TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL. THIS enchanting comedy was first printed in the folio of 1623, and no quarto edition of it has ever been found. Though long supposed, upon the authority of Malone and Chalmers, to have been one of Shakespeare's very latest productions, we now know that it was acted in the Middle Temple, as early as the beginning of the seventeenth century. This fact was first made public by Mr. Collier and Mr. Hunter, who discovered, almost simultaneously, a small manuscript diary, among the Harleian Collection in the library of the British Museum, which appears to have been made by a student of the Temple, named Manningham, and contains the following interesting entry : "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 practice in it to make the steward believe his lady widdowe was in love with him by counterfayting a letter, as from his lady in general termes telling him what shee liked best in him, and prescribing his gestures, inscribing his apparaile, &c.; and then when he came to practice, making beleeve they tooke him to be mad." This is decisive, and, as there can be no doubt that, before being acted in the Temple, it had been represented in the public theatre, and, since it is not mentioned by Meres in his list of 1598, its production may be confidently ascribed to the period between that year and February, 1602. The story whence the serious incidents of "Twelfth Night" are derived, is found in Bandello, Parte Seconda, Novella 36 :-" Nicuola innamorata di Lattantio và a servirlo vestita da paggio; edopo Molti casi seco si marita, e ciò che ad un suo fratello avvenne;" but whether Shakespeare borrowed them from the fountain-head, or through the English translation of Barnabie Riche, called "The Historie of Apollonius and Silla," or whether he found them in the Italian play referred to by Manningham, still remains a subject for investigation. The diarist notices only one comedy called Inganni, but there are two Italian plays bearing the title Gl' Inganni, both founded upon Bandello's novel; one (commedia recitata in Milano l'anno 1547, dinanzi la Maestà del Re Filippo) by Niccolò Secchi, 1562; the other, written by Curzio Gonzago, and printed in 1592. To neither of these plays does our poet appear to have been under much, if any, obligation. There is, however, a third Italian comedy of the Accademici Intronati, to which Mr. Hunter first called attention (New Illustrations of Shakespeare, vol. i. pp. 391-2), that presents much stronger claims to consideration as the immediate origin of the plot of "Twelfth Night." This drama is entitled Gl' Ingannati (Commedia celebrata ni Giuochi del Carnevale in Siena, l'anno 1531, sotto il Sodo dignissimo Archintronato), first printed in 1537, and having for its general title Il Sacrificio. "That it was on the model of this play," Mr. Hunter remarks, "and not on any of the Ingannis, that Shakespeare formed the plan of the serious part of the Twelfth Night, will appear evidently by the following analysis of the main parts of the story. Fabritio and Lelia, a brother and sister, are separated at the sack of Rome, in 1527. Lelia is carried to Modena, where resides Flamineo, to whom she had formerly been attached. Lelia disguises herself as a boy, and enters his service : Flamineo had forgotten Lelia and was a suitor to Isabella, a Modenese lady. Lelia, in her male attire, is employed in love-embassies from Flamineo to Isabella. Isabella is insensible to the importunities of Flamineo, but conceives a violent passion for Lelia, mistaking her for a man. In the third act Fabritio arrives at Modena, when mistakes arise owing to the close resemblance there is between Fabritio and his sister in her male attire. Ultimately recognitions take place; the affections of Isabella are easily transferred from Lelia to Fabritio, and Flamineo takes to his bosom the affectionate and faithful Lelia. We have in the Italian play, a subordinate character named Pasquella, to whom Maria corresponds; and in the subordinate incidents we find Fabritio mistaken in the street for Lelia by the servant of Isabella, who takes him to her mistress's house, exactly as Sebastian is taken for Viola, and led to the house of Olivia. The name of Fabian given by Shakespeare to one of his characters was probably suggested to him by the name of Fabia, which Lelia in the Italian play assumed in her disguise. Malvolio is a happy adaptation from Malevolti, a character in the Il Sacrificio. A phrase occurring in a long prologue or preface prefixed to this play in the Italian [la Notte di Beffana] appears to me to have suggested the title 'Twelfth Night.” SCENE I.--An Apartment in the Duke's Palace. Enter DUKE, CURIO, and other Lords; Musicians | The appetite may sicken, and so die.-- attending. DUKE. If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, That strain again; it had a dying fall: a O, it came o'er my ear, like the sweet sound-] So the early text, but Pope changed sound to south, and the alteration has been approved, perhaps too readily, by nearly every editor and critic since his time; at all events, if south were the poet's word, he must have employed it, not in the sense Pope intended of southwind, but as south, sowth, or sough is used in the North, to signify the soft whisper of the breeze : "The soft south of the swyre, and sound of the stremes, The sweit savour of the swairde, and singing of fewlis, Might comfort any creature of the kyn of Adam." Dunbar, MAITLAND'S POEMS, p. 64. How now! what news from her? VAL. So please mylord, I might not be admitted, But from her handmaid do return this answer: The element itself, till seven years' heat, Shall not behold her face at ample view; But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk, And water once a day her chamber round With eye-offending brine: all this to season A brother's dead love, which she would keep fresh And lasting in her sad remembrance. DUKE. O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame That live in her!-- when liver, brain, and heart, SCENE II. - The Sea-coast. Enter VIOLA, Captain, and Sailors. VIO. What country, friends, is this? CAP. CAP. True, madam: and, to comfort you with Assure yourself, after our ship did split, When you, and those poor number sav'd with you, Hung on our driving boat, I saw your brother, Most provident in peril, bind himself (Courage and hope both teaching him the practice) To a strong mast, that liv'd upon the sea; Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back, I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves, So long as I could see. VI0. For saying so, there's gold: Mine own escape unfoldeth to my hope, - CAP. Ay, madam, well; for I was bred and born Not three hours' travel from this very place. CAP. A noble duke, in nature as in name. This is Illyria, lady. No, not the duke's. when liver, brain, and heart, These sovereign thrones, are all supplied and fill'd- The old copy has, "Her sweet perfections," a slight but unfortunate misprint, which totally destroys the meaning of the poet. The passage should be read, "When liver, brain, and heart, These sovereign thrones, are all supplied and fill'd The "sweet perfection" not being, as Steevens conjectured, her liver, brain, and heart, but her husband, her "one self [or single] king." According to the doctrine of Shakespeare's time, a female was imperfect, her nature undeveloped, until by marriage she was incorporated with the other sex. " and as one glorious flame, Meeting another, grows the same:" (*) Old text, Orion. The writers of the period abound in allusions to this belief: "Marriage their object is; their being then, And now perfection, they receive from men." OVERBURY'S "Wife" See also Donne's "Epithalamium made at Lincoln's Inn," in which this, the predominating idea on such occasions, is made the burden of every stanza: "Weep not, nor blush, here is no grief nor shame, b The old text runs: the company And sight of men.] the sight And company," &c. Hanmer made the necessary transposition. VIO. There is a fair behaviour in thee, captain; And though that nature with a beauteous wall Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee I will believe thou hast a mind that suits With this thy fair and outward character. I pr'ythee, (and I'll pay thee bounteously,) Conceal me what I am; and be my aid For such disguise as, haply, shall become The form of my intent. I'll serve this duke; Thou shalt present me as an eunuch to him, It may be worth thy pains; for I can sing, And speak to him in many sorts of music, That will allow me very worth his service. What else may hap, to time I will commit; Only shape thou thy silence to my wit. CAP. Be you his eunuch, and your mute I'll be : When my tongue blabs, then let mine eyes not see! VIO. I thank thee: lead me on. [Exeunt. SCENE III. A Room in Olivia's House. & He's as tall a man-] That is, as able a man. "A tall man of his hands, meant a good fighter: a tall man of his tongue, a take the death of her brother thus? I am sure care's an enemy to life. MAR. By my troth, sir Toby, you must come in earlier o' nights; your cousin, my lady, takes great exceptions to your ill hours. SIR TO. Why, let her except before excepted. MAR. Ay, but you must confine yourself within the modest limits of order. SIR TO. Confine! I'll confine myself no finer than I am: these clothes are good enough to drink in, and so be these boots too :-an they be not, let them hang themselves in their own straps. MAR. That quaffing and drinking will undo you: I heard my lady talk of it yesterday; and of a foolish knight that you brought in one night here to be her wooer. SIR TO. Who? Sir Andrew Aguecheek? SIR TO. He's as tall a man as any's in Illyria. SIR TO. Why, he has three thousand ducats a licentious speaker; and a tall men of his trencher, a hearty feeder."-GIFFORD. |