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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Kathryn Roberts Parker
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Scholarship on the practices of Wassailing has been minimal to date, but Ronald Hutton has traced references to the tradition back to the fourteenth century.4 The word itself is derived from the Middle English salutation wæ s hæ il, meaning 'to drink to good health' and originates in Old English wes hál, to 'be of good health'.5 Hutton makes a distinction between private Wassailing celebrations, hosted by aristocratic households, and public celebrations in rural communities, often in local fruit orchards in the western provinces.6 In both the private and public contexts, Wassailing was an occasion for people to drink and sing together, 'to drive the cold winter away'.7 The focus of this article is on the private celebrations of Wassailing, which were characterised by the communal sharing of wine in a 'wassailing bowl', and the singing of songs or carols.8 Hutton distinguishes the year 1600 as the time where drinking from a shared wassailing bowl became custom, and commoners would take a wassail bowl from house to house, collecting money in return for a shared drink. Each of these moments reflects different elements of Wassailing and Saturnalian festivals more broadly, namely the sensibility of delight that was an outcome of communal participation.14 Located in the indoor spaces of private performances at aristocratic households and the Blackfriars playhouse, these instances of song also highlight the dramaturgical purpose of music in this scene: to facilitate an embodied sense of communion between performers and audience members. Significantly, the most musical scene (Act 2, Scene 3) in Twelfth Night begins with Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Feste sharing a 'stoop of wine' (2.3.12), which John Long has suggested to be a wassailing bowl.16 The scene contains a love song (2.3.32), a catch (2.3.62) and several instances of sung dialogue.17 The scene relies on the skills of several actor-musicians in Shakespeare's playing company, the most notable being Robert Armin who likely played the role of Feste in the earliest performances of the play.18 Armin came into the company as an apprentice to William Kemp, a skilled musician and early pioneer of the stage jig. Kemp's history shows that Armin's early years of training were with an actor and musician who had strong ties to festive musical style, as Morris dancing was an important part of both outdoor Wassailing in winter and May game entertainments in midsummer.19 As noted by Catherine Henze, Armin's performance as Feste in Twelfth Night appears to be his hrst comic role without Kemp in the company, and he is clearly developing a new, improvised, musical style for his clowning which comes to dehne his roles in later plays.20 In this article I take an interdisciplinary approach to examining the music in Act 2, Scene 3 of Twelfth Night and its relationship to the performance style of Wassailing in private households.
Author(s): Roberts Parker K
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Australasian Drama Studies
Year: 2020
Issue: 76
Pages: 158-182
Print publication date: 18/05/2020
Online publication date: 14/04/2020
Acceptance date: 27/07/2020
ISSN (print): 0810-4123
Publisher: La Trobe University Theatre & Drama Program
URL: https://www.adsa.edu.au/dbpage.php?pg=view&dbase=newsletters&id=77
