Introduction to Twelfth Night
in the Riverside Shakespeare:
Shakespeare could easily have made it clear, had he wished, that Sir Toby’s disorderly revel in the third scene of Act II was a Twelfth Night celebration, but he did not. Probably, he avoided any such pinpointing of the time of year because he wished to draw the attention of the audience to the Twelfth Night theme in ways that were more pervasive and subtle.
(page 404)
The words “Twelfth Night” not only suggest a carnival world; they warn the audience that it is not to ask too many awkward questions about the miraculous resemblance of boy and girl twins who, on the stage, will almost invariably look less than identical. Nor are we to question love at first sight, a duke who accepts as his wife a servant he thought, only five minutes before, was a boy.
(page 404)