Malvolio Appears in Yellow Stockings, Explained：midsummer madness

What's really going on

The scene is the payoff of the letter trick, and its comedy is all about self-image. Malvolio believes the letter proves Olivia loves him, so he does exactly what it says: yellow stockings, cross-gartered, a smirk, and quoted maxims about greatness. His line 'Not black in my mind, though yellow in my legs' is funny because he is defending his sanity with the very costume that proves he has none. Olivia, meanwhile, reads him as sick rather than lovestruck — 'this is very midsummer madness' — and her practical concern for him makes the humiliation gentler than it could be. The trick works because Malvolio's vanity supplies the performance the plotters hoped for; he is punished for wanting to rise above his place, and the audience is invited to laugh at a man who only wanted to be thought worthy.

Theme

このチャプターで学べること

• Midsummer madness means sheer absurd craziness
• Greatness thrust upon them means power handed unasked
• Black in the mind hints at dark gloomy moods
• Nightingales answer daws: fine folk still reply to fools

発音のポイント

• black in my — Run black into in; the gap almost disappears.
• thrust upon — Link thrust and upon into one smooth unit.
• this is very — Flatten this is and lean on very.