Twelfth Night

William Shakespeare, Dr. Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine, Dr. Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780743482776
• eBook ISBN: 9781476788609
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

Named for the twelfth night after Christmas, the end of the Christmas season, Twelfth Night plays with love and power. The Countess Olivia, a woman with her own household, attracts Duke (or Count) Orsino. Two other would-be suitors are her pretentious steward, Malvolio, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek.Onto this scene arrive the twins Viola and Sebastian; caught in a shipwreck, each thinks the other has drowned. Viola disguises herself as a male page and enters Orsino's service. Orsino sends her as his envoy to Olivia—only to have Olivia fall in love with the messenger. The play complicates, then wonderfully untangles, these relationships.The authoritative edition of Twelfth Night from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, includes: -The exact text of the printed book for easy cross-reference
-Hundreds of hypertext links for instant navigation
-Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
-Full explanatory notes conveniently linked to the text of the play
-Scene-by-scene plot summaries
-A key to the play's famous lines and phrases
-An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language
-An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
-Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books
-An annotated guide to further readingEssay by Catherine BelseyThe Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.

TWELFTH NIGHT,

OR,

WHAT

YOU WILL

---

ACT 1

ACT 1

---

Scene 1

Enter Orsino, Duke of Illyria, Curio, and other Lords, <with Musicians playing.>

ORSINO
If music be the food of love, play on.	1
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,	2
The appetite may sicken and so die.	3
That strain again! It had a dying fall.	4
O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound	5
That breathes upon a bank of violets,	6
Stealing and giving odor. Enough; no more.	7
’Tis not so sweet now as it was before.	8
O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou,	9
That, notwithstanding thy capacity	10
Receiveth as the sea, naught enters there,	11
Of what validity and pitch soe’er,	12
But falls into abatement and low price	13
Even in a minute. So full of shapes is fancy	14
That it alone is high fantastical.	15
CURIO
Will you go hunt, my lord?	16
ORSINO What, Curio?	17
CURIO The hart.	18
ORSINO
Why, so I do, the noblest tha...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Editors’ Preface
• Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, or, What You Will
• Reading Shakespeare’s Language: Twelfth Night, or, What You Will
• Shakespeare’s Life
• Shakespeare’s Theater
• The Publication of Shakespeare’s Plays
• An Introduction to This Text
• Characters in the Play
• Twelfth Night, or, What You Will
• Textual Notes
• Twelfth Night: A Modern Perspective by Catherine Belsey
• Further Reading
• Key to Famous Lines and Phrases
• Commentary
• Copyright