CRITICAL OPINIONS ON PERICLES.

"PERICLES is generally reckoned to be in part, and only in part, the work of Shakespeare. From the poverty and bad management of the fable, the want of any effective or distinguishable character, for Marina is no more than the common form of female virtue, such as all the dramatists of that age could draw, and a general feebleness of the tragedy as a whole, I should not believe the structure to have been Shakespeare's. But many passages are far more in his manner than in that of any contemporary writer with whom I am acquainted; and the extrinsic testimony, though not conclusive, being of some value, I should not dissent from the judgment of Steevens and Malone, that it was, in no inconsiderable degree, repaired and improved by his touch. Drake has placed it under the year 1590, as the earliest of Shakespeare's plays, for no better reason, apparently, than that he thought it inferior to all the rest. But if, as most will agree, it were not quite his own, this reason will have less weight; and the language seems to me rather that of his second or third manner than of his first. Pericles is not known to have existed before 1609."-HALLAM.

"This piece was acknowledged by Dryden to be a work, but a youthful work of Shakespeare's. It is most undoubtedly his, and it has been admitted into several late editions of his works. The supposed imperfections originate in the circumstance, that Shakespeare here handled a childish and extravagant romance of the old poet Gower, and was unwilling to drag the subject out of its proper sphere. Hence he even introduces Gower himself, and makes him deliver a prologue in his own antiquated language and versification. This power of assuming so foreign a manner is at least no proof of helplessness."

-SCHLEGEL.

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 G 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.""