TWELFTH NIGHT: Malvolio and the Tudor Heresy Trials

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeKeywords: ShakespeareTwelfth NightTudor heresy trialstransubstantiationparody Notes1 Illyria is firmly identified with Catholicism throughout. Five characters bear the names of saints (Elam, TN Introduction 23). One of Orsino’s attendants is named Curio, recalling the Curia, which aids the pope in governing the Church. Upon arriving in Illyria, Sebastian wishes to view the town’s relics (3.3.19). Olivia resembles a “cloistress” and is called “madonna” (1.1.27, 1.5.39–133 passim), and Sir Toby terms Malvolio’s abuse his “penance” (3.4.133). Olivia weds Sebastian in a chantry (4.3.23–26). Antonio does “devotion” to Sebastian’s “image” (3.4.359–60). Orsino deposits his soul’s “offerings” on Olivia’s “altars” (5.1.109–10). And Feste performs an ostensible exorcism on Malvolio (4.2.25).2 “Property” (v.2): “To . . . take or hold possession of.” Oxford English Dictionary. 1971. Oxford UP.3 Anne refused to answer the question, signifying dissent. Subsequent measures to induce her to recant, including torture on the rack, similarly failed.4 “Renegade”: See sb.1 and the etymology section preceding it; and “renegado,” sb.1, Oxford English Dictionary.