Twelfth Night or What You Will

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Professor Donno's fully annotated edition, based on the Folio text, explains Shakespeare's language in its sixteenth -century social and dramatic context. The introduction emphasises the play's Illyrian setting, a locale that distances the mad actions of the romantic lovers and the comic Sir Toby with his crew from the real world where the wind blows and the rain falls, The play's major themes and characters are defined against their counterparts in Shakespeare's sources and against later parodies or plot adaptations. An illustrated history of the play's fortunes on stage pays particular attention to the part of Malvolio, whether he is played as tragic, burlesque or 'straight'. The interpretation of his role offers a clue to the different preoccupations of productions and critics.