Peter Latham writes: "Cross-dressing has been a standard comedic device since (at least) Shakespeare's 12th Night. Have films treated the subject any differently?" Well, we can go back even farther. Didn't Achilles dress as a woman to dodge the Troy draft? But Shakespeare complicates things because of the stage practices of his day, ie having only male actors. So when a female character dresses as a man in his plays, it's actually a boy playing a woman dressing as a man, which is a very complicated set of arrangments that WS plays off in various ways. Consider Cleopatra's assertion in ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA that at some time in a future a beardless youth will speak her words--which are of course being spoken by a beardless youth. What then happens when a woman plays the female part that was written for a young man? In contrast, movie treatments of the theme seem downright simple! Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN) ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]