Twelfth Night

15 Pages 3734 Words

‚ V.i.240)). Three years later, when the play occurs, Lelia's father Virginio confines her to a convent, and her beloved, Flaminio, shifts his affections to the indifferent Isabella, daughter of Gherardo, the man whom Lelia's father intends her to marry. The love relationships are certainly a bit more complex in this version than in Shakespeare's play!


Lelia, after escaping from the convent where her father has placed her, disguises herself as a boy, takes the name Fabio, and serves Flaminio, who sends him/her to woo Isabella. Isabella falls in love with Fabio, who receives her affection so long as she repulses Flaminio in return. When Fabrizio returns to town, the old men think he is the escaped Lelia and lock him in a room with the comely Isabella. The inevitable occurs, and Fabrizio and Isabella are betrothed. Flaminio, after being persuaded from revenge on "Fabio," marries Lelia. The basic love-plot thus vaguely resembles Shakespeare's, though "much more of the play is taken up with the old men's folly, the nurse's resourcefulness [prime source material for Romeo and Juliet], the servants' jealousy of their new fellow the page, the rivalry of two innkeepers for Fabrizio's custom, the mutual abuse of the Pedant and Fabrizio's servant, the comic greed of the latter, and the maidservant's tricking of the Spaniard." (Lothian!
& Craik, pp. xxxvi-xxxvii) The whole treatment is also much bawdier than Twelfth Night's.


Riche's "Apolonius and Silla" changes all of the names, and alters the plot substantially as well. A noble duke of Constantinople, Apolonius, lays over on Cyprus while returning home from his wars against the Turk, and attracts the attentions of Silla, daughter of the Duke of Cyprus. After Apolonius' departure, Silla pines so for him that she secretly boards ship with her trusty servant Pedro (the two disguised as brother and sister) to visit him. The captain of the vessel threatens to rape Silla, she prays to ...