Shakespeare\'s Play Twelfth Night

Feste in "Twelfth Night"

The Role of Feste's Music in "Twelfth Night"

"Twelfth Night" is a play with multiple characters who do not see themselves clearly. Some just really don't understand who they are or what they really want. Examples of that are Olivia and Orsino Another, Malvolio, adopts postures that are superficial, trying to be something he is not. Still another, Viola, has to don a disguise because of circumstances. One character in the play who sees people as they really are is the fool, Feste. Feste uses several devices to communicate what he understands both about the people in the play and life in general, and one of those devices is song. Shakespeare heightens the importance of Feste's songs by opening and closing the play with music. Feste's songs serve to clarify the nature of events unfolding in the play without having to step outside the play and act as a narrator.

The play opens with the words, "If music be the food of love, play on!" This is Shakespeare's note to the audience to pay attention to the songs in the play. The person who provides most of the music is Feste, Lady Olivia's "fool," or jester. Feste has to walk a delicate line. It is his job to engage those who are socially above him in repartee, but at the same time, his humor has an edge to it, and he has to be careful that he doesn't cross a line and be seen as cheeky or inappropriate in his wit. At the same time, he shows himeself to be a compassionate individual. Lady Olivia's brother has died, and she has vowed to mourn him for seven years. Feste engages Olivia in a battle of wits, proposing that he can prove that she is a fool. His argument boils down that since Olivia sincerely believes that her brother is in heaven, such extended mourning makes no sense. It would be appropriate to remain that sad if he had been consigned to Hell, but that isn't what Olivia believes. Feste manages to lift her spirits with this ploy, but he also reveals him to be a sensitive and perceptive person. This is important. Without that knowledge of Feste, the audience would be likely to simply view him as a merry troublemaker. Because we see Feste's wisdom, we can take everything he does, including the songs he sings, more seriously.

In Act II, Scene III, Feste sings about love:

O mistress mine, where are you roaming?

O, stay and hear; your true love's coming,

That can sing both high and low:

Trip no further, pretty sweeting;

Journeys end in lovers meeting,

Every wise man's son doth know.

What is love? 'tis not hereafter;

Present mirth hath present laughter;

What's to come is still unsure:

In delay there lies no plenty;

Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty,

Youth's a stuff will not endure.

In this song he reveals that people are going to find their true loves: "O, stay and hear; your true love's coming..." Orsino will fall in love with Viola and she with him; Olivia and Sebastian will fall in love, and Sir Toby will marry Maria. The words "that will sing both high and low" suggests that love will come to both men and women. The line that "Journeys end in lovers meeting" is a reference to the shipwreck that brought Sebastian and Viola to Orsino and Olivia. Those events led to Sir Toby recognizing the qualities he valued in Maria, even though she was only a servant.

The line "What is Love? 'tis not hereafter" suggests a reference to Olivia's determination to mourn her brother for seven years, which would preclude her being courted by men. "What's to come is still unsure," suggests the plot twists to come before people find their true loves. Finally, Feste urges those who are young to act on their love because youth is fleeting.

In the next scene, Feste sends the message with more subtlety, singing of a man who dies without anyone to mourn for him, because he does not love anyone. This was a song he sang at the need to love when young before death takes us.

Feste does not sing again until the end of the play -- Act V, which has only one scene. In this song he summarizes the wisdom he has offered as well as makes references to events in the play. He boasts of his wisdom as an adult, saying that as a child he truly was a "foolish thing." However, when he "came to man's estate," or achieved adulthood, he matched wits with all kinds of men and held his own. He also suggests that people will be what they will. In the middle of talking about how he came to maturity and the nature of other men he met, he says, "For the rain it raineth every day." To suddenly sing about the weather would be a non-sequitor. He is suggesting that people's behavior and actions are predictable.

In the song he rejects Malvolio's approach to moving through the world, saying, "By swaggering could I never thrive," a reference to Malvolio's maladaptive approach to life. He refers to Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Augecheck, who enjoy a good drink perhaps a little more than he should, as he sings, "With toss-pots still had drunken heads," and then mentions the rain again, suggesting that this is what Sir Toby and Sir Andrew will continue to do. He also sings "A great while ago the world begun," suggesting that there's nothing new in what he has said in this song.

In the final two lines of the song, he finally acknowledges his role in the play as he sings, "But that's all one, our play is done,