SOURCE: “Twins and Travesties: Gender, Dependency and Sexual Availability in Twelfth Night,” in Erotic Politics: Desire on the Renaissance Stage, edited by Susan Zimmerman, Routledge, 1992, pp. 27-38.

In the following essay, Jardine examines the treatment of crossdressing in Twelfth Night, as well as the relationship between economic dependency and sexual availability in early modern England.

Viola: He nam'd Sebastian. I my brother know Yet living in my glass; even such and so In favour was my brother, and he went Still in this fashion, colour, ornament, For him I imitate. 

(3.4.389-93)²

[Ingling Pyander] Walking the city, as my wonted use, There was I subject to this foul abuse: Troubled with many thoughts, pacing along, It was my chance to shoulder in a throng; Thrust to the channel I was, but crowding her, I spied Pyander in a nymph's attire: No nymph more fair than did Pyander seem, Had...