• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 18813 0

What a case am I in then, that am neither a good epilogue, nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play! I am not furnish'd like a beggar; therefore to beg will not become me. My way is to conjure you; and I'll begin with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you; and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women- as I perceive by your simp'ring none of you hates them- that between you and the women the play may please. If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleas'd me, complexions that lik'd me, and breaths that I defied not; and, I am sure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths, will, for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell.

TWELFTH NIGHT

OR

WHAT YOU WILL

Most likely written in 1601 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season, this comedy features plot elements drawn from the short story Of Apollonius and Silla by Barnabe Rich, based on a story by Matteo Bandello. The first recorded performance of the play was on 2 February 1602, at Candlemas, the formal end of Christmastide in the year's calendar.

Twelfth Night is set in Illyria, an ancient region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea covering parts of modern Albania, Croatia, and Montenegro. Illyria may have been suggested by the Roman comedy Menæchmi, the plot of which also involves a pair of twins who are mistaken for each other. The leading character, Viola, is shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria during the opening scenes. She loses contact with her twin brother, Sebastian, whom she believes to be dead. Masquerading as a young page under the name Cesario, she enters the service of Duke Orsino through the help of the sea captain who rescues her. Orsino has convinced himself that he is in love with the bereaved Lady Olivia, whose father and brother have recently died, and who will have nothing to do with any suitors, the Duke included. Orsino decides to use "Cesario" as an intermediary to tell Olivia about his love for her. Olivia, believing Viola to be a man, falls in love with this handsome and eloquent messenger. Much of the play is taken up with the comic subplot, in which characters conspire to make Olivia's pompous head steward, Malvolio, believe that his lady Olivia wishes to marry him.

Shakespeare's main source text for this play is available via this link.

The front page of the First Folio

CONTENTS

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I. SCENE I. The DUKE'S palace

SCENE II. The sea-coast

SCENE III. OLIVIA'S house

SCENE IV. The DUKE'S palace

SCENE V. OLIVIA'S house

ACT II. SCENE I. The sea-coast

SCENE II. A street

SCENE III. OLIVIA'S house

SCENE IV. The DUKE'S palace

SCENE V. OLIVIA'S garden

ACT III. SCENE I. OLIVIA'S garden

SCENE II. OLIVIA'S house

SCENE III. A street

SCENE IV. OLIVIA'S garden

ACT IV. SCENE I. Before OLIVIA'S house

SCENE II. OLIVIA'S house

SCENE III. OLIVIA'S garden

ACT V. SCENE I. Before OLIVIA's house

The 1996 film adaptation

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ORSINO, Duke of Illyria

SEBASTIAN, brother of Viola

ANTONIO, a sea captain, friend of Sebastian

A SEA CAPTAIN, friend of Viola

VALENTINE, gentleman attending on the Duke

CURIO, gentleman attending on the Duke

SIR TOBY BELCH, uncle of Olivia

SIR ANDREW AGUECHEEK

MALVOLIO, steward to Olivia

FABIAN, servant to Olivia

FESTE, a clown, servant to Olivia

OLIVIA, a rich countess

VIOLA, sister of Sebastian

MARIA, Olivia's waiting woman

Lords, Priests, Sailors, Officers, Musicians, and Attendants

SCENE: A city in Illyria; and the sea-coast near it

ACT I. SCENE I. The DUKE'S palace

Enter ORSINO, Duke of Illyria, CURIO, and other LORDS; MUSICIANS attending

DUKE.

If music be the food of love, play on,

Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken and so die.

That strain again! It had a dying fall;

O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound

That breathes upon a bank of violets,

Stealing and giving odour! Enough, no more;

'Tis not so sweet