If music be the food of love, play on, 
Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again – it had a dying fall.
O, it came o’er my ear, like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing, and giving odour. Enough, no more,
‘Tis not so sweet now, as it was before.
O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou,
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, naught enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soe’er,
But falls into abatement, and low price,
Even in a minute; so full of shapes is fancy,
That it alone is high fantastical.
William Shakespeare
Christmas ends today. It is the twelfth day of Christmas – the traditional end of the season. Though in popular tradition, it is often confused with the Feast Day of the Epiphany, which is tomorrow, January 6, the day the Magi or the Three Wise Men visited the Christ Child, the day also varies according to religions and is a matter of contretemps in some countries.
Whatever the day, it is a perennially interesting component of the cultural festival of Christmas that has just been celebrated around the world, but which, as a religious Christian festival, and as a popular and traditional festival, does not really end until the last of the 12 Days of Christmas.
In accordance with a cultural study of this great festival, we revisit the poetic lines from Shakespeare, reproduced above. We discussed them a year ago, but rehearse them now for a number of reasons: their central link to a continuing study of this festival, and their direct link to the timing of the season and of Twelfth Night; their appropriateness as a poem for the time; and as another example of our attention to poems which are outstanding among the best known, most popular, but are most misunderstood/ misinterpreted.
As far as the poetry goes, we have analysed such famous pieces as Shakespeare’s “Sonnet LXV” (My Mistress’ Eyes), Burns’ New Year poem “Auld Lang Syne”, and now return to these verses from Shakespeare. They are the opening speech from one of his most highly acclaimed comedies, Twelfth Night, or What You Will (1602).
The observance of Twelfth Night is part of the recognition of the 12 Days of Christmas, which will date back to the very beginnings of Christmas and Christianity itself in the twilight of the powerful Roman Empire. It was the early development of Christianity itself, of the establishment of Christmas Day on December 25, and the very evolution of the festival of Christmas. It originated in the Old English or Anglo-Saxon period when the Yuletide festival was taking shape. At the core of this was the series of Feast Days, which had religious significance, but which also included feasting, drinking and merrymaking.
January 6 is the Feast of the Epiphany. The Christmas holiday is actually a series of feast days. Christmas Day itself – December 25, is only the first day of Christmas. The second is the Feast of St Stephen, otherwise known as Boxing Day. These continue until the last of them, the Feast of Epiphany on January 6.
The Epiphany has very deep religious significance and may be regarded as the most sacred to the Christian faith after Christmas and Easter. This is because Christians believe that it is the day when the Magi or the Three Wise Kings from the East, who had travelled a far distance to visit the infant child Jesus Christ, arrived at the place of his birth. They took gifts and acknowledged him as King, as Messiah, as God, as Saviour to mankind. It is said that was the “revelation to the Gentiles”, of the coming of Christ outside of the Jewish community: to the world. The Concise Oxford defines the word epiphany as “the Manifestation of Christ to the Magi” and widens it to the “manifestation of a superhuman being”.
Outside of those sacred considerations, January 6 has been observed literally as a feast day – with revelry. With changing times, centuries and cultures, this acknowledgement is diminished, but the tradition remains as the last day of the season. The most important ritual aligned to this is that all Christmas decorations are taken down – Christmas trees are dismantled, and lights turned off. There are even superstitious myths as to what might happen if these things are not done.
This is hardly observed or remembered in Guyana, where there is generally no prolonged Christmas season beyond December 25. But in some other parts of the Caribbean the seasonal atmosphere is preserved right up to or close to Twelfth Night. Apart from keeping the decorations, Christmas music continues with diminishing frequency as the days progress, but the continued feasting, albeit diminished as well, helps to keep the atmosphere.
Nowhere is this sense of a season in secular observances more intense than in Britain where university campuses and other institutions are totally shut down for the period, commercial and other visual markers remain strong, so that even the sparkling white sheets of snow covering the ground, interrupted by the occasional scraggly skeletons of trees radiate a feel of the season. On Christmas Day and New Year’s Day there is a total closure of all public transportation services – trains, buses, underground.
The selected poetic lines from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night are set in this season. They are extremely popular verses, very often quoted as glowing expressions of romantic love. They are recited as romantic verses articulating music as an eloquent articulation of emotions, of sentiments of love. The assumed popular context is a call for more music to feed the excitement, loving sentiments, expressions and messages. Generally, this mood is joyous and celebratory.
In this drama, the words are spoken by Orsinio, Duke of Illyria, at the opening of the play. It is Twelfth Night, his band of court musicians is playing the expected festive music to suit the occasion, and the Duke is calling for more. What is more, Orsinio is in love, and sends daily messages and exhortations to the object of his love – the beautiful young Countess Olivia, who lives close by. What better setting for these words than the festive season, a blossoming love affair and the music to feed it?
However, this is certainly not the case. The verses are exceptionally misunderstood and misinterpreted by most who quote them as typical expressions of love and music which is its medium. The meaning of the verse runs counter to those feelings. This is so because as constantly as Orsinio sends his protestations of love, as steadfastly does Olivia reject them. She is not in love and does not believe in the Duke’s affections. To make things worse, as she roundly rebuffs him, so does he grow daily dejected, but determined.
The words he utters in these lines, therefore, are not the celebrations of the sentiments of a happy lover buoyed by music, but the laments of a love-sick sufferer. A close examination of the lines, (even if one does not know the play), will reveal that Orsinio finds the music sickening and cloying, like one who has had too much to eat and is sick at the thought of more food. The music does not make him merry or even romantic, but depressed. Look at the words – “excess of it”; “surfeiting”; he wants it played so that “the appetite may sicken”. He likes to hear “that strain again” not because of its delight, but because “it has a dying fall”. Here, expert poet as he is, Shakespeare is using technical musical terms which describe the quality of the music to match the mood and temperament of a depressed, love-sick mind.
Orsinio is therefore very conscious of the irony in his call for more music, and eventually orders the musicians to stop playing. In the further context of the play, Orsinio is really only love-sick, superficially believing he is in love, when he truly is only deluded into obsession by an infatuation based purely on sight. In Shakespeare’s comedies “love at first sight” is a bad idea. Love is not love which goes no deeper than what the eyes see, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, for instance, and even in tragedies like Romeo and Juliet, the wise heroine tells her mother, “I’ll look to like, if looking liking move, but no more will I endart mine eye than your consent gives strength to make it fly”. In emphasizing “look” and “like”, she is actually promising her mother she will look with her eyes, knowing very well that will never lead her to love Count Paris, the suitor whom her parents recommend.
In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare reveals the deceptive superficiality of Orsinio’s belief that he loves Olivia, and the Countess’ wise rejection of him. He further shows the deceptions of sight and looks because the play’s heroine, Viola, is disguised as a young man with whom, ironically, Olivia, deceived by appearances, falls in love. But the play is a comedy and all these confusions are soon sorted out and it ends happily in true love for all protagonists, Orsinio, Viola, Sebastian and Olivia.
Varying reports suggest that Shakespeare wrote the play for a Twelfth Night performance; it was first performed on February 2, 1602. It is also set at that time of the season and is given the name. Like the best of these seasonal poems, however, the better works are not superficially celebratory, but have other agendas with many deeper implications.
While the observance of Twelfth Night to devout Christians who remember its meaning, has sacred depth, in the popular culture it is less so. To many, it might be no more than a date when Christmas trees and decorations are ceremonially dismantled. More seriously in tradition, though, it marks the close of a cultural powerhouse. To the poet Shakespeare, it was a platform upon which to expound on appearance versus reality, obsession versus sincerity of feeling, real growth and self-knowledge; the removal of attractive decorations to reveal true identities.
