What follows is perhaps the laziest of all DIY academic articles. Let me take you back twenty off years, to when the internet was in its infancy, and ‘book-learning’ was done the old fashioned way, and note-taking was done the same way, with a pen and paper, with varying decrees of accuracy and neatness. And I came across something initially by accident, which eventually led me to a blindingly obvious conclusion. Not being a Shakespearian academic, and having no burning urge to do hard work I wasn’t being paid for, I then put it on one side meaning to come back and write it up as a proper article one day. I did however, have pages and pages of notes, half a page written up, references, the full kaboodle. To cut a long story short, when I cleared a lot of my old papers out a few years back, I threw several thigs away, including this file, which was rather stupid of me, but if any wannabe academic wants to reconstruct, the key parts came from the ‘Parnassus Plays’ (contemporary satire on the Elizabethan playwrights of the day), Henslowe’s Diary and Papers, Prefaces to the contemporary editions of Folios and contemporary obits, nothing too obscure in these days where everything is online. The other bits came from books I’m afraid I don’t recall the titles of, as they’re outside my field. This lack of awareness of other disciplines is probably the reason the articles and connections hadn’t been made before, as I came across clues in books on fashion history (my sister works in that field and I think I was browsing for something to buy her when I came across some interesting information) but in these googling days I’m sure it would be a fairly quick research.
Anyway, my interest came about because I’d been reading the ‘Parnassus Plays’ for pleasure (that’s just how I roll) and it referred to the ‘purge’ (elsewhere referred to as a mighty blow) that the character based on Shakespeare gave to one based on Ben Jonson. So I read a couple of Ben Jonson biographies (‘cos that’s how I roll) and references to their rivalry, and decided to investigate. To understand the background to this, you should understand that there was a great rivalry between the authors of plays (I may post a separate one on my interpretation of Greene’s famous ‘upstart crow’ accusation of Shakespeare), and for a while the ‘theatre’ or ‘poets’ wars took place, in which they would take pot shots at each other in print, Marston, Dekker, Nashe, Shakespeare, Jonson et al mocking each other in their plays (ultimately resulting in Jonson’s Poetaster), and especially showing how clever their wordplay was. Needing to pass the censor, and with libel high in minds, it became a game to refer to rivals in a disparaging way without naming them, but in a manner that audiences of the day would easily be able to identify, and laugh along with. It was in this sport that the previously unidentified ‘purge’ was delivered by Shakespeare.
There are several clues already that parts of Twelfth Night are jibes at Jonson, not least in the naming of some of the characters to represent their characters (a stock in trade for Jonson), and Malvolio literally translated as ‘ill will’ (another pun in Shakespeare’s name? It would be in character and a direct double meaning indication of intent), and the character’s obsession with clothing (another of Ben Jonson’s particular and this play came a year after Poetaster and shortly after Every Man Out of his Humour, which allegedly mocks Shakespeare’s newly acquired coat of arms. That had all been written before.
While perusing the book on the history of fashion though, I came across references to sixteenth century fashion in Spain, the use of the colour yellow, and cross gartering. Something tickled at the back of my mind, and having looked at some drawings, this seemed to me to echo the dress of Malvolio, so I decided to re-read Henslowe’s diary, which contains accounts (and literal financial accounts) of performances, and found what I was looking for. There I found payments for Jonson relating to Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy, presumably for some textual amendments, but also for performances in the role of Hieronimo, Knight-Marshall of Spain. Checking my dates, it seems that Jonson performed in that role across London, immediately before Twelfth Night was written, to great fame and acclaim according to biographies, so would have been very well known to the audiences. With Jonson’s admitted peacock tendencies, is it possible that the costume he wore was cross-gartered, with yellow stockings?
We will never know for sure, but reading the preface to the first folio, and some of Jonson’s epitaph phrases on ‘Malice’, ‘fashion’ et all, plus the Parnassus references to the obviously very well-known contemporary mocking seemed to make sense, as did other throwaway references. And contemporary references to the purge and takedown imply it was significant, yet not apparent in the written text (which wasn’t published until the folio, the joke perhaps only being truly effective while Jonson’s performances were fresh in the mind).
To prove the link you also need it is necessary to go into the dialogue of Malvolio and Hieronimo of course, which I don’t have space for here, but if you just start with the final line ‘I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you” and most of Hieronimo’s final scene about revenge on the other cast members (could this also be part of Jonson’s rewrite?), and then look at some of the other parallels, you will see a strong link.
I have the distinct feeling that the order of anagrammatic M.O.A.I in the play also have a reference to Jonson, though I ended my research before finding what (that may of course be incidental, or lost to time, but the repeated order make me think there is a significance).
Anyway, if someone wants to retrace my research, I’m sure, with so much more text being available and online these days, that someone with the inclination could find more concrete proof that… Ben Jonson was Malvolio.
Stay safe,
Kit xx