Twelfth Night Lesson Plan

When joking with Cesario, Feste says he is not Olivia's "fool," but her "corruptor of words" (3.1.31). What does he mean by this?

Simply, this harkens back to the first time we see Feste playing with the definitions of words in order to prove Lady Olivia a fool, and hopefully, through the sin of offending Olivia, mend her broken heart. As a fool, he "corrupts" words, flips ideas on their heads, to tell his lady the truth. But before Feste says this line, both Cesario and Feste reference the misuse and fallibility of words. Cesario says that those who "dally nicely with words may quickly make them wanton" (13-14). Feste says that "words are very rascals now that bonds...