Twelfth Night’s “Fustian Riddle”: A Puzzle with No Solution?

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay makes the controversial claim that it has finally solved Twelfth Night's “fustian riddle”, the riddle Maria devises to entrap Malvolio. Paying close attention to First Folio spellings, Elizabethan pronunciation, and uncommon meanings of key words and phrases, it uncovers essential hints and clues that have been obscured by the passage of time but would have been readily accessible to Twelfth Night's original audiences. The most helpful of these, it turns out, are embedded in Fabian's quip – made as Malvolio is trying to discover the correct “alphabetical position” of the letters M.O.A.I. – “And O shall end, I hope”. As Samuel Johnson long ago proposed, this remark alludes to the subject of hanging: the “O” makes a visual pun on the hangman's noose, with “end” of course being a reference to the fate of the person being hanged. In addition to this figurative meaning, Fabian's comment provides literal clues about the correct ordering of the four letters, the most obvious being to move the O to the end. When all of the clues are correctly deciphered and followed, the odd sequence of letters resolves itself into a statement containing a rebus, I-AM-O, signifying “I am hanged”. The essay then proceeds to show how this answer, which augurs the downfall of Malvolio, is thoroughly woven into the play's design. What finally emerges from this reading is a more brilliant, witty, and coherent play than even this most successful of Shakespeare's romantic comedies is now considered to be.