Most elegant houses of this time would include, in addition to a large number of servants of different standings, a person who was considered the official "fool," "jester," or "clown." Many critics make a distinction between these terms, but even Shakespeare uses them indiscriminately. Traditionally, in Renaissance terms, the word clown often referred mainly to rustics such as those found in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and a person such as Feste would more appropriately be termed a "fool" (a court jester). Here, Feste opens the scene with the witty servant Maria, and they are engaged in a verbal sparring match. The two are very well matched; Maria is a mischievous, quick-witted person, and Feste has a mind like quicksilver. The pattern of their verbal humor and interchanges is executed in a rapid give-and-take repartee, which is extremely effective on stage.
The entrance of the Countess Olivia has been long awaited. We have heard about her since the opening scene of the act, and now finally at the end of Act I, she makes her first appearance. We are not disappointed. She is beautiful and poised, and she possesses a commanding presence as she immediately reprimands the clown for his lack of seriousness at a time when she is in mourning. As the scene progresses, we see that Olivia shows great intelligence; she is very adept in verbal skills, she appreciates the magnificent humor of the clown, especially when it is aimed at the dour and grave Malvolio, and she is also very practical in disapproving of her uncle's drunkenness and loud belching. And while she acknowledges that the duke is handsome, wealthy, devoted, learned, and refined — in other words, everything a lady could desire — yet she feels that she cannot love him. Later in the scene, we learn that one of her reasons could be that the duke exhibits extreme melodramatics in his message to Olivia. When Cesario delivers the duke's message that he loves Olivia "with adorations, with fertile tears, / With groans that thunder love, with sighs of fire," this declaration represents gross sentimentality; the phrasing is a perfect description of the rhetorical and superficial nature of Duke Orsino's love.
