It may be a sacrilege to give any work by the good old Bard a rating below 5 stars, but I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed with this particular play. Perhaps I expected too much after having read some of his other comedies, but this one seemed to fall substantially below the earlier ones I've read ('Much Ado About Nothing," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "The Merchant of Venice," "The Taming of the Shrew" and "As You Like It").Initially, it showed promise: a rollicking comedy of errors with the Count Orsino intent upon wooing Lady Olivia, who instead falls for the cross-dressing Viola, who is doing the wooing on Orsino's behalf and who herself is infatuated with Orsino! Things become all the more involved when Viola's recently ship-wrecked twin brother Sebastian arrives and Olivia confuses him for the man she thought was Viola! This plotline was truly entertaining, yet another Shakespearian triumph in ingenuity. Unfortunately, while this was probably supposed to be the center of the story, a great deal of the play also revolves around Olivia's drunken uncle Toby, her mischievous chambermaid Maria, her idiotic suitor Andrew and Feste, her fool. These were also quite riveting characters in their own way, but to me it seems rather unusual that they should have so many lines, while poor old lovelorn Orsino has so few. I would have liked to have seen him recite more amazing lines as he did early in the first scene ("If music be the food of love...") His character did not lack depth in my opinion, only development. I would have also liked to hear more from Viola as herself, rather than as the man she pretended to be. And the conclusion, while it did tie together the loose ends seemed rather hasty. But, alas, who am I to critique Bill Shakespeare?!Taken in isolation, I would say this play was nevertheless quite absorbing and well worth reading! But taken in conjunction with his other plays, I would not rank this at the very top.