I'm thinking this is a play all about how deceitful appearances can be and how we can never judge true character on someone's outward looks.
Because, truly, just about everyone in this play is not who they seem/claim/appear to be...

"If you be not mad, be gone; if you have reason, be brief."
- William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night



I liked it, but didn't love it.

Positives: I always like Shakespeare's gender benders. The Bard enjoys not playing characters straight. He doesn't want a love story or even a love triangle, Shakespeare wants to explore all the tangents, the lines, and the angles of love's many geometries. He is a great experimenter of the human soul. He is the Faraday of romance, unsatisfied until he has teased out all the attractions and repulsions possible.

Negatives: I'm not a fan of Shakespeare's musical comedies. I don't include A Midsummer Night's Dream on this list, because I consider that play to be one of Shakespeare's great LYRICAL plays (along with Richard II and Romeo and Juliet). Anyway, anytime Shakespeare's actors start singing and dancing, I want to use that time/space to grab a popcorn or pee. Just not my jam.

Favorite Lines:

"If music be the food of love, play on." (Act 1, Scene 1)

“Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit.” (Act 1, Scene 5)

“Well, God give them wisdom that have it; and those that are fools, let them use their talents.” (Act 1, Scene 5)

“Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.” (Act 1, Scene 5)

“Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” (Act 2, Scene 5)

“I say there is no darkness but ignorance.” (Act 4, Scene 2)

“Make me a willow cabin at your gate, 
And call upon my soul within the house.”

Twelfth night is a romantic comedy; configured with humorous storylines of love triangles, mistaken identity and deception. The romantic elements of this play embody a genuine beauty, confessions of love intertwined with motifs of nature and divine intervention. The comedy is versatile, reaching beyond a Shakespearean audience and appealing with depictions of archaic mocking to obscene jokes.

Despite the predominant lighthearted tone, Shakespeare touches on the downsides of love, the downsides of disguise and comedy. Spiralling through the acts; the themes of unrequited love, disguise and madness are revealed. A questioning of morality, consequence and the fluidity of identity. The tone can become emotive, resonating and deeper than you’d perceive expected from a comedy.

Such refreshing components of humour, captivating declarations of love- and an abundance of the absurd.

The Original Rom-Com
17 January 2013

tThere are two reasons why I gave this play such a high rating and one of them is Sir Toby Belch. As a character, this guy, who is pretty much a rude, crude, and perpetual drunked, is simply a classic. He is not an admirable character, and along with the maid Maria, his comrade in arms Sir Andrew, Fabian, and not to forget the clown Feste (who, by the way is played brilliantly by Ben Kingsley in the Trevor Nunn movie, if only because I kept on mistaking him for Patrick Stewart) pretty much form a rather major plot in this particular play, a plot that pretty much wants to make me shake my head at the whole sordid episode.

tInitially I was rather sympathetic towards poor Malvolio. He was only doing the job that a faithful servant would be expected to do, and in a way, when people are making such a racket in the middle of the night, it is the faithful servant that comes to put of stop to it. Basically what we have are a bunch of children that simply want to get back at the parent who seems to spoil their fun. However, when you consider that Malvolio is so dull that he actually believes that a random letter that he finds on the ground was written by his mistress was actually legit, you do have to wonder at the poor guy's sense of reality. In a way, he gets so caught up in this falsified sense of love that he ends up losing all sense of reality. So, when people begin to accuse him of being mad, maybe it is that case that he really is mad.

tNow, before I get into the whole cross gender/androginous aspect, I do want to make a comment about one of the sayings that does come out of the play, and in fact first appears in the letter to Malvolio. Some are born great; some achieve greatness; and some have greatness thrust upon them. This line comes up a number of times, which is rather odd in a play that Samual Pepys pretty much describes as a 'silly play' and others have indicated was written during the period when Shakespeare was pretty much so up himself that he believed that anything that he wrote would be successful (sounds like a few Hollywood directors that are running around now, isn't that right Spielburg?).

tWhen I think about this line, I cannot help applying in to some rather famous Christian characters, though funnily enough, I cannot seem to find a biblical character who actually achieved greatness. In the Bible they were either born great (such as Jesus Christ) or had greatness thrust upon them (such as Moses and King David). If there is one who did achieve greatness, maybe it was Solomon because of his wisdom, but the whole idea of achieving greatness seems to come down to the idea that one can achieve greatness through their own power, while those that are born great tend to have had this stated beforehand, and those who have had greatness thrust upon them (that is such a cool concept, having greatness thrust upon oneself) are those (such as Moses) who have been told by God to go and do something and have had some doubt about whether they could actually do it. However, I suspect that you could put Joseph and Daniel into the category of achieving greatness, even if it only has to do with the fact that they trusted God implicity and as such were elevated to some of the highest positions in their respective lands.

tNow, some of the commentaries on the whole cross dressing aspect of the play seems to reek too much of our modern understanding of society, Okay, the whole idea that love can pretty much transcend the boundaries of gender does has a point, but this type of love is not necessarily the romantic love that we understand (though we must remember that the love that we see in this play is very much romantic love). Shakespeare is not supporting homosexual love, in a sense, because it does come out that the main characters who marry end up being heterosexual, and while Trevor Nunn does suspect some illicit homosexual attraction between Viola and Duke Orsino, this has more to do with the comic aspect of the play, in that the attraction between the two is really heterosexual, but because Orsino does not realise that Viola is in fact a woman, he does not understand the nature of the attraction. However, also remember that Viola is constantly rebuking Olivia's advances, despite the fact that Olivia does not realise that Viola is in fact a woman.

tRemember, in Shakespearian plays, the cross dressing is always, without fail, one way. It is always the woman who is disguising themselves as a man, never the other way around. This is something that is of particular importance in Elizabethan England where we have a woman on the throne who is taking the role of a man. This is all about empowerment for the woman (an in some cases protection because the woman was a lot more vulnerable than a man). Also note that when Viola does get into a fight she simply does not know how to handle herself, and it is only the timely intervention of Antonio that ends up saving her.

tNow, I will not comment on As You Like It here, the second of the three Shakespearian plays that involves cross dressing, namely because I am not as familiar with it as the other play, Merchant of Venice. Once again, the cross dressing has nothing to do with gender, or androginy, but rather it has to do with the woman taking the role of the man so that she may be able to use her superior intellect to save the one she loves. As a woman, she would never have been able to preside over the hearing, but by disguising herself as a man, she was able to do so. This is not a question of destroying the so called gender cage, but rather exposing the inequality that existed at the time. Queen Elizabeth was as effective a monarch as many of the monarchs that came before her, and the fact that she was a woman, only went to prove how the issue of sex had nothing to do with one's ability to perform the job.

tFor those who are interested, I have written a blog post on the play as well, though it has more to do with a recent performance that I saw. However, I do take an opposite view to what I wrote here, considering it to be little more than a soppy romance.

এক ডুবে যাওয়া জাহাজের একমাত্র বেঁচে থাকা নাবিকের গল্প নিয়ে এই বই। সেই নাবিকের কাছ থেকে তার সংগ্রামের গল্প শুনে লেখক গ্যাব্রিয়েল মার্কেস প্রথমে ছোট ছোট পর্ব আকারে প্রকাশ করেন, যা ছাপা হতো পত্রিকায়। পরবর্তীতে বই হিসেবে প্রকাশিত হয় পুরো গল্প।

বেঁচে থাকা এই নাবিকের সাহস আর বেঁচে থাকার অসম্ভব ইচ্ছা আমাকে মুগ্ধ করেছে। পুরো দশটা দিন খোলা সমুদ্রে, একা, নেই কোন খাবার, নেই পানি, চারপাশে হাঙর সাঁতরে বেড়াচ্ছে! এসব প্রতিকূলতার মধ্যে বেঁচে থাকার জন্য তার ইচ্ছাশক্তি কতটা দৃঢ় ছিল, তা বইটা পড়লেই বোঝা যায়।
খাবার নেই, তাই খেয়েছেন শঙ্খচিল, মাছের কাঁচা মাংস, চিবিয়েছেন জুতো! ভাবা যায়?

লোকালয়ে ফিরে বেশ লাভবান হয়েছিলেন তিনি। মানুষজন দলে দলে দেখতে আসতো তাকে। অনেকেই তার এই গল্পকে মিথ্যা হিসেবে নিলেও, তার এই গল্প তাকে বেশ ভালো পয়সাকড়ি এনে দিয়েছে।
শেষে অবশ্য তিনি বলেছেন যে লক্ষ টাকার বিনিময়েও আর কোনদিন ঐরকম কোন অভিযানে যেতে চান না!

Comedies are never my favorites of Shakespeare, though this was quite a delightful reading for Yule. A bit silly and nonsensical does make it fanciful and worked well for me. Honestly, Shakespeare is one of those things that I think is infinitely better in performance than reading, especially the comedies.

It was between Twelfth Night and A Winter's Tale--I chose this one. I suppose I'll save A Winter's Tale for next Yule and finally read the bloodbath that is Titus Andronicus. Onwards!

December 31, 2017 review

My return to the world of William Shakespeare and my favorite play--though I find Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing to be superior dramatically, neither are as romantic or riotously funny as this--brought me back to my first reread on Goodreads and Twelfth Night. Work on my novel ground to a halt several weeks ago at the halfway mark and I wanted to return to a couple of texts that remind me of why I'm a writer. I also noticed that as of December 30, I was one book short of my 2017 reading challenge, so hopefully, this report ties up a few loose ends.

My system for reviewing plays is to watch a production first, read the play second. I was in for a treat with Twelfth Night, locating a bootleg of the 1998 production by Lincoln Center Theater directed by Nicholas Hytner and starring film and television veterans Helen Hunt (Viola), Paul Rudd (Duke Orsino), Philip Bosco (Malvolio), Kyra Sedgwick (Olivia), Brian Murray (Sir Toby Belch) and David Patrick Kelly (Feste). This production is visually resplendent, but being able to hear a live audience reaction adds tremendously to the viewing experience of a musical comedy, something that British TV productions of Shakespeare do not offer.

What's the draw of Twelfth Night for me? Maybe it's my discovery and delight that most of the sitcoms I grew up on--Three's Company in particular--are just a variation on this 17th century play, where mistaken identity, sexual confusion and eavesdropping gone wrong lead to comedy nirvana. The woman who carries herself as a man and the furor this leaves in her wake, shaking up the status quo, might be a theme that appeals a great deal to me, as is the portrayal of a great comic drunk, with Sir Toby Belch also knocking down perceptions of propriety like bowling pins every time he enters a scene. And it's fuckin' funny.

Act three

Scene 1

Olivia's garden. Viola and Feste, who is carrying a small drum, enter.

Viola Greetings, friend, and your music too. Do you live by drumming?

Feste No, sir. I live by the church.

Viola Are you a cleric?

Feste Not at all, sir. I live by the church because I live at my house, and my house is near the church.

Viola So you could just as well say "The king lives by begging" if a beggar lives near him. Or that the church is near your drum if the drum happens to be near the church.

Feste You've said it, sir! Such are the times! A sentence is just a kid glove to a quick-witted man. It can easily be turned inside out!

Viola Yes, that's true. Those who play about with words can quickly give them indecent meanings.

Feste Therefore I wish my sister had no name, sir.

Viola Why, man?

Feste Why, sir, her name is a word, and to play about with that word might make my sister indecent. But indeed, words truly become rascals since they were disgraced with being bonds.

Viola Your reason, man?

Feste Goodness, sir. I can't give you one without using words, and words have become so unreliable I'm reluctant to use them to prove a reason.

Viola You're a happy-go-lucky fellow. I'll be bound, and you care about nothing.

Feste Not at all, sir. I do care for something. But upon my conscience, sir, I don't care for you. If that's caring about nothing, sir, I wish it would make you invisible.

Viola Aren't you the Lady Olivia's fool?

Feste No indeed, sir. Lady Olivia does not go in for entertainment. She won't have a fool till she's married; and fools are like husbands as sardines are to herrings--the husband's the bigger. Indeed I am not her fool. I'm her corrupter of words.

Other observations on this viewing/reread of the comedy:

-- Viola is the liberated woman of Shakespeare's plays. Neither royal personage nor loyal daughter, she's bound to no one and personified instead by her education and skills set. Shipwrecked in Illyria, she quickly gets a job, emissary of the lovesick bachelor Duke Orsino, confident that she can "sing and speak to him in music." Viola is fluent in French as well, and is able to pass herself off as a boy, Cesario, likely due to her observations of men. Of course, Viola does not account for falling in love with her boss, whose only expectation of Cesario is that the boy woo the Lady Olivia for him. Hijinks ensue.

-- Do you like fools? Shakespearean fools? Those characters whose jesting allows them to speak the truth without their heads ending up on a chopping block? Twelfth Night offers up three classic examples: Feste, the professional fool, willing to sing any song or provide any insight at any hour if there's a purse involved. Sir Toby Belch, the rascal and drunkard, pushing the generosity of his cousin, the Lady Olivia, as far as it will go in the pursuit of a good time. Sir Andrew Aguecheek, a rich dandy who seeks to woo Olivia, carouses with both Sir Toby and Feste, his romantic ineptitude and cowardice providing extensive comic relief.

In the 1998 Lincoln Center Theater production, David Patrick Kelly (whose impressive run of memorable film psychos stretches from The Warriors in the '70s to The Longest Yard in the '00s) and Max Wright (the dad from the '80s sitcom Alf) played Feste and Sir Andrew and got some of the biggest applause and laughs in the play. As much as I light up when Sir Toby bursts onto the scene, he wouldn't be as compelling in soliloquy. These two characters are invaluable when it comes to demonstrating what a Good Time Charlie that his character is.

-- Impossible Love that others find so romantic, like the kind immortalized in Romeo and Juliet, and is sometimes impossible for good reason, isn't to be found in this play, thank god. Instead, Shakespeare seems to be exploring the Possible Love that would exist if characters would take a minute to get it together and drop their facades. Viola must pose as a man to keep her job. Olivia must pose as grief stricken to honor her dead brother. I find Possible Love to be much more compelling because how close I think most people come in real life to experiencing passion and happiness with the right person.

April 9, 2014 review

My game plan for revisiting Shakespeare was to stream video of a staging of the play, listening and watching while reading along to as much of the original text as was incorporated by the staging. Later, I read the entire play in the modern English version.

The staging I found on YouTube was amazing. ITV Saturday Night Theatre: Twelfth Night aired January 6, 1969. It features Alec Guinness as Malvolio, Ralph Richardson as Sir Toby Belch, Joan Plowright as Viola/ Sebastian and Adrienne Corri as Olivia. Each have appeared in some of my favorite movies.

Scholars believe the play was first performed January 6, 1601 as an entertainment for Queen Elizabeth as she hosted an Italian nobleman, Don Virginio Orsino. The date of the staging -- 12 nights after Christmas -- accounts for the title of the play, which has no bearing on the story.

Twelfth Night is set in Illyria, where ruling Duke Orsino, "a noble duke, in nature and in name" is lovesick over the Countess Olivia, who mourns for a dead brother and has spurned all suitors. The play's protagonist Viola comes ashore with a great opening line -- "What country, friends, is this?". Survivor of a shipwreck, she fears her twin brother Sebastian has drowned. Viola needs a job while she plots her next move and the sea captain who rescued her explains Olivia's pursuit by the Duke. Olivia isn't hiring, but Viola sees an opportunity to work for the Duke by disguising herself as a eunuch.

One of my favorite characters in Shakespeare makes his entrance. Sir Toby Belch is Olivia's uncle, a drunken rascal who romances Olivia's whip smart maid Maria, makes enemies of his niece's pompous steward Malvolio and profits from one of her rejected suitors, a knight named Sir Andrew Aguecheek who has more money than brains. Sir Toby exists to eat, drink and play pranks, and his misdemeanors create much of the havoc in the play. In addition, Olivia is served by a fool, Feste, who possesses greater insight and sobriety than Sir Toby but joins him and Maria in their revelry, as well as singing several songs.

The Duke dispatches Viola (going by the name Cesario) to the court of Olivia to woo her on his behalf, but believing the messenger to be a persuasive young man, Olivia falls in love with Viola. This complicates feelings Viola has developed for the Duke. Meanwhile, Malvolio throws such a wet blanket on Sir Toby's fun that Olivia's uncle and maid play a trick on him, writing a love letter in Olivia's hand expressing her undying love for the steward, if he dress in yellow stocking and cross-garters (a fashion which Olivia despises) and harass her servants. Malvolio falls for the trick and comes on like such a lunatic that Olivia orders him locked in a basement.

Not content, Sir Toby plots a trick on Viola and Sir Andrew by making both fear the other wishes to engage in a duel. Sir Toby is confident that Viola is just as timid with a sword as Sir Andrew, but doesn't factor her twin brother Sebastian arriving in Illyria. After being mistaken for his sister and challenged to a fight, Sebastian wallops both Sir Toby and Sir Andrew and when brought before Olivia for his apology, is stunned to find the countess express her love for him. They marry in secret, which poses great problems for Viola when the Duke discovers "she" has married the countess.

Reading this play, it occurred to me that every episode of Three's Company was ripping off Shakespeare. Janet leaves Jack and Chrissy alone in the apartment and fears Jack will make a move on Chrissy, so advises her to play down her attractiveness by dressing in frumpy clothes. Jack instead is more attracted to Chrissy. Then Janet returns to the apartment to find the leftovers of a romantic dinner and Chrissy upset. Janet gets the wrong idea when in fact, Chrissy is upset that Jack didn't make a move! Cue laugh track.

Twelfth Night is downright riotous. The comedy comes from the cascade of doublespeak and near misunderstandings, with one character playing fool to another. Being able to penetrate the language or read the play with asides detailing which character is being made an ass of helps the humor find its mark to a modern idiot like me. The play starts slow, but the laughs continue to build and reach a crescendo when Sebastian enters, mistaken for his twin sister by the various jokers of the play, who end of being played for fools.

25.Haziran.2024 Özdemir Nutku çevirisi için; ⭐⭐⭐⭐
İlk okumamda hem çeviri hem de Shakespeare cahilliğimin kurbanı olup oyunu beğenmediğimi yazmıştım. Bu yıl Shakespeare grubum için tekrar ele almam gerekti. Dipnot açıklamalı İngilizce versiyonu Twelfth Night: or, What You Will okumaya çalışıp başıma ağrılar girince Özdemir Nutku çevirisine sığındım. Açıklayıcı bir önsöz ve yine ders niteliğinde dipnotlarla mükemmel bir çalışmaya imza atmış kendisi. Orijinalindeki şiirsellik tam anlamıyla verilmiş diyemem ama dilimizin imkanları ile harika bir iş çıkarılmış bence.

Viola, Beatrice ve Rosalind ile birlikte şairin hem duygulandıran hem güldüren en içten kadın karakteri olarak kabul ediliyor. Malvolio karakteri üzerinden neşe ve sevgi düşmanı puritanlardan intikam alınmasını okumak zevkliydi. Ve oyundaki en bilge kişi olan soytarı Feste sayesinde nitelikli alayın nasıl zeka işi olduğunu görüyoruz.

Benim için Shakespeare'in dünyasını temsil eden oyunlardan. Birilerine şairi anlatmak isteseydim bu metni temel alırdım. Kurguda, diyaloglarda, karakterlerde, olaylarda denge; cinsiyet rollerinin sorgulanması, alaylar, kelime oyunları, sosyal ve siyasal olaylara göndermeler ile aşina olduğum bir diyarda dolaşmak gibiydi bu oyunu okumak.

12.Ocak.2022 Sevgi Sanlı çevirisi için; ⭐⭐ "Romeo ve Juliet oyunundan sonra okuduğum ikinci Shakespeare eseri. Daha serbest bir dil var burada. İnce nükteler yerine alaycı bir anlatım ağır basıyor. Çeviri bana fazla yerelleştirilmiş geldi. Dipnotlar gayet yerindeydi."

I don't know if it's because I saw a particularly good performance of this at RADA in London but Twelfth Night is my favourite of Shakespeare's comedies (which I've always liked less than the tragedies and histories). The actors did a great job of delivering the jokes in a way a 21st century audience would appreciate - I laughed a lot.

Romanian review: Din câte auzisem, Shakespeare este mai ceva ca George R.R. Martin. Dar, spre norocul meu, această carte a avut un final fericit.
Am observat influența mitologiei romane în această piesă de teatru. Sunt menționați zeii Jupiter, Vulcan și, dacă îmi aduc bine aminte, și Mercur. Shakespeare a fost iubitor al culturii romane. De altfel, personajele pozitive au nume de italieni (Viola, Olivia, Antonio), iar cele negative, deși în opinia mea nu sunt foarte conturate în opera de față, au nume de englezi (Sir Toby, Sir Andrew Aguecheek).
O altă observație făcută de mine este că personajele cu statut social mai scăzut sunt mai inteligente decât cele cu statut social mai ridicat. De exemplu, bufonul, Maria, Viola (în cazul ei lucrurile sunt puțin diferite, originea ei era nobilă, dar se dădea drept un eunuc care muncea la curtea ducelui) sunt mai inteligenți decât Sir Toby și Sir Andrew care erau doi bețivi. Sir Andrew, în special, are o inteligență redusă și este ușor de manipulat.
Personajul meu preferat este clar bufonul— a fost genial:

,,-Bună madonna, de ce ești cernită?
-Bunule nebun, pentru că a murit fratele meu.
-Presupun că sufletul său a descins cu bine în căldările iadului, madonna!?
-Știu că e-n ceruri, nebunule.
-Acestea fiind premisele, te declar nebună de legat, pentru că porți doliu după un om care petrece-n rai. Ridicați-o pe această nebună, domnilor!''

Unul din motivele pentru care îi dau acestei cărți patru stele este faptul că am rămas curios până la sfârșit să văd dacă Viola va ajunge să se căsătorească cu Orsino. Până la urmă, finalul este următorul: Viola și Sebastian (fratele ei) sunt confundați între ei și, în cele din urmă, se reîntâlnesc, bucurându-se că au scăpat din naufragiu. Antonio este eliberat, în ciuda fărădelegiilor din trecut, iar Viola se căsătorește cu Orsino .
Aceasta este prima piesă de Shakespeare pe care o citesc, iar începutul este promițător. Sper să-mi placă și celelalte.
Închei cu sfârșitul piesei, reprezentat de celebrul cântec al bufonului:

,,Când eram flăcău la mama,
Hei, ce ploaie și ce vânt!
Dam și eu prin fete iama,
Fiindcă plouă pe pământ.

Iar când mi-a mijit mustața,
Hei, ce ploaie și ce vânt!
Tot în râs am luat viața,
Fiindcă plouă pe pământ.

Dar de când m-a ars năpasta,
Tii, ce ploaie și ce vânt!
Și mi-am luat și eu nevastă
Plouă într-una pe pământ.

Și de-atuncea, lua-o-ar gaia,
Fie ploaie, fie vânt,
Beau și eu cât toată ploaia
Care cade pe pământ.

Piesa-i gata, trag oblonul,
Tii, ce ploaie e afară!
Dacă v-a plăcut bufonul,
Mai poftiți și mâine seară."



English review: From what I had heard, Shakespeare is even more ruthless than George R.R. Martin. But, fortunately, this play had a happy ending.
I noticed the influence of Roman mythology in this play. The gods Jupiter, Vulcan, and, if I remember correctly, Mercury are mentioned. Shakespeare was a lover of Roman culture. Moreover, the positive characters have Italian names (Viola, Olivia, Antonio), while the negative ones, who, in my opinion, are not very well-developed in this work, have English names (Sir Toby, Sir Andrew Aguecheek).
Another observation I made is that the characters of lower social status are more intelligent than those of higher status. For example, the fool, Maria, and Viola (her case is a bit different as she was of noble origin but disguised herself as a eunuch working at the duke’s court) are smarter than Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, who are two drunkards. Sir Andrew, in particular, has a limited intellect and is easily manipulated.
My favorite character is undoubtedly the fool—he was brilliant:

"Good madonna, why mournest thou?"
"Good fool, for my brother's death."
"I think his soul is in hell, madonna."
"I know his soul is in heaven, fool."
"The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother's soul being in heaven. Take away the fool, gentlemen."

One of the reasons I gave this play four stars is that I was curious until the end to see if Viola would end up marrying Orsino. Ultimately, here’s the ending:  Viola and Sebastian (her brother) are mistaken for each other, but eventually, they reunite, rejoicing that they survived the shipwreck. Antonio is forgiven for his past crimes, and Viola marries Orsino .
This is the first Shakespeare play I’ve read, and the start is promising. I hope I'll enjoy the others as well.
I’ll end with the closing of the play, represented by the fool’s famous song:

"When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain;
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man's estate,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain;
'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gates,
For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came, alas! to wive,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain;
By swaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came unto my beds,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain;
With toss-pots still had drunken heads,
For the rain it raineth every day.

A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain;
But that's all one, our play is done,
And we'll strive to please you every day."

[May 2014]
This is only the third Shakespearean comedy I have reviewed (I do NOT count The Merchant of Venice as a comedy, instead I classify it as a Shakespearean problem play) and I am really mixed on it. On the one hand I am not big on romantic-comedies or rom-coms. This is a problem since Shakespeare loved rom-coms. This play is THE rom-com. On the other hand, this play may have the best and most complex female character of any of Shakespeare's plays I have read so far. I thought Beatrice of Much Ado About Nothing and Portia of TMOV were amazing, but Viola is wittier and more balanced (all things considered) than both. She and Feste are by far the smartest and most cunning characters in this play and capture every scene they are in.

Like in "Much Ado" you have the stock Romantic or rather unrequited couple Orsio and Olivia who are boring and are simply plot devices to bring the romance. Luckily this plot of deception, and especially the sub-plot involving Malvolio bring the funny in spades. I feel like the way Shakespeare wrote these characters would make them more suitable for a suspense thriller, specifically the interactions between Viola "Cesario" and Feste. Again, the Malvolio sub-plot could have and should have been its own pure comedy play, but we had to have love triangles and unrequited angsting--comes with the romantic territory.

So with all that being said...I actually really like it. Though I wanted to rate this average because others did and I did nit-pick, I really ended up enjoying this as the play went on. Much Ado About Nothing will still be my favorite of the Bard's slapstick for now, but this was not that bad. For reference I read from William Shakespeare: Complete Plays and for visual I watched the 1988 television adaption of Kenneth Branagh's 1987 stage adaptation of the play.

A Great while ago the world begun,/With, hey, ho, the wind and the rain:-/But that's all one, our play is done,/And we'll strive to please you every day.

4/5stars
2019:
second time reading it and still a great play! I always enjoy Shakespeare's comedies but this one seems to feel especially humorous to me

2017:
this was pretty great! I've never read this play by Shakespeare and I thoroughly enjoyed it for the hyjinks and craziness that happened! I loved the fact that thoroughout the majority of this play, since there were not very many female actresses in SP's time, there is a boy, dressing up as a girl, who is dressing up as a boy. Pretty funny stuff here, William. Also the lesbians. Also it was just really funny - I adore Shakespeare's comedy plays!