Twelfth Night
1601
Shipwreck separates twins Viola and Sebastian in the dukedom of Illyria. To survive, Viola disguises herself as a man called Cesario and finds employment with the lovesick Duke Orsino. But when Orsino sends his new page to court the resistant Countess Olivia, things twist: Olivia falls for Cesario, not knowing she's a woman, while Viola falls for Orsino, unable to reveal her true self. What follows is one of Shakespeare's most intricate comedies of errors, where desire circulates in the wrong directions and everyone loves someone who loves someone else. Yet beneath the confusions lies something profound: a meditation on identity itself, on who we are when clothes and performance become indistinguishable from the self. With prose that crackles, songs that ache, and characters who reveal surprising depths beneath their follies, Twelfth Night rewards every encounter. It remains as fresh and unsettling as it was four centuries ago, asking us to consider what we truly know about the ones we love, and the selves we show them.
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“Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.””
— William Shakespeare
“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 capacityReceiveth 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 fancyThat it alone is high fantastical.””
— William Shakespeare
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Your fate awaits you. Accept it in body and spirit. To get used to the life you'll most likely be leading soon, get rid of your low-class trappings.””
— William Shakespeare
“Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit.””
— William Shakespeare
“Journeys end in lovers meeting, Every wise man's son doth know.””
— William Shakespeare
“a young woman in love always looks like patience on a monument smiling at grief””
— William Shakespeare
“Love sought is good, but giv'n unsought is better.””
— William Shakespeare
“I say, there is no darknessbut ignorance; in which thou art more puzzled thanthe Egyptians in their fog.””
— William Shakespeare
“O time, thou must untangle this, not I.It is too hard a knot for me t'untie.””
— William Shakespeare
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Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. Lex, lex-books.com/book/twelfth-night-f4ada308-8c7e-4928-b672-63537f2532a1.Shakespeare, W. (1601). Twelfth Night. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/twelfth-night-f4ada308-8c7e-4928-b672-63537f2532a1Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/twelfth-night-f4ada308-8c7e-4928-b672-63537f2532a1.











































