SOURCE: "The Art of the Comic Duologue in Three Plays by Shakespeare," in Shakespeare Survey: An Annual Survey of Shakespeare Studies and Production, Vol. 35, 1982, pp. 87-97.

In the following excerpt, Wilcher asserts that, in contrast to the more conventional clowns of Shakespeare's earlier comedies, Feste is a more fully human character.

I

Since Francis Douce's pioneering study of the 'clowns and fools' of the Elizabethan stage, a good deal of scholarly scrutiny and critical interpretation has been directed towards Shakespeare's use of his inheritance from popular drama in general and from traditions of fooling in particular.¹ But compared with the detailed studies that have been devoted to the serious dramatic functions that Shakespeare developed for the solo-turn exemplified by Launce's monologues in The Two Gentlemen of Verona and the porter scene in Macbeth,² that other familiar routine of popular comedy—the double-act—has been somewhat neglected. William Willeford...