PREFACE TO TWELFTH NIGHT THE FIRST EDITION. Twelfth Night; or, What You Will, was first printed in the First Folio, where it occupies pages 255-275 in the division of Comedies. There is no record of any earlier edition. The text is singularly free from misprints and corruptions. The list of Dramatis Personæ was first given by Rowe, as in the case of many of the plays. THE DATE OF COMPOSITION. John Manningham, a member of the Middle Temple from January, 1601 (−2) to April, 1603, entered in his Diary, preserved in the British Museum (Harleian Mss. 5353),1 the following statement: "Feb. 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 near to that in Italian called Inganni. A good practise in it to make the steward believe his lady widowe was in love with him, by counterfeiting as from his lady in general terms, telling him what she liked 1 See The Diary of John Manningham, ed. by John Bruce (Cam den Society, 1869). best in him, and prescribing his gesture in smiling, his apparel, etc., and then when he came to practise, making him believe they took him to be mad," etc. Seeing that Twelfth Night is not mentioned by Meres in 1598, and as the play contains fragments of the song "Farewell, dear heart, since I must needs be gone," from the Book of Ayres, by Robert Jones, first published in 1601, the date of composition may with some certainty be assigned to 1601–2. TITLE OF THE PLAY. According to Halliwell-Phillipps, Twelfth Night was one of four plays acted by Shakespeare's Company, "the Lord Chamberlain's servants," before the Court at Whitehall during the Christmas of 1601-2; possibly it owed its name to the circumstance that it was first acted as the Twelfth-Night performance on that occasion. Others hold that the name of the play was suggested by "its embodiment of the spirit of the Twelfth-Night sports and revels, time devoted to festivity and merriment." Its second name, Or What You Will, was perhaps given in something of the same spirit as As You Like It; it probably implies that the first title has no very special meaning. It has been suggested that the name expresses Shakespeare's indifference to his own production, that it was a sort of farewell to Comedy; in his subsequent plays the tragic element was to predominate. This farfetched, subtle view of the matter has certainly little to commend it.1 THE SOURCES OF THE PLOT. 1. There are at least two Italian plays called Gl'Inganni (“ The Cheats "), to 1 Marston took the name What You Will for a play of his own in 1607. which Manningham may have referred in his entry as containing incidents resembling those of Twelfth Night: one of these plays, by Nicolo Secchi, was printed in 1562; another, by Curzio Gonzalo, was first published in 1592. In the latter play the sister, who dresses as a man and is mistaken for her brother, gives herself the name of Cesare, and it seems likely that we have here the source of Shakespeare's "Cesario.” 2. A third play, however, entitled Gl'Ingannati (Venice, 1537), translated by Peacock in 1862, bears a much stronger resemblance to Twelfth Night; in its poetical induction, Il Sacrificio, occurs the name Malevolti, which is at least suggestive of Shakespeare's "Malvolio." 3. The ultimate source of the story is undoubtedly Bandello's Novelle (ii. 36), whence it passed into Belleforest's Histoires Tragiques (Vol. IV. Hist. VII.); an English version of the story-probably Shakespeare's original for the general framework of his Comedyfound a place in Barnaby Rich's Farewell to the Militarye Profession (1581), where it is styled The History of Apollonius and Silla. Rich, no doubt, derived it from Cinthio's Hecatomithi; Cinthio, in his turn, was indebted to Bandello.1 For the secondary plot, the story of "Malvoglio, that cross-gartered gull," no source exists. Malvolio, Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Fabian, Feste, and Maria are wholly Shakespeare's. BACKWARD LINKS. Twelfth Night, probably the last of the joyous comedies, holding a middle place between 1 Rich's Apollonius and Silla is printed in Hazlitt's Shakespeare's Library, Part I. Vol. I. 5.4. 147 As You Like It and All's Well That Ends Well, suggests noteworthy points of contact with earlier plays. For instance, (1) the disguised Viola may well be compared with the disguised Julia in The Two Gentlemen; (2) the story of the wreck recalls the similar episode in The Comedy of Errors; (3) the whole play is in fact a "Comedy of Errors" arising from mistaken identity; (4) the sentiment of music breathes throughout, as in The Merchant of Venice, (5) in both these plays, also, the faithful friend is named Antonio; (6) in Viola's confession of her secret love (ii. 4. 109-114) we have a fuller chord of the note struck in Love's Labour's Lost (v. 2. 14-18); and finally, (7) Sir Andrew is a sort of elder brother of Cousin Slender, and Sir Toby Belch a near kinsman of Sir John Falstaff. DURATION OF ACTION. The Action of Twelfth Night occupies three days, with an interval of three days between the first and second days: Day 1. Act i. 1-3. Interval. Day 2. Act i. 4 and 5; Act. ii. 1–3. Day 3. Act ii. 4 and 5; Acts iii., iv., and v.1 1 See Daniel's Time-Analysis of Shakespeare's Plays, Trans actions of New Shakespeare Society. |