The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-04-20
TWELFTH NIGHTS STORY MAZDA GETS NEW TRIAL
VIOLA AND OLIVlA'S DAINTY
LOVE SCENES.
The Purity and Beauty of Shakes
peare's Heroines in the Lighter Com
edies-A Galaxy of Winsome Women.

Shakespeare portrayed for mankind
some of the most charming of women
and girls When we begin to think
about them what a dainty and beauti-
full group they are. Not the tragedy
queen like Lady Macbeth. but the
bright girlish figures of the comedies,
Miranda, Viola, Olivia, Rosalind, Celia
Hero, Beatrice. sweet Anne Page"
Julia, Silvia, and even fancy wrought
Titania. If you know your Shakes
peare. as you should know it, what a
| galaxy of winsOme, bright eyed,
| graceful women you can call up. Each
| lovely, each lovable and not one that
| is a copy of the other. They are indi-
| vidualities of beauty that never die
! Our fathers and many an ancestor
| loved them. We love them, and our
! posterity to remotest generations will
| love them. True daughters of the
| ceaseless dawn, whose life is deathless,
and whose path is strewed with all the
! graces that the Imagination of the po-
| etic spirit can bestow.
The play of Twelfth Night gives us
| two of these ever living charmers-Vio-
| la and Olivia. Both modest, yet ready
! to kindle the flame of love in their
| pure maiden hearts. And here again
| mark the excellence of the poet.
| Shakespeare's heroines however swift
! to kindle, ever show the pure. holy.
| maiden side of love. They are no wom-
| en- with a past like the Notorious Mrs.
| Ebbsmith, or the Second Mrs Tan
| quarry or Magda. They are not color
| less either; they are sprightly; they
! have tempers, but they are the purest
| of the pure: they mark the ideal of the
! poet and of the honorable EliZabethan
! gentleman.
| The story of the play is simple. the
! characters few. 1t is not the story or
} any intricate plot which gives TO
! Twelfth Night its charm. 1t is the
! gracefulness of its poesy and its quaint
| and pleasant humOr. Besides Viola
! and Olivia there is one other female
| character, Maria, Olivia's mischievous,
! madCap maid. OF the men, Orslno,
| Duke of Illyra, is in love with Olivia,
| who rejects his suit. Malvolio, Olivia's
! steward is a part which has called
forth the talent of Bensley i'm the early
! days of the century, and of Sir Henry
| Irving in the present, while Sir Toby
Belch is, after Falstaff, one of Shakes
| peareS finest comic characters.
But to the story. Viola and her twin
brother Sebastian have suffered ship
| wreck on the coast of Illyria. Each
| thinks the other drowned, yet both es-
! cape. Viola changes her dress for
youths apparel to join the court of
| Orsino, Duke of Illyria. and under the
name of Cesario rapidly wins his fa-
vor. To her he intrusts his suit with
Olivia. The latter, who has abjured
| society on account of the death of her
| brother receives Viola, in the guise or
Cesario and quickly falls in love with
her The scenes between these two are
charming, as also are those between
| the masquerading Cesaro and the
Duke, with whom Viola herself has
fallen in love. Her description of her
passion is told in the celebrated lines,
when speaking of another, she reveals
her own case,
"Shc never told her love,
But let Contcntmcnt, like a worm i the bud.
Feed on her damdsk check; she pincd in thought.
And with green and yellow melancholy,
She sat, like Patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief. Was not this love ndccd,'
This game of cross purposes is furth-
er complicated by the fact that Sir
Toby Belch, Olivias cousin, a hard
drinking old knight, for purposes of
his own, is anxious that the fair olivia
should marry one Sir Andrew Ague-
cheek, clustering coward, from whom
Sir Toby has borrowed money to the
amount of $4,000. These two, together
with Maria, the maid; Fabian, a SER
want, and Feste, the clown, form the
low comedy foil for the love making.
Among them they carry on in pret-
| ty lively manner to the extreme horror
of Malvolio, the steward, whom they
unite in ridiculing. To punish Malvo-
lilo, the maid writes a letter initiating
her mistress handwriting which in
duces him to believe that Olivia is in
love with him and pointing out in
what way he is to display his love.
The wicked quintette get no end of
amusement out of their plot, till finally
Malvolio is confined as madman.
Malvolio, in Charles Lambs opinion
Is no mere thing of straw or Jack in
office, and, criticiZing Bensley in the
character he says "he threw over the
part an air of Spanish loftiness. He
looked and spoke like an old Castilian.
He was starch, spruce, opiniOnated,
but his superstructure of pride seemed
bottomed upon sense of worth"
, The tangled threads become more
tangled still when Sebastian comes up
on the scene, and being the twin of
Viola, is straightway mistaken by Oil
via for the masquerading CesariO. A
secret wedding is the result. The last
! act is reminiscence of the Comedy
of Errors" Viola and Sebastian being
: constantly mistaken for one another
, throw everyone at cross purposes
There Is an amusing duel between Ce-
sariO (ViOla) and Sir Andrew Ague-
cheek, in which both are afraid of one
another. Cesario manages to escape
> and forthwith Sir Andrew meets Sc
bastian, whom he mistakes for CesarC
and both he and Sir Toby get soundly
thrashed for their pains.
Eventually the mystery is cleared up
Sebastian receives his bride, the Duke
has his share in this most happy
wreck" and bidding Viola don heI
"woman's weeds" concludes the play
= with,
"Ccsario come:
e For so you shall he, while you are man
But when in other habits YOU are seen,
= Orsinos mistress and his fanCy's queen
The beauty of the play lies in the
d delicacy of the love passages. There 1.
a lightness about them, a naturalnes'
u even more charming than the love
scenes in the forest of Arden. 1t /.
. poetic in the very highest degree anC
, yet Olivia, however great her passion
never loses sight of the fact that sh'
is a great lady. The two characters
Viola and Olivia, rank among tn,
{ Shakesperian heroines, and it will b.
e q pleasure to see in flesh and blood