kindest of writers by the way) says that Olivia and her ladies come from early Victorian England, Maria is a French soubrette of. a later date, Viola disguises herself as a large Lord Fauntleroy, Sir Toby has an ulster over his Elizabethan suit, Feste is own cousin to Pierrot and Sir Andrew wears a pretty pink of no period.
Other innovations are that Olivia is presented as a sort of fluffy little heiress, and Malvolio as a sour-faced grotesque. This may be all right for Olivia but surely not for Malvolio, who was intrinsically a proud and dignified man if conceited, and a most faithful steward of his mistress's property.
Considering the unsurpassed freshness and charm of "Twelfth Night," one would not think it could ever become hackneyed in orthodox presentation. But our intellectuals in their eagerness for "some new thing" 4285
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.