TWELFTH NIGHT: OR, WHAT YOU WILL.

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. It is not impossible, however, that the circumstances of the Duke sending his Page to plead his cause with the Lady, and of the Lady's falling in love with the Page, &c. might be borrowed from the Fifth Eglog of Barnaby Googe, published with his other original Poems in 1563:

"A worthy Knyght dyd love her longe,
"And for her sake dyd feale
"The panges of love, that happen styl
"By frowning fortune's wheale.
"He had a Page, Valerius named,
"Whom so muche he dyd truste,
"That all the secrets of his hart
"To hym declare he muste.
"And made hym all the onely meanes
"To sue for his redresse,

"And to entreate for grace to her
"That caused his distresse.
"She whan as first she saw his page
"Was straight with hym in love,
"That nothynge coulde Valerius face
"From Claudia's mynde remove.
"By hym was Faustus often harde,
By hym his sutes toke place,
"By hym he often dyd aspyre
"To se his Ladyes face.
"This passed well, tyll at the length
"Valerius sore did sewe,

"With many teares besechynge her
"His mayster's gryefe to rewe.
"And tolde her that yf she wolde not
"Release his mayster's payne,

"He never wolde attempte her more
"Nor se her ones agayne," &c.

Thus also concludes the first scene of the third act of the play before us:

"And so adieu, good madam; never more

"Will I my master's tears to you deplore," &c.

I offer no apology for the length of the foregoing extract, the book from which it is taken, being so uncommon, that only one copy, except that in my own possession, has hitherto occurred. Even Dr. Farmer, the late Rev. T. Warton, Mr. Reed, and Mr. Malone, were unacquainted with this Collection of Googe's Poetry.

TWELFTH NIGHT: OR, WHAT YOU WILL.

August 6, 1607, a Comedy called What you Will, (which is the second title of this play) was entered at Stationers' Hall by Tho. Thorpe. I believe, however, it was Marston's play with that name. Ben Jonson, who takes every opportunity to find fault with Shakspeare, seems to ridicule the conduct of Twelfth Night in his Every Man out of his Humour, at the end of Act III, sc. vi, where he makes Mitis say, "That the argument of his comedy might have been of some other nature, as of a duke to be in love with a countess, and that countess to be in love with the duke's son, and the son in love with the lady's waiting maid: some such cross wooing, with a clown to their serving man, better than be thus near and familiarly allied to the time." Steevens.

I suppose this comedy to have been written in 1614. If however the foregoing passage was levelled at Twelfth Night, my speculation falls to the ground. Malone.

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PERSONS REPRESENTED.

Orsino, duke of Illyria.

Sebastian, a young gentleman, brother to Viola.
Antonio, a sea captain, friend to Sebastian.

A sea captain, friend to Viola.

Lords, Priests, Sailors, Officers, Musicians, and other

Attendants.

SCENE,

A city in Illyria; and the sea-coast near it.

TWELFTH NIGHT:

OR,

WHAT YOU WILL.

ACT I....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 appetite may sicken, and so die.

That strain again;-it had a dying fall:2

O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south,3

1 Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting, &c.] So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"And now excess of it will make me surfeit." Steevens. 2 That strain again; it had a dying fall:

O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,

Stealing, and giving odour.] Milton, in his Paradise Lost, B. IV, has very successfully introduced the same image:

66 — now gentle gales,

"Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense

"Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole
"Those balmy spoils." Steevens.

That strain again; it had a dying fall:] Hence Pope, in his Ode on Saint Cecilia's Day:

"The strains decay,

"And melt away,

"In a dying, dying fall."

Again, Thomson, in his Spring, v. 722, speaking of the nightingale :

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Still at every dying fall

"Takes up the lamentable strain." Holt White.

3 the sweet south,] The old copy reads-sweet sound, which Mr. Rowe changed into wind, and Mr. Pope into south, The thought might have been borrowed from Sidney's Arcadia.

That breathes upon a bank of violets,4

Stealing, and giving odour.-Enough; no more;
'Tis not so sweet now, as it was before.

O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou!
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soever, 5
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute! so full of shapes is fancy,
That it alone is high-fantastical.

Cur. Will you go hunt, my lord?

Duke.

Cur.

What, Curio?

The hart.

Duke. Why, so I do, the noblest that I have: O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, Methought, she purg'd the air of pestilence; That instant was I turned into a hart;

And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,

E'er since pursue me.7-How now? what news from her?

Lib. I: ". more sweet than a gentle South-west wind, which comes creeping over flowery fields," &c. This work was published in 1590. Steevens.

I see no reason for disturbing the text of the old copy, which reads-Sound. The wind, from whatever quarter, would produce a sound in breathing on the violets, or else the simile is false. Besides, sound is a better relative to the antecedent, strain. Douce.

That breathes upon a bank of violets,] Here Shakspeare makes the south steal odour from the violet. In his 99th Sonnet, the violet is made the thief:

"The forward violet thus did I chide :

"Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells, "If not from my love's breath?" Malone.

5 Of what validity and pitch soever,] Validity is here used for value. Malone.

So, in King Lear:

"No less in space, validity, and pleasure." Steevens.

6 That it alone is high-fantastical.] High-fantastical, means fantastical to the height.

So, in All's well that ends well;

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My high-repented blames

"Dear sovereign, pardon me.”

7 That instant was I turn'd into a hart;

Steevens.

And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,

E'er since pursue me.] This image evidently alludes to the