SCENE I.-An Apartment in the DUKE'S Palace. Enter DUKE, CURIO, Lords; Musicians attending. Duke. If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,

1. The earliest known copy of this charming comedy is the one in the 1623 Folio, where it forms the thirteenth play. Mr. Payne Collier and Mr. Joseph Hunter divide the honour of discovering an entry in a small MS. diary, apparently by a Temple student, named John Manningham, which affords proof that the play was probably written somewhere about 1600. The entry runs thus:"February 2, 1601 [2]. At our feast we 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 believe his lady widdowe was in love with him, by counterfayting a letter, as from his lady, in generall terms telling him what shee liked best in him, and prescribing his gestures, inscribing his apparaile, &c., and then when he came to practise, making him beleeve they tooke him to be mad." The original source of the plot has been traced to the Thirty-sixth Novel, Part the Second, by Bandello, which furnished the plot to two Italian plays, entitled Gľ Inganni; but it is supposed that to a third Italian play, called Gl' Ingannati, printed in 1537, and bearing the general title of Il Sacrificio, Shakespeare more directly owed the ground-work of this comedy. Not only does the story of the brother and sister separated by misfortune, their respective adventures, and their final restoration to each other, under the romantic circumstances described in "TWELFTHNIGHT," bear resemblance to the one in Gl' Ingannati, but some similarity of subordinate incident, and names that appear to have suggested the names of Fabian and Malvolio, are to be found in the last-mentioned Italian play. Mr. Hunter, after detailing these vestiges of likeness, adds-"A phrase occurring in a long prologue or preface to this play in the Italian (La Notte di Beffana') appears to me to have suggested the title 'Twelfth-Night."" If this be the case-as seems very probable-"Beffana" is in all likelihood a misprint for "Beffania;” s'nce, in Florio's Dictionary, we find " Beffania" explained thus -"the Epiphanie: it is spoken in mockerie;" while he explains "Beffana,” ‘a bug-beare,' 'a bull-begger,' 'a scarecrowe,' 'a toy to mocke an ape.' While stating the supposed sources of Shakespeare's plots we are always struck with the mere thread of outline that he owes to others' inventions, and with the wealth of colouring, accuracy of drawing, grace of grouping, amplitude of development, perfection of finish, that he supplied from his own brain and hand. He took a meagre

The appetite may sicken, and so die.-
That strain again!-it had a dying fall:
Oh, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south,3
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour!-Enough; no more:

tracing, and filled it up with immortal painting. How Duke Orsino, with his love-saturated imagination and luxurious musings, his passion for music, love of flowers, and sense of beauty; Countess Olivia, with her gentle memories of her dead brother, and her facilely captivated fancy for the youthful page; Sir Toby, with his English name and English nature naturalising it somehow naturally in Illyria; delectable Sir Andrew; that most original of stewards, Malvolio; that most quaint and whimsical and light-hearted of clowns, Feste; that sprightliest-witted, daintiest little waiting-maid, Maria; the good fellow, Fabian; the hearty sea captain, Antonio; the manly youth, Sebastian, whose manliness makes his page-sister's feminineness the more apparent, and yet whose youthfulness harmonises with her assumed boyhood; and last, not least, the lovely Viola herself, with her power of "singing" and speaking in many sorts of music," her reticent demeanour at Orsino's court, her graceful sauciness as page-messenger, her bewitching cowardice at sight of a sword, her air that proclaims her gentle birth, her “ tongue, face, limbs, actions, spirit, that give her five-fold blazon," her figure, her look, her "smooth and rubious lip," her exquisite tenderness and poetry of nature-how all these enchanting characters come before us in their fine individual limning, and in their admirable assembling, as the masterly picture produced by Shakespeare under the name of "Twelfth-Night, or What You Will!" His were creations, purely original creations; and sprang as natively from the first slender filament of story as Raffaelle's Transfiguration from out the blank square of canvas, Phidias's Parthenon group from out the block of marble, or Mozart's Requiem from out the ruled lines of music-paper.

2. A dying fall. Those who have felt the full voluptuous effect of a melodious cadence in music or poetry-the downy subsiding of the one, or the melting languor of the latter; the soft gradual drop of the notes in the one, the iiquid lapse of the syllables through a closing line of the other-will perceive the exquisite aptness of this expression.

3. The sweet south. The Folio prints 'sound' for "south" (Pope's correction); and not only our own strong desire for preserving the original wording wherever it is possible, but the earnest pleading of Mr. Charles Knight in favour of 'sound' weighs strongly with us: nevertheless, "south "-the suggestion of another poet-has always had so perfectly the effect to our ear and feeling of having been Shakespeare's word here, that we

cannot bring ourselves to doubt its being the right one in this passage. We cannot believe that he would have employed the expression "sound" to imply that which "gives odour;' whereas, "the sweet south" at once suggests that balmy air which Shakespeare elsewhere places in extremity of contrast with the fierce "septentrion" and "frozen bosom of the north." Not merely does the passage in the text make us fancy (with Steevens) that Shakespeare may have been thinking of Sidney's Arcadia-where we find, "Her breath is more sweet than a gentle south-west wind, which comes creeping over flowery fields and shadowed waters in the extreme heat of summer; " especially as these words of Sir Philip are soon after followed by the expression, "the flock of unspeakable virtues," which is paralleled by Shakespeare's "the flock of all affections else that live in her," a little farther on in the text-but we also believe that he may have had before his mind Bacon's sentence of similar beauty, "The breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes like the warbling of music) than in the hand." 4. Quick. Shakespeare uses this word here, and elsewhere, in the sense of 'lively,' ' vital.'

v.,

All's Well."

5. Validity. Value. See Note 51, Act 6. Fancy. Love; enamoured imagination. 7. It alone is high fantastical. It is singularly and preeminently fantastical.' "Alone" is here used somewhat in the same idiomatic way that is pointed out in Note 44, Act iii., "Midsummer Night's Dream."

8. Turn'd into a hart. An allusion to the story of Acteon, who, when out hunting, saw Diana bathing, and was by the resentful goddess transformed into a stag, whereupon his own dogs devoured him. Thus, by implication, the Duke twice in the present speech does homage to Olivia's purity: once by declaring that her very presence "purged the air of pestilence;" secondly, by inferring her to be, as it were, Diana herself.

9. Till seven years' heat. This appears to us to be one of Shakespeare's ellipses of expression; and we interpret the passage to mean-'The firmament itself, till it shall have known

the heat of seven summers' sun, shall not,' &c. He elsewhere uses the element" for the sky, the firmament.

10. To season a brother's dead love. See Note 8, Act i., "All's Well." 11. The flock of all affections. See Note 3 of this Act. 12. Liver. See Note 7, Act iv., "Tempest."

13. Her sweet perfection. "Perfection" is printed in the Folio perfections,' which plural form of the word permits but difficult interpretation of the passage, even supposing 'perfec tions' to mean 'perfect qualities.' But taking "perfection" to be used here for 'perfectioning' (as Shakespeare elsewhere uses words similarly spelt; see Note 24, Act iv., “As You Like It"), a sense is given that entirely harmonises with the then prevailing doctrine, that a woman was perfected by marriage. Not only do several contemporaneous writers advert to this doctrine, but Shakespeare himself has a passage that directly alludes to it. It is in "King John," Act ii., sc. 1, where the citizen of Angiers urges the match between Lewis the Dauphin and Blanch of Castile, saying

"He is the half part of a blessed man,
Left to be finished by such a she;
And she a fair divided excellence,
Whose fulness of perfection lies in him."

Very noteworthy it is, too, that Shakespeare-with his own
larger views and superior spirit of justice, as well as superiority in
everything else to other writers-has extended this doctrine of
hunan perfectioning by marriage to the man as well as the
It vindicates the
woman; and a nobly exalted doctrine it is.
holiness and supremacy of love, as the most perfect and perfect-
ing essence in creation.

14. One self king! Here, one self king" has the combined effect of 'one self-same king,' 'one exclusive king,' and 'a king one and the same with herself,' or a king identical with her own self; so comprehensive in manifold senses are Shakespeare's expressions.

Assure yourself, after our ship did split,

When you, and those poor number 15 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;

15. Those poor number. "Those" has been changed to 'that,' or to this,' in the present passage; but the poet uses "number" plurally here.

16. Like Arion on the dolphin's back. The Folio misprints 'Orion' for "Arion," who was a famous poet and musician of Lesbos; and having acquired great riches in Italy, was returning to his native isle, when the sailors of the ship in which he was resolved to murder him, to obtain his wealth. He besought leave to play once more ere he died; and the sweet sound of his

Vio. For saying so, there's gold: Mine own escape unfoldeth to my hope, Whereto thy speech serves for authority, The like of him. Know'st thou this country? Cap. Ay, madam, well; for I was bred and

born

music having attracted several dolphins round the vessel, when he threw himself overboard on ending his dirge-song, one of them took him on its back safely to land. The poetical allusion to this beautiful mythological story gives grace to the present passage; and, moreover, heightens the diversity which Shakespeare has given to his two descriptions-each fine-of a manly youth saving himself from shipwreck. See the parallel passage in "The Tempest," Act ii., sc. 1: "I saw him beat the surges under him and ride upon their backs," &c.

That died some twelvemonths since; then leaving her

In the protection of his son, her brother,
Who shortly also died: for whose dear love,
They say, she hath abjur'd the company
And sight 20 of men.

Vio.
Oh, that I serv'd that lady!
And might not be deliver'd to the world,
Till I had made mine own occasion mellow,21

What my estate is.

Cap. That were hard to compass; Because she will admit no kind of suit, No, not the duke's.

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 a minstrel to him:
It may be worth thy pains; for I can sing,
And speak to him in many sorts of music,
That will allow 23 me very worth his service.
What else may hap, to time I will commit;
Only shape thou thy silence to my wit.24

Cap. Be you his minstrel, and your mute I'll be;

When my tongue blabs, then let mine eyes not see. Vio. I thank thee; lead me on.

[Exeunt.

17. A noble duke, in nature as in name. The Orsini family is one of the oldest and most illustrious in Italy; boasting several popes, cardinals, and other distinguished personages among its members.

18. I have heard my father name him: he was a bachelor then. Here is one of Shakespeare's subtle touches in dramatic art. By the mention of Viola's father having spoken of the Duke, we are led to see the source of her interest in Orsino; and by the word "bachelor" we are made to see the peculiar nature of that interest. By this delicate indication of an already existing inclination on the part of the heroine for the hero of the play, the circumstance of her at once falling so deeply in love with him, on coming to know him personally, is most naturally and beautifully introduced.

19. A virtuous maid. These words suffice to show that John Manningham's description of Olivia as “a widdowe" is a mistake; probably arising from her mourning habit worn for her brother, which misled the Temple student. See Note 1 of this Act. It is pleasant to have Shakespeare's own testimony to bring forward against those who strangely give credence to that of John Manningham on this point. One would think that in every eloquent, though unstated, trace of Olivia's condition throughout the play there is sufficient proof of her being no widow lady; but for those who cannot read poeticallyveiled indications, it is satisfactory to have the plain evidence of the poet's own words, carrying conviction beyond mistake.

20. The company and sight. The Folio prints 'the sight and company.' Hanmer made the transposition.

21. Made mine own occasion mellow. Johnson interprets this passage thus I wish I might not be made public to the world, with regard to the state of my birth and fortune, till I have gained a ripe-opportunity for my design;' after which, he

has a sneering remark upon Viola's having 'formed a very deep design to supplant the lady whom the Duke courts.' But, to our minds, the passage means-'Oh, that I might not be presented to the world, till I had myself prepared the occasion for declaring what my condition really is.' It rather conveys the idea of the shrinking diffidence with which a young and well-born lady dreads encountering publicity until she can do so under suitable protection, than the designing character with which Johnson invests Viola's speech. In "Love's Labour's Lost" (Act iv., sc. 2) Shakespeare uses the expression, "delivered upon the mellowing of occasion;" which helps to illustrate the meaning of the similar words here.

22. I'll serve this duke. Here Johnson has another sneer at this lovely character, saying-"Viola is an excellent schemer, never at a loss; if she cannot serve the lady, she will serve the Duke." It seems as if some natures were incapable of appreciating the singleness of other natures. What more natural than that Viola, thrown unprotected and alone upon a strange shore, should seek shelter with one whom she had heard her father name, and one whose position as governor of the place promised safe, honourable, and even sanctioned refuge? The "intent" she alludes to is her intention of remaining in obscurity until she can suitably declare herself; and this very declaration of her identity she "commits" to "time," with the same spirit of trust in time and its auspicious influence that Shakespeare elsewhere advocates, and places in the mouth of other of his lovely female characters. See Note 77, Act iv., "All's Well."

23. Allow. Here used as Shakespeare uses the word 'approve;' including the senses of 'proof' and 'approval.' See Note 80, Act iii., "All's Well," and Note 51, Act ii., "Merry Wives."

24. Wit. Here used for intelligence, sagacity.