Twelfth Night Thrift Study Edition

William Shakespeare

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780486478067
• eBook ISBN: 9780486112879
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Arte dramático shakespeariano

Includes the unabridged text of Shakespeare's classic play plus a complete study guide that helps readers gain a thorough understanding of the work's content and context. The comprehensive guide includes scene-by-scene summaries, explanations and discussions of the plot, question-and-answer sections, author biography, analytical paper topics, list of characters, bibliography, and more.

Twelfth Night Or, What You Will

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Contents

Dramatis Personae

Act I

Scene I

Scene II

Scene III

Scene IV

Scene V

Act II

Scene I

Scene II

Scene III

Scene IV

Scene V

Act III

Scene I

Scene II

Scene III

Scene IV

Act IV

Scene I

Scene II

Scene III

Act V

Scene I

Dramatis Personæ

ORSINO, Duke of Illyria.

SEBASTIAN, brother to Viola.

ANTONIO, a sea captain, friend to Sebastian.

A Sea Captain, friend to Viola.

SIR TOBY BELCH, uncle to Olivia.

SIR ANDREW AGUECHEEK.

MALVOLIO, steward to Olivia.

OLIVIA.

VIOLA.

MARIA, Olivia’s woman.

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

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

ACT I

SCENE I. An apartment in the DUKE’S place.

Enter DUKE, 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: ’T is not so sweet now as it was before. O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou! That, notwithstanding thy capacity Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there, Of what validity and pitch soe’er, But falls into abatement and low price, Even in a minute! so full of shapes is fancy, That it alone is high fantastical.

CUR. Will you go hunt, my lord?

DUKE. What, Curio?

CUR. The hart.

DUKE. Why, so I do, the noblest that I have: O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, Methought she purged the air of pestilence! That instant was I turn’d into a hart; And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, E’er since pursue me.

Enter VALENTINE

How now! what news from her?

VAL. So please my lord, I might not be admitted; But from her handmaid do return this answer: The element¹ itself, till seven years’ heat, Shall not behold her face at ample view; But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk And water once a day her chamber round With eye-offending brine: all this to season A brother’s dead love, which she would keep fresh And lasting in her sad remembrance.

DUKE. O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame To pay this debt of love but to a brother, How will she love, when the rich golden shaft Hath kill’d the flock of all affections else That live in her; when liver, brain and heart, These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and fill’d Her sweet perfections with one self king! Away before me to sweet beds of flowers: Love-thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE II. The sea-coast.

Enter VIOLA, a Captain, and Sailors

Vio. What country, friends, is this?

CAP. This is Illyria, lady.

Vio. And what should I do in Illyria? My brother he is in Elysium. Perchance he is not drown’d: what think you, sailors?

CAP. It is perchance that you yourself were saved.

Vio. O my poor brother! and so perchance may he be.

CAP. True, madam: and, to comfort you with chance, Assure yourself, after our ship did split, When you and those poor number saved with you Hung on our driving boat, I saw your brother, Most provident in peril, bind himself, Courage and hope both teaching him the practice, To a strong mast that lived upon the sea; Where, like Arion on the dolphin’s back, I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves So long as I could see.

VIO. For saying so, there’s gold: Mine own escape unfoldeth to my hope, Whereto thy speech serves for authority, The like of him. Know’st thou this country?

CAP. Ay, madam, well; for I was bred and born Not three hours’ travel from this very place.

VIO. Who governs here?

CAP. A noble Duke,² in nature as in name.

VIO. What is his name?

CAP. Orsino.

VIO. Orsino! I have heard my father name him: He was a bachelor then.

CAP. And so is now, or was so very late; For but a month ago I went from hence, And then ’t was fresh in murmur,—as, you know, What great ones do the less will prattle of,—That he did seek the love of fair Olivia.

VIO. What’s she?

CAP. A virtuous maid, the daughter of a count That died some twelvemonth since; then leaving her In the protection of his son, her brother, Who shortly also died: for whose dear love, They say, she hath abjured the company And sight of men.

VIO. O that I served that lady, And might not be delivered to the world, Till I had made mine own occasion mellow, What my estate is!³

CAP. That were hard to compass; Because she will admit no kind of suit, No, not the Duke’s.

VIO. There is a fair behaviour in thee, captain; And though that nature with a beauteous wall Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee I will believe thou hast a mind that suits With this thy fair and outward character. I prithee, and I ’ll pay thee bounteously, Conceal me what I am, and be my aid For such disguise as haply shall become The form of my intent. I’!! serve this Duke: Thou shalt present me as an eunuch to him: It may be worth thy pains; for I can sing, And speak to him in many sorts of music, That will allow me very worth his service. What else may hap to time I will commit; Only shape thou thy silence to my wit.

CAP. Be you his eunuch, and your mute I ’ll be: When my tongue blabs, then let mine eyes not see.

VIO. I thank thee: lead me on.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE III. OLIVIA’S house.

Enter SIR TOBY BELCH and MARIA

SIR TO. What a plague means my niece, to take the death of her brother thus? I am sure care’s an enemy to life.

MAR. By my troth, Sir Toby, you must come in earlier o’ nights: your cousin, my lady, takes great exceptions to your ill hours.

SIR TO. Why, let her except, before excepted.

MAR. Ay, but you must confine yourself within the modest limits of order.

SIR TO, Confine! I’ll confine myself no finer than I am: these clothes are good enough to drink in; and so be these boots too: an they be not, let them hang themselves in their own straps.

MAR. That quaffing and drinking will undoe you: I heard my lady talk of it yesterday; and of a foolish knight that you brought in one night here to be her wooer.

SIR TO. Who, Sir Andrew Aguecheek?

MAR. Ay, he.

SIR TO. He’s as tall a man as any’s in Illyria.

MAR. What’s that to the purpose?

SIR TO. Why, he has three thousand ducats a year.

MAR. Ay, but he’ll have but a year in all these ducats: he’s a very fool and a prodigal.

SIR TO. Fie, that you’ll say so! he plays o’ the viol-de-gamboys, and speaks three or four languages word for word without book, and hath all the good gifts of nature.

MAR. He hath indeed, almost natural: for besides that he’s a fool, he’s a great quarreller; and but that he hath the gift of a coward to allay the gust he hath in quarrelling, ’t is thought among the prudent he would quickly have the gift of a grave.

SIR TO. By this hand, they are scoundrels and substractors that say so of him. Who are they?

MAR. They that add, moreover, he’s drunk nightly in your company.

SIR TO. With drinking healths to my niece: I’ll drink to her as long as there is a passage in my throat and drink in Illyria: he’s a coward and a coystrill⁴ that will not drink to my niece till his brains turn o’ the toe like a parish-top.⁵ What, wench! Castiliano vulgo;⁶ for here comes Sir Andrew Agueface.

Enter SIR ANDREW AGUECHEEK

SIR AND. Sir Toby Belchl how now, Sir ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Publisher’s Note
• Table of Contents
• Twelfth Night Or, What You Will - WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
• Study Guide
• DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS
• REA’s Test Preps - The Best in Test Preparation
• REA’s Study Guides - Review Books, Refreshers, and Comprehensive References