The scene is perhaps the most glorious comic scene in the play, as Malvolio, bowing and prancing and paying homage to his shadow, comes upon a letter on the ground. The onstage audience, Toby, Andrew, and Fabian, concealing themselves inadequately behind an ornamental shrub (“Get ye all three into the box-tree,” commands Maria), provide a noisy commentary, as Malvolio embarks upon his short-lived career as a literary critic, and a would-be aristocrat. (Malvolio unquestionably runs away with the play, in almost any production, in part because of the sheer brilliance of this scene.)
