Was ihr wollt

A shipwreck separates twins and one sibling adopts a male disguise to enter the service of a lovesick noble, setting off a chain of mistaken identities and misdirected affections: the disguised sibling loves the noble, the noble courts a woman who falls for the disguised figure, and the lost twin’s unexpected return amplifies confusion. A subversive group concocts a forged letter to humiliate a pompous steward, producing broad farce. The work balances melancholy and revelry while examining gender and performance, the elasticity of desire, social ambition and folly, and the restorative disorder of festive misrule, ending with reconciliations and paired unions.