The Annotated Shakespeare series enables readers to fully understand and enjoy the plays of the world’s greatest dramatist   Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s funniest plays and also one of his most romantic. A young noblewoman, Viola, shipwrecked in a foreign land and separated from her twin brother, dresses as a man in order to enter the service of Orsino, duke of Illyria. Complications ensue—deceptions, infatuations, misdirected overtures, malevolent pranks—as everyone is drawn into the hilarious confusion.   This fully annotated edition makes the play completely accessible to readers in the twenty-first century. Eminent linguist and translator Burton Raffel offers generous help with vocabulary, pronunciation, and prosody and provides alternative readings of phrases and lines. His on-page annotations give readers all the tools they need to comprehend the play and begin to explore its many possible interpretations. Selected by the Association of American University Presses as an Outstanding Book for Public and Secondary School Libraries, 2008 Burton Raffel (1928–2015) was Distinguished Professor of Arts and Humanities emeritus and professor of English emeritus at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Among his many edited and translated publications are Poems and Prose from the Old English, Cligès, Lancelot, Perceval, Erec and Enide , and Yvain . Harold Bloom (1930–2019) was Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University and Berg Professor of English at New York University. His many books include The Western Canon, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human , and Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds . Twelfth Night, or, What You Will By William Shakespeare Yale University Press Copyright © 2007 Burton Raffel All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-300-11563-5 Contents About This Book................................................ixIntroduction...................................................xviiSome Essentials of the Shakespearean Stage.....................xxviiTwelfth Night..................................................1An Essay by Harold Bloom.......................................145Further Reading................................................153Finding List...................................................159 Chapter One CHARACTERS (DRAMATIS PERSONAE) Orsino (Duke of Ilyria) Sebastian (Viola's brother) Antonio (sea captain, Sebastian's friend) Sea Captain (Viola's friend) Sir Toby Belch (Olivia's uncle) Sir Andrew Aguecheek Malvolio (Olivia's steward) Curio, Valentine (the Duke's attendants) Fabian (Olivia's servant) Feste , a clown (Olivia's servant) Olivia (a countess) Viola (Sebastian's sister) Maria (Olivia's chambermaid) Lords, Sailors, a Priest, Officers, Musicians, and Attendants Act 1 SCENE 1 Duke Orsino's palace ENTER Duke Orsino, Curio, and other Lords, and Musicians 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 5 That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odor. 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? Orsino What, Curio? Curio The hart. 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 turned 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, 25 Shall not behold her face at ample view. But like a cloistress she will veild 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 30 And lasting in her sad remembrance. 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 killed the flock of all affections else 35 That live in her? When liver, brain, and heart, These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and filled 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 2 The seacoast 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 drowned. What think you