TWELFTH-NIGHT.] There is great reason to believe, that the ferious part of this Comedy is founded on fome old tranflation of the seventh history in the fourth volume of Belleforest's Hiftoires Tragiques. Belle foreft took the ftory, as ufual, from Bandello. The comic icenes appear to have been entirely the production of Shakspeare. It is not impoffible, however, that the circumftances of the Duke fending his Page to plead his caufe 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 Knygbt dyd love her longe,
"And for her fake dyd feale
"The panges of love, that happen ftyl
"By frowning fortune's wheale.
"He had a Page, Valerius named,
"Whom fo much e he dyd trufte,
"That all the fecrets of his hart
"To hym declare he muste.
And made hym all the onely meanes
"To fue for his redreffe,

"And to entreate for grace to her
"That caufed his diftreffe.
"She whan as firft fhe faw bis page
"Was ftraight with bym in love,
"That nothinge coulde Valerius face
"From Claudia's mynde remove.
By hym was Fauftus often harde,
"By hym his futes toke place,
By hym he often dyd afpyre
To fe his Ladyes face.

This paffed well, tyll at the length
"Valerius fore did fewe,

With many teares befechynge her

His mayfter's gryefe to rewe.

"And tolde her that yf the wolde not
"Release his master's payne,

"He never wolde attempte her more

Nor fe ber ones agayne," &c.

Thus alfo concludes the first scene of the third act of the Play before us! "And fo 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 fo uncommon, that only one copy, except that in my own poffeffion, 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.

1

Auguft

Auguft 6, 1607, a Comedy called What you Will (which is the fecond title of this play), was entered at Stationers' Hall by Tho. Thorpe. I believe, however, it was Marfton's play with that name. Ben Jonfon, who takes every opportunity to find fault with Shakspeare, seems to ridi cule the conduct of Twelfth Night in his Every man out of his Humour, at the end of Act III. fc. vi. where he makes Mutis fay, "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 fon, and the fon in love with the lady's waiting mad: fome fuch cross wooing, with a clown to their ferving man, better than be thus near and familiarly allied to the time." STEEVENS.

I fuppofe this comedy to have been written in 1614. If however the foregoing paffage was levelled at Twelfth Night, my fpeculation falls to the ground. See An Attempt to afcertain the order of Shakspeare's plays.

MALONE.

PERSONS

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

Orfino, duke of Illyria.

Sebaftian, a young gentleman, brother to Viola.
Antonio, a fea captain, friend to Sebastian.
A fea-captain, friend to Viola.

Valentine,
Curio,

} Gentlemen attending on the duke.

Sir Toby Belch, uncle to Olivia.

Sir Andrew Ague-cheek.

Malvolio, fterward to Olivia.

Lords, Priefts, Sailors, Officers, Muficians, and other Attendants.

SCENE, a city in Illyria; and the fea-coaft near it.

OR,

WHAT YOU WILL.

ACT I. SCENE I.

An apartment in the Duke's palace.

Enter DUKE, CURIO, Lords; Muficians attending.

Duke. If mufick be the food of love, play on,

Give me excefs of it; that, furfeiting,

The appetite may ficken, and fo die.

That ftrain again;-it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the fweet fouth,2
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour.-Enough; no more;
'Tis not fo fweet now, as it was before.

O fpirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou !.
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the fea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch foever,3
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute! fo full of fhapes is fancy,
That it alone is high-fantastical.4

Cur. Will you go hunt, my lord?

Duke.

Cur.

What, Curio?

Duke. Why, fo I do, the nobleft that I have :

O, when mine eyes did fee Olivia first,

2

-the fweet fouth,] The old copy reads

The hart.

Methought, fweet found, which Mr. Rowe changed into wind, and Mr. Pope into foutb. STEEVENS. I fee no reafon for difturbing the text of the old copy, which reads ·Sound. The wind, from whatever quarter, would produce a found in breathing on the violets, or else the fimile is falfe. Befides, found is a better relative to the antecedent, ftrain. DOUCE.

3 Validity is here ufed for value. MALONE.

High-fantastical, means fantastical to the height. STEEVENS.

Methought, the purg'd the air of peftilence;
That inftant was I turn'd into a hart;

And my defires, like fell and cruel hounds,

E'er fince purfue me. How now? what news from her? Enter VALENTINE.

Val. So please my lord, I might not be admitted, But from her hand-maid do return this anfwer:

6

The element itself, till seven years heat,
Shall not behold her face at ample view;
But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk,
And water once a day her chamber round
With eye-offending brine: all this, to feafor
A brother's dead love, which the would keep fresh,
And lafting, in her fad remembrance.

Duke. O, fhe, that hath a heart of that fine frame,
Το pay this debt of love but to a brother,
How will the love, when the rich golden fhaft,

Hath kill'd the flock of all affections 7 elfe
That live in her! when liver, brain, and heart,
Thefe fovereign thrones, are all fupply'd, and fill'd,
(Her fweet perfections,)9 with one felf king!-2

Away

5 This image evidently alludes to the ftory of Acteon, by which Shakspeare feems to think men cautioned against too great familiarity with forbidden beauty. Acteon, who faw Diana naked, and was torn to pieces by his hounds, reprefents a man, who indulging his eyes, or his imagination, with the view of a woman that he cannot gain, has his heart. torn with inceffant longing An interpretation far more elegant and natural than that of Sir Francis Bacon, who, in his Wisdom of the Ancients, fuppofes this story to warn us againft enquiring into the fecrets of princes by fhewing, that thofe who know that which for reasons of ftate is to be concealed, will be detected and deftroyed by their own fervants.

JOHNSON. 6 Heat for beated. The air, till it fhall have been warmed by feven revolutions of the fun, shall not, &c. MALONE.

7

the flock of all affections] So, in Sidney's Arcadia : “6—häs the flock of unfpeakable virtues." STEEVENS.

8 We. fhould read-three fovereign thrones. This is exactly in the manner of Shak fpeare. So, afterwards, in this play, Thy tongue, by face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit, do give thee fivefold blazon. WARBURTON. 9 Liver, brain, and beart, are admitted in poetry as the refidence of paffions, judgment, and fentiments. Thefe are what Shakspeare calls, ber

fweek