1. Feste is a fluid Fool. He is seen fooling not only at Olivia’s estate, where he is bound, but will also go fool for Orsino in Twelfth Night. I think this song resonates well with Feste because a large part of the chorus repeats “Hey, what’d I miss” and the rest of the song is about Thomas Jefferson coming home from being away (in France). Feste likely empathizes with Thomas Jefferson, and, while he is not traveling the country, he is found all around Illyria in Twelfth Night. I imagine Feste would also walk up to Olivia and confidently spout “what did I miss?” to her and though she may try to get rid of him for his traveling, she would be met with a Sisyphean task.
2. You know Feste is going to listen to “Something Rotten!”! It matches the very witty, metatheater-like disposition of the Fool as it implies that Feste acknowledges the existence of his author and is not shocked by this existential information but is instead simply jamming to the tunes. The title and chorus of the song hail from Polonius’ line in Hamlet by saying “Above all else, whatever you do/To thine own self be true.” Feste understands this concept well because he embraces his title of Fool and uses it to his advantage. Another line of the song, near the end, goes “We’re on our way to glory/We’ll play for kings and queens”; I feel like this line does well to summarize the job description of a Jester in the Royal Courts.
3. This song, from a Danish Julekalender, is about all the “vendings” that the Nisse have learned throughout the Julekalender (don’t worry, it’s in Denglish). The first line, “Thousands of vendings kværner round in my head” (thousands of sayings crowd around in my head) is very reflective of how Feste likely feels in his day-to-day life. The best example of this is when Feste says “For what says Quinapalus?/“Better a witty Fool than a foolish wit.” (1.5.33-34). The best analogy for Quinapalus in the Julekalender would be Good Old Gammel Nok as both of these characters seem to inspire others using the power of epigram (though Quinapalus may not actually exist). I also love the idea of Feste listening to extremely niche foreign language music because it brings a type of eccentrism I feel Feste has.
4. This song is a serious stretch. The only possible line that matches is: “This glove’s really cool, wow.” Really the only reason I chose this song was because the song is all about the right method to break in a glove. And you know who has a powerful line about gloves? Feste does. He says “A sentence is/but a chev’ril glove to a good wit. How quickly the/wrong side may be turned outward!” (3.1.11-13). Glove integrity is clearly very important to Feste (or at least the person who wrote him), so Feste would appreciate a song all about proper glove care. Though it is important to note that this song is about a baseball glove and not any type of glove Shakespeare’s father would have used.
5. This song is all about the healing power of comedy, and whether or not jokes should be made in times of stress. A line from the song goes: “Healing the world with comedy/ Indescribable power of your comedy.” If any character understands the healing power of comedy it’s Feste. As an All-Licensed Fool, Feste has the power to use his wit to entertain and to call out those of a higher class. The best example of Feste using humor during a difficult time is his opening scene in the play where he claims that Olivia’s Brother, whom Olivia has been mourning over, is in Hell. That is a seriously dangerous joke to make to your employer, but we discover that the joke pays off and Feste not only gets to stay employed but he also brightens the mood of Olivia.
6. Britney Spears’ opening line in this song is, “There’s only two types of people in the world/The ones that entertain and the ones that observe/Well, baby, I’m a put-on-a-show kinda girl.” Feste is definitely the “put-on-a-show kinda girl” the song mentions. Throughout Twelfth Night, Feste is singing, dancing, and offering all matters of quip for others to enjoy. The song also alludes to a ringleader which I believe is another astute metaphor that can be used to describe Feste at certain parts of the play. The biggest example I can think of is when Feste played Sir Topas to trick Malvolio into thinking he is mad.
7. The initial appeal of this song to Feste is very clear. It is called “The Joker and the Queen” afterall. Sadly, Feste may be met with some disappointment (as I was) because this song is about a card game and not so much an actual Joker nor Queen. A specific line that would appeal to Feste, however, would be the line “And you went all in/With a single word/And a gentle touch/You turned a moment/Into forever.” This line references the power a single word has over another person and Shakespeare makes it very clear that Feste understands that power as well. I also like to imagine that Feste either imagines Olivia as the Queen or that he procures some “Queen” in his mind in order to advance his own linguistricks (a portmanteau of “linguistic” and “trick” that I just invented).