We see that the Clown adds a good voice to his other gifts; he does
every thing "dexteriously," and is in high demand for his companionable
spirits. For Sir Andrew and Sir Tobey his songs are blithe and free:
all the ballads and ditties that had vogue in Feste's time are at his
tongue's end, and he is always humming snatches of them. For the Duke
he has cypress sentimentalism, urges death to come away, and forbids a
flower sweet to be strown on the black coffin of the Duke's luxurious
woe. We can imagine what a face Feste pulled over the minor key which
so tickled the Duke, whose love was after all nothing but the spooning
of a professor of rhetoric. He can take off his sighing disguise as
quickly as Viola can transfer herself into woman's weeds. Olivia is
well aware of this, and having just lost her brother is in no mood for
a flirtation. She knows he is a noble and gracious person, but she has
read the first chapter of his heart, and "it is heresy." The Clown,
who is as usual Shakspeare's keenest and most amused observer, knows
this well and puts it into the neatest language: "The tailor make thy
doublet of changeable taffeta, for thy mind is a very opal! I would
have men of such constancy put to sea, that their business might be
everything and their intent everywhere; for that's it that always
makes a good voyage of nothing." And this turns out true enough; for
the Duke with all sail set after Olivia, and a spanking breeze on his
quarter, tacks nimbly in the teeth of it the moment Olivia is married
by mistake, and Cesario becomes a woman. The only serious sentiment in
the play is the one so tenderly concealed in the disguise of Viola.
In Act iii. 7, Viola enters, meeting Feste, who is playing the pipe and
tabor. Her simplest remark he makes the pivot of a jest, and is never
tired of tossing words. He plays with them as a juggler with balls;
they all seem to be in the air at once. There never was such a jaunty
and irrepressible quipster. Yet when Viola says to him, "I warrant thou
art a merry fellow, and carest for nothing," his reply, "Not so, sir, I
do care for something," betrays the serious temper which lies under all
his fooling to furnish the appositeness of his remarks:--
"For folly, that he wisely shows, is fit;
But wise men, folly-fallen, quite taint their wit."
Viola, who says this, might adapt a text of Paul, and apply it to
Shakspeare's people,--"For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves
are wise."
Of all Shakspeare's clowns, he is the best endowed with a many-sided
mirth, as indeed he should be to pass lightly through the mingled
romance and roystering of the play and favor all its moods. The
sentiment of the Duke is as inebriated as the revelling which Malvolio
rebukes. Olivia's protracted grief for her brother is carefully
cosseted by her, as if on purpose to give the Clown an opportunity.
CLO. Good madonna, why mournest thou?
OLIV. Good fool, for my brother's death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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