(a parody)
In class we discussed how in Twelfth Night everybody seems to pair up at random. We also discussed the seemingly homosexual feelings that Antonio has for Sebastian, and that Orsino has for Viola/Cesario. The idea of the identical twins, male and female, is also preposterous.
So, I imagined a last scene to the Fifth Act, in which a third twin shows up, and Antonio, who was all but forgotten at the end of the play, gets to meet him and marry him too (there is a lot of talk about gay marriage in California at this moment).
Enjoy.
Scholars have long believed that the final act of Twelfth Night contains only one scene. Recent research, however, has uncovered scene 5.2, where Antonio encounters a third twin, Bastiano, and proposes to him. The scene was previously attributed to Marlowe, but he died in 1593, well before Twelfth Night was written (circa 1602).
Scene 5.2 is structurally necessary to the play, as it solves a mystery that has intrigued readers for centuries: What happens to Antonio? In Scene 5.1, Viola pleads for him, saying to Orsino, “Here comes the man, sir, that did rescue me” (5.1 ll. 46, p 163). Sebastian greets him warmly: “Antonio, O, my dear Antonio!” (5.1 ll. 230, p 177). But as the focus of the play shifts to the twins, Antonio is forgotten.
Scene 5.2, where Antonio proposes to Bastiano, is consistent with the logic of the play. Antonio makes often clear that he loves Sebastian, professing: “My love, without retention or restraint, / All his in dedication” (5.1 ll.79-81, p 165). However, if Olivia can switch from loving Viola to loving Sebastian - after realizing that Viola is a woman - so can Antonio transfer his love from Sebastian to Bastiano (note the similarity of the names) - after realizing that Sebastian is already engaged.
The coup de theatre - that the twins are revealed to be a triplet - is not completely unexpected; as a hint, the number three is often mentioned in the preceding scene. The Fool, asking Orsino to give him another coin, says, “The triplex, sir, is a good tripping measure”(5.1 ll. 34-35, p 163). Also, Sebastian exclaims to his newly found sister, “Thrice welcome, drowned Viola.”(5.1 ll.153, p 177). Why “thrice” and not “twice”?
A final argument in favor of the authenticity of scene 5.2 is stylistic: note that its first line, “Who is there?” (5.2 ll.1), is identical to the first line in Hamlet.
Scene 5.2 is important from a scholarly point of view because it contains a unique innovation: the 'in text' revision. Note that in the Folio, the only version we have of the play, a character rectifies an incorrect word - Messalina instead of Messina - by referring to a bad Quarto ( 5.2. ll.16).
Act 5 Scene 2
Enter Antonio and Bastiano.ANTONIO: Who is there?
BASTIANO: Sir, I might ask the same of you.
ANTONIO: Antonio is mine name, a captain
Of valor, and servant to the youth Sebastian.
Here I await a ship to come ashore, 5
My role being done, to take me to my home,
In Messaline.
BASTIANO: Sebastian? A brother once I had
Of that very name, and a sister, of myself 10
The very image. Along these shores they drown'd
The two, of us a triplet.
ANTONIO: Whence dost thou hail?
BASTIANO: My home is Messina, in fair Italy.
ANTONIO: Alas, 'tis not the same. 15
BASTIANO: Why, that's in the bad Quarto!
Of Messina, Messaline is a corruption.
ANTONIO: Aye, were that it was! Where dost thou be
These past three months?
BASTIANO: In these parts concealed. A proof 20
Is I am tanned, an I take off these clothes.
ANTONIO: Marry, thou art fair!
BASTIANO: In faith Sir, I am not. Indeed
Helios has rendered me rather dark. 25
ANTONIO: Perchance 'tis the will of Jove that I
Encounter'd you. I'll take thee to the Count
And to Lady Olivia, to your triplet-twins
About to be united. We'll join the revelers 30
And as they wed, let us be wedded.
They exit.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. Ed. Paul Werstine and Barbara A, Mowat.
New York: Washington Square, 1993. Print.
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