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    Twelfh Night or What You Will
    Twelfh Night or What You Will
    Twelfh Night or What You Will
    Ebook116 pages1 hour

    Twelfh Night or What You Will

    By William Shakespeare

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    About this ebook

    Twelfth Night, or What You Will[1] is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–02 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck. Viola (who is disguised as a boy) falls in love with Duke Orsino, who in turn is in love with the Countess Olivia. Upon meeting Viola, Countess Olivia falls in love with her thinking she is a man. The play expanded on the musical interludes and riotous disorder expected of the occasion,[2] with 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 was on 2 February 1602, at Candlemas, the formal end of Christmastide in the year's calendar. The play was not published until its inclusion in the 1623 First Folio (font: Wikipedia)
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilliam Shakespeare
    Release dateOct 17, 2015
    ISBN9788892508521
    Twelfh Night or What You Will
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

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      Book preview

      Twelfh Night or What You Will - William Shakespeare

      Twelfth Night

      or, What You Will

      William Shakespeare

      Table of Contents

      Characters of the Play

      Act I

      Scene I. Duke Orsino’s palace.

      Scene II. The sea-coast.

      Scene III. Olivia’s house.

      Scene IV. Duke Orsino’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. Duke Orsino’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.

      Characters of the Play

      Orsino, Duke of Illyria.

      Sebastian, brother to Viola.

      Antonio, a sea captain, friend to Sebastian.

      A Sea Captain, friend to Viola.

      Valentine and Curio, gentlemen attending on the Duke.

      Sir Toby Belch, uncle to Olivia.

      Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

      Malvolio, steward to Olivia.

      Fabian and Feste, a Clown, servants 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. Duke Orsino’s palace.

      Enter Duke Orsino, Curio, and other Lords; Musicians attending

      Duke Orsino 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 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.

      Curio Will you go hunt, my lord?

      Duke Orsino What, Curio?

      Curio The hart.

      Duke Orsino 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?

      Valentine So please my lord, I might not be admitted;

      But from her handmaid do return this answer:

      The element 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 Orsino 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

      Viola What country, friends, is this?

      Captain This is Illyria, lady.

      Viola And what should I do in Illyria?

      My brother he is in Elysium.

      Perchance he is not drown’d: what think you, sailors?

      Captain It is perchance that you yourself were saved.

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

      Captain 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 practise,

      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.

      Viola 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?

      Captain Ay, madam, well; for I was bred and born

      Not three hours’ travel from this very place.

      Viola Who governs here?

      Captain A noble duke, in nature as in name.

      Viola What is the name?

      Captain Orsino.

      Viola Orsino! I have heard my father name him:

      He was a bachelor then.

      Captain And so is now, or was so very late;

      For but a month ago I went from hence,

      And then ’twas fresh in murmur — as, you know,

      What great ones do the less will prattle of —

      That he did seek the love of fair Olivia.

      Viola What’s she?

      Captain 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.

      Viola 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!

      Captain That were hard to compass;

      Because she will admit no kind of suit,

      No, not the duke’s.

      Viola There is a fair behavior 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’ll serve this duke:

      Thou shall 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.

      Captain Be you his eunuch, and your mute I’ll be:

      When my tongue blabs, then let mine eyes not see.

      Viola I thank thee: lead me on.

      Exeunt

      Scene III. Olivia’s house.

      Enter Sir Toby Belch and Maria

      Sir Toby Belch What a plague means my

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