of their souls are laid bare before us. Such unchecked selfexpression is necessary to a tragedy, a soul-tempest, of the most intense type. But Brutus cannot unpack his heart in this unrestrained fashion. "The noblest Roman of them all" lives a reserved, self-controlled, high-minded life; and his dying thought is, My heart doth joy that yet in all my life I found no man but he was true to me. IS MALVOLIO A PURITAN? WHEN Maria first conceives the plot against Malvolio, and promises to "gull him into a nayword, and make him common recreation," we have the following bit of dialogue: Sir Toby. Possess us, possess us. Tell us something of him. Maria. Marry, sir, sometimes he is a kind of puritan. Sir Andrew. O, if I thought that, I'd beat him like a dog! knight? Sir Andrew. I have no exquisite reason for't, but I have reason good enough. Maria. The devil a puritan that he is, or anything constantly, but a time-pleaser; an affection'd ass, that cons state without book and utters it by great swarths; the best persuaded of himself, so cramm'd, as he thinks, with excellencies, that it is his grounds of faith that all that look on him love him; and on that vice in him will my revenge find notable cause to work. Twelfth Night, II, iii, 149-166. Some critics, noting that Malvolio is here called "a kind of puritan," consider him to be a member of that despised group. Others oppose this view, and cite Maria's later words, "The devil a puritan that he is." It is clear that it is no discredit to Malvolio to have the disfavor of the foolish Sir Andrew. On the whole, the authorities cited by Furness would not look upon the haughty steward as one of the company of the saints. I feel that Malvolio must be accepted as a Puritan if we are to get the full flavor of the satirical comments upon him in Act III, Scene iv. The humor of the tormentors does not become really exquisite unless Malvolio has looked upon the favor of God as his especial possession, the devil as his bitter enemy, prayer as his peculiar gift and privilege, and holiness as his permanent condition. With these assumptions, the ironical comments of his baiters, combined with the horrified countenance of the tormented saint, furnish the perfection of comedy. Listen: Sir Toby. Which way is he, in the name of sanctity? If all the devils of hell be drawn in little, and Legion himself possess'd him, yet I'll speak to him. Fabian. Here he is, here he is. is't with you, man? How is't with you, sir? How Malvolio. Go off; I discard you. Let me enjoy my private. Go off. Maria. Lo, how hollow the fiend speaks within him! Did not I tell you? Sir Toby, my lady prays you to have a care of him. Malvolio. Ah, ha! Does she so? Sir Toby. Go to, go to; peace, peace. We must deal gently with him. Let me alone. How do you, Malvolio? How is't with you? What, man, defy the devil! Consder, he's an enemy to mankind. Malvolio. Do you know what you say? Maria. La you, an you speak ill of the devil, how he takes it at heart! Pray God he be not bewitch'd! Sir Toby. What, man, 'tis not for gravity to play at cherry-pit with Satan. Hang him, foul collier! Maria. Get him to say his prayers, good Sir Toby, get him to pray. Malvolio. My prayers, minx! Maria. No, I warrant you, he will not hear of godliness. III, iv, 93-113, 128-135. Maria is the supreme genius in this badgering of Malvolio, with Sir Toby a close second. Both give him painful stabs; but it is Maria who deftly twists the knife in the wound: "he will not hear of godliness." It is worthy of notice that the name Malvolio is ap propriate for a Puritan. The character Malevole in John Marston's play "The Malcontent" may well have suggested the name; for Professor E. E. Stoll has shown that "The Malcontent" is older than "As You Like It," 1 and scholars usually consider that play earlier than "Twelfth Night." In Marston's play the banished Duke Altofronto has returned to Genoa in disguise, and has taken the name Malevole, which means "the man of ill-will, the malcontent." That Malvolio's name is undoubtedly intended to express the same meaning, his character shows. He is the sour, discontented one. He has the Puritan antipathy to popular recreations. Fabian explains his grudge against the self-righteous steward on this score: "He brought me out o' favour with my lady about a bear-baiting here" (II, v, 8-10). Sir Toby voices the challenge of all pleasure-lovers to the Puritan spirit: "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" (II, iii, 123-125). Five times Malvolio uses the name "Jove" in a way that is most inappropriate to a Puritan. There can be no question that the word was "God" in the original text in all five places. The act of May, 1606, "for the preventing and avoiding of the great abuse of the Holy Name of God in Stage playes, Interludes, Maygames, Shows and such like," provides that, if any person shall in such performances "jestingly or prophanely speak or use the Holy Name of God or of Christ Jesus, or of the Holy Ghost or of the Trinity," he shall be fined ten pounds for each offence. I am confident that, when "Twelfth Night" was printed in 1623, Malvolio's "God" was most inappropriately 1 Modern Philology, III, 281 ff. Virginia C. Gildersleeve, Government Regulation of the Elizabethan Drama, The Columbia University Press, 1908, pp. 19 f. changed to "Jove," in order to conform to this statute. We may be very sure, I think, that the enraptured steward, when completely deceived by the forged letter, was intended by Shakespeare to say: "Well, God, not I, is the doer of this, and He is to be thanked" (III, iv, 91-92). Many eminent students of Shakespeare, however, refuse to consider Malvolio a Puritan. Hunter seems almost alone in insisting that Shakespeare intends in this play to hold up to ridicule the obnoxious sect, and to expose "to public odium the dark features of the Puritan character." 1 Mr. William Archer, an especially competent critic, holds that the view that makes of Malvolio "a satirical type of the Puritan as Shakespeare conceived him, will not hold ground for a moment. No one who reads the play without a preconceived theory can find in Malvolio the smallest trace of the zealot. All that can by any stretch of language be called Puritanism in his conduct redounds entirely to his honour." And Rolfe insists that Malvolio at no time talked like a Puritan "when he came to reprove the midnight roysterers." 2 The Puritan characters in Ben Jonson's plays certainly do not greatly resemble Malvolio. It needs only their names to tell us that Win-the-fight Littlewit, Zeal-of-theland Busy, and Tribulation Wholesome belong to the company of the elect. And when Tribulation Wholesome enters, his speech bewrayeth him: These chastisements are common to the saints, And such rebukes we of the separation Must bear with willing shoulders, as the trials Sent forth to tempt our frailties. The Alchemist, III, i, 1-4. 1 Furness' edition of Twelfth Night, p. 397. 2 Furness, 399 f. and 130. |