Mel et sal. Suavité et sévérité de la voix dans Twelfth Night

In Twelfth Night, the characters’ voices, now acerbic, now suave, turn language into a real chamber of echoes when the sounds and songs of carnival, charivari, buffoonery and folly are alternately heard besides the sweet musical strains. Shakespeare’s comedy thus presents itself like an acoustic maze where identities and genres get blurred. Letter games such as the M.O.A.I. riddle in the letter supposedly written by Olivia are playing on sounds as well as with existential issues and they raise laughter at the expense of the Puritan steward Malvolio. The voices in the play alternate from mellifluous sweetness to discordant fooling in verbal fireworks that prove as ferocious as they are funny and festive