The essay explores the title of Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night or What You Will, focusing mainly on its second part. The explanation of the title requires the close reading of the text and leads to some new interpretations. The analysis involves a brief overview of Renaissance as the historical background of the comedy. Certain parallels are drawn between the comedy and Shakespeare’s Sonnets as well as other Renaissance poets, and some speculations on the 2012 Globe Theater adaptation of the Twelfth Night, in which the close association of Shakespeare’s comedy and his sonnets becomes evident, are also included. All of this is leading to a multilayer interpretation of the title’s second part – What You Will.
Keywords: Shakespeare, comedies, Renaissance, Love, The Globe Theatre, Stanley Wells, Stephen Greenblatt, George Orwell, Oscar Wilde, M. Garber, H. Heine, John Donn, Philip Sidney, Stephen Fry, Sonnets.