The Waning Age of Accidental Saints

by Joe Bissonnette (July 2016)

“Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon ‘em.”  Twelfth Night

It is the most memorable line in the play, placed in the mouth of the least attractive character, the puritanical Malvolio whose name means ‘ill will’. But it is in our response to Malvolio that Shakespeare turns the screw.  more>>>

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One Response

  1. 1.   Malvolio did not "speak shamelessly of greatness."  He read aloud a letter

    written by the housemaid Maria.

    2.   The play is most certainly not "set among the moors of Iberia."  The setting

    is in Illyria, which is generally the western part of the Balkan Peninsula.

    The "moors of Iberia" resided in Spain and Portugal.  And there are no "moors" in

    Twelfth Night.

    The Kingdom of Iberia (Circa 600 BC – 150 BC) was located in the southern Caucasus

    region of Eastern Georgia.  No moors, wrong place, wrong time.

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