ABSTRACT
Shakespeareans are divided, it is well known, into three classes; those who prefer to read William Shakespeare in the book; those who prefer to see him acted on the stage; and those who run perpetually from book to stage gathering plunder. Certainly there is a good deal to be said for reading Twelfth Night in this book if the book can be read in a garden, with no sound but the thud of an apple falling to the earth, or of the wind ruffling the branches of the trees. The first impression upon entering the Old Vic is overwhelmingly positive and definite. The actual persons of Malvolio, Sir Toby, Olivia, and the rest expand people's visionary characters out of all recognition. The mind in reading spins a web from scene to scene, compounds a background from apples falling, and the toll of a church bell, and an owl's fantastic flight which keeps the play together.
