In your reading of Twelfth Night, you probably noticed that William Shakespeare’s characters speak a language that is different from contemporary conversational English. In the table below, rephrase lines from the play into modern wording, changing word choice, sentence structure, and poetic devices as needed. Then describe what is lost in literary richness and what is gained in accessibility.


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Lines from Twelfth Night CESARIO: Lady, you are the cruell'st she alive
If you will lead these graces to the grave
And leave the world no copy.
(act I, scene V)
Modern Version CESARIO: You will be a cruel woman if you die and don't leave behind a copy of your graceful self in the form of a child.
Differences The original was more interesting than the modern rephrasing. The modern version loses many poetic qualities, including "the cruell'st she," with the emphatic word alive after it. The phrase "lead these graces to the grave" is also more poetic than the rephrasing. The original line echoes the GR and the A sounds in the words graces and graves. Similarly, changing "these graces" to "your graceful self" makes the text clearer but less poetic. Saying "if you die" in the rephrasing is also more straightforward but not as elegant. In the same way, changing the last line, “leave the world no copy,” to a more straightforward rephrasing is more accessible but less suggestive.
Lines from Twelfth Night MALVOLIO: Why have you suffered me to be imprisoned,
Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,
And made the most notorious geck and gull
That e'er invention played on? Tell me why.
(act V, scene I)
Modern Version MALVOLIO: Why did you force me into imprisonment in a dark place, where a priest visited me, and make me look like the greatest idiot ever? Tell me why.
Differences Many of the more poetic phrases in the original lines are lost in the modern version. For example, the alliteration found in the phrase "the most notorious geck and gull" is lost in the modern phrase "the biggest idiot." Similarly, removing the original phrase "That e'er invention played on," makes the modern lines easier to follow but less interesting and complex. In the original, the audience has to stop and consider what this phrase means. Does the word invention refer to a creator god or just the trio who devised this trick to play on Malvolio? The modern version contains no such ambiguous meaning.
Lines from Twelfth Night ORSINO: If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
(act I, scene I)
Modern Version ORSINO: If music is the food of love, then keep on playing it until I've had so much of it that I'll finally be satisfied and my desire for love will weaken and die.
Differences Although the rephrasing may be easier for modern audiences to follow, it does not do as good of a job of conveying Duke Orsino's melancholy and melodramatic mood. For example, saying "If music is" in the modern version is not as interesting or evocative as saying "If music be" in the original phrasing. The original lines also contain a notable rhythm that the modernization lacks. In addition, the original lines use alliteration to highlight the words surfeit, sicken, and so die.