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:
“There is no luck in literary reputation. They who make up the final verdict upon every book are not the partial and noisy readers of the hour when it appears; but a court as of angels, a public not to be bribed, not to be entreated, and not to be overawed, decides upon every mans title to fame. Only those books come down which deserve to last.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“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 (18441930)
“To revolutionize, at one effort, the universal world of human thought, human opinion, and human sentiment.... All that he has to do is to write and publish a very little book. Its title should be simplea few plain wordsMy Heart Laid Bare. Butthis little book must be true to its title.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (18091849)