![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
TWELFTH NIGHT
In previous centuries, the twelfth and last day of the Christmas season was an occasion for revelry and hilarity in England, and I finally understand why. Many people think the twelve days lead up to Christmas, but in actuality they only begin on December 25th and end with January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany when the Magi visited the Christ Child. So the eve of that feast was the last chance to celebrate Christmas, a kind of last fling before returning to the drudgery of the everyday world (rather like these three old men, trudging home by the back route to avoid King Herod).
And it really was a feast in itself with drunken parties and wild goings-on, just what you'd expect from a celebration that had as its “master of ceremonies” the Lord of Misrule. Things were seldom what they seemed on Twelfth Night when the peasants held sway as temporary lords of the manor, and men dressed up in petticoats like women. Shakespeare had a lot of fun with this in the comedy of the same name: a woman (who would've been played by a young man originally) disguised as a man, being pursued in love by the female object of affection of her male employer, a self-righteous buffoon, a couple of drunken knights plotting mischief, a wily Fool egging them on. Easy to imagine how entertained the original audiences would've been, knowing (and perhaps themselves celebrating) the occasion.
Maybe this comic impulse to misrule is what underlay the pantomimes we went to see in January when I was a child in England. The tradition for these re-tellings of fairy tales and legends is that the “Dame” is always played by a man in outrageous drag, and “Prince Charming” is a woman in tights. The Clowns and Fools conspire to make life miserable for a variety of petty villains in the story, and the audience is invited to share in the frivolities by shouting responses at appropriate points in the action.
I knew all that, of course, but this year I realized another reason to be glad of Twelfth Night. The hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, the stress, the rush, the headaches, the overeating and under-exercising, the gaudy decorations gathering dust and the tree shedding needles, the accumulation of bills due -- all this finally over!
Have a happy and blessed Epiphany! (Only 334 more shopping days 'til Christmas '09.)
And it really was a feast in itself with drunken parties and wild goings-on, just what you'd expect from a celebration that had as its “master of ceremonies” the Lord of Misrule. Things were seldom what they seemed on Twelfth Night when the peasants held sway as temporary lords of the manor, and men dressed up in petticoats like women. Shakespeare had a lot of fun with this in the comedy of the same name: a woman (who would've been played by a young man originally) disguised as a man, being pursued in love by the female object of affection of her male employer, a self-righteous buffoon, a couple of drunken knights plotting mischief, a wily Fool egging them on. Easy to imagine how entertained the original audiences would've been, knowing (and perhaps themselves celebrating) the occasion.
Maybe this comic impulse to misrule is what underlay the pantomimes we went to see in January when I was a child in England. The tradition for these re-tellings of fairy tales and legends is that the “Dame” is always played by a man in outrageous drag, and “Prince Charming” is a woman in tights. The Clowns and Fools conspire to make life miserable for a variety of petty villains in the story, and the audience is invited to share in the frivolities by shouting responses at appropriate points in the action.
I knew all that, of course, but this year I realized another reason to be glad of Twelfth Night. The hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, the stress, the rush, the headaches, the overeating and under-exercising, the gaudy decorations gathering dust and the tree shedding needles, the accumulation of bills due -- all this finally over!
Have a happy and blessed Epiphany! (Only 334 more shopping days 'til Christmas '09.)
Comments