Shakespeare's World: the Comedies: a Historical Exploration of Literature by Pendergast John;

Author:Pendergast, John;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC-CLIO, LLC
Published: 2019-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

The actor playing Viola/Cesario would likely be younger than the character he plays; thus, Malvolio’s description of him calls attention to the artifice of his demeanor. Viola is consistently described as being “between” male and female characteristics—more polite, mannered, and delicate than most men (and thus, we can assume, attractive to Olivia) but also more direct and forceful and, ironically, more adept at the rhetoric of courtship than Orsino. Modern readers should be reminded of the levels of “deception” in Viola’s character. First, the character of Viola is played by a young boy. This young boy plays a character who chooses to dress as a boy (a.k.a. Cesario). This change brings the boy back to his “natural” apparel and undoubtedly makes it easier for the audience to see Olivia’s attraction to him (but complicates the situation for both Orsino and Olivia). But his status as a player in a theater troupe would have allowed him to wear the gentleman’s clothes necessary to Cesario. This crossing of clothing boundaries, in addition to gender, is yet another subversive energy played out in the Renaissance theater. Not only does Shakespeare not try to conceal the gender identity of the actor, but he also emphasizes it and turns it to comic effect. But this “gender bending” was the cause of controversy. As one Oxford divine wrote in 1599, “A woman’s garment being put on a man doeth vehemently touch and move him with the remembrance and imagination of a woman; and the imagination of a thing desirable doth stir up the desire” (Brown 2005). Further, when Viola takes on a man’s role, she does so as a servant and actor, like the role the boys played within the acting companies.

But when discussing Renaissance audiences, it is important to note that there were different audiences and corresponding responses to the boy actors. In 1583, Philip Stubbs (1555–1610) complained that plays were full of “such wanton gestures, such bawdy speeches . . . such kissing and bussing” that playgoers would go home together “very friendly . . . and play the sodomites, or worse.” John Rainolds (1549–1607) warned of the “filthy sparkles of lust to that vice the putting of women’s attire on men may kindle in unclean affections” (Brown 2005). Is Shakespeare poking fun at such seriousness when he has Viola walk away with her new husband, still dressed in boy’s clothes?

It is reasonable that boys with unbroken voices played all the female roles. If the boys were stage apprentices, they would have begun their careers at the age of 14 and younger, and typical master–apprentice relationships involved longer obligations that extended beyond the boys’ prepuberty years. This is the same age of the boys who sang in church choirs (one such choir, at St. Paul’s, in fact developed into Children of Paul’s theater company). It is difficult to imagine many of Shakespeare’s great tragic roles like Cleopatra, Juliet, or Lady Macbeth being performed by young boys. Today this knowledge serves as a distraction, but

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