Twelfth Night – critical quotations
Shakespearean comedy
Comedy … focuses primarily on the experience of the group, as opposed to the individualist, isolationist
emphasis of tragedy. (Lisa Hopkins)
It is possible to discern in Shakespeare’s comedies clear signs of the conservatism which is so often felt to
flourish in comedy. (Hopkins)
Comedy dealt with the dangerous present
Language, mood and atmosphere, music
It is replete with moments in which visual sensation and sounds hover between sensuous numinousness
and semantic specificity. (Bruce Smith)
There is a ‘languorous atmosphere of amorous reverie and exquisite yearning’ (Ryan)
John Hollander: 'The Role of Music in Twelfth Night' (1956)
- 'the nature of a revel is disclosed in the first scene. The materials are to be music, food and drink and
love'
- 'exterior fluids of all kinds, wine, tears, sea- water, urine, and finally the rain of inevitability bathe the
whole world of Illyria, in constant reference throughout the play'
C. L. Barber: 'Shakespeare's Festive Comedy' (1959)
'People are caught up by delusions or misapprehensions which take them out of themselves'
Kiernan Ryan: 'Shakespeare's comedies' (2009)
'The languid atmosphere of the amorous reverie and exquisite yearning created by Orsino's opening
speech defines the emotional climate of Illyria right at the outset'
'"Nothing that is so, is so": therein lies the distilled wisdom not just of Twelfth Night, but of the whole
sequence of comedies it brings to a close'
'The labile nature of language is immediately linked to the wilfulness of the libido by the quip about
making words wanton' (labile = liable to change)
A critical reader: (2014)
- 'Twelfth Night has always been recognised as the play by Shakespeare most suffused with generally
melancholy music and song'
- 'The characters who welcome music in Illyria are more uniformly saddened by it' - W. H. Auden.
- Elam: music 'is not a decorative addition to the play but as essential part of the play's dramatic
economy'
Orsino
‘amiable erotic lunacy’ (Harold Bloom)
A narcissistic fool (Herschel Baker)
C. L. Barber: 'Shakespeare's Festive Comedy' (1959)
- 'The delight he [Orsino] he takes in Cesario's fresh youth and graceful responsiveness in conversation
and in service, is one part of the spectrum of love for a woman'
'Orsino meets poised Viola in a world of revelry'
Shakespearean comedy
Comedy … focuses primarily on the experience of the group, as opposed to the individualist, isolationist
emphasis of tragedy. (Lisa Hopkins)
It is possible to discern in Shakespeare’s comedies clear signs of the conservatism which is so often felt to
flourish in comedy. (Hopkins)
Comedy dealt with the dangerous present
Language, mood and atmosphere, music
It is replete with moments in which visual sensation and sounds hover between sensuous numinousness
and semantic specificity. (Bruce Smith)
There is a ‘languorous atmosphere of amorous reverie and exquisite yearning’ (Ryan)
John Hollander: 'The Role of Music in Twelfth Night' (1956)
- 'the nature of a revel is disclosed in the first scene. The materials are to be music, food and drink and
love'
- 'exterior fluids of all kinds, wine, tears, sea- water, urine, and finally the rain of inevitability bathe the
whole world of Illyria, in constant reference throughout the play'
C. L. Barber: 'Shakespeare's Festive Comedy' (1959)
'People are caught up by delusions or misapprehensions which take them out of themselves'
Kiernan Ryan: 'Shakespeare's comedies' (2009)
'The languid atmosphere of the amorous reverie and exquisite yearning created by Orsino's opening
speech defines the emotional climate of Illyria right at the outset'
'"Nothing that is so, is so": therein lies the distilled wisdom not just of Twelfth Night, but of the whole
sequence of comedies it brings to a close'
'The labile nature of language is immediately linked to the wilfulness of the libido by the quip about
making words wanton' (labile = liable to change)
A critical reader: (2014)
- 'Twelfth Night has always been recognised as the play by Shakespeare most suffused with generally
melancholy music and song'
- 'The characters who welcome music in Illyria are more uniformly saddened by it' - W. H. Auden.
- Elam: music 'is not a decorative addition to the play but as essential part of the play's dramatic
economy'
Orsino
‘amiable erotic lunacy’ (Harold Bloom)
A narcissistic fool (Herschel Baker)
C. L. Barber: 'Shakespeare's Festive Comedy' (1959)
- 'The delight he [Orsino] he takes in Cesario's fresh youth and graceful responsiveness in conversation
and in service, is one part of the spectrum of love for a woman'
'Orsino meets poised Viola in a world of revelry'
