment on the play in which she so fleetingly figures. Dr. Johnsonfaced the questionof the comedieswith characteristic oldnessand candor, andgave them the palm; but his successors, o the extent that they concernthem-selves at all with such basic questions,tend to adopt silently his premiseaboutShakespeare'smingling of the forms and to discard his conclusion about itssuccess.Some modern critics,to be sure, have preferredto skirt the problem.Pro-fessor Parrott, for example, in his comprehensive study of Shakespeariancomedy deals with comic elements in the plays whereverhe finds them, exam-ining individual comic scenes or parts of scenes as largely independentof thetotal effect of the plays in which they appear.Such fragmentationof the playsmay find justification n the fact that Shakespeareobviously concernedhimselfmore with effectivenessof the individual situation than with larger problemsof structure; nevertheless,the difference in quality between, let us say, thePorter'sscene in Macbethand a monologue of Launce in The Two Gentlemenof Verona reflects mportantdifferencesof conceptionand plan.The difficulty hat underlies all such discussions,and that makes most mod-ern criticshesitateeitherto agreeor to disagreewith Dr. Johnson'sdouble-edgedpraise of Shakespeare's omedy, is a profound uncertaintyabout the proprietyof treating that comedy as a single, definablething. Here again Dr. Johnson'sempirical definition of comedy in the age of Shakespearemay offer a usefulpoint of departure:"An action which ended happily to the principalpersons,however serious or distressfulthrough its intermediateincidents. . . ." But sogeneral a statement does little to enlarge our understandingof Shakespeare'spurpose or method; tragedy and comedy must be divided on some more sig-nificant principle.Our problem,then, is to expandthis definition and to make it more specificwith referenceto Shakespeare's omedies.If it is possible to speak of that ex-traordinarygroup of plays ranging from The Comedy of Errors and A Mid-summer-Night's Dream to Measure for Measure and The Tempest in termsmore meaningful than those of a happy ending or a haphazardconglomerationof laughableincidents,we must seek the solution in Shakespeare's racticeas adramatist,not in the realm of metaphysical peculation.The extent to which Shakespeare's omediescan be identifiedwith any tra-dition of comic drama has been the subjectof severalrecentstudies.Nevill Cog-hill, contrasting Shakespeariancomedy (which he calls "romantic") withJonsonianor "corrective"omedy,has justlyremarked:"It is easyto discernthepromptingsof two opposedtemperaments n the use of comic form by [Shake-speareand Jonson]; so much so that it hardlymakes sense to speak of 'comicform' as if it were a single thing of which both had the same theoreticalconcep-tion, to the disciplineof which both were in voluntaryand agreed subjection.And because it does not seem to make sense, it is often supposedthat Shake-speare wrote under no discipline of form, that he followed no particularanddefinabletraditionof Comedy,but was simplyfancy'schild. .. ."2 His answertowhat is in effectDr. Johnson'spositionis that "Shakespearewas following a tra-dition that evolved during the middle ages"from fourth-centuryLatin gram-

2 "The Basisof ShakespeareanComedy,"Essaysand Studies (London, I950), p. T


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TWELFTH NIGHT AND SHAKESPEARIANCOMEDY 3marians, such as Donatus, and which eventually becameformulated as "roman-tic" comedy, expressing the idea that "life is to be grasped",using a love-storywith a profusion of incidents, and resolving all confusion andmisunderstandingthrough a happy catastrophe.This form ProfessorCoghill opposes to Jonsoniancomedy,which he likewise tracesback to late classicaland medieval sources,andwhich emphasizes the satiricaland correctiveelement ratherthan the joyful andconciliatory.The evidence of Shakespeare'scontemporariessuggests that they mighthave found Professor Coghill'sdistinction more ingenious than valid. ThomasHeywood's An Apology for Actors,for example, while agreeing with ProfessorCoghill's grammariansthat the essence of comedy is "Turbulentaprima, tran-quilla vltima . . . Comedies begin in trouble, and end in peace . . ." offers a"deffinitionof the Comedy, according to the Latins-,"-i.e.,Donatus-as "a dis-course consisting of diuers institutions, comprehendingciuill and domestickethings, in which is taught, what in our hues and manners is to be followed,what to bee auoyded... ."3 And, in speaking of comedy as written by himselfand his colleagues, he lays equal weight on the pleasurableand the didacticelements:

[A Comedy] is pleasantly ontriuedwith merryaccidents,and inter-mixtwith apt and wittyiests,to presentbefore hePrinceat certain imesofsolemnity, r else merrily ittedto the stage.And what is thenthe subiectofthis harmelessemirth?either n the shapeof a Clowne, o shewothers heirslouenlyand vnhansomebehauiour, hat they may reforme hat simplicityin themselues,which othersmake their sport, est they happento becomethe like subiectof generallscorne o an auditory, lse it intreatesof loue,deridingfoolish inamorates,who spend their ages, their spirits,nay them-selues, in the seruile and ridiculous mployments f theirMistresses: ndthese aremingled with sportfull ccidents, o recreate uch as of themseluesarewhollydeuoted o Melancholly,whichcorrupts he bloud:or to refreshsuchweary spiritsas are tired with labour,or study,to moderate he caresand heauinesseof the minde, that they may returne o their tradesandfacultieswith more zeale and earnestnesse, fter some smallsoftand pleas-antretirementsigs. F3v-F4r).

It seems clear that such a definition, in which echoes of other Elizabethancritics may be discerned,embracesevery kind of comedy and obviatesthe needfor Professor Coghill's two categories.The individual playwright may at willstress either the pleasurableor the didactic,but both elements will be presentinhis work, and the most successful comic artist, as I hope presently to demon-strate,will be the one who best contrivest5combineboth elementsin his play.A work productive of mirth, frequently employing a love-story as its basicmatter,agreeablyresolvinga disturbingor even dangeroussituationor groupofincidents, and exposing vice or correcting folly: such is Elizabethan comedy.Twelfth Night is an admirableexampleof this synthesisof the romanticand thedidactic;but we may do well to recallthat Shakespeare ameto such a synthesisby way of an orderly development.The plays generallyclassedtogether as Shakespeare's omedies,if we omit

3Thomas Heywood, An Apology for Actors (i612), reprinted with introductions and biblio-graphical notes by Richard H. Perkinson (New York, 1941), sig. FIT'.


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4 SHAKESPEAREQUARTERLYthe chronicle histories with substantial comic subplots, fall into four majorgroups: (i) the early comediesand farces, ncluding such plays as The Comedyof Errors and The Taming of the Shrew; (2) the great comedies: TwelfthNight and As You Like It; (3) the so-calleddark comedies; and (4) the ro-mantic comediesor tragi-comediesof Shakespeare's ast years.Now the earliestplays are simple, even classical, n their comic structure;and they make capitalof every device known to the writer of farce. The Comedy of Errorsis notori-ously mechanical in its manipulation of the two Antipholuses and the twoDromios; after the first act, the average playgoeror reader can probablyguesswithout much difficulty the development of most of the action. (What thereader may not guess, however, is the extraordinary ffectivenesson the stageofthe mistakesin identity and the knockabout farce.) Love's Labour'sLost playswith disguises, swearings and forswearings, sudden reversals-and even thesimple Mutt-and-Jeffhumor of Armado and his Moth. The Taming of theShrew carriesdisguisefrom the physical to the spiritualplane,althoughit doesnot neglect the physical. The taming of Katherinais, of course, the most grati-fying of all comic patterns: he biter bit. But we are at least permittedto supposethat Petruchio is truly a gentleman and that, by the end of the play, he has re-verted to his normal conduct. (Perhaps Mr. TennesseeWilliams will one dayfavor us with a tragic reinterpretationof the psychic damage inflicted byPetruchio on Katherina;Shakespeare, las, in this play shows characteristic ru-tality and male chauvinism in not divining the existenceof such a problem.)About the early plays, then, we may assumethat no great difficultyexists.The main actionof eachplay is normally paralleledby a subplot of clowns: theAntipholuseshave their Dromios; King Ferdinand and the Princesshave theirBerowne and Rosaline and even their Armado and Jacquenetta;the loves ofLysander and Hermia are answered by the marvelous triangle of Oberon,Titania,and Bottom.As we approach he great comedies of Shakespeare'smiddle period, we arefaced by seriousquestionsconcerningthe structureof dramatic action and thenatureof dramatic effect. What has the tragic-or at least melodramatic-storyof Hero and Claudio to do with the comedy of Beatriceand Benedick? Howdoes the sentimental romanceof Orsino and Viola come to be playedto the rau-cous accompanimentof Sir Toby Belch? Twelfth Night deservesspecialconsid-eration because it has the greatestcomplexityof plot structure,and becausethenet effect of the play, in spiteof Malvolio, is not comic. Twelfth Night is, more-over, a crucial casein the studyof Shakespearian omedy, as it exhibits the chiefproblems that are to be raised and resolved less successfully in the problemcomedies and the last plays. If it is possible to demonstrate the pattern thatShakespeareemployed in Twelfth Night-a combination of consistent and in-genious variationson a favorite theme of classicalcomedy-then Shakespeare'stechnique of comic inversionbecomesclearlyrecognizable; it is this techniquewhich, when pressedtoo far and insufficiently ontrolledby comic decorum,pro-duces such bafflingand irritatingworks as Measure or Measure.Twelfth Night is compoundedof three plots. Central to the play, as MarkVan Doren has well said,is Malvolio,the gull, criticaland waspish,an efficiencyexpert,a busybody.To pay him back for his insults,Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, andMaria contrive to lead him by the nose until he has disgracedhimself with


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TWELFTH NIGHT AND SHAKESPEARIANCOMEDY 5Olivia, been confined as a madman, and put out of his humor publicly in thepresenceof his mistress and his tormentors.He is a comic protagonistpar excel-lence; his ambition and his vanity are precisely the comic vices by means ofwhich he is plagued. The counterfeited etter is exquisitely designedso that hewill put just such a constructionon it as will gratify his self-love and lead himto his own destruction.And, once he has been forced to see himself as a gull, inOlivia's pitying line, "Alas poor fool, how have they baffled hee!",Malvolio hasnothing to reply but "I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you!" before herushesoff.This is such a plot as would have delighted Ben Jonson or any writer ofclassicalsatiricalcomedy; ProfessorCampbell has justly called it "Shakespeare'scomedy of humours."Its mainspring s the unmasking of a gull by his own wit-less conceit; it is enhanced by the parallel action in which Sir Andrew is per-suaded to court Olivia, only to have his head broken by way of reward. Thebaiting of Malvolio is unrelieved n its comic heartlessness, nd is not even super-ficiallymoral in its purpose.Others may prateaboutreformingthe gull by put-ting him out of his humor; there can be no 'doubt,as we watch the undoing ofMalvolio, that we are intended to share Sir Toby's sadisticpleasure n the proc-ess, and that no one takes the slightest interestin whether all this will make abetterman of Malvolio. (Even Moliere and Shaw occasionallyseem to protesttoo much about the corrective unction of the comic artist. But then every pro-fession from time to time finds it convenient to make a show of public service.)At the risk of laboring the obvious, I should like to recall the-essentialele-ments of Malvolio's story: the progresstoward self-recognitionof a man who ispartly self-deceivedand partly deceivedby others; who assumesa form of dis-guise in order (as he thinks) to achievehis end, but who must ultimatelydivesthimself of it; who loves, but-as he comes to realize-in vain. He is at lengthbrought to utter confusion, but his downfall produces pain only in himself, aridiculous figure (in spite of nineteenth-and twentieth-century omanticizing)and therefore worthy of suffering the typical fate of a comic protagonist.The second of the three plots of Twelfth Night deals with the frustratedlove of Olivia for Viola-Cesarioand its happy resolution in the marriageofOlivia and Sebastian.The first interview of Olivia and the disguisedViola is abrilliantlycontrivedcomic exchange,the end of which is temperedby Olivia'sconfession of love for the supposed youth. Here are all the elements of a ro-mantic plot of frustrated ove in the mannerof Beaumontand Fletcher. Shake-speare,however, is contentto develop the emotionalpossibilitiesof this situationfor only one additional scene; then, using precisely such a casual, perfunctory,and mechanical device as he had unblushingly exploitedin the farcicalComedyof Errors, he substitutesSebastian or Viola and packs the lovers off to a priest.Let no one tell us of the profound psychology that Shakespearehere displays nmaking Viola and Sebastianidentical twins in wit and intellect as well as inform and feature. Shakespeare s merely hustling his minor charactersoff thestage with the least possibletrouble,whatever the cost in plausibility.In this re-spect,at least, Twelfth Night is no less a romancethan The Winter'sTale.Note, however, that the story of Viola, Olivia, and Sebastian,like that ofMalvolio, turns on Olivia'sawakening from a deception-actually a double de-ception,producedpartly by a disguiseand partlyby lack of self-knowledge.She


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6 SHAKESPEAREQUARTERLYfirst s madeto realize,when she becomesnfatuatedwith Viola, hather deter-mination o mournher brother evenyears anbe overcomen a twinkling:

Even so quicklymay one catch he plague?Methinks feel this youth'sperfectionsWith an invisibleand subtlestealthTo creep n at mine eyes. (I. v. 314-317)Similarly,hemustpresently baseherselfbefore he youngpage,beg hishandin marriage, ndhale him beforea priest,offeringno seemlier xcuse or herunladylike aste han

Plight me the full assurance f yourfaithThat my most jealiousand toodoubtful oulMay iveat peace. IV. iii. 26-28)The most radiant,exquisite,and unmatchabjeeautyhas indeedlearned ohumbleherself.From this pointforward, hehas little to do in the play but tohelp complete heconfusion f Malvolio.The thirdplot is, of course, he storyof Viola and Orsino. ustasMalvoliois deceivedby Mariaand Sir Toby, and Oliviaby Viola, so Orsino s baffledpartlyby his infatuationor Olivia (whichsteepshim in a fashionablemelan-choly) and by his inability o penetratehe disguiseof the unfortunate iola.This is a comedyof errors n which the only character ho is fullyawareofthe situations powerless o remedy t, and can only apostrophizeer page'sgarments:

Disguise,I see thou art a wickednessWherein he pregnant nemydoesmuch.How easy s it for theproper alseIn women'swaxenhearts o set their orms!Alas,ourfrailty s thecause,notwe!Forsuchas we aremadeof, suchwe be.How will thisfadge?Mymaster ovesherdearly;AndI (poormonster) ond asmuchon him;And she (mistaken)seems o doteon me. (II.i.28-36)

Now, whereaswe takesatisfactionn theuntrussingf Malvolio, ndwe neverreally fear that the awakening f Olivia will pass beyond he boundaries fcomedy as is madealtogether lainbythesimpleand mechanicalontrivancethatextricateser fromherpredicament),hestoryof ViolaandOrsinos some-thingelse again.Althoughunmistakablyomic n outline, n its developmentthis actionseizeseveryopportunityo develop entimentaluggestionsnd im-plications.t maybe argued hat comicdecorumdoes not exclude entiment.On this point authorities isagree;nevertheless, hen Rosalindpermitshermindto runon Orlando ndher wished-foroys,shealmostat oncemocksher-self for so doing.Violacannot;notonlyis hersituation eyondhercontrol, utsheis temperamentallynewithHeroandCelia,notwith Rosalind rBeatrice.In otherwords, he is the kindof heroinewhomone doesnot expect o findplayinga leadingrole n comedy,butrather ervingas a Julia o a KateHard-castle.


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TWELFTHNIGHT AND SHAKESPEARIANCOMEDY 7Now thecurioushingaboutTwelfthNightis not onlythatViolaplays he

leadingfemininepart,but that the patently omicactionof Malvolio, entralthough t be to thestructuref theplay, s clearlyhe action hat leastengagesShakespeare'sttention.n short,here s a playthat nvertswhatwe mayregardas thenormalorderof elementsn a comedy,withrespecto theimportancetassigns o each.The sentimentaltoryof Violaand Orsino s in firstplace;closelyconnectedwithit butclearly ubordinateo it is themoreovertly omicstoryof Olivia,Viola,andSebastian;ndin lastplace s the comicgullingofMalvolio.All threeplots havefundamentallyhe samestructure: comicpro-tagonist s gulled by anotherperson,andis at lengthforced o recognizeandtakeaccount f theimpositionhathasbeenpracticedponhim.But it makesaverygreatdifferencewhether, n theonehand, hegull is Orsino,unwillinglydeceivedby Viola,or whether, n the otherhand,Mariaand SirTobyarejoy-fullyhoodwinkingMalvolio.Shakespeareas so harmonizedhethreeactionsthattheyanswerone another n differentevelsandwithdifferentffects;buttherecanbeno doubtas to whichof theseactions eemed o himof paramountinterestand importance.He invented he storyof Malvolio, nd used it withrareskill as the foundation f his play; buthe wasconcernedirstof all withViolaand secondarily ithOlivia.Similarpatterns ppearn theothercomedies f thisperiod f Shakespeare'scareer.Rosalind's alf-willing, alf-unwillingeception f Orlandos echoednher dealingswith the shepherdesshebe;but the gay mockeryof the unin-hibitedheroine, onfident f her power, endsthe play a unityof comictonethat is beyondTwelfthNight.The deceptionf Beatrice ndBenedick ffersacomiccounterparto the grimandimplausibleovesof Hero and Claudio; erethecomicunderplot surpshe placeof themoreserious ctionandimposeststoneon theentireplay.Sucha line of investigationanbe usefully xtendedo the latercomediesas well.For our purpose,however,t is sufficientf we can showthatShake-speare,beginningwith a themeof classical omedy,proceededo deviseaseriesof variations n this fundamentalction,variationshat departedmoreandmore romcomedyn theireffectshoughnotin theirmethods.f thetotaleffectof TwelfthNight, owingto thepredominancef Viola's tory, uggestsacome'diearmoyantemore hana Goldsmithouldapprove,we shouldnotseekto explain his factby postulatingpecial heories f Shakespearianomedyorby atomizingShakespeare'slays nto individual cenes.Aboveall,we shouldnot neglect he importancen the play'sstructure f the grosslyanti-romanticplotof Malvolio ndhis tormentors.TwelfthNight,togetherwithShakespeare'sthergreatcomedies,eadsoneto concludehatDr. Johnson'sraiseof Shakespeare'somicgeniuswas hardlyexaggerated,lthough nehesitateso affirmwithhim that he comediesurpassthe tragediesn excellence.One cannotagreewith Dr. Johnson, owever,hatShakespeare'slayswere neithercomediesnor tragedies.The earlycomedies,such as A Midsummer-Night'sream,aresurely ruecomedies; ndin themShakespearemployed comic tructurendmethodhathe,like his colleagues,had inheritedromthe ancients nd turned o his own uses.The darkcomediesdepart romShakespeare'sormalpracticen comedybecausen themhe fails


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8 SHAKESPEAREQUARTERLYto reconcileonflictinglements f romance ndsatire.ThegreatcomediesuchasTwelfthNightshow,onthecontrary,hakespeareorking ffectively ithinthe tradition f classicalomedyandenlarging t to encompass richand har-moniousdevelopment f fundamentallyomicmatter.Washington, . C.

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