Twelfth Night (1922) Yale/Appendix A

Under date of February 2, 1601–2, a London law student of the Middle Temple, John Manningham, made this entry in his Diary: 'At our feast wee had a play called "Twelue Night, or What you Will," much like the Commedy of Errores, or Menechmi in Plautus, but most like and neere to that in Italian called Inganni.' This single sentence anticipates, at least roughly, the general trend of later critical investigation of the sources of the main plot of Twelfth Night. Definite features of that story are certainly present alike in Latin comedy and sixteenth- century Italian drama. As Manningham suggests, Shakespeare in one of his earliest plays, The Comedy of Errors, had already used the theme of mistaken identity on which the Menæchmi of Plautus is essentially based. In several plays of Terence and Plautus, furthermore, the complications due to woman's disguise in man's dress suggest a general dramatic situation which became popular with writers of the Renaissance and was shaped to his own ends by Shakespeare in The Two Gentlemen of Verona and in As You Like it.

Manningham recognized not merely general resemblances between Twelfth Night and Latin comedy but a more immediate connection with Italian drama. Investigation of his reference to the play in Italian called Inganni' [The Cheats] has resulted in the discovery of two Italian comedies with that title—one, by Nicolo Secchi, acted in 1547, and printed at Florence in 1562; the other, by Curzio Gonzaga, printed at Venice in 1592. In both, the complications of the plot turn on the resemblance of a brother and sister clad in man's attire. 'The name assumed by the lady in disguise in Gonzaga's play,' says Hunter, 'is ​Cesare, which will be easily admitted to have suggested the name Cesario in Shakespeare. Beyond this, however, the resemblance is not striking.'

Hunter, however, discovered an earlier Italian comedy, Gl' Ingannati [The Deceived], which seemed to him unquestionably the real Italian source of Shakespeare's plot. Acted as early as 1531, by a literary society of Siena, it was first printed at Venice in 1537. In its main outlines it resembles Twelfth Night, containing counterparts to the characters of Viola, Sebastian, Orsino, and Olivia. In its humorous and farcical elements have sometimes been found other foreshadowings in character and situation of Shakespeare's comedy, but many of the alleged resemblances—such as that between the pedant Piero and Malvolio—seem vague and inconclusive. The popularity of Gl' Ingannati is shown both by the frequency of Italian editions and by its translation into French, Spanish, and Latin. A Latin version, based apparently on a French translation rather than on the Italian original, was acted at Queens' College, Cambridge', under the title of Lælia, probably in 1595, possibly in 1598—at all events, but a few years before the production of Twelfth Night. Even Shakespeare's 'small Latin' might have sufficed to interpret some of the essential situations of the Latin text, or he might have heard general reports of the Cambridge performance. Recent positive assertion that Lælia is 'the undoubted immediate source of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night' seems, however, to lack proof equally positive.

As early as 1753, Mrs. Charlotte Lennox suggested the similarity between Twelfth Night and one of the stories in Bandello's collection of tales (1554). A French version by Belleforest of Bandello's story seems, in turn, to have inspired an English rendering by Barnabe Riche. Riche, by birth a 'gentleman,' by ​profession a soldier, by instinct a man of letters, published in 1581 a volume entitled 'Riche, his Farewell to Militarie Profession: conteining verie pleasaunt discourses fit for a peaceable tyme. Gathered together for the onely delight of the courteous Gentlewomen bothe of England and Irelande, For whose onely pleasure thei were collected together, And unto whom they are directed and dedicated, by Barnabe Riche, Gentleman.' The second of these 'discourses' is the story of Apolonius and Silla. Though the names of the characters are changed, and the scene shifted from Italy to Constantinople, the plot of Riche's story is essentially that of earlier versions. On account of its coarseness. Dr. Furness rejected the usual conclusion that Shakespeare was directly indebted to Apolonius and Silla. But Shakespeare needs no defence if his subtle alchemy transmuted base metal into gold. The process is unquestionably reversed in Wycherley's Plain Dealer (1674) which debases material of the Olivia-Viola plot taken from Twelfth Night.

The 'Argument' of Apolonius and Silla is as follows: 'Apolonius Duke, havyng spent a yeres service in the warres against the Turke, returning homeward with his companie by sea, was driven by force of weather to the Ile of Cypres, where he was well received by Pontus, gouvernour of the same ile, with whom Silla, daughter to Pontus, fell so straungely in love, that after Apolonius was departed to Constantinople, Silla, with one man, followed, and commyng to Constantinople, she served Apolonius in the habite of a manne, and after many prety accidentes falling out, she was knowne to Apolonius, who, in requitall of her love, maried her.' Comparison of Riche's narrative with Shakespeare's drama reveals essential similarities and naturally many minor differences of plot. Apolonius, like Orsino, is a 'noble duke' with whom ​Silla (Viola) falls hopelessly in love. But in Riche's story the actual shipwreck of the heroine occurs in the course of her love-chase after Apolonius to Constantinople and frees her from the violent importunities of the ship's captain during the voyage. In Twelfth Night Viola's captain is no longer persecutor but protector.

The following passage from Apolonius and Silla^[1] recounting Silla's experiences after her shipwreck will sufficiently suggest the general relation of Riche's story to Shakespeare's main plot. 'Silla her self beying in the Caben as you have heard, tooke holde of a Chest that was the Captaines, the whiche by the onely prouidence of God brought her safe to the shore, the which when she hed recouered, not knowyng what was become of Pedro her manne, she deemed that bothe he and all the rest had been drouned, for that she saw no bodie vppon the shore but her self, wherefore, when she had a while made greate lamentations, complainyng her mishappes, she beganne in the ende to comforte herselfe with the hope, that she had to see her Apolonius, and found such meanes that she brake open the Chest that brought her to lande, wherin she found good store of coine, and sondrie sutes of apparell that were the captaines, and now to preuent a nomber of iniuries, that might bee proffered to a woman that was lefte in her case, she determined to leaue her owne apparell, and to sort her self into some of those sutes, that beyng taken for a man, she might passe through the Countrie in the better safetie, & as she changed her apparell, she thought it likewise conuenient to change her name, wherefore not readily happenyng of any other, she called her self Siluio, by the name of her owne brother, whom you haue heard spoken of before.

​'In this maner she trauailed to Constantinople, where she inquired out the Palace of the Duke Apolonius, and thinking her self now to be both fitte and able to plaie the seruing-man, she presented her self to the duke crauyng his seruice, the duke verie willyng to giue succour vnto strangers, perceiuyng him to bee a proper smogue young man, gaue hym entertainment: Silla thought her self now more then [than] satisfied for all the casualties that had happened vnto her in her iourney, that she might at her pleasure take but the vew of the Duke Apolonius, and aboue the reste of his seruauntes was verie diligent and attendaunt vppon hym, the whiche the Duke perceiuyng, beganne likewise to growe into good likyng with the diligence of his man, and therefore made hym one of his Chamber, who but Siluio then was moste neate about hym, in helpyng of hym to make hym readie in a mornyng[,] in the settyng of his ruffes, in the keepyng of his Chamber, Siluio pleased his maister so well that aboue all the reste of his seruantes aboute him, he had the greatest credite, and the Duke put him moste in trust.

'At this verie instaunt, there was remainyng in the Cittie a noble Dame a widowe, whose houseband was but lately deceased, one of the noblest men that were in the partes of Grecia, who left his Lady and wife large possessions and greate liuinges. This Ladies name was called Iulina, who besides the aboundance of her wealth, and the greatnesse of her reuenues, had likewise the soueraigntie of all the Dames of Constantinople for her beautie. To this Ladie Iulina, Apolonius became an earnest suter, and accordyng to the maner of woers, besides faire woordes, sorrowfull sighes, and piteous countenaunces, there must bee sendyng of louyng letters, Chaines, Bracelets, Brouches, Rynges, Tablets, Gemmes, Juels, and presentes I knowe not what: So my Duke, who in the ​tyme that he remained in the Ile of Cypres, had no skill at all in the arte of Loue, although it were more then half proffered vnto hym, was now become a scholler in Loues Schoole, and had alreadie learned his first lesson, that is, to speak pitifully, to looke ruthfully, to promise largely, to serue diligently, and to please carefully: Now he was learnyng his seconde lesson, that is to reward liberally, to giue bountifully, to present willyngly, and to write lovyngly. Thus Apolonius was so busied in his newe studie, that I warrant you there was no man that could chalenge hym for plaiyng the truant, he followed his profession with so good a will: And who must bee the messenger to carrie the tokens and loue letters, to the Ladie Iulina, but Siluio his manne, in hym the Duke reposed his onely confidence, to goe betweene hym and his Ladie.

'Now gentilwomen, doe you thinke there coulde haue been a greater torment devised wherewith to afflicte the harte of Silla, then her self to bee made the instrumente to woorke her owne mishapp, and to plaie the Atturney in a cause, that made so muche againste her self. But Silla altogether desirous to please her maister, cared nothyng at all to offende her selfe, followed his businesse with so good a will, as if it had been in her owne preferment.

'Iulina now hauyng many tymes, taken the gaze of this yong youth Siluio, perceiuing hym to bee of suche excellente perfecte grace, was so intangeled with the often sight of this sweete temptation, that she fell into as greate a likyng with the man, as the maister was with her self: And on a tyme Siluio beyng sent from his maister, with a message to the Ladie Iulina, as he beganne very earnestly to solicet in his maisters behalfe, Iulina interruptyng hym in his tale, saied: Siluio it is enough that you haue saied for your maister, from henceforthe either speake for your ​self, or sale nothyng at all. Silla abashed to heare these wordes, began in her minde to accuse the blindnesse of Loue, that Iulina neglectyng the good will of so noble a Duke, woulde preferre her love vnto suche a one, as Nature it self had denaied to recompence her likyng.'

Investigation of the sources of Twelfth Night has included the examination of various other works such as the eighth novel of the fifth decade of Cinthio's Hecatommithi (1565), Montemayor's Diana Enamorada, of which an English version appeared in 1598, Sidney's Arcadia (1590), and a comedy called Tugend- und Liebesstreit, presented in 1608 by a company of English actors in Austria and conceivably a German version of a lost English play based on Apolonius and Silla. Detailed analysis of such possible source-material of Twelfth Night concerns chiefly the specialist. The general reader will doubtless be content with the conjecture that Shakespeare knew more than a single version of a story popular in Italian comedy and tale, reproduced in various Continental translations, and known in England through its Latin dramatization at Cambridge and its English narrative rendering by Riche.

Apart from the romantic main plot, the characters and scenes of Twelfth Night are original with Shakespeare. The humors of Malvolio, Sir Toby, and Sir Andrew, the 'very gracious fooling' of Feste, and the arch-conspiracy of the 'little villain' Maria are alike Shakespeare's inventions. But though, like Fabian, the reader 'will not give his part of this sport for a pension of thousands to be paid from the Sophy,' he may perhaps question whether in reality Shakespeare's creative genius is more clearly shown in the subplot of his own invention than in the main plot which he borrowed to transform.