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TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU

WILL.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

HE plot of this admirable Comedy appears to have been taken from the second tale in a collection by Barnabe Riche, entitled, "Rich, his Farewell to the Militarie Profession," which was first printed in 1583. It is probably borrowed from Les Histoires Tragiques de Belleforest, vol. iv. Hist. viime. Belleforest, as usual, copied Bandello. In the fifth eglog of Barnaby Googe, published with his poems in 1563, an incident somewhat similar to that of the duke sending his page to plead his cause with the lady, and the lady falling in love with the page, may be found. But Rich's narration is the more probable source, and resembles the plot more completely. It is too long for insertion here, but may be found in the late edition of Malone's Shakespeare, by Mr. Boswell, and in what Mr. Collier calls "Shakespeare's Library".

The comic scenes appear to have been entirely the creation of the poet, and they are worthy of his transcendent genius. It is indeed one of the most delightful of Shakespeare's comedies. Dr. Johnson thought the natural fatuity of Ague-cheek hardly fair game, but the good-nature with which his folly and his pretensions are brought forward for our amusement, by humouring his whims, are almost without a spice of satire. It is rather an attempt to give pleasure by exhibiting an exaggerated picture of his foibles, than a wish to give pain by exposing their absurdity. Mr. Collier and Mr. Hunter almost simultaneously discovered, in a manuscript diary of a student of the Middle Temple, among the Harleian Manuscripts, dating from 1601 to 1603, the following passage, which shows that all previous speculations, with regard to the date of the composition of this play, had assigned it to too late a period :

"Feb. 2, 1601 [2].

"At our feast, wee had a play called Twelve Night, or What You Will. Much like the Comedy of Errors, or Menechmi in

Plautus; but most like and neere to that in Italian called Inganni. A good practise in it to make the Steward beleeve his lady widowe was in love with him, by counterfayting a letter as from his lady in general termes, telling him what she liked best in him, and prescribing his gesture in smiling, his apparraile, &c. and then when he came to practise making him beleeve they took him to be mad," &c.

Mr. Hunter by unwearied investigation, and an ingenious inductive process, ascertained that the writer of the diary was that of John Manningham, who was entered of the Middle Temple in 1597.

The play had most probably been publicly acted before this private performance, at the Candlemas feast of the Middle Temple in 1601-2; and from the absence of it in the list of Shakespeare's plays enumerated by Meres in 1598, the inference is that it was composed in 1599 or 1600.

There were two Italian comedies of a date preceding 1600, bearing the title of Gl' Inganni, one by Nicolo Secchi, printed in 1562, the other by Curzio Gonzaga, printed in 1592. In both plays there are a brother and sister, the latter disguised in man's attire, and bearing to each other so near a resemblance, as to lead to the mistakes which occur in a similar way with the incidents in Twelfth Night. The name assumed by the lady in disguise in Gonzaga's play is Cesare, which Mr. Hunter thinks may have suggested the name Cesario, adopted by Viola, but beyond this the resemblance is not striking. It seems that to Secchi's play Shakespeare can hardly be said, to be indebted for a single passage in the dialogue, or a single situation in the events of the drama.

Mr. Hunter in the course of his investigations found, in an early drama of the Academici degl' Intronati, bearing the title of Gl' Ingannati,* a much stronger resemblance to the plan of the serious parts of Shakespeare's drama, also a subordinate character, Pasquella, corresponding to Maria. Mr. Hunter seems to think that it was on the model of this play that Shakespeare formed the plan of the serious parts of the Twelfth Night, and that even its title may have been suggested by a passage in the prologue, in which Notte di Beffana occurs.

It must be confessed, from the sketch of the plot of Gl' Ingannati given, that the conjecture is not without foundation; and presuming that Shakespeare read Italian, which I see no reason to doubt, from the probability of his acquaintance with Florio, who was under the especial patronage of Lord Southampton, he may have been naturally led to this source for his plot. This play was first printed in the folio of 1623.

* The drama bears the general title of Il. Sacrificio, which be longs only to the Induction. It was printed in 1585.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

ORSINO, Duke of Illyria.

SEBASTIAN, a young Gentleman, Brother to Viola.
ANTONIO, a Sea Captain, Friend to Sebastian.
A Sea Captain, Friend to Viola.

}

VALENTINE, Gentlemen attending on the Duke.
CURIO,

SIR TOBY BELCH, Uncle of Olivia.
SIR ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK.

MALVOLIO, Steward to Olivia.

FABIAN, Servants to Olivia.
Clown,

OLIVIA, a rich Countess.

VIOLA, in love with the Duke.

MARIA, Olivia's Woman.

Lords, Priests, Sailors, Officers, Musicians, and other

Attendants.

SCENE, a City in Illyria; and the Sea Coast near it.

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