MAPPING ILLYRIA

Eleanor Voak (OHS)

Captain: This is Illyria, lady. Viola: And what should I do in Illyria? (Twelfth Night I, 2) From Shakespeare`s age onwards map-making saw enormous progress since maps were continuously revised as the understanding of the world increased, conquests were made and explorers returned from their journeys. The advance in printing facilitated these developments. As `voyagers` frequently set off `into the unknown` (Jeremy Black, Mapping Shakespeare`s World), these journeys were often perceived as perilous, particularly when sea travel was involved and indeed The Tempest, The Comedy of Error and Twelfth Night all have shipwrecks as a central element of their plot. Interestingly, Twelfth Night is the one play where Shakespeare `seems to mention a specific contemporary map`, that drawn by Edward Wright in 1599. (Peter Whitfield, Mapping Shakespeare`s World, 2015). Captain: This is Illyria, lady. Viola: And what should I do in Illyria? (Twelfth Night I, 2). Arguably, this is a masterstroke in scene setting. Given Viola`s recent loss of her brother, it seems comprehensible that her first question is not where Illyria is but what she should do there given her tragic circumstances. Yet, she quickly moves on to ask more about the country on whose shores she finds herself shipwrecked. The Captain provides reassurance and introduces important plot elements. The audience learns that the country is ruled by Count Orsino who has fallen in love with a lady called Olivia who is also mourning a lost brother and has vowed abstinence. When Shakespeare was writing, Illyria was a region of land on the coast of modern central Albania, which was under the control of the Venetian Republic and therefore not completely unchartered. It was, though, still sufficiently distanced from Shakespearean England to be classified as foreign and allow all sorts of projections and conjectures, though its character remains Italian (this is also true of the play`s sources). Shakespeare, we can safely assume, had never been to Illyria though he would have probably known where it was. Illyria as a name did though come with a number of connotations such as Idyl, Elysium, Allure, Illusion and Lyric which all help to create an idea of a particular setting. In addition, it would have qualified as an exotic country with a hot climate suitable to the evolving plot. For directors of the play creating the setting for Twelfth Night, the question of whether Illyria was an imaginary place or rooted in some reality is an important one. As Tiffany Parker asks: `should that world be fantastical and purely imaginary or should it feel real`? The latter would involve some recognisable traits of the social and geographical settings in Illyria. A displacement outside of England certainly had advantages for Shakespeare: given the very real and threatening nature of Elizabethan censorship at the time, it was wise to set excess, disturbed gender and social hierarchies outside Elizabeth`s realm where these were left to be seen as firmly intact. Nonetheless, Twelfth Night feels very English when we look at names such as Sir Toby Belch or the allusions, behaviour and mannerisms of the actors. Perhaps then the title Twelfth Night, a carnivalesque season of disrule, allowed enough protection from censorship? The play`s subtitle `As you will` seems to suggest that many interpretations of the play are possible and indeed its settings have been as diverse as nineteenth-century Albania and in a bar in Soho. Nonetheless, it does seem interesting that the play brings together couples with a partner each from the `native` Illyria and the foreign shore. Moving away from the external mapping of Illyria, its internal map and locations are equally interesting. If we are to draw a map of the play, we find some very clearly segregated spaces in Illyria – Orsino`s sumptuous palace, the barren seashore, the streets of Illyria, the public promenade and the prison. Orsino`s court is in stasis due to his unrequited love for Olivia; excess and self-love govern him more than he seems to govern. The seashore is more than a geographical location – it also weaves itself metaphorically through the play. The streets of Illyria allow the confusion and violence of the play an outlet and seem to be an ideal background for the roaming Feste who is the only actor to move between the courts without the need of disguise. The very darkest moment of this comedy is played out in Malvolio’s cell; a poignant reminder that comedy comes very close to tragedy in Twelfth Night. The cell above all shows how certain characters are not only trapped in certain places but also within themselves. For some of them the comic resolution of the play offers a resolution whereas others are not so lucky. Within this segregation of various locations, Olivia`s house deserves particular attention as it is a rather divided sphere; her private rooms, dressed in mourning, where she, initially, keeps up the facade of the mourning sister behind a veil, as if to underline this segregation. Her court, too, is in stasis before the arrival of Viola disguised as Cesario due to her mourning for her brother and her decision to forsake men as a consequence. These rooms stand in stark contrast to the cellar of Olivia`s house where the drinking scene takes place and much of the carnivalesque atmosphere of the subplot is concocted. The formal gardens of Olivia’s house are another interesting location on the map of the play as they both allow Olivia to break out of the formality of the house, yet at the same time also present a boundary. Like the house, the garden fulfils an important part with respect to the subplot as well, as Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Fabian conceal themselves in a box tree to watch Malvolio’s reaction to Maria’s letter, very much in the tradition of other Shakespeare plays where gardens are often the places where such actions take place. Mapping Illyria therefore takes many complex shapes both in terms of geography, dramaturgy and psychology, and in the many ways in which directors and audiences can make of it what they will.

Bibliography

Jeremy Black, Mapping Shakespeare`s World: An Exploration of Shakespeare`s Worlds Through Maps, London, 2018

Luke Dunnil, Production, 31 May 2019. http://blogs. brighton.ac.uk/twldjd/2019/05/31/locating-illyria/ (Accessed, 10/11/2020) Tiffany Parker, 6 July 2020. https://www. shakespeareinitaly.org.uk/News Blog/News/ArtMID/408/ ArticleID/87/CategoryID/2/CategoryName/Blog/ Rehearsing-Shakespeare-Twelfth-Night-1-Finding-Illyria (Accessed, 8/10/2020) Peter Whitfield, Mapping Shakespeare`s World, Oxford, 2015