Twelfth Night - Title

Title

The foretitle, Twelfth Night is believed to be an afterthought. While Shakespeare was writing the play, he may have intended the title as simply What You Will, but before it was performed John Marston premièred a play also titled What You Will. The title Twelfth Night, or What You Will prepares the audience for its jovial feel of festivities consisting of drink, dance, and giving in to general self-indulgence.

Read more about this topic:  Twelfth Night

Famous quotes containing the word title:

    Bolkenstein, a Minister, was speaking on the Dutch programme from London, and he said that they ought to make a collection of diaries and letters after the war. Of course, they all made a rush at my diary immediately. Just imagine how interesting it would be if I were to publish a romance of the “Secret Annexe.” The title alone would be enough to make people think it was a detective story.
    Anne Frank (1929–1945)

    Down the road, on the right hand, on Brister’s Hill, lived Brister Freeman, “a handy Negro,” slave of Squire Cummings once.... Not long since I read his epitaph in the old Lincoln burying-ground, a little on one side, near the unmarked graves of some British grenadiers who fell in the retreat from Concord,—where he is styled “Sippio Brister,”MScipio Africanus he had some title to be called,—”a man of color,” as if he were discolored.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    And Reason kens he herits in
    A haunted house. Tenants unknown
    Assert their squalid lease of sin
    With earlier title than his own.
    Robert Bridges (1844–1930)