Twelfth Night: The Wisdom of Shakespeare

By Peter Dawkins

In this thought provoking book the author takes the reader into the fascinating world of Alchemy and Cabala that underlies Shakespeare's play, Twelfth Night or What You Will. We are shown not only how the play is based on a profound understanding of the biblical Genesis and Revelation but also of the mystery path of initiation that lies between. The story takes on another depth of meaning when we realise that the characters represent aspects of our own psyche and spirit as well as of society generally, and that the play is an allegory of a possible path to our own and humanity’s future happiness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781483550770

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Author’s Preface

Twelfth Night or What You Will is one of Shakespeare’s most delightful plays, full of love, wit, humour and excitement, yet with a darker side to give it an edge. In fact it is a play full of opposites, which is probably not surprising since the two principal characters are twins! In particular, the play provides an intriguing exercise in the duality of things open and secret, revealed and concealed, and the creative tension that exists between them. Moreover, when one looks beneath the veil it is possible to discover two major Wisdom traditions that Shakespeare has used, forming another example of ‘twins’. There may, of course, be more than this, but two stand out above all else. These two are the Cabala and Alchemy. The play is a brilliant example and allegory of the Cabalistic and Alchemical wisdom teachings.

In performance the play is entertaining, moving and exciting, and throws up many challenges and many questions. Concealed behind the performance of the play are its hidden secrets—its Mystery. This book is about this wonderland of knowledge and wisdom, which bestows the immortality for which this and other Shakespeare plays are renowned. It is not possible to give a complete exposition of these things, and even if it were possible I wouldn’t even want to try. What I have endeavoured to provide is a gateway for you to look in and see what is there, so that if you want to you can go through that gateway and into the amazing world of wisdom that lies in this play—and, indeed, in all the Shakespeare plays. I have found that such knowledge not only enriches my experience of each play dramatically but also helps me to understand my fellow man and myself far better. It provides insights into how we create our problems and how we can solve those problems, and provides a map of the human soul and spirit.

As you may have discovered for yourself or through reading previous volumes in this Wisdom of Shakespeare series, Shakespeare was intimately involved in the Rosicrucian movement of the 16th/17th century. Indeed, there is no doubt in my mind that he was a Rosicrucian. There are many clues in Twelfth Night as to this, and for those who are interested in the historical, social and philosophical background of the Shakespeare plays, and of Shakespeare himself, this play provides a rich mine of information and leads. In fact, it almost gives the game away!

This book is written at the time of the 400th anniversary of the first recorded performance of Twelfth Night. The actors of the Globe Theatre, led by Mark Rylance, celebrated this anniversary with performances of the play at the Middle Temple Hall in London, where the first recorded performance of the play took place 400 years ago. The research for this book was done well before this anniversary—indeed, it is the result of many years of experiencing the play in production by various companies and giving many seminars on it; but witnessing the anniversary performance this year has, as it were, put the cream on the cake as far as I am concerned. It has made the writing of this book an extra joy and brought about many more insights into the play, and for this I am most grateful.

For the plan of the book I begin with a sketch of the play’s background and the sources that Shakespeare drew upon or which influenced him. These alone are fascinating and most revealing.

The second chapter summarises the story of the play, scene by scene. This is not only for the benefit of those who do not know the play very well but also as a help to those who do, as it emphasises the key points that will be discussed in the book.

The third chapter looks at the various plots and sub-plots of which the play is composed, and introduces the various themes that run through the play. The following four chapters look at these themes in detail.

The eighth chapter investigates the reason for the play’s title, which is of considerable importance, and leads into the following chapter that looks at the Hermetic or Alchemical basis of the whole play.

Likewise, the tenth chapter, which explains the meanings and mythology of the names of the characters in the play, leads into the last chapter of the book, which looks at the Cabalistic basis of the play and the Tree of Life arrangement of the characters.

As in the previous books of this series, I have used the Arden edition of The Tempest when quoting from the play, which I recommend both for its text and notes. Reference to a facsimile copy of the original Shakespeare Folio of plays is always worth the effort, if this is possible for you, and I always have one by me when I am reading or writing about the Shakespeare plays. Biblical quotes are from the Companion Bible, which is based upon the King James’ Authorised Version of the Holy Bible that was published in Shakespeare’s lifetime. The works of Shakespeare and the Bible go together very well, and I recommend anyone who wishes to enjoy Shakespeare to the full, and understand the Bible more deeply, to have both on hand. As you will see when you read this book, Twelfth Night incorporates some profound biblical teaching.

In this series I am not attempting to provide a bibliography as such, since this could be a weighty matter that unbalances the main subject matter of each book; but the endnote references should provide ample scope for further research, and the treasure trail can be followed in this way, from one book or author to the next.

P.D.

February 2002

1. Background

Contemporary Allusions and Dating

Twelfth Night was first printed in the 1623 Shakespeare Folio, under the title Twelfe Night, or, What you will.² It had previously been entered in the Stationer’s Register on the 8th November 1623, together with fifteen other Shakespeare plays that also had their first printing in the 1623 Folio. Intriguingly, it is the only Shakespeare play to have a double title (Henry VIII has an alternative title, All is True, but this is not the same as a double title).

The first recorded performance of Twelfth Night was on Candlemas, 2nd February 1602, at the Middle Temple Inn of Court in London. The performance would have taken place in the large, beautiful and well-illuminated Elizabethan hall, with its clerestory of sparkling glazed windows on both north and south walls, two bay windows at the west end, a finely carved screen at its east end, and a magnificent double hammer-beam roof, the finest domestic example in existence at the time it was built. Queen Elizabeth I opened it in 1572. This hall still exists today and, as these words are written, is the setting of the quatercentenary celebration of the first recorded performance of Twelfth Night, acted this time by the 21st century company of the new Shakespeare Globe Theatre.

It was John Manningham, a fourth-year student at the Middle Temple Inn of Court, who made the first record of a Twelfth Night performance. He noted it in his diary for the 2nd February 1601 (1602 by modern reckoning—the New Year at that time commencing on Lady Day, 25th March)³:-

at our feast wee had a play called Twelve Night or what you will, much like the comedy of errors or Menechmi in plautus, but most like and neere to that in Italian called Inganni… a good practise in it to make the steward believe his Lady widdowe was in Love with him by counterfayting a letter as from his Lady in generall tearms, telling him what shee liked best in him and prescribing his gesture in smiling his apparraile &c. And then when he came to practise making him believe they took him to be mad.

There are many good reasons for believing that this was not just the first recorded performance of Twelfth Night but also the actual first performance, or ‘first night’, of the play, and that the play may therefore have been specially commissioned by Sir John Shurley, the Treasurer and head of the Inn at that time, for the finale of the Inn’s Christmas Revels. These Revels ended at Candlemas, so it was also the last night of the Revels. Candlemas was not only one of the great feast days in the Inn, when plays were frequently performed, but also one of the two most important dates in the Middle Temple’s calendar, when the Inn specially entertained those members who had achieved certain professional honours or status. A modern-day senior barrister of Middle Temple, Anthony Arlidge, the Master of Entertainments responsible for the 2002 quatercentenary celebration of Twelfth Night, makes a strong case for this in his book, Shakespeare and the Prince of Love.⁴

For instance, buried in the text of Twelfth Night are two allusions to John Shurley’s family—Sir John Shurley being, as already mentioned, the Treasurer of Middle Temple. (The Treasurer is the chairman of the Masters of the Bench, the governing body of the Inn, who themselves are usually judges, eminent in law.) The references are to two men by the name of Sherley, Sir Anthony and Sir Robert, brothers-in-law to the Treasurer’s nephew, also named John Shurley and a member of Middle Temple. These two brothers, Anthony and Robert, were educated at the Inns of Court, became followers of the Earl of Essex and, under Essex’s patronage, went on an expedition to visit the Shah of Persia, arriving at the Shah’s court in 1599. Between November 1599 and April 1601 Sir Anthony Sherley made visits to Moscow, Prague and Rome, purportedly as the Shah’s ambassador, whilst his brother Robert remained in Persia both as a hostage and a military adviser. Sir Robert eventually married the daughter of Ishmael Khan, Prince of Circassia, and in 1622 went to visit the Pope in Rome as an ambassador of the Shah. Whilst there, his portrait was painted by Van Dyke, showing Sir Robert in Turkish costume and sporting a large sword. Sir Anthony, however, returned to England in a ship named The Sophie. Two accounts of his journeys and exploits were published in England: A True Report of Sir Anthonie Shierlies Journey (September 1600) and A New and Large Discourse of the Travels of Sir Anthony Shirley (late 1601).

‘The Sophie’ was the name by which the Shah was known, and there are two jokes in Twelfth Night about him that allude to the Sherley brothers and their expedition. Fabian’s remark in the play, as he watches Malvolio being tricked by Maria’s forged letter, refers to Sir Anthony Sherley, who claimed the Shah gave him a pension of 30,000 crowns. Sir Tobie’s attempt to frighten Sir Andrew by presenting Cesario as a swordsman to be feared refers to Sir Robert Sherley, the Shah’s military adviser.

(II, v, 180)

(III, iv, 283)

Fabian is a character in the play who appears to have been added late into the plot by the author, together with another character called Curio. Both these names are new to the Shakespeare canon and unique to Twelfth Night. They happen to be the nicknames of two students of the Inns of Court that appeared the most frequently in the many satires and epigrams written by the young lawyers around that time. The playwright John Marston, for instance, who was a student member of Middle Temple and living in chambers in the Inn of Court, refers to Fabian as a good dancer in his Ad Rithmum, and in his First Satire as someone who ‘hath been at feasts and led the measuring at court’. In his Third Satire, which is largely devoted to Fabian, Marston mentions that Fabian was not only a ‘silken dancer’ but also that he was more than a simple reveller and ‘had some doings with the Prince D’Amour / And play’d a noble man’s part in a play’. This refers to the playing of an actor’s part in a play performed at one of the Middle Temple’s Christmas Revels, which were presided over by a Lord of Misrule known in the Middle Temple as the Prince D’Amour (i.e. Prince of Love). Since the satires were published in 1598 and 1599, it seems most likely that the revels referred to were those of 1597/8, which were then the most recent ones.

It was not unheard of for a student lawyer of one of the Inns of Court to take part as an actor in a play performed by a professional company at the Inn of Court. Many of the students were themselves keen actors, howbeit amateur ones in terms of the theatre; but in terms of the Bar, for which they were being trained, they were to become professional ‘actors’, as barristers. The Inns of Court were the training ground not only of budding lawyers, barristers and judges, but also of gentlemen, squires and noblemen who were being primed for government, either of their own estates and local communities or for service in the Queen’s government. The revels which took place at the Inns of Court were thus designed as part of their professional training, in which a mock royal court was set up in imitation of the sovereign’s court, and a ‘prince’ was elected for the duration of the revels to rule over his ‘people’, assisted by his government of ‘ministers’, ‘counsellors’, ‘lawyers’ and ‘judges’. Because a large part of court business was concerned with entertainment and other associated courtly activities, therefore feasting, dancing, masquing and play-acting, formal and informal, played a major role in the revels.

At other times of the year this sort of revelling was not usually allowed in the Inns of Court, which were almost puritanical in their discipline—although of course this did not prevent the young men from enjoying themselves elsewhere, and visits to the bear pits and theatres were common, as also to the taverns, inns and brothels of London. The timing of the revels was designed to coincide with the Christmas celebrations, incorporating the Twelve Days of Christmas, which end with Epiphany on the Twelfth Day, but extended on to Candlemas or, exceptionally (as in the famous Gray’s Inn Revels of 1594/5 during which The Comedy of Errors was acted), until Shrovetide. Embodied in their concept was the ancient tradition of the Saturnalia, which occurred at midwinter and was a time in which everything was purposefully turned, as it were, upside-down. The Romans used this time to set free those slaves they wished to free, and the Roman masters took upon themselves the role of servants for a day. Hence this unique time of the year became associated with freedom as well as misrule. This custom spread to many other countries of Europe and was continued right through the medieval period and