Get even more from the Folger - The Folger SHAKESPEARE

1 Get even more from the FolgerYou can get your own copy of this text to keep. Purchase a full copyto get the text, plus explanatory notes, illustrations, and more . Buy a copyFolger SHAKESPEARE the Director of the Folger ShakespeareLibraryTextual IntroductionSynopsisCharacters in the PlayACT 1 Scene 1 Scene 2 Scene 3 Scene 4 Scene 5 ACT 2 Scene 1 Scene 2 Scene 3 Scene 4 Scene 5 ACT 3 Scene 1 Scene 2 Scene 3 Scene 4 ACT 4 Scene 1 Scene 2 Scene 3 ACT 5 Scene 1 ContentsMichael WitmoreDirector, Folger SHAKESPEARE LibraryIt is hard to imagine a world without SHAKESPEARE . Since theircomposition four hundred years ago, SHAKESPEARE s plays and poemshave traveled the globe, inviting those who see and read his works tomake them their of the New Folger Editions are part of this ongoing processof taking up SHAKESPEARE , finding our own thoughts and feelingsin language that strikes us as old or unusual and, for that very reason,new.

2 We still struggle to keep up with a writer who could think amile a minute, whose words paint pictures that shift like expertly edited texts are presented to the public as a resourcefor study, artistic adaptation, and enjoyment. By making the classictexts of the New Folger Editions available in electronic form as TheFolger SHAKESPEARE (formerly Folger Digital Texts), we place atrusted resource in the hands of anyone who wants New Folger Editions of SHAKESPEARE s plays, which are the basisfor the texts realized here in digital form , are special because of theirorigin. The Folger SHAKESPEARE Library in Washington, DC, is thesingle greatest documentary source of SHAKESPEARE s works. Anunparalleled collection of early modern books, manuscripts, andartwork connected to SHAKESPEARE , the Folger s holdings have beenconsulted extensively in the preparation of these texts.

3 The Editionsalso reflect the expertise gained through the regular performance ofShakespeare s works in the Folger s Elizabethan want to express my deep thanks to editors Barbara Mowat and PaulWerstine for creating these indispensable editions of SHAKESPEARE sworks, which incorporate the best of textual scholarship with arichness of commentary that is both inspired and engaging. Readerswho want to know more about SHAKESPEARE and his plays can followthe paths these distinguished scholars have tread by visiting theFolger either in-person or online, where a range of physical anddigital resources exists to supplement the material in these texts. Icommend to you these words, and hope that they the Director of the Folger ShakespeareLibraryUntil now, with the release of The Folger SHAKESPEARE (formerlyFolger Digital Texts), readers in search of a free online text ofShakespeare s plays had to be content primarily with using theMoby Text, which reproduces a late-nineteenth century version ofthe plays.

4 What is the difference? Many ordinary readers assume thatthere is a single text for the plays: what SHAKESPEARE wrote. ButShakespeare s plays were not published the way modern novels orplays are published today: as a single, authoritative text. In somecases, the plays have come down to us in multiple publishedversions, represented by various Quartos (Qq) and by the greatcollection put together by his colleagues in 1623, called the FirstFolio (F). There are, for example, three very different versions ofHamlet, two of King Lear, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and choose which version to use as their base text, and thenamend that text with words, lines or speech prefixes from the otherversions that, in their judgment, make for a better or more editorial decisions involve choices about whether anunfamiliar word could be understood in light of other writings of theperiod or whether it should be changed; decisions about words thatmade it into SHAKESPEARE s text by accident through four hundredyears of printings and misprinting; and even decisions based oncultural preference and taste.

5 When the Moby Text was created,for example, it was deemed improper and indecent for Mirandato chastise Caliban for having attempted to rape her. (See TheTempest, : Abhorred slave,/Which any print of goodness wilt nottake,/Being capable of all ill! I pitied ). All Shakespeareeditors at the time took the speech away from her and gave it to herfather, editors of the Moby SHAKESPEARE produced their text longbefore scholars fully understood the proper grounds on which tomake the thousands of decisions that SHAKESPEARE editors face. TheFolger Library SHAKESPEARE Editions, on which the FolgerShakespeare texts depend, make this editorial process as nearlytransparent as is possible, in contrast to older texts, like the Moby ,which hide editorial interventions.

6 The reader of the FolgerShakespeare knows where the text has been altered because editorialinterventions are signaled by square brackets (for example, fromOthello: If she in chains of magic were not bound, ), half-squarebrackets (for example, from Henry V: With blood and sword andfire to win your right, ), or angle brackets (for example, fromTextual IntroductionBy Barbara Mowat and Paul WerstineHamlet: O farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved/you? ). Atany point in the text, you can hover your cursor over a bracket formore the Folger SHAKESPEARE texts are edited in accord withtwenty-first century knowledge about SHAKESPEARE s texts, the Folgerhere provides them to readers, scholars, teachers, actors, directors,and students, free of charge, confident of their quality as texts of theplays and pleased to be able to make this contribution to the studyand enjoyment of Night an allusion to the night of festivity preceding theChristian celebration of the Epiphany combines love, confusion,mistaken identities, and joyful the twins Sebastian and Viola survive a shipwreck, neitherknows that the other is alive.

7 Viola goes into service with CountOrsino of Illyria, disguised as a young man, Cesario. Orsino sendsCesario to woo the Lady Olivia on his behalf, but Olivia falls in lovewith Cesario. Viola, in the meantime, has fallen in love with the estate of Lady Olivia, Sir Toby Belch , Olivia s kinsman, hasbrought in Sir Andrew Aguecheek to be her suitor. A confrontationbetween Olivia s steward, Malvolio, and the partying Toby and hiscohort leads to a revenge plot against Malvolio. Malvolio is trickedinto making a fool of himself, and he is locked in a dungeon as the meantime, Sebastian has been rescued by a sea captain,Antonio. When Viola, as Cesario, is challenged to a duel, Antoniomistakes her for Sebastian, comes to her aid, and is arrested. Olivia,meanwhile, mistakes Sebastian for Cesario and declares her , finally, Sebastian and Viola appear together, the puzzlesaround the mistaken identities are solved: Cesario is revealed asViola, Orsino asks for Viola s hand, Sebastian will wed Olivia, andViola will marry Count Orsino.

8 Malvolio, blaming Olivia and othersfor his humiliation, vows , a lady of Messaline shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria (later disguised as CESARIO)OLIVIA, an Illyrian countessMARIA, her waiting-gentlewomanSIR TOBY BELCH, Olivia s kinsmanSIR ANDREW AGUECHEEK, Sir Toby s companionMALVOLIO, steward in Olivia s householdFOOL, Olivia s jester, named FesteFABIAN, a gentleman in Olivia s householdORSINO, duke (or count) of IllyriaSEBASTIAN, Viola s brotherANTONIO, friend to SebastianCAPTAINPRIESTTwo OFFICERSL ords, Sailors, Musicians, and other AttendantsCharacters in the Playgentlemen serving OrsinoVALENTINECURIOORSINOCURIOORSINOCUR IOORSINOE nter Orsino, Duke of Illyria, Curio, and other Lords,with Musicians playing. If music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and so die.

9 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 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, naught 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. Will you go hunt, my lord? What, Curio? The hart. Why, so I do, the noblest that I have. O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first,7 ACT 1 Scene 1 FTLN 0001 FTLN 0002 FTLN 0003 FTLN 0004 FTLN 00055 FTLN 0006 FTLN 0007 FTLN 0008 FTLN 0009 FTLN 001010 FTLN 0011 FTLN 0012 FTLN 0013 FTLN 0014 FTLN 001515 FTLN 0016 FTLN 0017 FTLN 0018 FTLN 0019 FTLN 0020209 Twelfth NightACT 1.

10 SC. 2 VALENTINEORSINOThey 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 Valentine. How now, what news from her? 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 veil d 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. 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 That live in her; when liver, brain, and heart, These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and filled Her sweet perfections with one self king!