The play is believed to have drawn extensively on the Italian production Gl'ingannati (or The Deceived Ones),[4] collectively written by the Accademia degli Intronati of Siena in 1531. It is conjectured that the name of its male lead, Orsino, was suggested by Virginio Orsini, Duke of Bracciano, an Italian nobleman who visited London in the winter of 1600 to 1601.[5]
Another source story, "Of Apollonius and Silla", appeared in Barnabe Riche's collection, Riche his Farewell to Militarie Profession conteining verie pleasaunt discourses fit for a peaceable tyme (1581), which in turn is derived from a story by Matteo Bandello.[6]
"Twelfth Night" is a reference to the twelfth night after Christmas Day, also called the Eve of the Feast of Epiphany. It was originally a Catholic holiday, and these were sometimes occasions for revelry, like other Christian feast days. Servants often dressed up as their masters, men as women, and so forth. This history of festive ritual and carnivalesque reversal,[a] is the cultural origin of the play's gender-confusion-driven plot. The Epiphany celebrations were often opposed by Puritans, much as Malvolio opposes the revelry in the play.[7]
The actual Elizabethan festival of Twelfth Night would involve the antics of a Lord of Misrule, who before leaving his temporary position of authority, would call for entertainment, songs, and mummery; the play has been regarded as preserving this festive and traditional atmosphere of licensed disorder.[8]: 153 This leads to the general inversion of the order of things, most notably gender roles.[8]: 227 The embittered and isolated Malvolio can be regarded as an adversary of festive enjoyment and community.[8]: 254 That community is led by Sir Toby Belch, "the vice-regent spokesman for cakes and ale" and his partner in a comic stock-duo, the simple and constantly exploited Sir Andrew Aguecheek.[9]
