Twelfth Night: 2,483 Lines, 18 Characters, Act-by-Act Breakdown

Twelfth Night (c. 1601) is a comedy with 2,483 lines of dialogue distributed across 5 acts and 18 scenes. 18 named characters speak at least once; the top five voices account for 63% of the play. The gender balance (68% male, 32% female) is unusually even for Shakespeare.

The play opens (Act 1, Scene 1) with Duke Orsino: “If music be the food of love, play on;”

The play closes (Act 5, Scene 1) with Clown: “And we'll strive to please you every day.”

Full cast of Twelfth Night by line count

#	Character	Lines	Share	Acts
1	Viola ♀	337	13.6%	4
2	Sir Toby Belch ♂	332	13.4%	5
3	Olivia ♀	308	12.4%	4
4	Clown ♂	308	12.4%	5
5	Malvolio ♂	275	11.1%	5
6	Duke Orsino ♂	220	8.9%	3
7	Sir Andrew ♂	147	5.9%	5
8	Maria ♀	141	5.7%	4
9	Sebastian ♂	125	5.0%	4
10	Fabian ♂	109	4.4%	3
11	Antonio ♂	105	4.2%	3
12	Captain ♂	32	1.3%	1
13	Valentine ♂	13	0.5%	1
14	First Officer ♂	12	0.5%	2
15	Priest ♂	8	0.3%	1
16	Curio ♂	5	0.2%	2
17	Servant ♂	3	0.1%	1
18	Second Officer ♂	3	0.1%	1

Line counts act by act

Act	Scenes	Lines	Speakers
Act 1	5	578	11
Act 2	5	591	11
Act 3	4	675	13
Act 4	3	223	7
Act 5	1	416	12

Longest scenes in Twelfth Night

Scene	Lines	Speakers
Act 5, Scene 1	416	12
Act 3, Scene 4	380	11
Act 1, Scene 5	297	6
Act 2, Scene 5	196	5
Act 2, Scene 3	181	5

Common questions

How long is Twelfth Night?

Twelfth Night contains 2,483 lines of dialogue across 5 acts and 18 scenes — roughly 138 lines per scene on average.

Who speaks the most in Twelfth Night?

Viola leads the cast with 337 lines — about 14% of the play.

Which act of Twelfth Night is longest?

Act 3 runs 675 lines across 4 scenes.

Twelfth Night