TWELFTH NIGHT IN ENGLAND
TWELFTH NIGHT IN ENGLAND
Epiphany, the coming of the three Magi or the three kings, in pre-Reformation times, was the conclusion of the Christmas period, specified by the Council of Tours, in 567 AD, to be of twelve days duration. Epiphany is a fitting culmination of the celebration of the birth of the Saviour at Christmas: The three Magi, traditionally representing the three races of the world, by following the star to the Christ-child, signify the salvation of the gentiles and, thus, the promise of salvation to all the races of the world.
In Catholic countries, where the religious basis for the Christmas celebrations was retained in totality, the feast of the Epiphany retained its character as a major feast day. In many Catholic communities, most famously including New Orleans, Italy, Spain and South America, Epiphany marks the beginning of the carnival season, terminating in Mardi Gras, the last day of feasting before Lent.
In England, a vague memory of the feast day and its significance persisted even throughout the sustained attack on Catholic practice by the Elizabethan establishment, culminating in the Puritan ban on Christmas. Upon the Restoration of the monarchy and the attendant restoration of Christmas, albeit a changed version of the previous religious observance, in areas of rural England, the date of Epiphany was regarded as “Old Christmas” – the day on which, on the stroke of midnight, the cattle in their stalls fell down on their knees to honour the birth of the Saviour. There prevailed in England a, not unwarranted, nostalgia for the “Merrie England” which had existed in times past, symbolized by customs that had their origins in Catholic folk practice, although the Catholic origins, in a country that had been protestantised for generations and in which any nostalgia for the Catholic religion had been crushed, were generally not acknowledged or recognised by a people who yet instinctively hungered for the sense of community and connection that customs founded upon the Faith brought with them. A newspaper article of 1817 described this nostalgia:
“Merry old England died in the country a great while ago; and the sports, the past times, the holidays, the Christmas greens and gambols, the archeries, the May mornings, the May-poles, the country dances, the masks, the harvest-homes, the new year’s gifts, the gallantries, the golden means, the poetries, the pleasures, the leisures, the real treasures – were all buried with her.” (1)
As a Catholic holiday, Twelfth Night was an occasion for revelry, a major feature of which was the masque. Masques and costumes of disguise were a tradition by which the classes could freely mix – the servant could mix with the master, the peasant with the noble, in anonymity. As a result, Twelfth Night brought with it, in the English context at least, recognisable connotations of disguise – that of servants dressing as masters, men dressing as women and women as men. This feature is given effect by Shakespeare in ’Twelfth Night’ – the story of a woman disguised as a man, the title an unambivalent reference to the Catholic feast-day, written and performed during the rule of Elizabeth - a time when ambition to succeed in society dictated conforming to the narrative of anti-Catholic stereotypes and when any person publicly showing sympathies to Catholic practice attracted sanction and persecution. Shakespeare’s clear and unambiguous reference to the Catholic feast was accompanied by blatant and hilarious ridicule of the puritan Malvolio, the steward of the countess Olivia, regarded by others in the household as an ‘overwheening rogue…a rare turkey cock” (ii.5.34) “an affectioned ass …..the best persuaded of himself; so crammed he thinks, with excellencies, that it is his ground of faith that all who look upon him love him (ii.3.162). The portrayal of him as a pretentious fool culminated in a scene where Malvolio was manipulated by his vanity into wearing yellow tights with cross garters, a sight which caused the countess to lock him up as a madman. This vain, proud man is expressly referred to as a Puritan in a rather pointed conversation about him:
Sir Toby Belch: Possess us, possess us: tell us something of him.
Maria: Marry, Sir, sometimes he is a mind of puritan.
Sir Andrew: O! If I thought that, I’d beat him like a dog.
Sir Toby Belch: What, for being a puritan? Thy exquisite reason, dear knight.
Sir Andrew: I have no exquisite reason for’t, but I have reason good enough.
Maria: The devil a puritan that he is, or anything constantly but a time-pleaser.(2)
Significantly, darkness becomes a symbol of Malvolio’s insanity, as he is told that the room is filled with light and, in his madness, he is unable to see it, an allusion that, to any Catholic is so apparent as to be almost unsubtle. Strangely, however, the spiritual and Catholic sense of the imagery seems to have eluded generations of Shakespeare scholars, including modern secular commentators on the play.
In the traditional English celebration, two consistent features were the giving of gifts, (in recognition of the gifts of the three Magi) and acting out of a king and queen for the day. In England, the placing of a bean and a pea in the Twelfth Night Cake designated who would randomly be allocated the role of King or Queen. The bean signified the King and whoever received the slice of cake with the pea placed in it would play the Queen. A clove was also placed in the cake, and whoever received the clove was designated to be the Knave. There was performed a crowning ceremony and, from the moment of their appointment, the designated King and Queen presided over the evening’s entertainment. The religious observance of Twelfth Night in England did not survive Elizabethan suppression. The cakes, however, did. In The English Year, a book detailing English customs, author, Steve Roud stated;
“Samuel Pepys often mentioned Twelfth cakes in his diary. In 1666 he admitted to finding the clove, but he secretly put it in his neighbour’s piece. (2)
The cutting of the Baddeley cake is an English tradition, named after the 18th century English actor, Robert Baddeley, who bequeathed wine and cake at the Drury Lane Theatre for Twelfth Night.
In Ireland, the Twelfth Cake persisted, along with its Catholic origins, but the Irish were in no position to foist their customs onto a predominantly protestant culture in Australia or England. The celebration of Twelfth Night has persisted in Catholic Spain and Portugal, the Latin American countries and France, where the custom is enthusiastically embraced of the Galettes (or Gateaux) des Rois, even when, in some circumstances in secular French society, the religious origins are sometimes not acknowledged.
Katherine Burton gives us the recipe for Baddeley cake, as follows (4):
Twelfth Day Cake
1 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/4 cup milk
3 cups flour
3/4c up currants
3/4 cup sultanas
4 tablespoons citron
4 tablespoons orange peel
4 tablespoons shredded almonds
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
Cream the butter with the sugar. add the eggs one at a time and beat after each addition. Add the milk and beat all thoroughly. Mix a little of the flour with the various raisins and peels. Sift the flour with the spices and fold into the mixture. Finally add the fruits and the almonds. Bake in a pan lined with wax paper for two hours in a slow oven at 250 degrees F. Formerly this cake was baked two or three months before it was to be used, then it was covered with almond paste and a thin white icing.
Traditionally, Lamb's Wool was always served with Twelfth day Cake.
Lamb's Wool
Add the pulp of 6 bakes apples to 1 quart of strong hot ale, together with a small quantity of freshly ground nutmeg and some powdered ginger. Add the granulated sugar to sweeten to taste. The mixture must be stirred 'assiduously and let it be served hot.'
(1) The Examiner, quoted in Steve Roud, The English year, Penguin Books, 2006, at p. 372.
(2) Twelfth Night, at (ii.3.152); Mutschmann and Wentersdorf, ‘Shakespeare and Catholicism,’ Sheed and Ward, New York, 1952, at p. 351. As to Shakespeare’s Catholicism, see AD Nuttall, Shakespeare the Thinker, Shadowplay, by Clare Asquith, In search of Shakespeare, by Michael Wood, Through Shakespeare’s Eyes, by Joseph Pearce and The Heart of His Mystery, by John Waterfield.
(3) Steve Roud, ibid., at p. 13.
(4) Katherine Burton and Helmut Ripperger, Feast Day Cookbook, Catholic Authors Press, (2005), at pp. 14-15.
Image: Baddeley Cake
Comments
Post a Comment