SOURCE: Mueschke, Paul and Fleisher, Jeannette. “Jonsonian Elements in the Comic Underplot of Twelfth Night.” PMLA 48, no 3 (September 1933): 722-40.

In the following essay, Mueschke and Fleisher point out Shakespeare's indebtedness to Jonson's humors comedy in the complex subplot of Twelfth Night, noting the adaptation of the Jonsonian humors character in the person of Malvolio.

The present study purposes to establish a direct relationship between the comic underplot in Twelfth Night and the Jonsonian comic method as first developed in Every Man in His Humour and Every Man out of His Humour.¹ Shakespeare's name appears first in the list of actors for the former play in the Jonson Folio (1616). This is almost the only indubitable instance of Shakespeare's acting, attested by written evidence on the authority of Jonson² rather than based on tradition or hearsay. His thorough familiarity with this play is, consequently, a certainty, and the production of...