Twelfth Night
- Downloads
- 100+
- First published
- 1623
- Pages
- 103
Listen to Twelfth Night Audiobook Free
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Act 1
33:41 -
Act 2
36:32 -
Act 3
39:25 -
Act 4
12:57 -
Act 5
21:50
Twelfth Night (1623) is a public domain work.
The audio edition streams in the page. There is no audio file to download.
About this book
One of Shakespeare's most beloved comedies turns on shipwreck, disguise, and tangled desire. Washed ashore in Illyria and believing her twin brother drowned, Viola dresses as a young man named Cesario and enters the service of Duke Orsino. She soon loves the Duke, who sends her to woo the countess Olivia on his behalf, and Olivia promptly falls for the disguised messenger instead. Meanwhile the household steward Malvolio is gulled into a humiliating scheme by the riotous Sir Toby Belch and his companions. Mistaken identity, quick wit, and the melancholy songs of the clown Feste give the play its bittersweet balance of laughter and longing. Written around 1601, it remains a stage favorite.
From the opening pages
If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. 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 odour! 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, nought 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.
Why, so I do, the noblest that I have: O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, Methought she purged the air of pestilence! That instant was I turn’d into a hart; And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, E’er since pursue me.
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 veiled 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 kill’d the flock of all affections else That live in her; when liver, brain and heart, These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and fill’d Her sweet perfections with one self king! Away before me to sweet beds of flowers: Love-thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers. Exeunt.
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Public domain book This work is in the public domain and free of copyright. Anyone may read, download and share it.
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Book facts
- Author
- William Shakespeare
- First published
- 1623
- Reading time
- About 90 minutes
- Pages
- 103
- Language
- English
- Genre
- Comedy
- Formats
- PDF, EPUB, Read online, Audiobook