King. Where did you find it then ?
Dia. I found it not.
King. If it were yours by none of all these ways,
How could you give it him ?
Dia. I never gave it him.
Laf. This woman 's an easy glove, my lord : she
goes off and on at pleasure.
King. This ring was mine: I gave it his first
wife.
Dia. It might be yours, or hers, for aught I know
King. Take her away : I do not like her now.
To prison with her ; and away with him.
Unless thou tell'st me where thou hadst this ring,
Thou diest within this hour.
Dia. I'll never tell you.
King. Take her away.
Dia. I'll put in bail, my liege.
King. I think thee now some common customer.
Dia. By Jove, if ever I knew man, 't was you.
King. Wherefore hast thou accus'd him all this-
while ?
Dia. Because he 's guilty, and he is not guilty.
He knows I am no maid, and he '11 swear to 't:
I '11 swear I am a maid, and he knows not.
Great king, I am no strumpet, by my life !
sc. HI, ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. 237
I am either maid, or else this old man 's wife.
[Pointing to LAFEU,
King. 'She does abuse our ears. To prison with
her !
Dia. Good mother, fetch my bail. [Exit Widow.]
Stay, royal sir :
The jeweller that owes the ring, is sent for,
And he shall surety me. But for this lord,
Who hath abus'd me, as he knows himself,
Though yet he never harm'd me, here I quit him.
He knows himself my bed he hath defil'd,
And at that time he got his wife with child :
Dead though she be, she feels her young one kick :
So there 's my riddle, one that 's dead is quick ;
And now behold the meaning.
Re-enter Widow, with HELENA.
King. Is there no exorcist
Beguiles the truer office of mine eyes ?
Is 't real, that I see?
Hel. No, my good lord :
'T is but the shadow of a wife you see ;
The name, and not the thing.
Ber. Both, both ! 0, pardon ! [Kneeling. 1
Hel. ! my good lord, when I was like this maid,
I found you wondrous kind. There is your ring ;
And look you, here 's your letter : this it says :
" When from my finger you can get this ring,
And are by me with child," &c. This is done :
Will you be mine, now you are doubly won ?
Ber. If she, my liege, can make me know this
clearly, [Rising."
I '11 love her dearly, ever, ever dearly.
Hel. If it appear not plain, and prove untrue,
Deadly divorce step between me and you !
! my dear mother, do I see you living ?
Laf. Mine eyes smell onions, I shall weep anon.
Good Tom Drum, [To PAROLLES.] lend me a handker-
chief: so, I thank thee. Wait on me home, I '11 make
sport with thee: let thy courtesies alone, they are
scurvy ones.
King. Let us from point to point this story know,
To make the even truth in pleasure flow.
[Jo DIANA.] If thou be'st yet a fresh uncropped flower,
a Not in f. e.
238 ALL 's "WELL THAT ENDS WELL. ACT V.
Choose thou thy husband, and I '11 pay thy dower ;
For I can guess, that by thy honest aid
Thou kept ; st a wife herself, thyself a maid.
Of that, and all the progress, more and less,
Resolvedly more leisure shall express :
All yet seems well; and if it end so meet,
The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet.
[Flourish
EPILOGUE BY THE KING. 1
The king's a beggar, now the play is done.
All is well ended, if this suit be won,
That you express content ; which we will pay,
With strife to please you, day exceeding day :
Ours be your patience then, and yours our parts ;
Your gentle hands lend us, and take our hearts.
[Exeunt omnea
> This line ia not in f. e.
TWELFTH-NIGHT: OB,
WHAT YOU WILL.
" Twelfe Night, Or what you Will," was first printed in the
folio of 1628, where it occupies twenty-one pages ; viz. from
p. 255 to 275 inclusive, in the division of "Comedies,"
p. 276 having been left blank, and unpaged. It appears in
the same form in the tlirce later folios.
NTRODUCT1ON.
WE have no record of the performance of " Twelfth-Night"
at court, nor is there any mention of it in the books at Sta-
tioners' Hall until November 3, 1623, when it was registered
by Blount and Jaggard, as about to be included in the first
folio of " Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories,
and Tragedies." It appeared originally in that volume, under
the double title, " Twelfth-Night, or What You Will," with
the Acts and Scenes duly noted.
We cannot determine with precision when it was first
written, but we know that it was acted on the celebration of
the Headers' Feast at the Middle Temple on Feb. 2, 1602,
according to our modern computation of the year. The fact
of its performance we have on the evidence of an eye-witness,
who seems to have been a barrister, and whose Diary, in his
own hand-writing, is preserved in the British Museum (Harl.
MSS. 5353). The memorandum runs, literatim, as follows:
"Feby. 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 counterfaytinga letter, as from his lady, in generall termea
telling him what shee liked best in him, 'and prescribing his
gestures, inscribing his apparaile, &c., and then when lie
came to practise, making him beleeve they tooke him to bo
mad."
This remarkable entry was pointed out in the " History of
English Dramatic Poetry and the Stage," vol. i. p. 327. 8vo,
1831, and the Eev. Joseph Hunter, in his "Disquisition on
The Tempest," 8vo, 1839, has ascertained that it was made
by a person of the name of Manningham. It puts an end to
the conjecture of Malone, that " Twelfth-Night " was written
in 1607, and to the less probable speculation of Tyrwhitt, that
't was not produced until 1614. Even if it should be objected
that we have no evidence to show that this Comedy was com-
posed shortly prior to its representation' at the Middle Tem-
ple, it may be answered, that it is capable of proof that it was
written posterior to the publication of the translation of Lin-
Bchoten's " Discours of Voyages into the East and West In-
dies." In A. ii. sc. 2. Mafia says of Malvolio : "He does
Binile his face into more lines than are in the new map, with
VOL. III. 16
242 INTRODUCTION.
the augmentation of the Indies." When Malone prepare!
his " Chronological Order " he had " not been able to learn
the date of the map here alluded to," but Linschoten's "Dis-
coure of Voyages" was published in folio in English in 1598,
and in that volume is inserted "the new map witli the aug-
mentation of the Indies." Meres takes no notice of " Twelfth-
Night" in his list, published in the same year, and we may
conclude that the Comedy was not then in existence. The
words "new map," employed by Shakespeare, may be
thought to show that Linschoten's " Discours " had not made
its appearance long before "Twelfth-Night* 5 was produced;
but on the whole, we are inclined to fix the period of its com-
position at the end of 1600, or in the beginning of 1601 : it
might be acted at the Globe in the summer of the same year,
and from thence transferred to the Middle Temple about six
months afterwards, on account of its continued popularity.
Several originals of "Twelfth-Night," in English, French,
and Italian, have been pointed out, nearly all of them dis-
covered within the present century, and to these we shall now
advert.
A voluminous and various author of the name of Barnabe
Rich, who had been brought up a soldier, published a volume,
which he called " Rich his Farewell to Military Profession,"
without date, but between the years 1578 aiid 1581 : a re-
impression of it appeared in 1606, and it contains a novel
entitled " Apolonius and Silla," which has many points of
resemblance to Shakespeare's comedy. To this production
more particular reference is not necessary, as it forms part
of the publication culled " Shakespeare's Library." If our
great dramatist at all availed himself of its incidents, he must
of course have used an earlier edition than that of 1606. One
minute circumstance in relation to it may deserve notice.
Manningham in his Diary calls Olivia a " widow," and in
Rich's novel the lady Julina, who answers to Olivia, is a
widow, but in Shakespeare she never had been married. It
is possible that in the form in which the comedy was per-
formed on Feb. 2, 1601-2, she was a widow, and that the
author subsequently made the change ; but it is more likely,
as Olivia must have been in mourning for the loss of her
brother, that Manningham mistook her condition, and con-
cluded hastily that she lamented the loss of her husband.
Rich furnishes us with the title of no work to which he was
indebted; but we may conclude that, either immediately or
intermediately, he derived his chief materials from the Italian
of Bandello, or from the French of Bclleforcst. In Bandello
it forms the thirty-sixth novel of the Seconda Parte, in the
Lucca edit. 1554. 4to, where it bears the subsequent title:
" Nicuola, innamorata di Lattantio, va a servirlo vestita da
paggio ; e dopo molti casi seco si marita : e cio die ad un
suo fratello avvenne." In the collection by Belleforest,
printed at Paris in 1572, 12mo, it is headed as follows:
"Comme une fille Romaine, se vestant en page, servist long
temps un sien amy sans estre cogneue, et depuis 1'eust a
rnary, avec autres divers discours'." Although Belleforest
INTRODUCTION. 243
inserts no names in Ins title, he adopts those of Bandello, but
abridges or omits many of the speeches and some portions of
the narrative : what in Bandello occupies several pages is some-
times included by Belleforest in a single paragraph. We quote
the subsequent passage, because it will more exactly show the
degree of connexion between " Twelfth-Night" and the old
French version: it is where Nicuola, the Viola of Shakespeare,
disguised as a page, and under the name of Romule, has an
interview with Catelle, the Olivia of "Twelfth-Night," on
behalf of Lattance, who answers to the Duke.
" Mais Catelle, qui avoit plus 1'oeil sur 1'orateur et sur la
naive beaute, que I'oreille aux paroles venantd'ailleurs, estoit
en une estrange peine, et volontiers se fut jettee a son col
pour le baiser tout a son aise: mais la honte la retint pour un.
temps: a la fin n'en pouvant plus, et vaincue de ceste impa-
tience d'amour, et se trouvant favorisee de la commodite, ne
eceut de tant se commander, que 1'embrassant fort estroite-
nient elle ne le baisast d'une douzaine de fois, et ce avec telle
Iascivit6 et gestes effrontez, que Eomule s'apparceut bien que
cette-cy avait plus chere son accointance que les ambassadea
de celuy qui la courtisoit. A ceste cause lay dit, Je vous
prie, madame, me faire tant de bien que me donnant congd,
j'aye de vous quelque gracieuse responce, avec laquelle je
puisse faire content et joyeux mon seigneur, lequel est en
soucy et tourment contin'uel pour ne sgavoir votre volonte"
vers luy, et s'il a rien acquis en vos bonnes graces. Catelle,
human! de plus en plus le venin d'amour par les yeux, luy
Bembloit que Eomule devint de fois a autre plus beau."
Upon the novel by Bandello two Italian plays were com-
posed, which were printed, and have come down to our time.
The title of one of these is given by Manningham, where he
says that Shakespeare's " Twelfth-Night" was " most like
and neere to that in Italian called Inganni.' 1 ' 1 It was first
acted in 1547, and the earliest edition of it, with which I am
acquainted, did not appear until 1582, when it bore the title
of GV Inganni Comedia del Signor N. S. The other Italian
drama, founded upon Bandello's novel, bears a somewhat
similar title : GV Ingannati Commedia degV Accademici Jn-
tronati di Siena, which was several times printed ; last, per-
haps, in the collection Delle Cnmmedie degV Accademici Intro-
nat,i di Siena, 1611, 12mo. Whether our great dramatist saw
either of these pieces before he wrote his "Twelfth-Night 71
may admit of doubt; but looking at the terms Manniugham
employs, it might seem as if it were a matter understood, at
trie titiic " Twelfth-Night " was acted at the Temple on Feb.
2, 1602, that it was founded upon the Inganni. There is no
indication in the MS. Diary that the writer of it was versed
in Italian literature, and GV Inganni might at that day be a
known comedy of which it was believed Shakespeare had
availed himself. An analysis of it is given in a .small tract,
called " Farther Particulars of Shakespeare and his Works,"
Bvo, 1839, but as only fifty copies of it were printed, it may
be necessary here to enter into some few details of its plot,
conduct, and characters. The " Argument," or explanatory
244 INTRODUCTION.
Prologue, which precedes the first scene, will show that the
author of GV Inganni did not adhere to Bandello by any
means closely, and that he adopted entirely different names
for his personages.
" Anselmo, a Genoese merchant who traded to the Levant,
having left his wife in Genoa great with child, had two chil-
dren by her, one a boy called Fortunato, and the other a
girl named Gineura. After he had borne for four years the
desire of seeing his wife and family, he returned" home to
them, and wishing to depart again, he took them with him;
and when they were embarked on board the vessel, he dressed
them both in short clothes for greater convenience, so that the
girl looked like a boy. And on the voyage to Soria he was
taken by Corsairs and carried into Natolia, where he re-
mained in slavery for fourteen years. His children had a
different fortune ; for the boy was several times sold, but
finally here in this city, which, on this occasion, shall be Na-
ples ; and he now serves Dorotea, a courtesan, who lives there
at that little door. The mother and Gineura, after various
accidents, were bought by M. Massimo Caraccioli, who lives
where you see this door; but by the advice of the mother,
who has been dead six years, Gineura has changed her name
and caused herself to be called Euberto ; and, as her mother
while living persuaded her, always gave herself out to be a
boy, thinking in this way that she should be better able to
preserve her chastity. Fortunato and Euberto, by the infor-
mation of their mother, know themselves to be brother and
Bister. M. Massimo has a son, whom they call Gostanzo, and
a daughter named Portia. Gostanzo is in love with Dorotea,
the courtesan to whom Fortunato is servant. Portia, hia
sister, is iu love with Ruberto, notwithstanding she is a girl,
because she has always been thought a man. Kuberto, the
girl, not knowing how to satisfy the desires of Portia, who
constantly importunes her, has sometimes at night conveyed
her brother into the house in her place : he has go't Portia with
child, and she is now every hour expecting to be brought to
bed. On the other hand, Euberto, as a girl and in love with
her young master Gostanzo, has double suffering one from
the passion which torments her, and the other from the fear
lest the pregnancy of Portia should be discovered. Massimo,
the father of Portia and Gostanzo, is aware of the condition
of his daughter, and has sent to Genoa to inquire into the
parentage of Euberto, in order that if he find him ignoble,
and unworthy to be the husband of his daughter, whom he
believes to be with child by him, he may have him killed.
But, by what I have heard, the father of the twins, wno has
escaped from the hands of the Tnrks, ought this day to l>e
returned with the messenger, and I think that every thing
will be accommodated."
In this play, therefore, Portia, who is the Olivia of Shake-
speare, is not stated to be a widow, and our great dramatist
avoided the needless indelicacy of representing her to be with
child. In GV Inganni, Gineura (i. e. Viola,) as will have
beeu seen from the "Argument," is not page to the man with
INTRODUCTION. 245
whom she is in love, but to Portia : while Gostanzo, whose
affection Ginenra is anxious to obtain, is brother to her mis-
tress. This of course makes an important difference in the
relative situations of the parties, because Gineura, disguised
as Kuberto, is not employed to carry letters and messages
between the characters who represent the Duke and Olivia.
Gostan/.o being in love with a courtesan, named Dorotea, in
the first Act, Gineura endeavours to dissuade him from his
lawless passion, in a manner thaj distantly, and only dis-
tantly, reminds us of Shakespeare. Kuberto (i. e. Gineura)
tells Gostanzo to find some object worthy of his affection :
" Gostanzo. And where shall I find her?
Ruberto. I know one who is more lost for love of you, than you are
for this carrion.
Gostanzo. Is she fair?
Ruberto. Indifferently.
Gostanzo. Where is she ?
Ruberto. Not far from you.
Gostanzo. And will she be content that I should lie with her.
Ruberto. If God wills that you should do it.
Gostanzo. How shall I get to her ?
Ruberto. As you would come to me.
Gostanzo. How do you know that she loves me ?
Ruberto. Because she often talks to me of her love.
Gostanzo. Do I know her?
Ruberto. As well as you know me.
Gostanzo. Is she young?
Ruberto. Of my age.
Gostanzo. And loves me?
Ruberto. Adores you.
Gostanzo. Have I ever seen her ?
Ruberto. As often as you have seen me.
Gostanzo. "Why does she not discover herself to me ?
Ruberto. Because she sees you the slave of another woman."
The resemblance between Gineura and her brother Foitn-
nato is so great, that Portia has mistaken the one for the
other, and in the end, like Sebastian and Olivia, they are
united; while Gostanzo, being cured of his passion for Doro-
tea, and grateful for the persevering and disinterested affec-
tion of Gineura, is married to her. Our great dramatist has
given an actual, as well as an intellectual elevation to the whole
subject, by the manner in which he has treated it; and has
converted what may, in most respects, be considered a low
comedy into a fine romantic drama.
So much for GV Inganni, and it now remains to speak of
GV Ingannati, a comedy to which, in relation to " Twelfth-
Night," attention was first directed by the Rev. Joseph Hunter
in his " Disquisition on Shakespeare's Tempest," p. 78. GV
Ingannati follows Bandello's novel with more exactness than
GV Inganni, though both change the names of the parties;
and here we have the important feature that the heroine,
called Lelia, (disguised as Fabio) is page to Flamminio, with
whom she is in love, but who is in love with a lady named
Isabella. Lelia, as in Shakespeare, is employed by Flammi-
nio to forward his suit with Isabella. What succeeds is part
246 INTRODUCTION.
of the Dialogue between Lelia, in her male attire, and Flam-
minio :
" Lelia. Do as I advise. Abandon Isabella, and love one who lovee
you in return. You may not find her as beautiful ; but, tell me, i>
there nobody else whom you can love, and who loves you ?
Flamminio. There was a young lady named Lelia. whom, I was a
thousand times about to tell you, you are much like. She was thought
the fairest, the cleverest, and the most courteous damsel of this coun-
try. I will shew you her one of these days, for I formerly looked upon
her with some regard. She was then rich and about the court, and 1
continued in love with her for nearly a year, during which time she
showed me much favour. Afterwards she went to Mirandola, and ;t
was my fate to fall in love with Isabella, who has been as cruel U.
me as Lelia was kind.
Lelia. Then you deserve the treatment you have received. Since
you slighted her who loved you, you ought to be slighted in return
by others.
Lelia. If this poor girl were your first love, and still loves you mors
than ever, why did you abandon her for Isabella? I know not who
could pardon that offence. Ah ! signer Flamminio, you did her
grievous wrong.
Flamminio. You are only a boy, Fabio. and know not the power
of love. I tell you that I cannot help loving Isabella: I adore her,
nor do I wish to think of any other woman."
Elsewhere the resemblance between " Twelfth-Night " and
GV Ingannati, in point of situation ia quite as strong, but
there the likeness ends, for in the dialogue we can trace no
connexion between the two. The author of the Italian com-
edy has obviously founded himself entirely upon Bandello's
novel, of which there might be some translation in the time
of Shakespeare more nearly approaching the original, than
the version which Rich published before our great dramatist
visited the metropolis. Whether any such literal translation
had or had not been made, Shakespeare may have gone to
the Italian story, and Le Novette di JSandello were very well
known in England -as early as about the middle of the six-
teenth century. If Shakespeare had followed Kieh we should
probably have discovered some verbal trace of his obligation,
as in the cases where he followed Painter's " Palace of Plea-
sure," or, still more strikingly, where he availed himself of
the works of Greene and Lod<re. In GV Inyannati we find
nothing but incident in common with " Twelfth-Night."
The vast inferiority of the former to the latter in language and
sentiment, may be seen in every page, in every line. The
mistake of the brother for the sister, by Isabella, is the same
in both, and it terminates in a somewhat similar manner, for
the female attendant of the lady, meeting Fabricio (who is
dressed, like his sister Lelia, in white) in the street, conducts
him to her mistress, who receives him with open arms.
Flamminio and Lelia are of course united at the end of the
comedy.
The 'likeness between GV Ingannati and " Twelfth-Night "
is certainly in some points of the story, stronger than that
between GV Inganni and Shakespeare's drama ; but to neither
can we say, with any degree of certainty, that our great dra-
INTRODUCTION-. 247
matist resorted, although he had perhaps read both, when ho
was considering tlie best mode of adapting to the stage the
incidents of Bandello's novel. There is no hint, in any source
yet discovered, for the smallest portion of the comic business
of " Twelfth-Night." In both the Italian dramas it is of the
most homely and vulgar materials, by the intervention of em-
pirics, braggarts, pedants, and servants, who deal in the
coarsest jokes, and are guilty of the grossest buffoonery.
Shakespeare shows his infinite superiority in each depart-
ment: in the more serious portion of his drama he employed
the incidents furnished by predecessors as the mere scaffold-
ing for the erection of his own beautiful edifice; and for the
eornic scenes, combining so admirably with, and assisting so
importantly in the progress of the main plot, he seems, as
usual, to have drawn merely upon his own interminable re-
sources.
It was an opinion, confidently stated by Coleridge in his
lectures in 1818, that the passage in Act ii. sc. 4, beginning
"Too old, by heaven : let still the -woman take
An elder than herself," &c.
had a direct application to the circumstances of his own mar-
riage with Anne Hathaway, who was so much senior to the
poet. Some of Shakespeare's biographers had previously
enforced this notion, and others have since followed it up ;
but Coleridge took the opportunity of enlarging eloquently on
the manner in which young poets have frequently connected
themselves with women of very ordinary personal and mental
attractions, the imagination supplying all deficiencies, clothing
the object of affection with grace and beauty, and furnishing
her with every accomplishment*
DRAMATIS PERSONS.
ORSINO, Duke of Illyria.
SEBASTIAN, Brother to Viola.
ANTONIO, a Sea Captain, Friend to Sebastian.
A Sea Captain, Friend to Viola.
CURIO TINE ' } Gentleraen attending on the Duke.
Sir TOBY BELCH, Uncle to Olivia.
Sir ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK.
MALVOLIO. Steward to Olivia.
OLIVIA, a rich Countess.
VIOLA, in Love with the Duke.
MARIA, Olivia's Woman.
Lords, Priests, Sailors, Officers, Musicians, and Attend
ants.
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. Music playing. 1
Duke. If music be the food of love, play on:
Give me excess of it ; that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again ; it had a dying fall :
! it came o'er my ear like the sweet south, 9
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing, and giving odour. Enough ! no more :
[Music ceases.
'T is not so sweet now, as it was before.
0, 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 soe'er,