Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night was a comedy play by William Shakespeare.

Creation
Shakespeare met with Richard Burbage and the Fifth Doctor in late 1601 to discuss his outline for a play which they hoped to perform before Candlemas. Shakespeare later transcribed the extract from his personal diary concerning this meeting into the Shakespeare Notebooks. Although the identity of the Doctor as the third member of the group was never firmly established by scholars in subsequent years, the implication of its inclusion in the Notebooks was stated by one publication to be "obvious".

During the discussion, Shakespeare confided he drew inspiration from the story Of Apollonius and Silla by Barnabe Rich, though the Doctor stated he preferred the original by Matteo Bandello. He also described the plot and the main character, Viola, saying he had a mind to write of "a woman who [was] shipwrecked" who, "fearing her brother [was] lost at sea and anxious for her own safety, she doth counterfeit her own brother in character and apparel". He continued that she would be "employed to carry favours of love between two estranged lovers. And doing so, she her self doth fall in love with the man. And the woman doth fall in love with Viola, thinking her to be a man also". Shakespeare also proposed the character of Sir Toby Belch, whose name was inspired by Burbage giving "vent to the wind", who was to be "a great fat man fond of ale, who [was] in conflict with the upright servant of the woman in love". Over the course of the play, Belch would "make it seem that the officious servant is mad for love of his mistress", noting also there would be "another too, a coward who [was] coerced into duelling".

Burbage seemed to like Shakespeare's pitch but suggested there "must be a fool" to which Shakespeare agreed wholeheartedly. The Doctor, however, was more uncertain, determining the plot to be "rather complicated" and not "make much sense", questioning who would mistake a woman dressed as a man for the real thing. Burbage elaborated that she would be played by a boy. He still wasn't convinced and suggested what would happen if Viola's brother turned up, asking if it would be confusing for both the characters and the audience "if someone [met] the brother and [thought] it's the boy being a girl who's pretending to be the brother but [was] actually the sister". Burbage exclaimed that this hypothetical scenario had to be included. The Doctor later criticised Shakespeare's choice of title, stating that he didn't see "what Twelfth Night ha[d] to do with a love triangle between a man, a woman, and a cross-dressing woman played by a boy". Shakespeare defended it, explaining he chose it because it "explore[d] the misrule of the fat man, Belch", and as it featured "songs and mummery and riotous disorder". The Doctor did not cease his disapproval, leaving to Shakespeare leaving the pub there were drinking in as his "blood beg[a]n to boil". He authoritatively told the other two "Twelfth Night is the name I have given my play but I am merely the playwright, and you may call it what you will". (PROSE: Diary Extract)