College of St Marys of the Springs - Yearbook (Columbus, OH)

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ww 1 ,wg f wg i .wg If r-we f wg t :wg :wg s W5 If l the Ease Hgainst malvolio - Ji? -fff VER since the beginning of the world, God has iven to some people the power of winning friends by their mega personality. 1. 7-LM They are pleasant, cheerful, sympathetic, making it almost im- possible for one not to like them, often even in spite of palpable faults and failings. Then on the other hand, there are persons of sterling virtuewho do not possess this magnetic attraction, but are afflicted with disagreeable peculiarities and have a faculty K X Q 1 of arousing antipathy 'in the breasts of .their fellow mortals. X ' Those belonging to this second class it is asserted, are often misjudged, and both in literature and in life. do not receive their just deserts. But after all, are these disagreeable qualities as a rule inseparable from personality? Are they not in nine cases out of ten under the control of the will? l A character much discussed in this connection is Malvolio in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Those who champion his cause urge that on account of his unattractive manner- isms, he has been misjudged by the public and unfairly dealt with by the poet himselfg that he is honest and trustworthy, upright and religious, and zealous in the performance of duty: that he meets with nothing but vexation and humiliation, and is the only character of the play not made happy in the end. Now how far is all this true? Is not Malvolio himself re- sponsible for his unlovely character and consequently for his misfortunes? Let us see what is to be said in support of such a view. One of the first things we have against Malvolio is his astounding ignorance of the wo- manly nature. If he had shown a little sense in this regard, he would have escaped any amount of trouble. To think that the Lady Olivia could love him was sheer madness on his part, nothing more. Even if, for some unaccountable reason, she had done so, she was too much the greatlady to lower her position to marry a steward, let alone one of her own paid servants. l , Again if Malvolio had truly loved Olivia, loved her for her sweetness and goodness and because he could not help himself. we might fmglve hlmv but to Want to marry ber for her money, there is no name for himl True an effort has been made to exonerate him from this charge. but he did, in fact, thirst for wealth,-lf Was bla Clllaf alms alWaYS Uppermost in his mind. He longed for power and position. That he did not really care for Olivia is revealed in his soliloquies whem he Plans his life after hls drea'Ped'Qf marriage with her: there is no mentign of anything but spending her money .and dommeermg over her household. This domineering Spirit is indeed one gf his most odious traits. l-le manifests it all through the play, and as for religious feeling... lie has. none. He is harsh and repellent and never loses an opportunity of showing that lie is a trifle better than most people. True Christianity teaches charity and meekness of heart. n I . l-le is iealous' too, and we get a delightful impression of his manly OJ character in that little incident where he tries to ridicule Feste, the clown, and show-off before the Lady. Well the Lady soon tells him what she thinkS Of hlm when She Says! . Oh you are sicli of self-love, Malvolio, and taste Wltll a dlafempafed aPPetlfC-H 11 ' tw., . ,,N .l ra ' T TJAT

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ww . guy: pup: Q twig I time . guyz g guy: , NHC . :Wig . Brutus, though perhaps blindly, is led to the commission of a grievous wrong and finally meets his doom through hearkening to the counsel of an unworthy friend. The next form of imperfect friendship, presented is the suspicious. An excellent and enduring example of the ,untrusting friend is given in that sweetest of Shakespeare's comedies, The Winter's Tale. Here Leontes, the king of Sicily, furnishes the type. He suspects first his wife, then Polixenes, who has been his unseparable companion from youth. In the beginning of the drama we see Leontes in all the vigor and strength of manhood and we hold him as an exemplar to humanity, as the ideal husband, but when he entertains unjust suspicions of his consort Hermione and his loyal friend, he begins to lose in favor and by his jealous and distrustful nature he drags himself down almost too low to rise. Had he only trusted and loved as did his wife and friend, how very different would their lives have been! But when sus- picion has once effected an entrance into the mind, it is seldom that the one in fault realizes his blindness and injustice, until too late. Thus we see how very much better it would be to form no friendship at all, if it cannot be void of groundless and unreasonable suspicion. But behind these travesties of friendship vainly has been striving to appear the one and only friendship of the world-the true. Search where we may, nowhere can we find so true a type of the thoroughly loyal friend as in Antonio The Merchant of Venice. Here, the love that binds a man to one in particularamong his fellows, has its most beautiful exemplifi- cation, for Antonio was the truest, most loyal and self-sacrificing of friends. It was for Bas- sanio that he staked his life, and it was for Bassanio that he would have given it willingly and without a pang. No artful cunning, no self interest, no suspicions, prompted this free offering. No, nothing, nothing but the true and honest friendship felt by Antonio for his cherished com- panion motived this almost super-human act. Antonio shows, in the following lines, his deep love for Bassanio. Give me your hand, Bassanio: fare you welll Grieve not that I am fallen to this for you, For herein Fortune shows herself most kind Than is her custom: it is still her use To let the wretched man out live his wealth, To view with hollow eyes and wrinkled brow An age of poverty: for which lingering penance Of such misery doth she cut me off. Commend me to your honorable wife: Tell her the process of Antonio's end: Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death, And when the tale is told bid her be judge Whether Bassanio had not once a love. Repent but you that you shall love your friend: And he repents not that he pays your debt: For if the J ew do cut but deep enough, I'll pay it presently with all my heart. Thus has Shakespeare given us friendship in its every guise. p He has shown us the wiles and the punishment of the false friend, the end destined for those who think only of self, the heart aches and wretchedness of those who are suspicious and the true and priceless worth of those who are loyal. HELEN K. Dl'I'I'OE., 'l3. 10

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We e we a we a :wc a we a :wc we e :wc e we e In the drinking scene where he gets into trouble with Sir Toby, Malvolio is thoroughly in his element. He stalks into the room as though he owned the place and orders Sir Toby to keep quiet or leave. This is not the first time he has tried to show his authority with Sir Toby and the latter rebels, determining to have revenge. If Malvolio had administered reproof in the right way, it would no doubt have been received in the right way, but he ordered others around not because it was his duty to the Lady Olivia,-bless you, no,-he never thought of her comfort or interest, but because he so loved to lord it over somebody that he did not know how to admonish with tact and charity. Then as a direct consequence of the drinking scene, we have the letter scene, in which he finds the missive Maria has left for him. l-le might have known better than to believe its con- tents. because it was not at all in Olivia's style and with this he must, of course, have been familiar. Then, too, was it very likely that a woman of Olivia's ideas would drop a love letter in so public a place as that garden? Could not others besides Malvolio walk there? Noth- ing but inflated egotism could have been deceived by so transparent a trick. Some people nevertheless have called Malvolio sensible. Surely they must have lost sight of him waltzing up and down that garden path, pretending to wind a watch and practising his future behavior as Olivia's husband. If no other evidence were forthcoming, in this incident alone Malvolio would be self-condemned, for he shows he is conceited by planning for his future wardrobe. he shows he is revengeful by planning what he will do to Sir Toby, and he shows he is a fool for doing any of these things at all. l Following the garden episode, comes the sad scene which is the beginning of the end of Malvolio, in other words, that where he comes to Olivia rigged out in a manner no man of reason would want to be seen in by a woman, let alone, by the woman he wishes to marry. Had he ever had the slightest chance of winning Olivia, that would have ended it, for when she saw him in that costume with that sickly self-complacent smile on his face, she must have almost hated him. l'-le had fondly thought she would succumb at once to his irresistible charms, but suddenly his hopes were blasted: instead. being suspected of being a madman, he was hurried away in spite of all his protestations. to pay the penalty of his overweening vanity. And what was his punishment? Wherein was it bevond his deserts? No one laid hand on him with the intention of harming him. l-le was merely placed in a dark cell like a naughty child, and left to repent of his past follies. Nothing is better for a man than a place of solitude, a time for reflection and repentance. Malvolio never would have seen his foolish- ness unaided. so it was little short of an act of kindness for someone else to reveal it to him. After this who can sav he received no compensation for his humiliations? l-le was made to see himself in his true light, and such a lesson is well worth a few hours of suspense in a dark- ened room. PEARL CABLE, Special. 'SZ 'Si 'SZ N? QS 09 0 4, . els --as 12