Twelfth Night: BEARDS

 I know this may be a lot to read but i've cut out some parts and i thought it might be useful for Gender aspects of the essay or even Love/Humour.


In Twelfth Night, Viola, in her disguise as Cesario, gives Feste a coin. He thanks her with "Now Jove, in his next commodity of hair, send thee abeard!" To this Viola replies: "By my troth, I'll tell thee, I am almost sick for one—[aside] though I would not have it grow on my chin" (3.1.44-8).
glossing "sick for one,"explains: "(1) eager to have a beard (2) in love with a bearded man." however the explanation cannot really do justice to what follows:

FESTE Would not a pair of these have bred, sir?
VIOLA Yes, being kept together and put to use. (49-50)

Feste opines that a pair of pubic "beards" used in intercourse would have borne fruit, he also meansthat two coins, together, are more profitable thanone. Partridge comments, under "beard": 'pubic hair,' especially in the words `being kept together and put to use."'
However, according to Williams, in his comments under "beard," Viola's "I am almost sick for one" means that "she is eager to reach sexual maturity."
I agree with both Partridge and Williams that "beard" here for one thing means "pubic hair," but I
would explain. I take her to say,  "almost sick" for a beard" to be "Although you, Feste, are suggesting that it might benice for me to have a beard growing on my face, I wish I could enjoy the feel of a beard differently, viz. asa result of sexual contact."
"I would not have it grow on my chin" she surely means both (a) "I would prefer Orsino's facial beard to touch my chin" and (b) "I would prefer his genital 'beard' to rest on mine." For those members of the audience who might not have immediately understood the allusion to intercourse, Shakespeare makes Feste say: "Would not a pair of these [i.e.pubic 'beards,' as well as coins] have bred, sir?"