So and So as Somebody from Blankety Blank

The Kenwood House collection, which I went to view on its stay at the lovely Milwaukee Art Museum, hosts several works that feature individuals of note engaged in sort of what you may call a predecessor to cosplay.  Of note to me was a piece by John Hopper, Miss Jordan as "Viola" in "Twelfth Night."  It's not so much the work that intrigues me, as lovely as it is, or the practice of real individuals dressing and posing as popular characters for paintings.  Rather, it is the nature of the work Miss Jordan chose to indulge and the character she poses as from it.  Viola, as I've come to understand given Twelfth Night is one of a few Shakespeare works I've yet to become familiar with, is a woman posing as a man in the story.  Not really an uncommon thing, it's almost a running gag in the Bard's romantic comedies.  What distinguishes this particular character though is that the romance seems to develop between her and the love interest while he thinks her a man.  This leads me to wonder just how such a plot element would be regarded, not only during the time of the Globe and the Bard, but also during the Romantic era when this portrait was made.  Homosexuality as an identity wouldn't really take form until late in the Victorian era, before which it was regarded among the classifications of sexual acts which would often be called sodomy.  Given this notion, during both periods the romantic action between the two would presumably be played off as something morally bankrupt and wrong.  This post is done both as a commentary regarding the work, as well as something of an expression of sudden interest in the work, to see precisely how it is in fact played off.  If the presumptions are proved incorrect, then that certainly creates a scenario in which many more questions regarding the nature of the work might form.