A question about Twelfth Night that is probably very stupid

Cafe Society
1

So Ceasario was really a chick?

Just kidding, although my real question may not be much better. This isn’t homework or anything, just something that’s been tugging at my mind since I saw a production of Twelfth Night recently.

One of the riddles in the love note found by Malvolio, supposedly from Countess Olivia but really forged by her servingwoman Maria, is the letters “M O A I”. Malvolio is puzzled by this, but soon convinces himself that it refers to him, as “M” is the first letter of his name and all the other letters also appear in his name. Maria of course did intend for Malvolio to think the note was about him, but she strikes me as a character capable of thinking of a riddle with a better solution than “here’s four random letters from your name”. But I, being nowhere near so clever, am at a loss when it comes to working out what her meaning was. I am feeling very stupid over this, and hope that one of you Dopers can help me out.

2

Well, the note to the Arden edition says:

Which doesn’t mean that Shakespearean scholars haven’t tried to do so, of course!

3

Sure, one editor says that. In the version of The Compete Works of Shakespeare (ed David Bevington) that I bought for a class , it says about this play "…but the appearance of Viola’s ** identical twin**, Sebastian…"so I’m left doubting the wisdom of such editors :slight_smile: I think yours is probably a little brighter, though.

4

Maria is, of course, clever enough, but Malvolio isn’t. And of course, Maria is clever enough to know that Malvolio isn’t, so she makes up a really simple riddle for him.

5

It really means “My oh my, the Earl of Oxford Am I!”, but they are Covering It Up.

6

Thanks, y’all. I feel better that I wasn’t missing anything, except the fact that there was nothing to miss!

I think this is the funniest thing about Shakespeare I’ve read since the thread about porn titles based on his works.