Cross Dressing on the Elizabethan Stage

 

Photo by Hulki Okan Tabak on Unsplash

In William Shakespeare’s time, the depiction on stage of a young, respectable, unmarried woman ran counter to social conventions. When playwrights presented contemporary works or modernized Greek Drama, they changed the character from female to male, or—where the character’s gender gave the play its form and plot—a young male dressed in feminine attire played the part. With the presentation of Twelfth Night, Shakespeare turned social convention on its head with an ironic twist: he had a young woman, played by a male actor, disguise himself (herself?) as a man. The humor in the man-turned-woman-turned-man-turned-woman romp would have delighted an Elizabethan Age audience, with the exception of domineering social prudes. Their representation in the play by Malvolio would have doubled the fun and had the spectators gasp at Shakespeare’s genius in his subtle use of irony in poking fun at society through story. Even the title had meaning to the crowds at the Globe Theater: the Twelfth Night refers to the twelfth night after Christmas, or the Feast of Epiphany, when custom had men dress as women and women as men. Disguise and confused identity are common themes in Shakespeare’s works.

Students of history can easily see how he found favor with Elizabeth, the popular queen and only the second woman to rule the country.

The law of primogeniture that dictated a male line of succession to the English monarchy had collapsed with the fall of Salic Law in France under the threat of English claims to the French crown. By the time Mary Tudor ascended to the throne, the only restraint on a female monarch was the concern of Henry VIII, her father, that a woman could not hold together the Tudor line and a country that seemed destined for civil war. With the death of Henry’s only son Edward, the line of succession fell to Mary, whose reign of terror and her cozy relations with Spain infuriated the English people.

On Mary’s death, Elizabeth I resumed the Tudor monarchy. Her reign marked the beginning of the Renaissance in England. The arts and sciences flourished, the English navy ruled the seas, and explorations of Asia, Africa, and the New World reached a fever pitch. Knowledge founded on reason surged forth and a revolution in societal standards and mores swept away the old values of the Medieval Age. In the new age of learning and relaxed attitudes, William Shakespeare found fertile ground for his wit.

The opening lines of Twelfth Night set the tone for the remainder of the play. The idea of romantic love existed in medieval Europe, but it was tightly bound in cultural proscriptions. Arranged marriages and marriages of convenience represented the cultural norm. Orsino’s both praises the joys of love and laments it in the opening lines of the play (Act 1, scene 1: 1-15). We know immediately that this is a play about love.

Much of Shakespeare’s language is lost to the modern reader. Metaphor anchors language, and metaphors change in time until they lose meaning. One must be a Shakespearean scholar to fully understand and appreciate much of his writing, but some metaphorical meaning has survived the nearly five hundred years since they had found life under Shakespeare’s pen. His subversive and bawdy humor doubtless drew chuckles with lines like those spoken by Sir Toby Belch to Sir Andrew at Maria’s farewell: “And thou let part so, Sir Andrew, would thou mightst never draw sword again” (Act 1, scene 3: 56-57). William Shakespeare’s use of wit and humor to both transgress and reveal his society’s attitudes under a thin veil of metaphor makes worthwhile the time required to fully grasp the meaning of a five-hundred-year-old language.