ABSTRACT
Twelfth Night, or What You Will “is difficult to cast, difficult to direct, and especially difficult to design,” observes Michael Pennington (2000, 18), and John Gielgud recalls in his memoirs that he has “seen so many bad productions and never a perfect one” (1979, 176). In 1836, the German Romantic poet and celebrated translator of Shakespeare, Ludwig Tieck, gave a detailed and convincing explanation for this in his novella The Young Master Carpenter:
Every note is sounded in this unique work; farce and fun are not spurned, lowness itself is touched and hinted at, but just the same, the poetic, the desire, the notes of love, and with it so much poetic obstinacy, madness, wisdom, delicate jokes, and profound thoughts within the entertainment, so that the poem, like a large, multicolored butterfly, flutters through the pure blue skies, mirroring its golden gleam against the sun and the colorful flowers, and whoever wants to catch it to take a closer look, beware only of brushing off any of the delicate fragrance of the most tender pollen since even the smallest loss will suffice to spoil the beauty that seems like a breath into the air. This is … why so few people who otherwise believe that they understand the great poet or at least admire him know what to make of his comedies.
(Tieck 1988, 389–90; unless otherwise indicated all translations are my own)