Comedy Vs Cruelty Twelfth Night

Question 1

D.J Palmer (1)

Answer 1

1972 - “During the 17th and early 18th centuries it was the putting-down of Malvolio which attracted most comments and admiration, as audiences developed a taste for satirical rather than Romantic comedy”

Question 2

Manningham

Answer 2

Wrote an adaptation with only the Malvolio parts

Question 3

DJ Palmer (2)

Answer 3

1972 - “the critics of the Romantic period, of course, were to reverse the balance with a vengeance”

Question 4

Hazlitt

Answer 4

1817 - Twelfth Night is “perhaps too good natured for comedy”
- “it makes us laugh at the follies of mankind, not despise them”

Question 5

Charles Lamb

Answer 5

1823 - after Malvolio’s gulling “there was no room for laughter”

Question 6

DJ Palmer (3)

Answer 6

“Contemporary admiration for [Feste’s] sceptical and detached intelligence”

Question 7

Globe production 2021

Answer 7

Gulling of Malvolio was actually quite cruel & gruesome

Lots of focus on Malvolio’s bloody hands appearing from floor of the stage