The gentle melancholy and lyrical atmosphere of Twelfth Night have long made the play a favourite with Shakespearian audiences. The plot revolves around mistaken identities and unrequited love, but is further enlivened by a comic sub-plot of considerable accomplishment. In it, Sir Toby Belch and his companion outwit the pretentious Malvolio, who,despite suffering their most outrageous and insulting practical jokes, emerges as an almost noble figure.

The Wordsworth Classics’Shakespeare Series, with Henry V and The Merchant of Venice as its inaugural volumes, presents a newlyedited sequence of William Shakespeare’s works. Wordsworth Classics are inexpensive paperbacks for students and for the general reader. Each play in the Shakespeare Series is accompanied by a standard apparatus, including an introduction, explanatory notes and a glossary. The textual editing takes account of recent scholarship while giving the material a careful reappraisal. The apparatus is, however, concise rather than elaborate. We hope that the resultant volumes prove to be handy, reliable and helpful.Above all, we hope that, from Shakespeare’s works, readers will derive pleasure, wisdom, provocation, challenges, and insights:insights into his culture and ours, and into the era of civilisatiorr to which his writings have made - and continue to make - such potently influential contributions. Shakespeare’s eloquence will,undoubtedly, re-echo’in states unborn and accents yet unknown’.

General Introduction

Introduction

Further Reading

Note on Shakespeare

Acknowledgements and Textual Note

TWELFTH NIGHT

Notes on Twelfth Night

Glossary