Act 1, Scene 3 of Twelfth Night introduces characters Sir Toby Belch and Maria, establishing their personalities and social dynamics, while also setting the stage for the arrival of Sir Andrew Aguecheek, a potential suitor for Olivia, highlighting themes of excess, social hierarchy, and comedic misunderstandings.
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hello and welcome to our next step in
our 12th night journey and again a
reminder to like subscribe notification
Bell look at my other videos all of that
good stuff that you really know to do
already I'm sure without further Ado
let's move on to our next scene so we're
going to be we've done scene one scene
two going into act one scene 3
now the next two scenes are actually
pretty short so we've got introduction
of more characters here soobi and Mariah
so soobi belch so this seene is
interesting for lots of reasons it in
some ways parallels what we've seen
already with orino and orino we know
that he's he wanted excess of it in
terms of Love didn't he living to excess
Toby lives to excess sir Toby I should
say let's not be disrespectful sir Toby
lives to excess in terms of alcohol he
really is a is a big Boozer let's say it
like that and we've also got Mariah in
this scene who is the servant of
Olivia and we were also introduced to
Sir Andrew auu as well in a moment too
so opening of the scene starts with so
Toby uh again it's media R Shakespeare
using media res halfway through the
conversation straight
away and Toby's philosophy Shakespeare
sums up Toby's philosophy here very
succinctly I'm sure car is an enemy to
life so he he's obviously somebody likes
to drink he likes to
party he's not worried about health or
anything like detrimental effects of
that or actually the effects of it on
anybody else actually either as well as
himself so he's really concerned with
parying to excess and we've talked about
12th night as a festival before 12th
night was a big party of Shakespeare's
time the 12th night of Christmas massive
parties involving roles being whopped rooll
rooll
reversal games and obviously excess and
including excess with alcohol their
alcohol will be stronger than modern
alcohol by average as well so it would
be um yeah very very headache inducing
parties Shakespeare quickly establishes
the relationship very efficiently of
characters in the scene so Mariah there
your cousin my lady so we're getting an
idea of the social structure here you
might be intrigued to see how familiar
Maria is with sirt toi obviously higher social
social
class that does actually have some
connections to things that's later on as
well so takes great exceptions to your
ill hours he's been coming coming in
late he's been out drinking he comes in
late he comes in late
drunk and there's a lot of interesting
exchange here mainly about like
misunderstandings because soobi is
actually drunk again so there are some
mild misunderstandings here for for comedy
comedy
purposes confine I'll confine myself no
finer I am as in I'm not going to
restrict myself uh I'm not going to
restrict myself he's kind of
misunderstanding it as in these clothes
are good enough to drink in and so be
these boots
too so he's he's fine to go out drinking
in these clothes in confinement the idea
of wearing things that's what
Shakespeare's drawing on
there Mariah's concerned for so Toby
that quaffing and drinking will Undo You
You could also link this to the idea of
like ing boundaries as well where you've
got a sense of it's everything's fine in
moderation if you cross a particular
boundary it can become incredibly
damaging then we're introduced to Sir
Andrew aguchi and I should have said as
well at sir Toby his Sur is s Toby belch
so Shakespeare will occasionally use
acronyms as in names that suit the
characters you see these in lots of
films and novels and Dickens is big on
anonyms of course
um you've also you characters whose
personality suits their names and vice
versa I suppose an a cheek is an egg an
auu is an illness and cheek it can mean
face but it's probably bum cheek here
basically so these are comedy characters
so Toby belch obviously belching
burping he's as tall a man as any in
ayria this is a double meaning is he's
he's meant to be a very tall thin
character and he's also it's meant to be
courageous actually tall as man it's
meant to be as in like we still say
things like Stand Tall you know like
being confident that's the kind of rough
evolution of the word you know tracing
it back so it kind of still connects it
still kind of makes sense in that
way you could see here plenty of uh the
non sequitors really so Toby because of
his drinking he doesn't seem to answer
straight so non Secor in this case it's
things that just don't follow so he's as
taller man as any in the area what's
that to the purpose why has 3,000
duckets a year that's money so he's very
he's very rich so it doesn't All Connect
so non secretors I like
that so Toby in response to Mariah's
criticism of Sir Andrew basically he's a
fool we don't really want him around
Toby says well look he does all these
things he plays v v de gamb booys which
is a special type of um a
via you see Shakespeare you see violent musical
musical
instrument even though very unlikely a
knight would actually play that musical
instrument so this is probably a lie
well it's yeah pretty much certainly a
lie so Toby is hyping up Sir Andrew and
he's got all these qualities where he
claims he has his qualities that he
actually hasn't got speaks three or four
languages word for word without book and
have all the good gifts of nature so
he's being his qualities are being very exaggerated
exaggerated
Mariah anyway well Shakespeare has
Mariah counter this with again these are
like more realistic qualities of his a
great quarrel is in argue and that also
he's a coward as well and yeah so this
is more realistic by this hand our
Scoundrels and some tractors that say so
of him who are they they that ad more of
he's drunk nightly in your company so
the local gossips be going around that s
Toby and Sir Andrew are boozing it up
they're getting drunk every night
and so Toby again makes out that this is
drinking Health to my niece yeah that's
why they're drinking so much because
they're they're raising a toast to
Olivia all the time so if you if you're
into some of your speech terms you can
think about uh Shakespeare wouldn't have
known this term because it didn't exist
what he doing but he's breaking the
maxim of quality which is effectively
another way it's a fancy way of saying a lie
lie
then we have sir Andrew actually appears
himself and so Toby is meant to be a
short fat character sir Andrew is meant
to be a tall thin character it's that
classic comedy double act you get this
time and time again through through
history there'll be future double AE
like this where there's a tall thin one
and a short fat one it's just going to
repeat Through the Ages it's just one of
those uh motifs of Comedy or a comedy
Trope more than a motif actually it's
more of a Trope a recurring comedy
Trope then as in a pattern so we've got
more comic interaction here between the three
three
characters then and I can't speak so
Andrew is introduced to Mariah and he
told a cost sir Andrew a cost that's
diapy term fans so it's been given as an
instruction and if you're not sure what
it means thankfully for you um so Toby
actually explains what it means down
here here as well Good Mistress of cost
I desire better acquaintance Shakespeare
here does what modern comedians do and
comedians throughout time um which is
exploit a sense of
pragmatics which is a strange term but
pragmatics always means context and
implied meanings so a lot of jokes run on
on
misunderstanding ideas or taking words
literally or in this case we've got a
very similar thing here so he thinks
it's her name Good Mistress of cost as I
acquaintance we've been introduc sat toi
introduced us or obviously Shakespeare
did but we we were given the impression
from sat toi that sir Andrew is a
sophisticated intelligent man and he's
not then we
have the definition I mentioned earlier
on front her board her woo her assale
her these are actually quite nautical
nautical metaphors here actually
Shakespeare is using but it's parallel
phrasing as well so the the idea is it's
like you know to charm her chat her up
basically that's what the cost is by my
truth I would not undertak her in this
company again exploiting
pragmatics so Andrew maybe is thinking
that sotby is
suggesting it's something a bit more
physical let's let's phrase this
delicately for YouTube something a
little bit more physical and that's why
you get a comedy line there I'm not
going to do that in front of everybody
it's a little joke he doesn't understand and
and
is that the meaning of a cost and he's wrong
wrong
completely and thou let part so so angre
would thou might never draw sword again
this is just meant to be between sir
Toby and Sir Andrew really as masculine
speech where they're talking about a
woman and talking about uh woman they
find attractive and this is going to be
most likely again as well sexual inuendo
if you think you if you let her go you
might as well never get your sword out
again and I don't really need to spell
out to you what sword might mean do I
again for YouTube purposes yeah I'll let
you I'll let you fill in the gaps
there and you part so mistress I I would
I never draw sword again he actually
repeats it I again it's a comedy thing
because there's a boundary cross there
because he's repeating something that
was really meant to be private between
between the two men there now he said it
as if it's as if it was a prompt from
sat toi to uh interact with her and to
ro romance her in a way not really
seriously romancer it just to be kind of
charming romantically cuz so Toby wants
S Andrew to marry his
niece but it's not out of any kind of
great kindness or anything it's because
sir Andrew is Rich and if he gets sir
Andrew to marry Olivia then soobi will
be able to manipulate sir Andrew and get
more money and fund his partying
lifestyle so so Toby keep an eye onobu
because he's he's not quite necessarily
as much as the likable funloving
character as he seems I think by the end
of the play you'll see what I mean you
might know
already so we have some more
Shakespearean word play fair lady do you
think you have fools in hand so that's
being sir Andrew there or Shakespeare is
having sir Andrew say more figuratively
say your fools at hand you think you got
fools in front of you so I have not you
by the hand Mary said but you shall have
and here is my hand so this is again
exploiting pragmatics which is saying uh
do you think you got fools in hand or
well I haven't got you by the hand and
that's again use of pragmatics imply
yeah you're a fool and then so Andrew
says yes but you can have my hand so
really you've got sir Andrew just
reinforcing the idea of him being a
fool and again Shakespeare was
establishing Mariah was a character
obviously it was in Shakespeare's time
it was male actors playing the female
roles but in terms of you know the era
look at Mariah as a female character as
a character construct she is she's very
intelligent she she runs rings around
these two effects particularly sir
Andrew but she's much more sensible than
soobi who is of higher Social Status as
well now this bit's going to be
difficult to talk about because again
YouTube but you've got more sexually
inuendo here
I pray you bring your hand to The
Buttery bar and let it
drink I I'm not going to spell this out
on YouTube I'll I'll get in trouble so I
will leave it to your imagination let me
just say to you yeah it's sexual
innuendo you can work out how right
that's that's what I'm I'm leaving that
I'm leaving that bit and if you don't
believe me read on and
then yeah if you don't believe me just
watch wherefor sweetheart what's your
metaphor wherefor means why wherefor swe
what's your metaphor it is it's dry sir
well I think so I'm not such an ass I
can keep my hand dry but what's your
Gest a dry J uh so yeah you look at all
of this here yeah okay I'm not going to
say anymore off goes Mariah oh Knight
thou likck a cup of canary that's not a
cup full of a bird that would be or the
feathers would get in your mouth it's
actually a cup of uh it's madira wine
actually wine from the Canary
Islands so it's pretty strong actually
so they're boozing it up
again then we were told remember how we
were told earlier on that sir Andrew
speaks lots of languages he doesn't
understand what po qua means so any of
you who study French or speak French you
know you know that also that also means
why do or not do I would had bestow that
time in the tongues that I have in
fencing dancing and bear baiting oh I
but followed the Arts so these are all
leisure activities bear baiting was very
popular it is it is as the name suggests
like taunting a bear for
entertainment That's
Entertainment yeah yeah taunting Bears
it was it was a brutal
age then we see some vanity from sandrew
there as well talking about his hair I'm
going to skip to this bit where there's
more sexual innuendo here well I don't
know it's actually not even innuendo is pretty
pretty
obvious excellent it hangs like flat on
a dis staff and I hope to see a huswife
take thee between her legs and spin it
off well that's prostitute so again you
you could do all the rest of explaining
all that bit but yeah more section in
Endo so you're getting an idea of what
sir Toby and Sir Andrew what their life
is like it's it's bardy is one word of
summoning summing it
up then we have uh Andrew's losing
confidence the count himself here hard
by w L her she'll none of the count
she'll not match above her degree
neither in state years nor which said
she's not going to marry she's not
interested in the count she's not going
to marry someone higher Social Status
than her I've heard her say it Tu
there's life in it man he said don't
give up but really it's it's sir Toby's
own self-interest for sir Andrew to
marry Olivia it's not out of any concern
he's got for Olivia and it's certainly
not out of any concern for sir
Andrew then there's lots of more
references to your masks and Revels so
these are more parties more a party
dancing kick shaes we've got here
Gallard cut Caper back trick these are
all a variety of dancing so sir Andrew
is even though he is a knight he's he's
really like like you get this in the
modern age uh where is he's not really
like a sort of medieval night where you
imagine you know you fight a dragon or
something then you're kned him obviously
disclaimer I know dragons aren't
real but a bit more like how you've
become a knight in the Modern Age which
is donate a lot of money to a political
party so in those days he's sir Andrew
must have donated a lot of money to
whoever would be maybe it was the jke I
don't know but probably not someone
higher than that someone who's whoever
is able to Knight him so he's donated
money to the state in Subway and then in
recognition of that he's been kned so I
don't know about stobi soobi may have
done the same thing or it may just
because he is obviously related to
Olivia so he's he's a noble of some form
anyway well his family are nobles of
some form and he's a knight anyway so
there's some kind of connection there
but so Andrew it seems to be more that
and judging by he's he only does these
frivolous things you know he doesn't do
anything that's really
serious so that is it for Scene Three so
I'm going to stop there so you know all
the good stuff like comment subscribe
notification Bell check out my other
videos stay tuned for more and I will
see you on the next one thank you and goodbye
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