Ulster, in 1613. The probability is that the passage contains no allusion whatever; and that the literal meaning of undertaker-one who takes up the work of another, as Antonio does the quarrel of Viola-was the only meaning. Moreover, says Chalmers, the Sophy of Persia is mentioned; and in 1611 Sir Robert Shirley arrived in London as ambassador from the Sophy; and Sir Anthony Shirley published his Travels' in 1613. Malone was originally for 1614, but in the last edition of his Essay' he fixed the date as 1607, because in the third act we have the expression "westward-hoe;" and Dekkar's comedy with that title was printed in 1607. This was to argue that a common expression was derived from the comedy, instead of the comedy having its title from the expression. Steevens traces, in the mutual fears of Sir Andrew Ague-cheek and Viola, an imitation of Ben Jonson's Silent Woman,' printed in 1609. Theobald makes Sir Toby's expression-" If thou thou'st him some thrice it shall not be amiss"-a manifestation of respect for Sir Walter Raleigh, and a detestation of Coke's brutal thouing of him in 1603 :-" All that he did was by thy instigation, thou viper, for I thou thee, thou traitor." Amidst these opposite opinions, all belonging to the class which we have so often had occasion to doubt and reject, there is found in the British Museum, in 1828, a little manuscript diary of a student of the Middle Temple, extending from 1601 to 1603, in which the following decisive passage occurs :--

"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 Menechmis in Plautus, but most like & 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 termes telling him what shee liked best in him, & prescribing his gestures, inscribing his apparaile, &c. and then when he came to practise, making him beleeve they tooke him to be mad."

Here is an end then of conjecture. The play was no doubt publicly acted before this performance at the Candlemas feast of the Middle Temple; and it belongs, therefore, to the first year of the seventeenth century, or the last of the sixteenth; for it is not found in the list of Meres, in 1598.

SUPPOSED SOURCE OF THE PLOT.

THE romance literature of Europe was a common property, from which the Elizabethan writers of every grade drew materials for their own performances, using them up with all possible variety of adaptation. Italy was the great fountain-head of these fictions; although they might have travelled thither from the East, and gradually assumed European shape and character. In the hands of real poets, such as Boccaccio and Shakspere, the original material was little more than the canvas upon which the artist worked. The commentators upon our poet tell us, with regard to Twelfth Night, "There is great reason to believe that the serious part of this comedy is founded on some old translation of the seventh history in the fourth volume of Belleforest's 'Histoires Tragiques.' Belleforest took the story, as usual, from Bandello. The comic scenes appear to have been entirely the production of Shakspeare." He did create, then, Sir Andrew, and Sir Toby, and Malvolio, and the Clown. But who created Viola, and Olivia, and the Duke? They were made, say the critics, according to the recipe of Bandello:-Item, a twin brother and sister; item, the sister in love, and becoming a page in the service of him she loved; item, the said page sent as a messenger to the lady whom her master loved; item, the lady falling in love with the page; item, the lady meeting with the twin-brother; item, all parties happily matched. All this will be found at great length in

* We derive our particulars from Mr. Collier's valuable 'Annals of the Stage.' He says "I was fortunate enough to meet with it among the Harleian Manuscripts in the Museum." Mr. Hunter, in his Disquisition on the Tempest,' says, You may remember when, in 1828, I called your attention, at the British Museum, to the discovery which I had then made in the Diary of Manningham, that Twelfth Night was performed in 1602, before the benchers of the Middle Temple." Mr. Hunter subsequently came to a belief that the Diary' was that of John Manningham, who was entered at the Middle Temple in 1597.

Mrs. Lenox's 'Shakspeare Illustrated,' accompanied with many profound remarks upon the poet's stupidity in leaving the safe track of the novelist; which remarks, being somewhat antiquated, may be passed over. Nor is it necessary for us to republish the entire story of Apolonius and Silla, as told in a collection published by Barnaby Rich, " containing very pleasant discourses fit for a peaceable time, gathered together for the only delight of the courteous gentlewomen of England and Ireland." The argument of Rich's story does not infer any great resemblance in the plots of the novel and the drama :-" Apolonius, Duke, having spent a year's service in the wars against the Turk, returning homewards with his company by sea, was driven by force of weather to the isle of Cypres, where he was well received by Pontus, governor of the same isle, with whom Silla, daughter to Pontus, fell so strangely in love, that after Apolonius was departed to Constantinople, Silla, with one man, followed, and coming to Constantinople she served Apolonius in the habit of a man, and after many pretty accidents falling out, she was known to Apolonius, who in requital of her love married her." But in the "many pretty accidents' we find a clear resemblance between the poet and the novelist; with the exception that the poet has thrown his own exquisite purity of imagination over the conduct of the two heroines, and that the novelist is not at all solicitous about this

matter.

The following somewhat long extract, which includes the main points of resemblance, will furnish a very adequate notion of the difference between a dull and tedious narration and a drama running over with imagination, and humour, and wit;-in which the highest poetry is welded with the most intense fun; and we are made to feel that the loftiest and the most ludicrous aspect of human affairs can only be adequately presented by one who sees the whole from an eagle-height to which ordinary men cannot soar. But we do not complain that Barnaby Rich was not a Shakspere:

"And now, to prevent a number of injuries that might be proffered to a woman that was left in her case, she determined to leave her own apparel, and to sort herself into some of those suits, that, being taken for a man, she might pass through the country in the better safety; and as she changed her apparel she thought it likewise convenient to change her name, wherefore, not readily happening of any other, she called herself Silvio, by the name of her own brother, whom you have heard spoken of before.

"In this manner she travelled to Constantinople, where she inquired out the palace of the Duke Apolonius, and thinking herself now to be both fit and able to play the servingman, she presented herself to the Duke, craving his service. The Duke, very willing to give succour unto strangers, perceiving him to be a proper smooth young man, gave him entertainment. Silla thought herself now more than satisfied for all the casualties that had happened unto her in her journey, that she might at her pleasure take but the view of the Duke Apolonius, and above the rest of his servants was very diligent and attendant upon him, the which the Duke perceiving, began likewise to grow into good liking with the diligence of his man, and therefore made him one of his chamber who but Silvio, then, was most near about him, in helping of him to make him ready in a morning in the setting of his ruffs, in the keeping of his chamber? Silvio pleased his master so well, that above all the rest of his servants about him he had the greatest credit, and the Duke put him most in trust.

"At this very instant there was remaining in the city a noble dame, a widow, whose husband was but lately deceased, one of the noblest men that were in the parts of Grecia, who left his lady and wife large possessions and great livings. This lady's name was called Julina, who, besides the abundance of her wealth and the greatness of her revenues, had likewise the sovereignty of all the dames of Constantinople for her beauty. To this lady Julina, Apolonius became an earnest suitor, and, according to the manner of lovers, besides fair words, sorrowful sighs, and piteous countenances, there must be sending of loving letters, chains, bracelets, broaches, rings, tablets, gems, jewels, and presents I know not what: Thus Apolonius was so

busied in his new study, that I warrant you there was no man that could challenge him for playing the truant, he followed his profession with so good a will: and who must be the messenger to carry the tokens and loveletters to the lady Julina but Silvio his man? in him the Duke reposed his only confidence, to go between him and his lady.

"Now, gentlewomen, do you think there could have been a greater torment devised, wherewith to afflict the heart of Silla, than herself to be made the instrument to work her own mishap, and to play the attorney in a cause that made so much against herself? But Silla, altogether desirous to please her master, cared nothing at all to offend herself, followed his business with so good a will as if it had been in her own preferment. “Julina, now having many times taken the gaze of this young youth Silvio, perceiving him to be of such excellent perfect grace, was so entangled with the often sight of this sweet temptation, that she fell into as great a liking with the man as the master was with herself: and on a time, Silvio being sent from his master with a

message to the lady Julina, as he began very earnestly to solicit in his master's behalf, Julina, interrupting him in his tale, said, Silvio, it is enough that you have said for your master; from henceforth either speak for yourself, or say nothing at all.

*

"And now for a time leaving matters depending as you have heard, it fell out that the right Silvio indeed (whom you have heard spoken of before, the brother of Silla) was come to his father's court, into the isle of Cypres, where, understanding that his sister was departed in manner as you have heard, conjectured that the very occasion did proceed of some liking had between Pedro, her man (that was missing with her), and herself; but Silvio, who loved his sister as dearly as his own life, and the rather for that she was his natural sister both by father and mother; so the one of them was so like the other in countenance and favour that there was no man able to discern the one from the other by their faces, saving by their apparel, the one being a man, the other a woman.

"Silvio therefore vowed to his father not only to seek out his sister Silla, but also to revenge the villany which he conceived in Pedro for the carrying away of his sister; and thus departing, having travelled through many cities and towns without hearing any manner of news of those he went to seek for, at the last he arrived at Constantinople, where, as he was walking in an evening for his own recreation on a pleasant green parade without the walls of the city, he fortuned to meet with the lady Julina, who likewise had been abroad to take the air; and as she suddenly cast her eyes upon Silvio, thinking him to be her old acquaintance, by reason they were so like one another, as you have heard before, said unto him, I pray you, let me have a little talk with you, seeing I have so luckily met you in this place.

"Silvio, wondering to hear himself so rightly named, being but a stranger not of above two days' continuance in the city, very courteously came towards her, desirous to hear what she would say."

The rest may be imagined.

Mr. Collier informs us, in his "Farther Particulars," that, after vainly searching for eight years, he in 1839 met with the Italian play of the Inganni, mentioned in the Barrister's Diary. This play, as Mr. Collier thinks, was known to Shakspere; and certainly there is some resemblance between its plot and that of Twelfth Night. The differences, however, are so considerable, that the parallel would scarcely be worth following out. We have to add that Mr. Hunter mentions that he has traced, in an Italian play called the Ingannati (not the Inganni of Manningham), the foundation of the serious part of Twelfth Night.

COSTUME.

THE Comedy of Twelfth Night is amongst the most perplexing of Shakspere's plays to the sticklers for accuracy of costume. The period of action is undefined. The scene is laid in Illyria, whilst the names of the Dramatis Personæ are a mixture of Spanish, Italian, and English. The best mode of reconciling the discrepancies arising from so many conflicting circumstances appears to us to be the assumption, first, that duke or count Orsino (for he is indifferently so entitled in the play) is a Venetian governor of that portion of Dalmatia which was all of the ancient Illyria remaining under the dominion of the republic at the commencement of the seventeenth century, and that his attendants, Valentine, Curio, &c., as well as Olivia, Malvolio, and Maria, are also Venetians; and, secondly, that Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Ague-cheek are English residents; the former, a maternal uncle to Olivia-her father, a Venetian count, having married sir Toby's sister. If this be allowed, and there is nothing that we can perceive in the play to prevent it, there is no impropriety in dressing the above-named characters in the Venetian and English costume of Shakspere's own time, and the two sea-captains and Sebastian in the very picturesque habits of "Chimariot, Illyrian, and dark Suliote." Viola, the twin-sister of Sebastian, might therefore, by assuming the national male dress, be more readily mistaken for her brother, as it is absurd to suppose that she could otherwise, by accident, light upon a fac-simile of the suit he appears in; and any manifest difference, either in form or colour, would tend to destroy the illusion, as we have already observed in the case of the two Dromios and their masters (Comedy of Errors). We leave the decision, however, to our readers, at the same time referring those who think with us to our numbers con

taining The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and The Taming of the Shrew, for the Venetian and English costume of the commencement of the seventeenth century, and confining our pictorial illustrations of this part of our labours to the dress of a woman of Mitylene (supposed the Messalina of the play) from the Habiti Antiche e Moderni of Cæsare Vecellio. The embroidered jacket and greaves, "the snowy camisa and the shaggy capote," of the Greek captains, have become almost as familiar to our sight as a frock-coat, Wellington boots, and trousers.