How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig

226 ff.)
    T his passage never fails to raise a lump in my throat. To understand why it is so touching requires some background. It occurs in the final scene of the play and pulls everything in the Viola Plot together.Up to this point, a great deal of confusion has been caused by Sebastian’s arrival in Illyria. Sebastian, as you know, is Viola’s twin brother, and each sibling thinks the other was drowned in a shipwreck. Because Sebastian and Viola look identical, they get taken for each other by all the other characters in the play.
    In the final scene, Shakespeare brings all the characters together onstage, raises the confusion to a dizzying height, then resolves all the plotlines at the same time. The scene begins with Orsino and Cesario arriving at Olivia’s estate. Then, one after another, Antonio, Olivia, Sir Toby, and Sir Andrew arrive, and each has a different story about the treachery of this boy Cesario. Finally, when the confusion has reached a fever pitch, Shakespeare brings Sebastian onto the scene—and suddenly there are two identical human beings on the stage together. Identical. You can’t tell them apart.
    At which point, everything stops dead.
    No one moves.
    Then Orsino exclaims:
One face, one voice, one habit [outfit], and two persons!
A natural perspective, that is and is not!
    In those days, a perspective was an optical device made with mirrors that helped artists see visual scenes in proper proportions; and so a natural perspective means an optical illusion created naturally without mirrors. And now we have a list:
face ,
voice ,
habit ,
persons .
    Repeat it with your children over and over.
face ,
voice ,
habit ,
persons .
One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons!
A natural perspective, that is and is not!
    Then Antonio says:
How have you made division of yourself?
An apple cleft in two is not more twin
Than these two creatures. Which is Sebastian?
    Antonio is reminding us as clearly as possible that the two creatures in front of him look absolutely identical. Orsino has just said it with his one face, one voice speech, and Antonio repeats the idea:
An apple cleft in two is not more twin
Than these two creatures .
Which is Sebastian?

    An apple cleft in two (photo credit 19.1)
    Shakespeare does not repeat things idly. He is doing it for a reason. In any live production, the two actors in front of us will not actually look identical. They will probably not be related in real life, and even if they were—even if they were twins—they wouldn’t be identical because twins of different sexes are never identical. However, we, the audience, must imagine that they look identical because the other characters onstage are seeing them that way. And in order to make the audience believe that they are identical, Shakespeare has his characters say it twice.
    And now comes what is usually the biggest laugh in the whole play. Olivia has just become betrothed to Sebastian, and she’s crazy about him. Now, suddenly, from her point of view, there are two Sebastians. Her life is about to become doubly happy and pleasurable. So what does she cry?
Most wonderful!
    At this point, Viola and Sebastian see each other. In the theater, this moment can, and should, be electrifying. The whole play has been moving toward this moment from the beginning. The first to speak is Sebastian: SEBASTIAN
Do I stand there? I never had a brother ,
Nor can there be that deity in my nature
Of here and everywhere. I had a sister ,
Whom the blind waves and surges have devoured .
Of charity, what kin are you to me?
What countryman? What name? What parentage?…
Were you a woman, as the rest goes even ,
I should my tears let fall upon your cheek
And say “Thrice welcome, drownèd Viola.”
    This is a tricky passage to understand, so let’s parse it out together for your children. I want them to be able to recite it and understand it before we’re through. (They needn’t memorize it.)
Do I stand there? I never had a brother ,
Nor can