In II.iii.170, Maria calls her manipulation of Malvolio "sport royal..." What do you make of this?
Maria knows that she will be playing games with Malvolio's emotions. She is under the impression that she can trick him (which she does succeed in doing), even though he is technically of a higher class than she is. Maria, along with Toby and Andrew, anticipates that she will enjoy watching this trickery unfold. By using the phrase "sport royal", Maria is emphasizing the fact that fooling Malvolio, a member of a higher class ("royal"), will be nothing more than fun and games to her ("sport"), despite the rather drastic outcome of this fabrication.
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I had almost the exact same ideas about the "Sport Royal" as you! But then again, so did probably most of the class. Anyways, when I was thinking back to this, and then thinking about what happened later in the play, do you think that it actually turned out to be a "Sport Royal," or was it really just an act of malevolence on Maria's part? I feel like she was getting revenge for something...because it was just so cruel that it seemed that there was more to it than just fun!
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