Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

Today I was able to accomplish my second read - Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

Yes, I liked it. No it is not an ultimate pleasure for me to read texts from a 500 year old guy, using the language beautifully sometimes, and sometimes made me feel like driving on a rocky road with my first super old VW Golf II, which was born in 1987. But this is - I assume- due to the fact, that the English language is not my native language.

I did enjoy the read as I could place myself easily as an invisible observer into the scenery of (I suppose) Northern Italy. As I have recently been to Venice and surroundings I could imagine those pastel colored scenes: Light blue milky sky, terra-cotta colors everywhere and those huge family estates they have in Italy. Huge houses, with a kind of coat of arms somewhere at the gate or above the entrance, a masterly managed and designed garden, green window shutters, cypress trees etc.

I enjoyed some lines particularly, like for example the opening scene, where it says:

If music be the food of love - play on.

Oh mistress mine, where are you roaming?

O stay and hear, your true love is coming.

She sat like Patience on a monument.

Smiling at her grief.

These are just a few of my favorite lines, which I can remember from scratch. Those lines make me think of joining in at a dedicated Shakespeare project, if there is one - to really deep dive into the works of shakespeare, with commentated versions of his works, interpretations maybe to help me, fool, understanding the maybe considered greatest writer of all times.

What I stumbled upon was the importance of - legs- . Yes, legs. I read many times that legs, and socks they were wearing were of a higher importance. Does that have something to do with the fashion of the high middle ages / Elizabethan times? Those short fluffy (sorry, I do not find a better word here) trousers, combined with tights? Did they compare the thickness / thin-ness / muscles of their legs maybe? Were thin legs considered as more elite as thick / muscular legs (as those came from training for battles etc.)?

All in all - it was an entertaining - though not easy read. I really would recommend to read this play in two or three - or yet one sitting, as it was always difficult to dive back into the language of Shakespeare. It always took me a while to be back in the flow. Once I was "in" I really enjoyed the language which was so bold and beautiful; that I also needed to check more words than usual, which made more interruptions - next to highlighting parts. I am really thinking of getting closer acquainted to the great Shakespeare, I think it is worth it! I assume it is a bit like a treasure with a lot of gold and diamonds in it - once you - or I - found the key, it is literary heaven!