Reflecting on Simmons’s stimulating article on Malvolio: He points out that by the 1590s, Sabbatarianism had become what Christopher Hill characterized as a shibboleth of Puritanism. Yet, at the time of Shakespeare’s play, Puritanism had also become popularly associated with hostility to jollity and festivity.
Make all necessary allowances for the distortions of popular opinion and for the genuine evils of Elizabethan entertainments, and yet one is struck by the fact that a movement know for Sabbath observance could be characterized as joyless.
Shakespeare captures the contradiction neatly, with a reference that associates the blackness of Egypt with the dark house of Malvolio. Shakespeare depicts the “Puritan” as a Pharaoh who places a heavy yoke on the underlings of the house - in the name of Sabbath.
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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