Twelfth Night 2010 Edition

Length: 5 acts.

Twelfth Night is a popular text for study by secondary students the world over. This edition includes illustrations, preliminary notes, reading lists (including websites) and classroom notes.

This volume includes the text of Twelfth Night as prepared and annotated by David Swain for The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, and is accompanied by the excellent introduction and supplementary materials from the anthology. The diverse and extensive appendices acquaint readers with Shakespeare’s sources and contextualize the play within Elizabethan society. The appendices include an excerpt from Barnabe Riche’s “Of Apollonius and Silla,” Shakespeare’s primary source of inspiration for the play; selections from Galen, Plato, and others illustrating Elizabethan attitudes toward gender and sexuality; excerptions illuminating contemporary moral discomfort with the theatre, such as Philip Stubbes’s “Of Stage-plays and Interludes, with their wickedness”; and pieces on music and duelling that illustrate cultural conventions important to the interpretation of Twelfth Night. This is one of several Broadview Anthology of British Literature Editions being released this year; those wishing to teach the text will have the option of including the convenient stand-alone book as part of a specially-priced shrink-wrapped package together with a volume of the anthology.

Mistaken Identity--Viola and her twin brother Sebastian are shipwrecked. While coming ashore they are separated and she assumes he has drowned. Upon reaching shore Viola decides to disguise herself as a young man. Mistaken identity and romance ensue.'Tis beauty truly blent whose red and white Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on: Lady you are the cruell'st she alive If you will lead these graces to the grave And leave the world no copy.

Louise George Clubb presents here the first English translation of Pollastra's long-lost Italian Renaissance comedy Parthenio, to which Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is ultimately traced. Also included are Clubb's theater history chapters from the 1993 publication Romance and Aretine Humanism in Sienese Comedy, augmented with new findings. The supplementary scholarship provided here addresses the relationship of Shakespeare's plays to Italian culture, and the technology of modern theater invented in Renaissance Italy.

Twelfth Night is the most mature and fully developed of Shakespeare's comedies and, as well as being one of his most popular plays, represents a crucial moment in the development of his art. Assembled by leading scholars, this guide provides a comprehensive survey of major issues in the contemporary study of the play. Throughout the book chapters explore such issues as the play's critical reception from John Manningham's account of one of its first performances to major current comentators like Stephen Greenblatt; the performance history of the play, from Shakespeare's day to the present and key themes in current scholarship, from issues of gender and sexuality to the study of comedy and song. Twelfth Night: A Critical Guide also includes a complete guide to resources available on the play - including critical editions, online resources and an annotated bibliography - and how they might be used to aid both the teaching and study of Shakespeare's enduring comedy.

Includes the unabridged text of Shakespeare's classic play plus a complete study guide that features scene-by-scene summaries, explanations and discussions of the plot, question-and-answer sections, author biography, historical background, and more.