Jul 25, 2008

Twelfth Night | Feste the Clown (Character Analysis)

Feste, also referred to as "clown," is Olivia's professional jester, or fool. During the Renaissance, monarchs and sometimes members of the nobility retained fools in their households as a source of entertainment—to sing, make witty observations, and to engage in practical jokes. The traditional costume of a fool consisted of motley, or parti-colored cloth. Thus in I.v.57, when Feste declares, "I wear not motley in my brain," he means that although his body is clothed in the official garb of the jester, his mind is not "naturally" foolish—unlike, for example, the genuinely foolish mind...